MSN Article 2025

For decades, archaeologists searched the Valley of the Kings, chasing traces of forgotten pharaohs beneath Egypt’s endless sands. Now, after years of patient survey work, they’ve uncovered something remarkable—the tomb of Thutmose II. This discovery marks the first royal burial found since Tutankhamun’s in 1922, complete with painted ceilings and fragments that once surrounded a king. For history lovers and curious minds alike, this isn’t just another dig — it’s a rare glimpse into Egypt’s golden past.

Beneath the hills of northern Spain lies a site that continues to reshape our picture of early human life. At Atapuerca’s Gran Dolina cave, researchers of IPHES-CERCA recently uncovered a tiny cervical vertebra—just over an inch long—that had been buried for nearly 850,000 years. It belonged to a child no older than four, and the sharp cut marks etched across its surface revealed something unsettling: the child had been deliberately decapitated. This discovery adds powerful confirmation to a long-debated idea that early cannibalism in Western Europe may have been both systematic and tied to survival pressures.

A forgotten hilltop in the highlands of Guerrero in Mexico revealed something significant: a whole city uncovered through detailed surveying and systematic mapping. Researchers documented terraces that extended down the slopes and identified plazas used for community gatherings. Archaeologists also recorded perimeter walls, ceremonial platforms, and a ballcourt linked to political activity within the settlement. The combined evidence shows a well-organized center with long-term occupation. And anyone interested in ancient cities will find this discovery especially informative and historically valuable. Read on.

Researchers found rows of ancient wooden stakes beneath the waters off Grado, evidence of a constructed shoreline that no longer matches what you see today. The discovery shows how earlier communities shaped and defended this coast in ways now hidden. And the story only gets stranger from here—keep reading.

In the golden heat of Aswan’s cliffs, a small cloud of dust rose as archaeologists pried open a sealed rock-cut doorway. For 4,000 years, no one had breathed that air. Inside the tombs of Qubbat al-Hawa, the team found what every Egyptologist dreams of—funerary treasures and painted hieroglyphs lying exactly where ancient hands had left them. No thieves. No decay. Just time, waiting to be read.

Archaeologists never expect much from a basic utility trench, so the crew near Salerno figured it would be an ordinary job. The dirt looked the same as always until a patch of soft gray soil showed strange shapes pressed into it. Once the workers called in the experts, it became clear they had stumbled onto something incredibly rare: Bronze Age footprints left in volcanic ash from Vesuvius. If you want to know what was happening in that spot when those prints were made, and what they reveal about life long before Pompeii, keep going.

Gold didn’t simply glitter in ancient Egypt—it carried a cost people rarely acknowledge. Archaeologists working at Ghooza, a remote gold mine in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, uncovered something far colder than treasure: iron ankle shackles built to stop laborers from escaping harsh desert work camps. Discoveries like these force a rethink of what truly fueled Egypt’s wealth. Those gleaming ornaments in museum cases began as ore hacked from blistering canyon walls by workers who had little to no freedom. Stay put, because those shackles reveal more about ancient power than any polished statue ever could.

In the picturesque town of Morlaix in northwestern France, archaeologists have made a remarkable discovery that has opened a window into medieval religious life. As researchers carefully excavated a 700-year-old Dominican convent, they found more than 200 burials and a wealth of religious artifacts that tell a fascinating story of faith, community, and daily life in medieval France. This significant archaeological site, explored by France's National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), has yielded insights that both question and expand our understanding of medieval religious communities and burial practices.

Imagine this: you’re following an archaeological team across the west bank of the Nile at Luxor. The air tastes dry with dust, grainy beneath your boots. On your left, massive mud-brick walls rise in a saw-toothed zigzag, casting bold shadows in the afternoon sun. You pause. Then realize you’re not in a tomb—you’re in a city untouched for millennia. Keep reading if you’re ready to be transported three thousand years back and explore how one of ancient Egypt’s greatest rulers built—and one of its most controversial abandoned.

Archaeology rarely gives experts a “two-for-one” discovery, but Cova Dones seems to scream, “I am the exception”. The cave, tucked into Valencia’s rugged limestone terrain, holds traces of people who walked its passages thousands of years apart. Your curiosity will get a workout here, because each step into the darkness reveals new layers of human behavior. Stay with this story; there’s a lot to take in, and every detail brings you closer to the people who shaped these underground chambers.

You might not think ancient Egyptian art has anything to do with your modern-day hustle, but here’s a twist: while pharaohs were building empires, their artists were painting athletes in motion—tussling, training, competing.

Ancient civilizations approached passing differently. While today’s embalmers use just enough preservative for a dignified farewell, the Egyptians went all in. For them, passing to the afterlife required perfect preservation. And this find near Saqqara transports the process back to its origins. A rock-cut tomb had been turned into an industrial–style embalming/mummification area. It shows how ancient Egyptian undertakers combined incredible techniques to get the job done. Mummification and embalming weren’t the same, though. Modern embalming slows decay briefly for mourning and burial, using fluid preservatives and sometimes removing organs. Mummification, however, was a second step they took, aimed at achieving permanence and stopping decay entirely. Remember us saying Egyptians went all in? Well, they did, and mummification is all the proof we need.