Scientists have confirmed that numerous burials clustered around First Dynasty tombs in Abydos, Egypt, reveal the sacrifice of royal household members after the death of kings. These graves were excavated in the 1920s by Flinders Petrie, who suspected that so many people couldn’t have died of natural causes simultaneously — but found no corroborating evidence of fatal wounds. Now reassessment of a sample of skulls from the site, using modern forensic methods, indicates that at least 39% of these individuals may have been deliberately killed by blows to the head.
“I was drawn to these retainers partly because, even though they were buried around royalty, they are mostly relegated to footnotes in the grander narrative,” said Dr Roselyn Campbell of Purdue University, author of the article in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology and of a forthcoming book, State-sanctioned Violence and Human Sacrifice in Early Dynastic Egypt (Routledge Press). “Who were these people and how did they view the ruler and their own role in his or her life and death?”
A cold case
The funerary complexes at Abydos were built around 3000 BCE by the first kings of a unified Egypt. In addition to the royal tombs themselves, the complexes consisted of chamber tombs and enclosures probably used for funerary rituals, as well as subsidiary burials surrounding the tombs and enclosures.
“Each subsidiary burial was a simple chamber in a row of dozens of others,” said Campbell. “Some people had a simple coffin. Most people had a few grave goods, like ceramic vessels, and many graves also included small objects like copper tools, projectile points, or small ivory figurines. Petrie found a few grave markers that had names and sometimes official titles on them. The titles seem to mostly refer to lower- or mid-level officials as well as artisans.”
The sheer number of these subsidiary graves — some burials are surrounded by hundreds — made Petrie suspect that the burials reflected retainer sacrifice.
“Retainer sacrifice is a type of human sacrifice where those close to a ruler are killed when the ruler dies,” explained Campbell. “In many cultures, retainer sacrifice is practiced because of beliefs that the sacrificed individuals will continue to serve the ruler in some kind of afterlife, but retainer sacrifice can also be a visceral display of the ruler’s power. Some retainers might have volunteered to die to achieve eternal life or honor, others may have been chosen or even forced.”
But Petrie found no evidence of lethal trauma, which cast doubt on his hypothesis. To try and solve this mystery, Campbell set out to find the remaining evidence from Petrie’s excavations and assess it using modern forensic knowledge.
Fresh evidence
Petrie kept meticulous records, but he reburied most of the remains he excavated, retaining the skulls, some of which he sent to the UK. Campbell found 46 of these in the Duckworth Collection at Cambridge University and re-examined them, identifying crucial new evidence of violence. 18 of the 46 crania showed evidence of significant cranial trauma — linear fractures which Petrie seems to have mistaken for naturally-caused damage. Advances in forensic science allow us to recognize them as perimortem injuries.
“The injuries on the preserved crania are generally linear fractures, which would likely cause rapid unconsciousness, internal bleeding, and death,” said Campbell, who also reported evidence of sharp-force trauma on some of the 18 skulls, including a chopping injury to one individual’s eye.
We don’t know how these deaths happened. Egyptian kings are often depicted smiting their enemies with a mace, but these retainers weren’t their enemies, and a mace would have caused depressed fractures. Linear fractures are generally caused by a flat, wide weapon, or a fall — but falling hard enough to create a cranial fracture would probably have broken other bones, which should have been visible in Petrie’s photographs or recorded in his notes.
We also don’t know what happened to the other retainers. Some could have died naturally. Alternatively, they may have been killed in a way that isn’t visible skeletally — like asphyxiation — or in a way that we would be able to detect if we could examine the rest of their skeleton.
“If I had unlimited resources, I would love to figure out where the bodies of these individuals might be and analyze them!” said Campbell. “Still, this study shows how much new information about the past can be revealed when we revisit previous data armed with updated methods and knowledge, even for datasets that are incomplete and imperfect like this one.”
This study is led by Academician Fahu Chen from Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The researchers combined 14 high-quality Holocene paleo-precipitation and moisture records with climate model simulations to investigate the relationship between precipitation changes and the development of prehistoric cultures in eastern China.
