archaeology

Divers exploring the famous Antikythera shipwreck, 200 feet beneath the water's surface in Greece, have turned up a heavy object they think might have been a powerful weapon in the first century B.C.

Some archaeologists excavate Roman ruins. Others dig up garbage. In England, a project is underway to study what people threw out in Victorian times, to learn about the start of the consumer era.

Deep in a French cave, researchers have found numerous ovals of broken stalagmites. They believe the rings were arranged by ancient Neanderthals.

Some of the genetic variations in human DNA that have been linked to quick clotting or depression or diabetes lie within or near the genetic stretches we picked up from Neanderthals, a study finds.

Clay tablets show that Babylonian astronomers tracked planets using a method that was thought to be invented 1,400 years later. In a way, scientists say, the ancient techniques were "very modern."