Did a comet end the Ice Age and wipe out a civilization? Fact check

Aris Manus

Fact Check verdict:

• A sharp cold spell began about 12,900 years ago, with a platinum spike in Greenland ice at its start: Established
• A comet impact or airburst caused the cold spell, wildfires and extinctions: Disputed
• The Abu Hureyra meltglass was made by a cosmic event: Disputed
• The comet ended the Ice Age: Fringe
• An advanced civilization was wiped out at that time: Unverified

The verdict

At about 50 Clovis-age sites across North America, excavators have recorded a thin, carbon-rich black layer. The paper that made it famous put it plainly: "The in situ bones of extinct Pleistocene megafauna, along with Clovis tool assemblages, occur below this black layer but not within or above it." The layer is real. What made it is the argument, and the claim splits into parts. The dated cold spell and the Greenland platinum spike are Established. A comet as the cause is Disputed. A comet that ended the Ice Age is Fringe, because the ice record puts that ending 1,200 years later. A civilization wiped out is Unverified.

• Established: A sharp cold spell, the Younger Dryas, began about 12,900 years ago and ended about 11,700 years ago. Reason: annual layers counted in Greenland ice.
• Established: A large platinum spike sits at the start of the Younger Dryas in the GISP2 Greenland ice core. Reason: measured by Petaev and colleagues in 2013.
• Disputed: A comet impact or airburst triggered the cold spell, huge wildfires and the megafaunal extinctions. Reason: its proponents have published evidence for it since 2007, critics including a 13-author review in 2023 reject it, and both sides are still publishing.
• Fringe: The comet ended the Ice Age. Reason: tested against the Greenland layer count, it fails. The Ice Age ended about 1,200 years after the proposed impact, and the proponents' own papers say the impact started a cold spell. This is how the claim appears in popular books, such as the official page for Graham Hancock's America Before, which asks about "the global cataclysm that ended the last Ice Age".
• Established: The 2020 Abu Hureyra paper was corrected in November 2025, not retracted. Reason: the journal's correction notice.
• Disputed: The Abu Hureyra meltglass was made by a cosmic event. Reason: the measurements are published, but critics reject the wider impact case they support.
• Unverified: An advanced civilization was wiped out at that time. Reason: archaeologists report no evidence for it, but no study has directly tested and ruled it out.

What the evidence says

Start with the clock. In 2006 Sune Rasmussen and colleagues published a time scale built by counting annual layers in Greenland ice cores. It places the onset of the Younger Dryas at 12,896 years before AD 2000, with a maximum counting error of 138 years, and its end at 11,703 years before AD 2000.

The impact case begins with Firestone and 25 co-authors in PNAS in 2007. They reported peaks within the black layer of magnetic grains with iridium, microspherules, charcoal, soot, nanodiamonds and fullerenes holding extraterrestrial helium. Their reading was an impact that "contributed to YD cooling, major ecological reorganization, broad-scale extinctions, and rapid human behavioral shifts at the end of the Clovis Period."

Wendy Wolbach and colleagues widened the case in two 2018 papers. Part 1 argues that Earth met fragments of a disintegrating comet at least 100 km across, reports platinum at 26 sites and finds combustion aerosols in four ice-core sequences "reflecting one of the largest biomass-burning episodes in more than 120,000 y". Part 2 draws on charcoal and soot from 152 lakes, marine cores and land sequences. It argues that wildfires consumed about 10 million square kilometers, around 9% of Earth's biomass, and brought on an "impact winter".

Petaev and colleagues reported in 2013: "We found a large Pt anomaly at the YDB, not accompanied by a prominent Ir anomaly". The ratio "rules out mantle or chondritic sources", they wrote, and "hints for an extraterrestrial source of Pt".

The most striking site is Abu Hureyra, an early village in Syria. Moore and colleagues reported in 2020 that its 12,800-year-old layer "contains peak abundances in meltglass, nanodiamonds, microspherules, and charcoal", with melted grains implying 1,720 to more than 2,200 °C. That, they wrote, "argues against formation of AH meltglass in thatched hut fires". In November 2025 the journal published a correction. It said the supplementary table had "inconsistencies" with the original data sources, and "a discussion has been added that clarifies the geochronological context of the study." The paper stands, corrected.