The results show that Holocene precipitation in the East Asian monsoon region did not change uniformly across eastern China. Instead, it exhibited a clear north-south dipole pattern on millennial timescales. During the Middle Holocene, approximately 8000 to 4000 years ago, northern China became wetter while southern China became relatively drier. In contrast, southern China received more precipitation during the Early and Late Holocene, while northern China became relatively drier.
The researchers further compared archaeological evidence and found that northern and southern China broadly experienced similar stages of cultural development from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, including the emergence of agriculture, the development of agricultural societies, and the formation of early states. The different effects of precipitation changes in northern and southern environments may have contributed to this broadly synchronous development.
In northern China, where agriculture depended strongly on rainfall, increased precipitation during the Middle Holocene improved the productivity and stability of millet agriculture in the Yellow River and Liao River regions. In the humid Yangtze River region, however, reduced precipitation could shrink lakes and wetlands and lower water tables, creating more land suitable for rice cultivation. Thus, the same climatic change produced different environmental effects in northern and southern China while supporting agricultural development in both regions.
After approximately 4000 years ago, the East Asian summer monsoon weakened and the regional climate pattern changed again. Increasing precipitation in southern China intensified flooding and made some low-lying areas less suitable for stable agriculture. At the same time, the Central Plains, located in the transition zone between northern and southern China, experienced relatively moderate climatic changes and remained suitable for dryland agriculture. With the introduction of wheat agriculture and pastoral practices, the agricultural system in the Central Plains became more diverse, supporting population growth and increasing social complexity.
The study provides a new climate perspective on the formation of Chinese civilization. The spatial differences in Holocene precipitation not only shaped distinct ecological environments but also influenced agricultural development and contributed to the parallel evolution of cultures across northern and southern China. During the Late Holocene, the Central Plains gradually became a major center of population and cultural development, helping drive the transition from a diverse regional cultural landscape toward a pluralistic and integrated Chinese civilization.
See the article:
Chen F, Zhang Z, Gao Y, Chen J, Bai Z, Chen S, Chen J, Jia X. 2026. The spatial dipole pattern of Holocene precipitation in the eastern China monsoon region and its role in driving the synchronous north-south development of Neolithic cultures and early Chinese civilization. Science China Earth Sciences, 69(8): 3145–3158, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-025-1904-1
English expats avoided ‘travel money’ hassle, thanks to special treatment from the Pope in the early Middle Ages, new research suggests. The discovery of 20 coins alongside evidence of craftwork in Rome’s English quarter, provides the first material evidence of the Schola Saxonum, and suggests it was a thriving and valued expat community.
In 2020, archaeologists started excavating deep under the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere near the Vatican. In July 2023, the site made global news when the discovery of the ruins of Emperor Nero’s theatre was announced. Now, the site has led to a major medieval discovery which transforms our understanding of the Anglo-Saxons in Rome.
The archaeologists found twenty coins which have been identified as Anglo-Saxon – 19 silver pennies and one halfpenny – minted over a period of about 40 years in the names of Alfred the Great's son, Edward the Elder (899–924); and his grandsons Æthelstan (924–39) and Eadred (946–55). Fourteen of the coins were found in rubbish pits in two clusters of 6–8 coins, which are now fused together after a millennium underground. The rest were scattered nearby. The team also found ten coins from the Roman period and from tenth-century Italy, as well as evidence of craftwork involving leather, bone and metal.
Long-term collaborators, Professors Francesca Tinti and Rory Naismith were invited to study the intriguing coins and interpret their significance in light of what was already known about the history of this area. Their findings, presented in a chapter co-written with Marzia Di Mento, Valentina Pica and Filippo Salamone, have just been published in a new book (in Italian) entitled: Rome and the Others (300-1000): Foreigners in the city between conflicts and integration.
“The coins aren’t pretty but they have a lot to say,” says Rory Naismith, Professor of Early Medieval English History at the University of Cambridge. “More Anglo-Saxon coins from this period have now been found in Rome than papal coins. This sounds bizarre, but it’s telling us that a very large amount of money was flowing in from England at this time.”
