Ancient Beat

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🧐 Ancient Beat #136: Technological leaps, tar factories, and unusual acoustics
At the Barranc de la Boella site in Catalonia, Spain, archaeologists have uncovered evidence of early hominins' advanced toolmaking skills dating back…
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James Fleischmann
🧐 Ancient Beat #135: Alphabets, psychoactive cocktails, and fossil collections (way before fossil collections were cool)
Archaeologists have discovered what may be the world's oldest known alphabetic writing in a tomb at Tell Umm-el Marra, Syria, dating back to around 2400…
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James Fleischmann
🧐 Ancient Beat #134: King Arthur's Hall, unexpected relationships in Pompeii, and a very early "wheel"
Recent DNA analysis of casts from Pompeii has challenged longstanding assumptions about the relationships and lives of its ancient inhabitants. Among…
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James Fleischmann
🧐 Ancient Beat #133: Proto writing, submerged temples, and unexpected fingerprints
In the Swiss Alps, an unusual bamboo wagon was uncovered along a path previously covered by glaciers, which melted due to climate change.
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James Fleischmann
🧐 Ancient Beat #132: New Maya structures, Neanderthal burial practices, and maybe Alexander the Great's tunic
A significant archaeological study has identified over 6,674 previously undocumented Maya structures, including pyramids, in a remote area of Campeche…
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James Fleischmann

October 2024

🧐 Ancient Beat #131: Lost Silk Road cities, the wheel, and the first hands to wield a tool
New research revealed detailed insights into the use of ochre in ancient burials at Khok Phanom Di in Thailand (~4000–3500 BCE). The research highlights…
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James Fleischmann
🧐 Ancient Beat #130: Subterranean chambers, a tomb in Petra, and a cat doing cat things
Okay, this one isn’t earth-shattering by any means, but it’s about cats and this is the internet, so obviously I have to feature it. Internet bylaws…
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James Fleischmann
🧐 Ancient Beat #129: Scythian origins, submerged structures, and 9,000 years of continuous habitation by one population
In Tuva, southern Siberia, a 2,800-year-old kurgan (burial mound) has been discovered, dating back to the late 9th century BCE and demonstrating early…
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James Fleischmann
🧐 Ancient Beat #128: Female rulers, walrus ivory, and craft beer
The oldest known evidence of beer production has been found at Raqefet Cave in Israel, dating back to approximately 11,000 BCE and the Natufian culture…
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James Fleischmann

September 2024

🧐 Ancient Beat #127: Hundreds of Nazca geoglyphs, early interregional conflict, and something resembling cheese
A team of archaeologists and AI researchers used an artificial intelligence model to identify 303 new geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert, Peru. The…
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James Fleischmann
🧐 Ancient Beat #126: Board games, puberty, and delicious bog butter
A study of 13 adolescent skeletons from Europe, dating back 10,000 to 30,000 years, reveals that ancient humans started puberty at around 13 to 16 years…
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James Fleischmann
🧐 Ancient Beat #125: Bronze helmets, bone spears, and interspecies love
Archaeologists have identified the Zagros Mountains, located on the Persian Plateau, as a likely region where Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred…
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James Fleischmann
© 2024 James Fleischmann
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