A Very Close Encounter

New research has shown that human figures painted in red on a rock art panel in central Montana depict individuals engaged in a life-or-death encounter during an especially fraught historical moment.

A Sword for the Ages

A zigzag pattern, now tinged with the green-blue patina of oxidized metal, adorns the octagonal hilt of a rare sword dating to the Middle Bronze Age in Germany (1600-1200 B.C.) that was recently excavated in the Bavarian town of Nördlingen.

Ancient Egyptian Astrology

For centuries, layers of soot have coated the ceilings and columns in the entrance hall of Egypt's Temple of Esna. Now, an Egyptian-German team of researchers, led by Hisham El-Leithy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Christian Leitz of the University of Tübingen, is restoring the temple's vibrant painted reliefs to their original brilliance.

BRONZE AGE POWER PLAYERS

How Hittite kings forged diplomatic ties with a shadowy Greek city-state

RITES OF REBELLION

Archaeologists unearth evidence of a 500-year-old resistance movement high in the Andes

Secrets of Egypt's Golden Boy

CT scans offer researchers a virtual look deep inside a mummy's coffin

When Lions Were King

Across the ancient world, people adopted the big cats as sacred symbols of power and protection

UKRAINE'S LOST CAPITAL

In 1708, Peter the Great destroyed Baturyn, a bastion of Cossack independence and culture

LAPAKAHI VILLAGE, HAWAII

Standing beside a cove on the northwest coast of the island of Hawaii, the fishing village of Lapakahi, which is surrounded by black lava stone walls, was once home to generations of fishers and farmers known throughout the archipelago for their mastery of la'au lapa'au, or the practice of traditional Hawaiian medicine. \"

A MORE COMFORTABLE RIDE

Although the date is much debated, most scholars believe people 5,000 years ago. For thousands of years after that, they did so without saddles. \"In comparison with horse riding, the development of saddles began relatively late, when riders began to care more about comfort and safety in addition to the horse's health,\" says University of Zurich archaeologist Patrick Wertmann.

PREVENTING THE RETURN OF THE DEAD

An archaeological team excavating a necropolis at the site of Sagalassos in southwest Turkey uncovered an unusual and very eerie tomb.

DRAMATIC ENTRANCE

Four miniature terracotta masks found in the Roman city of Jerash in Jordan shed light on its theater district in the second century A.D. Excavators from the University of Jordan unearthed the masks in a doorway of a structure.

PIZZA! PIZZA?

When Pompeian authorities recently unveiled a new wall painting, it launched an international debate.

ROYAL WHARF

During excavations in Oslo's Bjørvika neighborhood, archaeologists have uncovered a portion of the foundations of a medieval wharf.

SUNKEN CARGO

Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologists have begun to investigate 44 tons of marble building materials that a swimmer spotted in shallow water 600 feet off the coast of the ancient Roman port of Caesarea after they were exposed by a recent storm.

RAM HEADS FOR RAMESSES

While exploring the surroundings of the temple of the pharaoh Ramesses II (reigned ca. 1279-1213 B.C.) in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos, archaeologists from New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World uncovered an enormous collection of mummified animal heads in an ancient storage area.

THE ELEPHANT AND THE BUDDHA

While working in the village of Gada Balabhadrapur on the banks of the Daya River in India's state of Odisha, archaeologists unearthed a three-foot-tall sculpture of an elephant dating to the third century B.C., a time when Buddhism flourished in the area.

NOSE TO TAIL

Los Angeles' first Chinatown was settled starting around 1880, south of the city's historic center, the Los Angeles Plaza. Over the next two decades, the densely populated neighborhood expanded to the northeast and became home to a range of Chinese-owned businesses. These included markets that sold fare such as plum sauce for seasoning roast meat and restaurants that served up delicacies such as bird's nest soup and century eggs.

An Elegant Enigma

The luxurious possessions of a seventeenth-century woman continue to intrigue researchers a decade after they were retrieved from a shipwreck

AFRICA'S MERCHANT KINGS

The early Christian kingdom of Aksum was at the heart of a great maritime trading network

DEFENDING THE CANYONLANDS

Rare shields from the American Southwest are a legacy of a turbulent time in Native history

Inside a Magnificent Celtic Tomb

New investigations of an Iron Age burial in France reveal the source of one woman's exceptional power

Rise of the Persian Princes

In their grand capital Persepolis, Achaemenid rulers expressed their vision of a prosperous, multicultural empire

OFF THE GRID

One of Mexico's most important archaeological sites is hidden in plain view in the Tlalpan borough of southern Mexico City.

BIG GAME HUNTING

Archaeologists rarely unearth the remains of large predators such as leopards, lions, and bears. But University of Haifa archaeologist Ron Shimelmitz and his colleagues wondered if, by looking at a large number of sites over thousands of years, they could identify evidence showing that ancient people hunted these fearsome creatures.

HYBRID HOARD

A hoard of silver and gold items buried in the Netherlands 800 years ago-possibly for safekeeping during a time of war-was recovered by a licensed metal detectorist.

BULLISH ON THE STORM GOD

In southern Turkey's Amuq Valley, a curious one-inch-tall lead figurine unearthed at a rural Bronze Age site is giving archaeologists a glimpse of how villagers living around 2000 B.C. responded to a period marked by increasing drought.

A SURPRISE IN SUDAN

Beneath the ruins of the medieval village of Old Dongola, on the Nile in northern Sudan, a team from the University of Warsaw was surprised to find stone blocks that may date to the time of the pharaoh Taharqo (reigned ca.690-664 B.C.).

THE PALACE ON TABLET HILL

At the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu A in present-day Tello, in southern Iraq, In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, French archaeologists excavated tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets there.

VIKING SUPPORT ANIMALS

The warriors of the Viking Great Army who campaigned in Britain from A.D. 865 to 878 worshipped gods often associated with animal companions, such as Odin and his eight-legged horse Sleipnir.