Lost Treasures News

December 5, 2025

Top Headlines

Ancient DNA Reveals the Deadly Diseases Behind Napoleon’s Defeat

Oct. 26, 2025 Researchers have uncovered microbial evidence in the remains of Napoleon’s soldiers from the 1812 Russian retreat. Genetic analysis revealed pathogens behind paratyphoid and relapsing fever, diseases likely contributing to the army’s massive ...

The Hidden Denisovan Gene That Helped Humans Conquer a New World

Oct. 7, 2025 Ancient humans crossing the Bering Strait into the Americas carried more than tools and determination—they also carried a genetic legacy from Denisovans, an extinct human relative. A new study reveals that a mysterious gene called MUC19, inherited ...

Forgotten Royal Warship Sunk 500 Years Ago Reveals Surprising Secrets

Sep. 19, 2025 From the wreck of the royal Danish-Norwegian flagship Gribshunden, archaeologists have uncovered a rare glimpse into the naval power of the late Middle Ages. This warship, lost in 1495, carried an arsenal of small guns designed for close-range ...

Ancient DNA Finally Solves the Mystery of the World’s First Pandemic

Aug. 30, 2025 Scientists have finally uncovered direct genetic evidence of Yersinia pestis — the bacterium behind the Plague of Justinian — in a mass grave in Jerash, Jordan. This long-sought discovery resolves a centuries-old debate, confirming that the ...

Mexican Cave Stalagmites Reveal the Deadly Droughts Behind the Maya Collapse

Aug. 16, 2025 Chemical evidence from a stalagmite in Mexico has revealed that the Classic Maya civilization’s decline coincided with repeated severe wet-season droughts, including one that lasted 13 years. These ...

Scientists Warn Ocean Could Soon Reach Rapa Nui’s Sacred Moai

Aug. 13, 2025 Advanced computer modeling suggests that by 2080, waves driven by sea level rise could flood Ahu Tongariki and up to 51 cultural treasures on Rapa Nui. The findings emphasize the urgent need for protective measures to preserve the island’s ...

Scientists Just Uncovered Three Ancient Worlds Frozen Beneath Illinois for 300 Million Years

Aug. 9, 2025 Over 300 million years ago, Illinois teemed with life in tropical swamps and seas, now preserved at the famous Mazon Creek fossil site. Researchers from the University of Missouri and geologist ...

New Method Provides the Key to Accessing Proteins in Ancient Human Remains

May 30, 2025 A new method could soon unlock the vast repository of biological information held in the proteins of ancient soft tissues. The findings could open up a new era for palaeobiological ...

Long Shot Science Leads to Revised Age for Land-animal Ancestor

May 29, 2025 The fossils of ancient salamander-like creatures in Scotland are among the most well-preserved examples of early stem tetrapods -- some of the first animals to make the transition from water to land. Thanks to new research, scientists believe that ...

Leprosy Existed in America Long Before Arrival of Europeans

May 29, 2025 Long considered a disease brought to the Americas by European colonizers, leprosy may actually have a much older history on the American continent. Scientists reveal that a recently identified second species of bacteria responsible for leprosy, ...

A Sweeping Study of 7,000 Years of Monuments in South Arabia

May 28, 2025 New research brings together 7,000 years of history in South Arabia to show how ancient pastoralists changed placement and construction of monuments over time in the face of environmental and cultural ...

Earliest Use of Psychoactive and Medicinal Plant 'Harmal' Identified in Iron Age Arabia

May 23, 2025 A new study uses metabolic profiling to uncover ancient knowledge systems behind therapeutic and psychoactive plant use in ancient ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:10am EST

A Massive Bronze Age City Hidden for 3,500 Years Just Surfaced

Dec. 5, 2025 An immense Bronze Age settlement has emerged from the Kazakh Steppe, revealing a surprisingly urban and industrial society where archaeologists once expected nomadic camps. At Semiyarka, researchers ...