As well as dating the coins, Naismith and Tinti were able to identify which parts of England they came from: East Anglia, Kent, London and the West Midlands.
The halfpenny is a particularly rare find for this period and is important, the researchers argue, because this denomination is associated with trading hubs in which lots of lower value money was changing hands.
“Before this big discovery, we never had any material remains of the English quarter in Rome,” says Francesca Tinti, Professor of Medieval History at the University of the Basque Country, and a visiting research fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge (2025-6). "We've been hoping this moment might come for most of our careers."
What we knew before
Medieval texts refer to an Anglo-Saxon quarter in this area from the second half of the 8th century; two 9th-century fires were recorded; and it was known that these expats worshipped in a church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was even said that Burgred, King of Mercia (the English Midlands) from 852 to 874, was buried in the church having been exiled from England by the Vikings.
The English quarter lay within the Leonine City, an area between the Vatican and the River Tiber protected by walls following a raid by pirates in the 840s. While still on the periphery of Rome in this period, it occupied a finger of land pointing directly to St Peter’s and benefited from nearby bridges making it convenient to cross the Tiber. We don’t know how big the entire Schola Saxonum was but the area of craft activity covered at least 3,000 square metres, approximately half a football pitch.
A few placenames in Rome still hint at this largely forgotten history. The embankment road between the Tiber and the Vatican – the Lungotevere in Sassia – takes its name from the Schola Saxonum. And the Santo Spirito in Sassia hospital continues the charitable function which the area once provided to Anglo-Saxon visitors.
Expats with privileges
Naismith and Tinti argue that because the coins were found individually or in small clusters, and scattered – rather than deliberately buried in a larger hoard – they provide clear evidence of trade. The archaeologists found no evidence of silver bullion being melted down on the site so the researchers are confident the coins were lost by craftspeople and shoppers, not in the context of being turned into local currency.
Together with the leather-, bone- and metal-working finds, the coins show that the Schola Saxonum was not just a place for pilgrims to rest and pray. It was a bustling hub of craft and trade.
Naismith says: “The Anglo-Saxons are there to visit the Pope and tour churches in Rome, but they've still got to feed themselves. So they've got to make things and trade. That’s what these finds tell us. This was a fairly big community, probably hundreds of people, living there on a permanent basis. So they're keeping a miniature Anglo-Saxon town going. You can easily imagine craftsmen arriving from Winchester, London or York and setting up shop by the Tiber.”
Evidence of English coins changing hands in Rome challenges a long-held assumption that the papacy forbade the use of foreign currency in the city. Documents from Rome in this period generally only refer to papal coinage, and other texts record foreigners preparing to get their travel money. In a 9th-century letter, we hear from a Frankish abbot fretting about the need to change currency as he plans a trip to Rome. This new discovery suggests that English visitors to Rome were given special treatment.
“You don't find other foreign coins in Rome from this period,” Naismith says. “It seems to be very much an English thing. There are not many coins from the Frankish world or even northern Italy. It seems to be a very specific connection they've got with the English at this stage.”
One of the newly identified coins is Papal, suggesting that the two currencies were used side-by-side.
The researchers point out that while other foreigners, including the Franks, Lombards and Frisians, were also cared for by dedicated institutions close to St Peter’s, the Anglo-Saxons left the most traces behind, and appear to have enjoyed special privileges.
Tinti says: “The English in Rome were quite unique. They made the greatest effort to get there. Their journey was really dangerous and many people died on the way. But once in Rome, they were special. We knew they had the privilege of being able to bury their dead in this area and now, it seems, they were permitted to use their own currency."
For Anglo-Saxon kings, having their coins in use so close to St Peter’s brought significant prestige, the researchers argue. At the same time, the arrangement showed people back in England that their rulers could facilitate pilgrimages, bringing spiritual benefits to the king and his subjects.