The alternative view

Critics who have reviewed the case in print say it fails. Vance Holliday and co-authors wrote in 2014 that "No YD boundary (YDB) crater, craters or other direct indicators of an impact are known" and that "Age control is weak to non-existent at 26 of the 29 localities claimed to have evidence for the YDIH."

In 2023 thirteen authors published a "Comprehensive refutation". It notes that the evidence is "nano to microscopic in scale" and that "Very few sites with high levels of any of the purported indicators have accurate and high-precision dating to 12.9 ka." It concludes: "We demonstrate that research in numerous fields has shown the YDIH should be rejected." One co-author was Petaev, who had cautioned in 2013 that the platinum might come from "an Ir-poor iron meteorite that is unlikely to result in an airburst or trigger wide wildfires proposed by the YDB impact hypothesis."

In February 2026 PLOS One retracted two 2025 papers from the group, one on Baffin Bay cores over concerns "regarding referencing, methodology, and data reporting", and one on shocked quartz over "the age model underpinning the results of this study". The corresponding author, Christopher Moore, told Retraction Watch the group remains "confident in the integrity of the data, the methods employed, and the conclusions drawn."

Sweatman, Powell and West replied in 2024 that "Scores of peer-reviewed articles in dozens of peer-reviewed journals from hundreds of researchers" support the hypothesis, and that "The remaining differences in interpretation are part and parcel of science". Holliday's team rebutted them in the same volume.

Timing is where one version of the claim breaks. On the proponents' own account the event began a cooling. The Greenland count puts the end of the Younger Dryas, and of the last glacial period, about 1,200 years later. An event that starts a deep freeze cannot be the event that ends the Ice Age.

Graham Hancock adds people. His book page for America Before asks: "Was an advanced civilization lost to history in the global cataclysm that ended the last Ice Age?" He is fair about the science, noting that "the comet hypothesis remains controversial and a number scientists favour other explanations." The world, he writes, "was plunged into a deep-freeze that lasted 1,200 years", and in that transition "an advanced civilization, hitherto the stuff of myth and legend, was lost to history". His wording places the cataclysm at the start of a long transition, which is closer to the ice record than the popular slogan. The Society for American Archaeology, in a 2022 open letter to Netflix, replied that "we find no archaeological evidence to support the existence of an 'advanced, global Ice Age civilization' of the kind Hancock suggests". It added that "archaeologists would investigate it" if credible evidence appeared. No evidence is weaker than a direct test, so the label is Unverified.

Where this leaves it

Two things are solid: the dates of the Younger Dryas and the platinum at its onset. One version of the popular claim fails on the dating. The rest is a live dispute between groups still publishing against each other. What delivered that platinum to the Greenland ice, and does the same cause explain the black layer where the mammoth bones stop?

How we checked this

Read in full: Rasmussen et al. 2006, Firestone et al. 2007, Wolbach et al. 2018 part 2, Moore et al. 2020 and its 2025 correction, the two PLOS One retraction notices, the Retraction Watch report, Hancock's book page for America Before, and the Society for American Archaeology letter. Abstract only: Wolbach et al. 2018 part 1, Petaev et al. 2013, Holliday et al. 2014, Holliday et al. 2023, Sweatman et al. 2024. Checked 20 October 2026.

How we label claims: see How we check evidence.

This fact check sits alongside our hub, Göbekli Tepe, the Sphinx and Atlantis: what the evidence says, which covers the Younger Dryas and Göbekli Tepe's Pillar 43.

