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Ancient DNA Hub
@ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
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ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
House cats appears in China during the Tang Dynasty, but the DNA of cat bones found in 5,400 year old human settlements reveal these people may have lived side by side with leopard cats in ancient China.
#AncientBlueSky
www.sciencenews.org/article/dna-...
Ancient DNA reveals China’s first 'pet' cat wasn’t the house cat
The modern house cat reached China in the 8th century. Before that, another cat — the leopard cat — hunted the rodents in ancient Chinese settlements.
www.sciencenews.org
December 4, 2025 at 11:13 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Electrical resistance tomography and radar technology suggest a series of late Neolithic pits dug near Stonehenge. It is unknown why they were created, but the professor leading the analysis "speculated it may have been linked to a belief in an underworld."
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Archaeologists say they have proof humans carved huge pits near Stonehenge
Research team uses range of novel methods and equipment to analyse ‘extraordinary’ Durrington pit circle
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:04 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Lost castle discovered through use of LiDAR.

www.heritagedaily.com/2025/12/lida...
LiDAR survey leads to unexpected castle discovery
A previously unknown medieval castle has been discovered in the canton of Thurgau, Switzerland, following a study of high-resolution LiDAR maps. - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News
www.heritagedaily.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:58 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
4000 year old rock art along the US/Mexico border depicts the belief system of the Mesoamerican civilizations.
#AncientBlueSky
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Ancient rock art along US-Mexico border persisted for more than 4,000 years — and it depicts Indigenous views of the universe
Researchers have uncovered evidence of an Indigenous artistic tradition that was painted along the U.S.-Mexico border for roughly 175 generations.
www.livescience.com
December 3, 2025 at 11:28 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
How Roman soldiers brought cats to Europe.
#cats #ancientbluesky
www.popsci.com/environment/...
Roman military helped bring cats to Europe
Military roads helped the felines domesticate about 2,000 years ago.
www.popsci.com
December 3, 2025 at 11:21 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Basalt tablet with 39 unknown letters discovered at the site of the discovery of the first European hominins. The characters share some similarities with Semitic, Brahmani, and North Iberian languages.
#AncientBlueSky #Archaeology
www.popularmechanics.com/science/arch...
Archaeologists Found an Ancient Tablet With 39 Letters That Don’t Belong to Any Known Language
Google Translate isn’t going to help here.
www.popularmechanics.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:04 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Looking back on the discovery of Lucy.
#Archaeology
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Science history: Iconic 'Lucy' fossil discovered, transforming our understanding of human evolution — Nov. 24, 1974
On an expedition in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia, two anthropologists uncovered the bones of a 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor. The iconic "Lucy" fossil would reveal much about our species' tangle...
www.livescience.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:00 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
The discovery of even a small object can change our understanding of history. This lump of metal makes researchers rethink their theories about human contact and trade in the Baltic before the Romans.
#AncientBlueSky #Archaeology

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
A mysterious metal find in Sweden is rewriting Iron Age history
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 Po...
www.sciencedaily.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:57 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
3,000 year old Mayan monument discovered on Mexico's coast thought to be a place for trade, socialization, and rituals.
#archaeology #ancientBlueSky

www.popularmechanics.com/science/arch...
Archaeologists Found an Ancient Maya Map of the Universe Carved Into Bedrock
Among the early Maya, the site of Aguada Fénix would have been a place for everyone to gather for trade, socialization, and ritual ceremonies.
www.popularmechanics.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:59 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
How the moai statues of Easter Island walked. And no, their toes aren't Stonehenge.
#AncientBlueSky

www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
Easter Island statues may have 'walked' thanks to 'pendulum dynamics' and with as few as 15 people, study finds
Simple physics may explain how the Easter Island statues could "walk" miles with only a handful of people, but the debate over their transport is far from over.
www.livescience.com
October 21, 2025 at 7:52 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Genetics explain why orange cats are so special.
www.zmescience.com/science/news...
Orange Cats Are Genetically Unlike Any Other Mammal and Now We Know Why
The iconic coats are due to a mutation not seen in other animals.
www.zmescience.com
October 21, 2025 at 7:50 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
How did an ancient Roman tombstone end up in a garden in New Orleans?

news.artnet.com/art-world/an...
An Ancient Roman Tombstone Is Unearthed in a New Orleans Yard | Artnet News
A 2,000-year-old tombstone of a Roman sailor that was found in New Orleans will be repatriated to a museum in Civitavecchia, Italy.
news.artnet.com
October 20, 2025 at 8:21 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Clues to longevity in our environment and our genes.