A long special relationship
England’s special relationship with Rome was built on diplomatic ties going back to the late 6th century, when Pope Gregory I arranged a mission to the English. “The Anglo-Saxons were very devoted to Rome from that point on”, says Naismith, a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
He points out that the relationship became increasingly formalised from the late 8th century when Offa of Mercia (757–96) instituted an annual payment of 365 gold pieces to the papacy to keep the candles burning in Rome’s churches. In the late 9th century, Alfred the Great was sending frequent alms to Rome, and in 883 – according to Alfred’s biographer, Asser – Pope Marinus I generously freed the Schola Saxonum ‘from every tribute and toll’ at Alfred’s request. The researchers caution that this doesn’t prove that Alfred secured the currency deal, but it is a possibility, and we now know that his son’s coins were in use in Rome.
The 10th century witnessed the development of Peter's Pence, which involved every household in England, at least notionally, giving a penny as alms for Rome. And in 1027, King Canute visited Rome, in part to continue the tradition of negotiating financial benefits for English pilgrims with the Pope.
“The English were particularly keen on consulting the papacy,” Tinti says. “Sometimes the Popes struggled to understand what was happening in their far-off land.”
“The Anglo-Saxons were very firmly a part of the European community,” Naismith says. “They kept these bonds with Rome going strong for hundreds of years, through thick and thin. These coins show us how deep that relationship went. It's not just kings sending money and forgetting about it. It's people going to Rome in large numbers and setting up a home away from home on the banks of the Tiber.”
The excavation was directed by the Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma under the scientific supervision of Renato Sebastiani and Alessio De Cristofaro. Fieldwork was carried out by MDM Archeologia srls and coordinated by Marzia Di Mento, in collaboration with Filippo Salamone, Flavia Botrugno and Laura Stamerra. A preliminary study of the Anglo-Saxon coins found in the excavation was conducted by Cecilia de Leone.
Reference
M. Di Mento, R. Naismith, V. Pica, F. Salamone, F. Tinti, ‘Ricerche nell’area della schola Saxonum’, in Rome and the Others (300-1000). Foreigners in the city between conflicts and integration - Roma e gli altri (300-1000). Stranieri nella città tra conflitti e integrazione, Atti del Convegno Internazionale PRIN 2022 (Roma, Università RomaTre, Aula Magna, 11-12-13 dicembre 2025), ed. L. Spera, R. Santangeli Valenzani and R. Menna (Quingentole (Mantova): SAP Società archeologica, 2026), pp. 489-505.
Journey Through Pompeii: Masterpieces from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples brings the story of the ancient Roman city to life through over 160 works preserved in startling detail by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Featuring treasures from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN), this landmark exhibition reveals the artistic, cultural, and everyday life of ancient Pompeii and cities and towns across the Bay of Naples. Discover frescoes featuring captivating mythological narratives and imaginative architectural designs, intricate floor mosaics and sculptures, finely crafted household furnishings, luxury items, and intimate domestic artifacts, preserved for nearly 2,000 years. This unique material record invites visitors to have an encounter with a vibrant society just before its sudden destruction.
Journey Through Pompeii: Masterpieces from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Frist Art Museum and National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
Journey Through Pompeii: Masterpieces from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Frist Art Museum and National Archaeological Museum of Naples, with the support of MondoMostre
La Trobe archaeologists have described 18 new hominin fossils including a second Homo erectus skull fragment confirming the species’ first appearance was in southern Africa 2.0 million years ago – 200,000 years earlier than traditionally thought.
The fossils also include representatives of another species, P. robustus, and show that it was undergoing microevolutionary change in response to climatic pressures.
The Drimolen Main Quarry in South Africa’s ‘Cradle of Humankind’ is one of the richest deposits of human ancestors in the world, yet many of the fossils excavated between its discovery in 1992 and 2019 were unpublished and therefore unknown to science.
La Trobe archaeologists, together with colleagues from South Africa and the United States, have now described a further 18 fossils from this site and attributed them to Homo erectus and P. robustus.
In a paper published today in Annals of Human Biology, the scientists reveal they have identified the first fossil from an adult Homo erectus at Drimolen, dated 2 million years old. This is 200,000 years older than other Homo erectus adult fossils found in other parts of the world like Dmanisi in Georgia which are dated at 1.8 million years old.