• A Clovis spear point from Utah. Firestone and colleagues reported Clovis tools lying below a black layer at sites across North America, with none found within or above it. Clovis point, Sevier County, Utah. Natural History Museum of Utah. Photo: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

By Aris Manus

Sources

• 1. Rasmussen, S. O. et al. (2006), "A new Greenland ice core chronology for the last glacial termination", Journal of Geophysical Research 111, D06102. Read in full.
  2. Firestone, R. B. et al. (2007), "Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling", PNAS 104 (41): 16016 to 16021. Read in full.
  3. Wolbach, W. S. et al. (2018), "Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ~12,800 Years Ago. 1. Ice Cores and Glaciers", Journal of Geology 126 (2): 165 to 184. Read: abstract only.
  4. Wolbach, W. S. et al. (2018), part 2, "Lakes, Marine Cores, and Terrestrial Sequences", Journal of Geology 126 (2): 185 to 205. Read in full.
  5. Petaev, M. I. et al. (2013), "Large Pt anomaly in the Greenland ice core points to a cataclysm at the onset of Younger Dryas", PNAS 110 (32): 12917 to 12920. Read: abstract only.
  6. Moore, A. M. T. et al. (2020), "Evidence of Cosmic Impact at Abu Hureyra, Syria at the Younger Dryas Onset (~12.8 ka): High-temperature melting at >2200 °C", Scientific Reports 10: 4185. Read in full.
  7. Correction to Moore et al. (2020), Scientific Reports 15: 40645, published 19 November 2025. Read in full.
  8. Holliday, V. T. et al. (2014), "The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis: a cosmic catastrophe", Journal of Quaternary Science 29 (6): 515 to 530. Read: abstract only.
  9. Holliday, V. T. et al. (2023), "Comprehensive refutation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH)", Earth-Science Reviews 247: 104502. Read: abstract only.
  10. Sweatman, M. B., Powell, J. L. and West, A. (2024), "Rejection of Holliday et al.'s alleged refutation of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis", Earth-Science Reviews 258: 104960. Read: abstract only.
  11. Retraction notice, PLOS One, 11 February 2026, "A 12,800-year-old layer with cometary dust, microspherules, and platinum anomaly recorded in multiple cores from Baffin Bay". Read in full.
  12. Retraction notice, PLOS One, 11 February 2026, "Shocked quartz at the Younger Dryas onset (12.8 ka) supports cosmic airbursts/impacts contributing to North American megafaunal extinctions and collapse of the Clovis technocomplex". Read in full.
  13. Retraction Watch (4 March 2026), "Controversial comet theory struck by two new retractions". Read in full.
  14. Graham Hancock, book page for America Before (2019), grahamhancock.com. Read in full.
  15. Society for American Archaeology, open letter to Netflix and ITN, 30 November 2022, signed by Daniel H. Sandweiss. Read in full.

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Undeciphered Voynich manuscript may have been bound out of order, study finds

Experts argue that the mysterious Voynich manuscript was incorrectly bound — a discovery that "moves the ball" in finally deciphering the 15th-century document.

By Kristina Killgrove - Edited by Laura Geggel, James Price

The mysterious and undeciphered Voynich manuscript has caused consternation among code-breakers, linguists and scholars of medieval literature for more than a century. But now experts think they've worked out why it's so hard to crack: It was bound incorrectly in the 15th century, meaning the pages are out of order. The new linguistic analysis of the document has moved researchers closer to figuring out what the text was all about.

The Voynich manuscript is a medieval codex made up of leaves of parchment carbon-dated to the early 15th century. Its 240 pages are covered with about 38,000 words of a unique script called "Voynichese" along with illustrations of people, plants and astrological symbols. Also known as the Beinecke Cipher manuscript, the document was initially owned by a Holy Roman emperor and was purchased by Wilfrid Voynich in 1912. Since 1969, the manuscript has been in the collection of Yale University's rare book library. Experts have unsuccessfully tried to decipher the manuscript for more than a century.

"We don't know if it's a code," Lisa Fagin Davis, study co-author and executive director of the Medieval Academy of America, told Live Science. "But there are some odd characteristics of the Voynich manuscript in terms of its physical structure."

When doing research on the number of scribes who copied the document, Davis realized from the handwriting that the manuscript's pages alternate in ways that don't make sense. In addition, she said, "there are several examples where the image goes off the page in the middle and comes out on the other side, even though there are a bunch of pages in between."

In a study published Monday (Oct. 19) in the journal Digital Medievalist, Davis and co-author Colin Layfield, an information systems researcher at the University of Malta, suggested that the inconsistent structure of the enigmatic manuscript is the result of someone mis-binding a manuscript they were unable to read.