www.sciencealert.com/dna-study-of...
DNA Study of 117-Year-Old Woman Reveals Clues to a Long Life
There's no escaping the unrelenting passage of time, but supercentenarians who live to see their 110th birthday have a peculiar ability to postpone the inevitable.
www.sciencealert.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Ancient DNA Hub
jtp.bsky.social
no disrespect to the wisconsin wreck hunter community but it's very funny to me that this supposed famously elusive ship wreck was found exactly where the eyewitness report said it would be in the newspaper but nobody had bothered to check there
Named the F.J. King, the ship had become a legend within the Wisconsin wreck hunter community for its elusive nature, said maritime historian Brendon Baillod, principal investigator and project lead of the discovery. Around the same time, Baillod also became aware of this mystery. He began to investigate the original records of the ship’s sinking and came across the missing evidence needed to track down the vessel: a local newspaper article from one week after the ship’s demise featuring an account from a local lighthouse keeper, William Sanderson. In the article, Sanderson reported the location of the ship, so that other sailors could steer clear of the protruding masts. Baillod, who is also the current president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association, marked down the location on a map and drew a 2-square-mile (5.2-square-kilometer) grid around the point of interest. Baillod’s team, including 20 citizen scientists, located the shipwreck on June 28 using sonar technology less than half a mile (0.8 meter) away from the location Sanderson had indicated. “We thought others had probably looked there, but apparently we were the first,” Baillod said. “And our citizen science members … were the first human beings to lay eyes on this ship since 1886. It was amazing.”
September 22, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Ancient DNA Hub
druidtombraider.bsky.social
Dionysiac mosaic with dancing Satyrs, Bacchantes and Oceanus masks, dated 2nd century AD, from Hadrumetum, Sousse Archaeological Museum, Tunisia; courtesy of Carole Raddato.
#RomanArchaeology #Archaeology #MosaicMonday
September 22, 2025 at 10:37 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Perhaps a misleading headline. I can't imagine many people "forget" about having a castle. It's not like losing your car keys. Rather, in the 14th century, the castle was taken apart for a new palace to be built.

archaeology.org/news/2025/09...
News - Forgotten Medieval Castle Discovered on Scottish Isle - Archaeology Magazine
ISLAY, SCOTLAND—BBC News reports that a forgotten medieval castle and royal stronghold were identified at […]
archaeology.org
September 22, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Reposted by Ancient DNA Hub
druidtombraider.bsky.social
For this week's #StandingStoneSunday Castlerigg Stone Circle courtesy of Ennor. #StandingStoneSunday #megaliths #Neolithic #BronzeAge #Archaeology
September 21, 2025 at 8:31 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
7,000 year old mummies from Libya of previously unknown lineage show not as much genetic exchange in the Green Sahara as we had once thought and suggests that farming spread through cultural exchange rather than migration and intermixing.
#AncientBlueSky

www.popularmechanics.com/science/a679...
Scientists Found 7,000-Year-Old Mummies in the Desert That Don’t Share DNA With Modern Humans
This ancient people lived in the Sahara when it was a much more welcoming environment.
www.popularmechanics.com
September 22, 2025 at 7:06 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
How to write in Cuneiform, the world's oldest writing system
#AncientBlueSky
www.openculture.com/2025/09/how-...
How to Write in Cuneiform, the Oldest Writing System in the World: A Short Introduction
Teaching child visitors how to write their names using an unfamiliar or antique alphabet is a favorite activity of museum educators, but Dr. Irving Finkel, a cuneiform expert who specializes in ancien...
www.openculture.com
September 22, 2025 at 6:58 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
What did kids play with in the middle ages? Excavations of this medieval toy workshop reveal clay figurines described as "simple" but "unmistakably toys."
#AncientBlueSky #Archaeology

arkeonews.net/medieval-toy...
Medieval Toy Workshop Unearthed in Freiburg: Archaeologists Discover Forgotten Childhood Treasures - Arkeonews
Archaeologists in Freiburg, a historic city in Germany, have uncovered a medieval pottery workshop where clay toys were once crafted.
arkeonews.net
September 18, 2025 at 7:36 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
A peek at the advanced technology of ancient Rome.
www.openculture.com/2025/09/the-...
The Advanced Technology of Ancient Rome: Automatic Doors, Water Clocks, Vending Machines & More
Ancient Rome never had an industrial revolution. Granted, certain historians have objected now and again to that once-settled claim, gesturing toward large heaps of pottery discovered in garbage dumps...
www.openculture.com
September 18, 2025 at 7:32 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Excavations of a stone age cemetery in Latvia upend what we thought we knew about ancient gender and societal roles.
#ancientbluesky #archaeology
www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
Ancient burial upends what we know about Stone Age women and children
Researchers say findings overturn old stereotype of ‘man the hunter’
www.independent.co.uk
September 18, 2025 at 7:29 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Cache of nearly 2000 year old coins and ornaments found in Romania from an Roman-era family home destroyed by fire.
#archaeology #ancientbluesky
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
1,900-year-old 'treasure' found in Roman-era family's scorched house in Romania
A discovery in Romania shows the remains of an elite family's treasures from the Roman era that were scorched in a fire.
www.livescience.com
September 18, 2025 at 7:27 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
historic facepalm
kpw1453.bsky.social Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · Sep 5
One of the Lewis Chessmen - currently on display at Museum nan Eilean in Stornoway. Found in 1831 on a beach at Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the pieces date to the late 12th or early 13th century. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday
September 9, 2025 at 7:51 AM
ancient-dna-hub.bsky.social
Discovery of "direct genomic evidence" of the cause of the Plague of Justinian, a pandemic that killed 25-100 million people from 541 to 750 CE.

archaeology.org/news/2025/09...
News - Ancient DNA Pinpoints Culprit Responsible for World's First Pandemic - Archaeology Magazine
JERASH, JORDAN—The world’s first pandemic, known as the Plague of Justinian after the sitting Byzantine […]
archaeology.org
September 9, 2025 at 7:47 AM