“Homo erectus is the first species of hominin that researchers broadly agree fits within our own genus Homo and is likely directly ancestral to us. Drimolen preserves evidence for the first appearance of this species 2 million years ago, however the original fossil, DNH 134, belonged to a child aged between two and four, and there was uncertainty about what the adult version may have looked like,” lead researcher Dr Jesse Martin said.
“This paper publishes a new adult fossil attributed to Homo erectus, DNH 127, providing further confirmation that this species first appeared in southern Africa 2 million years ago.”
The researchers have also been able to confirm that P. robustus underwent micro-evolution, and evolved larger teeth and chewing muscles between 2 million and 1.8 million years ago.
Dr Martin said while Homo erectus were evolving larger brains and smaller molar teeth, possibly associated with meat eating, P. robustus maintained a brain size slightly larger than chimpanzees and evolved massive molar teeth to process tough and hard foods - like a mortar and pestle.
“These two human species shared the same landscape and are both preserved in Drimolen cave. While we know that Homo erectus and the lineage leading to us was ultimately the successful one, 2 million years ago P. robustus outnumbered Homo erectus at Drimolen by more than 10 to one. During this time period it was our ancestors that looked like the outside long-odds chance to survive,” Dr Martin said.
“This paper confirms that the P. robustus fossils from the 2-million-year-old Drimolen Cave are slightly but importantly different from the P. Robustus fossils at the 1.8-million-year-old Swartkrans cave.
“During this 200,000-year period, P. Robustus teeth became even larger, and so did the muscles associated with chewing. Hominin fossils are so rare that generally the differences between them are huge, and researchers are left to make educated guesses regarding what existed in the missing parts of the fossil record.
“However, the large number of fossils from Drimolen, some of which are published in this paper, allow an unprecedented insight into the micro-evolutionary changes that shaped human ancestors.
Dr Martin said the uniqueness of the Drimolen P. Robustus population had previously been recognised with a new sub-species name, P. Robustus ukusa, and the fossils described in the research paper support this formal recognition.
The study was conducted by scientists from the Palaeoscience Labs, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, and Department of Anthropology, Washington University.
Jesse Tune, director of the Center for Archaeological Research, examines a replica of a Cumberland spear point, one of two types of stone projectiles he and Shane Miller, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama, studied to gain insights into the lives of ancient inhabitants of the Tennessee River Valley. The Cumberland people were the second known group of humans living in the region some 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age.
Credit: Photo by Kevin Bain/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services
At the end of the last Ice Age, early humans crisscrossed the Americas following seasons, rivers and game, often with a trusty spear in hand. Nearly 13,000 years later, archeologists are using those spearheads to study how America's first inhabitants understood risk.
Stone projectile points are among the few surviving traces from the Tennessee River Valley's earliest settlers, but the chipped stone weapons can be an indicator of how humans adapted to unfamiliar environments, according to a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.
"We're talking about Ice Age hunter-gatherers, people that looked and acted just like us and had the same needs that we do," said Jesse Tune, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Mississippi and director of its Center for Archaeological Research. "But they're living in a world that is dominated by mastodons, mammoths, giant sloths – all these animals that are totally unfamiliar to us today.
"What we're looking at – the points – is a tiny part of their life, but we're trying to see the rest of their behaviors through the lens of these spear points because that's what we have."
Tune and Shane Miller, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama, studied some 500 spear points recovered from the Tennessee River Valley region to glean insights into the lives of the Clovis and Cumberland people.
"How did they adapt to a place no one has ever been before?" Miller said. "We can't interview these people, so we have to look at the things they left behind.
"There aren't that many archeological sites for these people that we can dig, but what we have instead are lots and lots of points that people have found in this region."
Tune and Miller found that the Clovis groups were more likely to resharpen spearheads, possibly signaling that they were concerned about managing their resources.
"We hang on to stuff today, but when we're talking about mobile hunter-gatherers, they had a different understanding and worldview when it came to personal possessions," Tune said. "Spear points were designed to be disposable objects, and that makes what the Clovis were doing interesting."
