News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Several tombs and a leaden sarcophagus likely dating from the 14th century have been uncovered by archaeologists at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris following its devastating 2019 fire. The burial sites “of remarkable scientific quality” were unearthed during preparatory work for rebuilding the ancient church’s spire at the central spot where the transept crosses the … Read more
Some 40,000 years ago, a small group of foragers parked themselves on a riverbank in what is now northeastern China. Some split pebbles and bones to make small tools while others made a fire. And at least one experienced craftsperson concentrated on the primary task: grinding red, purple, and gray chunks of ochre into a … Read more
For over 25 years, a group in Poulton, England has been looking for a lost Cistercian abbey. Instead, over the decades the team has found hundreds of medieval skeletons and well-traveled Roman artifacts. Now, they have discovered what they’re calling “the best preserved picture of late prehistoric life ever found in [North West England]”. … Read more
Earthenware vessels can often be windows to the activities of long lost cultures. Traces of their contents can be clues to what we once snacked on, how we fed our children, and even how we cursed our enemies. For decades, a number of conical vessels unearthed near Roman latrines were presumed to be recently … Read more
About 40 beheaded skeletons were among 425 bodies found in a late Roman cemetery uncovered by archeologists in southern England. The team of around 50 archeologists made the discovery during an excavation at Fleet Marston, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on the route of the multi-billion pound high-speed rail link that is currently under construction, HS2 said. … Read more
People in the Chincha valley of Peru threaded the spines of the dead onto wooden rods around 500 years ago, a mostly-unknown practice only recently documented by archaeologists. It may have been an attempt to restore the bodies of the dead during the European colonization, according to a study by the researchers who unearthed … Read more
For the ancient Maya people who lived across central America for thousands of years, the cacao plant that chocolate comes from was considered to be a gift from the gods – so much so that beans from these trees were used as a unit of currency. Now, researchers have been able to identify new … Read more
In a recent scene familiar to many, even those not well-versed in the discipline, a researcher marked off square areas in order to catalog the layers of contents buried within. These “test pits,” which were similar to the squares made at the sites of ancient cities and bygone civilizations, were based on a basic technique … Read more
The road to life in the Arabian desert might once have been paved with the dead. In what is now Saudi Arabia, archaeologists have revealed an impressive network of lost highways, marked by human tombs, that link one oasis to another. Many thousands of years ago, these roads would have led Bedouin people and … Read more
The ancient Wari empire of Peru might have used hallucinogenic beer to rally support in new territories. The remnants of a large feast, found at a Wari outpost from the ninth century CE, strongly suggest the seeds of a psychoactive plant called vilca (Anadenanthera colubrina) were once mixed with chicha, a beer made from the fruit … Read more