26 Jun 2025 · Çatalhöyük & Anatolia, Turkey (Türkiye)
Genomes from early farming villages including Çatalhöyük shed light on household and kinship structure. The research highlights women’s lines in some communities.
Why it matters: This is the world that followed the Göbekli Tepe builders.
Site guide: Göbekli Tepe & Karahan Tepe · Source: Science 2025 ↗
6 Nov 2026 · Lago Cobá and Cenote Xcach, Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
Matthew Waters, Mark Brenner and colleagues dated sediment cores from two lakes beside ancient Maya settlements in the northern Yucatán. Mercury, linked to the Maya use of cinnabar (red pigment) and elemental mercury, exceeded modern sediment toxicity thresholds for centuries between about 40 and 820 CE, peaking around 720 CE at Cenote Xcach. In the same layers, markers for algae, cyanobacteria, ostracods, snails and midge larvae declined or vanished, and recovered when mercury fell.
26 Oct 2026 · Sanxingdui, Guanghan, Sichuan, China
Jianbo Guo, Ruochen Ge, Lu Yang and colleagues studied textile residues on objects from the Sanxingdui sacrificial pits K2–K8, the site of the famous bronze heads and gold masks of the ancient Shu culture. They found silk on 101 objects, 94 of them bronzes, dating to the Late Shang period (1300–1046 BCE). Microscopy and infrared tests identify mulberry silk, mostly plain weave, some coloured with hematite or an organic red dye, and some cloths as finely woven as Shang silks from the Central Plains.
excavationart & symbolsancient society
Source: Guo, Ge, Cai, Tian & Yang 2026, Antiquity ↗; Archaeology Magazine (news), 28 Oct 2026 ↗
8 Oct 2026 · Eastern Polynesia, Chile
Whole-genome sequences from across Polynesia show some of the strongest founder effects known in any population. Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui are among the most bottlenecked and, despite their distance, are each other’s closest relatives, likely settled by the same voyagers with roots in Mangareva.
Site guide: Easter Island (Rapa Nui) · Source: Shanks et al. 2026, Science ↗
26 Nov 2025 · Rano Raraku, Rapa Nui, Chile
A photogrammetric 3D model of Rano Raraku mapped hundreds of moai and work areas. It suggests separate clan workshops rather than central control.
ancient technologyancient society
Site guide: Easter Island (Rapa Nui) · Source: PLOS ONE 2025 ↗