Monumental Roman Basin Hidden for 2,000 Years Unearthed Near Rome

Dec. 2, 2025 Archaeologists excavating the ancient Roman city of Gabii have uncovered a massive stone-lined basin that may represent one of Rome’s earliest monumental civic structures. Its central placement ...

Ancient Long Snouted Croc from Egypt Rewrites Evolution

Dec. 1, 2025 A newly identified crocodile relative from Egypt pushes back the origins of the marine-hunting dyrosaurids by millions of years. The fossil, Wadisuchus kassabi, shows a mix of primitive and advanced ...

A Lost Amazon World Just Reappeared in Bolivia

Nov. 30, 2025 Researchers exploring Bolivia’s Great Tectonic Lakes discovered a landscape transformed over centuries by sophisticated engineering and diverse agricultural traditions. Excavations show how ...

A Backwards Bible Map That Changed the World

Nov. 30, 2025 Five hundred years ago, a Bible accidentally printed with a backwards map of the Holy Land sparked a revolution in how people imagined geography, borders, and even nationhood. Despite the blunder, ...

New 3D Scan Reveals a Hidden Network of Moai Carvers on Easter Island

Nov. 30, 2025 A high-resolution 3D model of Rano Raraku shows that the moai were created in many distinct carving zones. Instead of a top-down system, the statues appear to have been produced by separate family ...

A Strange Ancient Foot Reveals a Hidden Human Cousin

Nov. 28, 2025 Researchers have finally assigned a strange 3.4-million-year-old foot to Australopithecus deyiremeda, confirming that Lucy’s species wasn’t alone in ancient Ethiopia. This hominin had an ...

New Evidence Shows the Maya Collapse Was More Than Just Drought

Nov. 26, 2025 Researchers studying Classic Maya cities discovered that urban growth was driven by a blend of climate downturns, conflict, and powerful economies of scale in agriculture. These forces made crowded, ...

Why Did Ancient People Build Massive, Mysterious Mounds in Louisiana?

Nov. 24, 2025 Hunter-gatherers at Poverty Point may have built its massive earthworks not under the command of chiefs, but as part of a vast, temporary gathering of egalitarian communities seeking spiritual ...

A Mysterious Metal Find in Sweden Is Rewriting Iron Age History

Nov. 23, 2025 A Swedish plano-convex ingot once thought to be from the Bronze Age was revealed through chemical and isotopic testing to belong to the Iron Age. Its composition closely matches Iron Age finds from ...

Scientists Recover 40,000-Year-Old Mammoth RNA Still Packed With Clues

Nov. 15, 2025 Researchers have sequenced the oldest RNA ever recovered, taken from a woolly mammoth frozen for nearly 40,000 years. The RNA reveals which genes were active in its tissues, offering a rare glimpse ...

55-Million-Year-Old Fossils Reveal Bizarre Crocs That Dropped from Trees

Nov. 15, 2025 Scientists uncovered Australia’s oldest known crocodile eggshells, revealing the secret lives of ancient mekosuchine crocodiles that once dominated inland ecosystems. These crocs filled surprising ...

Archaeologists May Have Finally Solved Peru’s Strange “Band of Holes” Mystery

Nov. 10, 2025 In Peru’s mysterious Pisco Valley, thousands of perfectly aligned holes known as Monte Sierpe have long puzzled scientists. New drone mapping and microbotanical analysis reveal that these holes may ...

Science Finally Solves a 700-Year-Old Royal Murder

Nov. 14, 2025 Genetic, isotopic, and forensic evidence has conclusively identified the remains of Duke Béla of Macsó and uncovered remarkable details about his life, ancestry, and violent death. The study ...

2.7-Million-Year-Old Tools Reveal Humanity’s First Great Innovation

Nov. 4, 2025 Researchers uncovered a 2.75–2.44 million-year-old site in Kenya showing that early humans maintained stone tool traditions for nearly 300,000 years despite extreme climate swings. The tools, ...

Ancient Chinese Tombs Reveal a Hidden 4,000-Year Pattern

Nov. 15, 2025 Researchers digitally mapped ancient Chinese tombs and discovered that their distribution mirrors shifts in political stability, population movements, and natural geography. Peaceful, prosperous eras ...

