Ancient City of Palmyra

ARCHAEOLOGISTS CONDUCTING A STUDY TO ESTIMATE THE MAXIMUM PRODUCTIVITY OF THE LAND AROUND PALMYRA ARE REVEALING NEW INSIGHTS THAT QUESTIONS THE HISTORICAL NARRATIVE.

Palmya is located in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date an early settlement to the Neolithic period, with the first documented mention of the city dating to the early 2nd millennium BC.

Palmyra’s wealth was generated through a system of trade networks, funding the construction of monumental projects such as the Great Colonnade, the Temple of Bel, and the distinctive tower tombs.  READ MORE...

Karahan Tepe

KARAHAN TEPE, KNOWN LOCALLY AS “KEÇILITEPE”, IS A PREHISTORIC SITE IN AN UPLAND AREA OF THE TEKTEK MOUNTAINS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN ANATOLIA REGION OF TURKEY, KNOWN AS THE TAŞ TEPELER.

Taş Tepeler contains a collection of ancient monuments that includes the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Göbekli Tepe, for which Karahan Tepe is often referred to as its sister site.

Karahan Tepe was first discovered in 1997, but the first systematic survey was carried out in 2000 that revealed basin-like pools carved in bedrock, and a considerable number of chisels and adzes, beads, stone pot fragments, grind stones and pestles.

The discovery of arrowheads, scrapers, perforators, blades, and stone tools made from flint, or obsidian, suggests that the inhabitants mainly survived through hunter-gathering or animal husbandry, unlike most Neolithic settlements which relied on agriculture (evidenced by the lack of farmed vegetation in situ).

The finds also suggest that the site was active during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (10,000 – 6,500 BC), corresponding with contemporary sites such as Sefer Tepe, 15km north, Sanlıurfa-Yenimahalle, 63km west, and Göbekli Tepe, 40km west.  READ MORE...

Grave For Men Holds Woman

Scientists tested the ancient DNA of 14 people interred at the monumental cemetery at

Li: Pascal Radigue; CC BY 4.0)

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The mysterious 6,500-year-old burial of a woman and several arrowheads in northern France may reveal details of how women were regarded in that society during the Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, a new study finds.


The researchers investigated giant graves known as "long barrows" — large earthen mounds, often hundreds of feet long and sometimes retained by wooden palisades that have since rotted away. Of the 19 human burials in the Neolithic cemetery at Fleury-sur-Orne in Normandy, the team analyzed the DNA of 14 individuals; but only one was female.


The woman was buried with "symbolically male" arrows in her grave, and the researchers argue that she may have had to be regarded as "symbolically male" to be buried there.

"We believe that these male-gendered artefacts place her beyond her biological sexual identity," said study lead author Maïté Rivollat, an archaeologist and geneticist at the University of Bordeaux. "This implies that the embodiment of the male sex in death was necessary for her to gain access to burial in these giga Dntic structures."

Archaeologists attribute the barrows at Fleury-sur-Orne to the Neolithic Cerny culture. Several other Cerny cemeteries have been found hundreds of miles away in the Paris Basin region to the southeast, but Fleury-sur-Orne is the largest yet found in Normandy.  READ MORE...