By the time the Cumberland people came along several hundred years later, they inherited the knowledge of where chert deposits and other resources were located from their predecessors.
"When we look at the Cumberland points, we can see where they got the raw material, roughly the time period that they lived and that they've used the point multiple times," the Ole Miss researcher said. "But (the point) was rarely completely broken to the point that it couldn't be used anymore.
"So how did it end up in what was essentially the trash, and then in the archeological record?"
Being more knowledgeable of the landscape allowed the Cumberland people to discard points that were still useable, evidence that they had learned where to gather new resources and were more comfortable in their surroundings, the researchers said.
"When you think about a people who are moving around a lot, understand that they didn't have any pack animals," Miller said. "That puts limitations on what tools you discard and what you carry around.
"You really don't want to be carrying around a bag of rocks, and so you're going to be judicious about balancing what you need versus what you can carry."
While the question of what to discard and what to keep from local resources may seem like a problem of the past, humans are making the same decisions today, Tune said.
"Think about space exploration," Tune said. "There really is no difference between Ice Age hunter-gatherers and the people sending missions and rovers to Mars. We're moving into an area, deciding what to take with us, learning the resources and slowly expanding. It's the exact same process.
"What we learn and how we pass on that knowledge are the same things that we're still dealing with today. The only thing that's changed is the technology."
Water-level decline created new habitable landscapes and shaped the trajectory of prehistoric human settlement and civilization development in the Lower Yangtze River
(A–E) Conceptual diagrams depicting the geomorphological evolution and spatial distribution of human activities at the Xuecheng site across different periods. (b–e) Reconstructed environmental scenarios corresponding to each stage, showing changes in landforms and the extent of human occupation. In (A–E), red text indicates the period during which the Xuecheng landform was formed, while blue text denotes the period of prehistoric human activity in the Xuecheng site area, in (b–e) the north arrow is schematic and indicates only the approximate regional orientation.
This study is led by Professor Jia Xin and his team from the Institute of Environmental Archaeology at Nanjing Normal University. The researchers investigated the Xuecheng archaeological site, located in the Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River, which preserves cultural remains spanning the Majiabang-Songze-Liangzhu cultural sequence from approximately 7.0 to 4.0 ka BP. The site provides an ideal case for understanding long term interactions between environmental changes and prehistoric human settlement.
Using a multi proxy approach including lithology, grain size, geochemical composition, magnetic susceptibility, diatoms, fossil pollen, AMS 14C dating, and high precision RTK elevation measurements, the researchers reconstructed the environmental evolution and settlement changes at Xuecheng during the Mid to Late Holocene.
The results show that the terrace where the Xuecheng site is located had formed by approximately 20.0 ka BP and maintained a relatively elevated central area surrounded by lower terrain. Around 6.0 ka BP, the site was still influenced by waterfront conditions, and Majiabang inhabitants mainly occupied the terrace top. With declining water levels and progressive land expansion, human activities spread across the terrace during the Songze period at approximately 5.3 ka BP. After approximately 5.0 ka BP, Liangzhu inhabitants gradually moved toward lower front edge areas closer to water bodies. By approximately 4.0 ka BP, further terrestrialization and reduced surface water availability contributed to the abandonment of the site.
The study proposes a “Settling by Water” adaptation model, showing that prehistoric communities actively adjusted settlement locations and activity areas in response to hydrological and landscape changes. The researchers further suggest that long term land expansion following Holocene sea level stabilization created extensive habitable spaces in the Lower Yangtze region, supporting population growth, social complexity, and the development of early civilization.
These findings provide new evidence for understanding how environmental evolution influenced prehistoric human societies and highlight the importance of long term human adaptation strategies in the context of future climate and environmental changes.
See the article:
Zhang Z, Hu Z, Zhou X, Peng H, Sun J, Xu J, Shi H, Yang L, Zhang P, Xu F, Lee H F, Jia X. 2026. Settling by water: Human habitation adapted to landscape evolution at the Xuecheng site in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Mid-late Holocene. Science China Earth Sciences, 69(9): 3371–3383, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-025-19