5,500-Year-Old Site in Jordan Reveals a Lost Civilization’s Secrets

Nov. 4, 2025 After the collapse of the Chalcolithic culture around 3500 BCE, people in Jordan’s Murayghat transformed their way of life, shifting from domestic settlements to ritual landscapes filled with ...

Ancient Humans in Italy Butchered Elephants and Made Tools from Their Bones

Oct. 12, 2025 Researchers in Italy discovered 400,000-year-old evidence that ancient humans butchered elephants for food and tools. At the Casal Lumbroso site near Rome, they found hundreds of bones and stone ...

Scientists Just Proved the Moai Could Walk, Solving a 500-Year Mystery

Oct. 8, 2025 Researchers confirmed that Rapa Nui’s moai statues could “walk” upright using a rocking motion, aided by rope and just a few people. Experiments with replicas and 3D models revealed design ...

3,000 Years of Secrets Hidden Beneath Egypt’s Greatest Temple

Oct. 6, 2025 A sweeping new geoarchaeological study has revealed how Egypt’s famed Karnak Temple complex rose from an island amid Nile floods to become one of the ancient world’s most enduring sacred centers. ...

12,000-Year-Old Rock Art Found in Arabia Reveals a Lost Civilization

Oct. 10, 2025 Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia discovered over 170 ancient rock engravings that may be among the earliest monumental artworks in the region. Created between 12,800 and 11,400 years ago, the massive ...

The Accidental Discovery That Forged the Iron Age

Sep. 28, 2025 Ancient copper smelters may have accidentally set the stage for the Iron Age. At a 3,000-year-old workshop in Georgia, researchers discovered that metalworkers were using iron oxide not to smelt iron ...

New Neanderthal Footprints in Portugal Reveal a Life We Never Expected

Nov. 13, 2025 Footprints preserved on ancient dunes show Neanderthals actively navigating, hunting, and living along Portugal’s coastline. Their behavior and diet suggest a far more adaptable and socially ...

Archaeologists Uncover Lost Land Bridge That May Rewrite Human History

Oct. 12, 2025 New research along Turkey’s Ayvalık coast reveals a once-submerged land bridge that may have helped early humans cross from Anatolia into Europe. Archaeologists uncovered 138 Paleolithic tools ...

Secrets Unearthed: Women and Children Buried With Stone Tools

Sep. 11, 2025 Archaeologists studying the vast Zvejnieki cemetery in Latvia have uncovered surprising truths about Stone Age life. Stone tools, long thought to symbolize male hunters, were actually buried just as ...

Woolly Mammoth Teeth Reveal the World’s Oldest Microbial DNA

Sep. 5, 2025 Scientists have uncovered microbial DNA preserved in mammoth remains dating back more than one million years, revealing the oldest host-associated microbial DNA ever recovered. By sequencing nearly ...

Extinct Human Relatives Left a Genetic Gift That Helped People Thrive in the Americas

Aug. 24, 2025 Scientists have discovered that a gene called MUC19, inherited from Denisovans through ancient interbreeding, may have played a vital role in helping Indigenous ancestors adapt as they migrated into ...

Ancient Tides May Have Sparked Humanity’s First Urban Civilization

Oct. 27, 2025 New research shows that the rise of Sumer was deeply tied to the tidal and sedimentary dynamics of ancient Mesopotamia. Early communities harnessed predictable tides for irrigation, but when deltas ...

Tiny Ancient Whale With a Killer Bite Found in Australia

Aug. 13, 2025 An extraordinary fossil find along Victoria’s Surf Coast has revealed Janjucetus dullardi, a sharp-toothed, dolphin-sized predator that lived 26 million years ago. With large eyes, slicing teeth, ...

Who Were the Mystery Humans Behind Indonesia’s Million-Year-Old Tools?

Sep. 10, 2025 A groundbreaking discovery on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi reveals that early hominins crossed treacherous seas over a million years ago, leaving behind stone tools that reshape our ...