Archaeologists examining the 1,600 year-old remains of a woman from Roman Spain have made a unique – if grisly – discovery: a calcified ovarian tumour containing four teeth and a piece of bone. Known as a ‘teratoma’, the spherical mass measured 4.3cm (1.7in) in diameter and was found in the right-hand part of the 30-40 [...]
No Neanderthal Neighbours?
Neanderthals might have died out 15,000 years earlier than previously thought, meaning that they could not have interacted or interbred with modern humans, new analysis suggests. For 20 years it had been thought that pockets of Neanderthals survived in southern Iberia until c.36,000 years ago. As Homo sapiens arrived in the northern part of the [...]
Not Slow Progress
Prehistoric snail shells contain a wealth of information about what the climate was like thousands of years ago, newly-published research says. Chemical analysis led by Dr André Carlo Colonese, Dept of Archaeology, University of York, examined the carbon and oxygen isotope composition of the shells of Pomatias elegans, recovered from Mediterranean caves and ranging in [...]
Recycling ideas
Recycling is no modern concept: our ancestors were putting old tools to new uses 13,000 years ago, archaeologists in Spain have discovered. In the first study of its kind, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, researchers examined the unusually high number of re-worked burnt tools found at Molí del Salt in Tarragona. Manuel Vaquero, [...]
Recycling in the Palaeolithic
Recycling is no modern concept: our ancestors were adept at putting old tools to new uses 13,000 years ago, archaeologists in Spain, have discovered. In the first study of its kind, and published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the archaeologists were able to take advantage of the unusually high number of re-worked burnt tools [...]
Re-dating Ice Age art
Do the outlines of hands in Spain’s El Castillo cave belong to Homo sapiens or to their earlier Neanderthal cousins?
Ancient masters
Europe’s oldest known cave art could be the work of Neanderthals more than 40,000 years ago, say archaeologists. The abstract red circles and stencilled handprints decorating the walls of El Castillo cave, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Spain, were discovered over a century ago, but until recently the paintings’ age had not been [...]
Europe’s oldest Neolithic bow
The excavations at La Draga in Spain – which is among the earliest known agricultural settlements on the northern Iberian Peninsula – have uncovered the oldest complete Neolithic bow to have been found in Europe. Dated by its context to c.5400-5200 BC and made of yew wood, the bow was found by Autonomous University of [...]
Numantia: New Model Legion
Numantia in north-eastern Spain is currently the most important Roman Republican military site in the world. Century-old landmark excavations have just been radically reassessed. What have we learnt about the making of the legions?
Mallorca: On the Edge of Empire
During the Dark Ages on the island of Mallorca, culture and religion clashed between the fading Pagans of Rome and the Byzantine and Vandal Christians. Antoni Puig and Mike Elkin examine evidence from excavations at the Byzantine church of Son Peretó to reveal how the new religion developed on the fringes of an empire.
Clunia
The Roman city of Clunia has many prestigious monuments, such as the massive theatre shown on the cover. So why was the city a failure?
Maritime Archaeology
Andrew Selkirk travels to Madrid to discover more on maritime archaeology and trade
Pintia: Roman City
Once a thriving Iron Age settlement, the city and its necropolis is now offering a wealth of evidence about the elusive Vaccaei people
Egypt’s Sunken Treasures
Egypt’s sunken treasures; on tour in Yemen; a final plea to save Allianoi in Turkey
Motilla del Azuer: A Spanish Broch?
The brochs of Northern and western Scotland form some of the most remarkable and distinctive defensive structures in Europe. Now a similar, though much earlier form of structure has been discovered in Spain at the settlement of Motilla del Azuer (Daimiel, Ciudad Real), located in the central area of the Iberian Peninsula. Artificial mounds known [...]
Galicia: Leading the way in Spain
David Miles journeys to Galicia to see how the regional government is leading the way in Spain in conserving and presenting their archaeological sites
Myotragus Balearicus, Extinction of Mouse-Goats
The tiny ‘mouse-goat’ evolved in relative isolation on the Balearic islands over some five million years but died out around 5000 years ago. Why?
Spain, Early People
At the sites of Orce and Cueva Victoria in Spain, the story of the early hominid colonisation of Europe is being rewritten
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