Archaeologists from University College Dublin, working with colleagues from Serbia and Slovenia, have uncovered a previously unknown network of massive sites in the heart of Europe that could explain the emergence of the continent's Bronze Age megaforts—the largest prehistoric constructions seen prior to the Iron Age.

Using satellite images and aerial photography to stitch together the prehistoric landscape of the south Carpathian Basin in Central Europe, the team discovered more than 100 sites belonging to a complex society.

Archaeologists in Japan have unearthed a massive stash of about 100,000 coins in Maebashi, a city about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Tokyo.

The hoard was found during excavations ahead of the construction of a factory, reported The Asahi Shimbun, a newspaper in Japan. Only 334 of the coins have been examined so far, with the oldest one originating from China and dating to 175 B.C. and the most recent coin dating to A.D. 1265, the newspaper reported.

Authorities in New York have been accused by leading academics in France and Britain of repatriating fake Roman artefacts to Lebanon.

Eight out of nine mosaic panels that the US authorities recently returned to the Middle Eastern country are not what they seem, according to claims made by Djamila Fellague of the University of Grenoble.

She claims to have uncovered proof that forgers had copied designs from original mosaics in archaeological sites or museums in Sicily, Tunisia, Algeria and Turkey. “Eight of the nine ‘returned’ mosaic panels were fakes that [are] relatively easy to detect because the models used are famous mosaics,” says Fellague.

More info on Shawn's Masto: https://scholar.social/@electricarchaeo

There's "no convincing scientific evidence" behind the extraordinary claims that the ancient human relative Homo naledi deliberately buried their dead and engraved rocks deep in a South African cave around 300,000 years ago, a group of archaeologists argues in a new commentary.

H. naledi became a lightning rod of controversy earlier this year after a team claimed the extinct hominin with an orange-size brain carried its dead into the Rising Star cave system, lit fires and engraved abstract patterns and shapes onto the walls — complex behaviors previously known only in larger-brained modern humans (Homo sapiens) and our close cousins.

The team courted backlash, in part, because they announced their controversial findings in a conference speech and three preprint studies that weren't peer-reviewed, which frustrated some scientists, National Geographic reported at the time. The online journal eLife accepted the preprints, initially posted to bioRxiv in June, for a public peer-review assessment, which concluded that there was "incomplete" evidence behind the claims.

Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed more than 3,000 coins and 50 gems, many of which were emblazoned with the images of ancient Roman deities.

The massive finding was made during ongoing excavations at Claterna (also spelled Claternae), a Roman town located near modern-day Bologna, according to a translated statement from the Italian Ministry of Culture.

"We are facing the largest non-stratified archaeological area in Northern Italy," Lucia Borgonzoni, the Italian undersecretary of state to the Ministry of Culture, said in the statement. "Given the importance and quantity of finds brought to light so far, we can probably speak of a Pompeii of the north."