News from the ancient world
Bronze Age · c. 3300 to 1200 BC
New discoveries from the Bronze Age: Minoans and Mycenaeans, ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Hittites, Stonehenge, shipwrecks and early writing.
Bronze Age · c. 2280 BC · Saqqara, Giza Governorate, Egypt
The Old Kingdom official was buried beside King Merenre's pyramid, and although his tomb held the instruments, no inscription in his burial chamber calls him a doctor.
Bronze Age · 17th century BC · Hala Sultan Tekke, Larnaca, Cyprus
Swedish archaeologists have found the first buildings at Hala Sultan Tekke from the 17th to the 15th century BC.
Bronze Age · c. 2700–2400 BC · Kekova Island, Antalya, Turkey
At least 30 storage jars, some probably made in the Jordan Valley, lie about 30 metres down near Kekova Island, though the wooden hull has not survived.
Bronze Age · c. 1400 BC · Kayalıpınar (Šamuḫa), Sivas province, Turkey
Excavators at Kayalıpınar, ancient Šamuḫa, recovered 131 tablets and fragments from the reign of Tudhaliya II in 2026, bringing the archive to 184 pieces.
Bronze Age · c. 1259 BC · Hattusa (Boğazkale), Çorum province, Turkey
The clay piece, part of an Akkadian copy of the pact between Ramesses II and Hattusili III, preserves clauses on people fleeing between the two kingdoms.
Bronze Age · c. 2600–1900 BC · Mohenjo-daro, Sindh, Pakistan
University of York researchers analysed house sizes from old excavation records and found the gap between large and small homes narrowed as the city matured.
Bronze Age · 13th to 10th century BC · Aghios Vasileios, Xirokambi, Laconia, Greece
A Linear B archive at Aghios Vasileios and a hilltop sanctuary at Amyklai suggest the Spartans joined an older Lacedaemonian community rather than replacing it.
Bronze Age · c. 1200 BC · Pylos, Messenia, Greece
Researchers read one sign as a plant root and argue that another, long taken to mean fruit, records a dry stalk such as cinnamon or fenugreek.
Bronze Age · c. 2500 BC · Giza, Giza Governorate, Egypt
Radar, ultrasound and resistivity scans by the ScanPyramids team located two air-filled cavities behind a polished granite patch, supporting the idea of a second entrance.
Bronze Age · 13th century BC · Tell El-Faraoun (Imet), Sharqia Governorate, Egypt
The five-to-six-ton figure was probably carved in the royal capital Pi-Ramesse and later moved to Imet for reuse in a local temple.
Bronze Age · c. 2000–1500 BC · Kolona, Aegina, Attica (Saronic Gulf), Greece
Excavators at Kolona on Aegina found gold pendants, beads and carnelian, probably from one necklace of the first half of the second millennium BC, but no tomb.
Bronze Age · c. 2700–2200 BC · Mohenjo-daro, Sindh, Pakistan
A mudbrick structure that Mortimer Wheeler took for a flood embankment now appears to be a city wall begun around 2700–2600 BC, over an even older Early Harappan settlement.
Bronze Age · c. 1300–800 BC · Esperstedt, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Most people studied in Central Germany grew up locally, and communities seem to have tried millet for a time before going back to wheat and barley.
Bronze Age · c. 1915–1595 BC · Beycesultan Höyük, Denizli Province, Turkey
Two scraps of cloth from Beycesultan Höyük, carbonised by fire nearly 4,000 years ago, include a blue hemp fabric made with a single needle around 1915–1745 BC.
Bronze Age · c. 2445–2421 BC · Abu Ghurab, Abusir, Giza Governorate, Egypt
An Italian team has cleared more than half of the 4,400-year-old Fifth Dynasty building, which groundwater kept out of reach after its location was identified in 1901.
Bronze Age · 14th century BC · Hala Sultan Tekke, Larnaca District, Cyprus
Two 14th-century BC tombs at the copper port of Hala Sultan Tekke were reused for generations and held imports from Egypt, the Aegean, Sardinia, India and the Baltic.
Bronze Age · c. 3000 BC · Wadi Khamila, South Sinai, Egypt
Found in Wadi Khamila by an Egyptian antiquities inspector, the scene carries an inscription naming the god Min as ruler of the copper region, a Bonn Egyptologist says.
Bronze Age · 3200–2000 BC · Rafina, Attica, Greece
The pithos tomb in eastern Attica held two people covered by large stones, and two metres away lay a burnt pit containing a complete equid skeleton.
Bronze Age · c. 1000 BC · Turlojiškė, Kalvarija, Marijampolė County, Lithuania
Radiocarbon dates show at least 11 young men died at about the same time around 3,000 years ago at Turlojiškė, several with injuries consistent with weapons.
Bronze Age · c. 3200–2800 BC · Tapeh Tyalineh, Kouzaran, Kermanshah province, Iran
Rubbish pits at Tapeh Tyalineh in Kermanshah province held sealings, figurines and tokens from 3200–2800 BC, with designs paralleled at sites from Susa to eastern Turkey.
Bronze Age · c. 1200–400 BC · Brusselstown Ring, County Wicklow, Ireland
Surveys and test excavations at Brusselstown Ring in County Wicklow point to a densely packed community occupied from around 1200 BC into the Early Iron Age.