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Medieval manuscripts were made up of rectangular sheets of parchment (animal skin), typically folded in half to produce what experts call a bifolium. Around five bifolia would typically be nested together, creating what experts call a quire. Then, a stack of quires would be bound together along the spine to create a book. However, Davis and Layfield suggested that the Voynich manuscript was intended to be a stack of singulions — a series of loose bifolia never meant to be bound together as a quire or a book.

This is not the first time a researcher has suggested the Voynich manuscript has pages out of order. But Davis and Layfield analyzed the graphic properties of the untranslated document to see if their hypothesis made sense.

"We're viewing it as a text and assuming it has a message," Layfield told Live Science, which means it should be possible to statistically compare blocks of text to see if they're similar or disconnected. Layfield used a technique called latent semantic analysis (LSA), which is a natural language processing technique invented in the late 1980s to find hidden patterns in texts.

LSA is particularly useful for small sets of data, Layfield explained. "Modern AI techniques need ridiculous amounts of data to train on, which we just don't have. We've got just 35,000 or so words. That's it." The researchers' LSA analysis of the Voynich manuscript revealed that some pages had low similarity, suggesting they may not have gone together, while others had high similarity, bolstering the idea that they were supposed to be read together.

By looking at the Voynich manuscript as a collection of singulions, Davis and Layfield solved some of the nagging issues with the document.

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"When you start to think about it in the context of the other strange features of the manuscript, all of those problems are resolved," Davis said. "It solves the problem of each scribe writing one sheet. It solves the problem of the images crossing the gutter."

This means that any previous work on the Voynich manuscript that assumes it was ordered correctly now needs to be reconsidered, she said, but it also means there is new progress on the book.

"This work helps us think about whether there's actual meaning underneath it all," Davis said. "It doesn't get us there," she said about a definitive translation, "but it moves the ball because you can't make sense out of a book where all the pages are mixed up."

Davis is optimistic that someone will crack the Voynich mystery, in part because a similar modern puzzle known as Cain's Jawbone has been successfully deciphered by a handful of people. This devilishly difficult linguistic puzzle from the 1930s consists of 100 pages of a murder mystery arranged in the wrong order. Due to the unique nature of the text and its vague, stylized language, even AI has failed to solve it.

"We have some ideas for other work we want to do," Davis said. For example, there's a large water stain in the upper margin of some of the pages of the Voynich manuscript. "The stain should be symmetrical from one page to the next but it's not. That also supports the idea that the manuscript is bound out of order."

Davis and Layfield are thinking about ways to compare the stain shapes across the pages, as that may help them reorder the incorrectly organized pages.

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Who really made China's Terracotta Army? Fingerprints reveal new clues on the builders of the life-size terracotta figures

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

The Terracotta Army is one of the most stunning testaments to the power of the ancient Chinese emperors.

Now, scientists have revealed tantalising clues about who really made this gargantuan funeral monument.

Researchers have analysed fingerprints that were smudged into the still-wet clay by artisans over 2,200 years ago.

Their analysis suggests that it wasn't just men who were responsible for creating the life-size terracotta figures.

Instead, the fingerprint analysis shows that women and even children played a major role in crafting the buried army.

According to the new study, published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage, only 45 per cent of fingerprints were left by adult men.

Adult women made up nearly 33 per cent of the prints, while children under 15 years old left 22 per cent of all the surviving marks.

Scientists have analysed fingerprints pressed into the warriors of the Terracotta Army more than 2,000 years ago to reveal who really built this incredible monument 

The Terracotta Army was constructed in the early third century BC as part of the vast funeral complex of Emperor Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of China.

At that time, it was believed that the emperor would need a great army to guard him and fight his battles in the afterlife.

So, shortly after ascending the throne at the age of just 13, Emperor Qin Shihuang commissioned the creation of a vast army he could take with him beyond the grave.

Spread across three vast pits, the army contains life-like sculptures of over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, 520 horses and 150 cavalrymen.

While they are now a reddish brown, each warrior would have originally been brightly painted with pigments made from grinding down precious stones.

This enormous construction effort, believed to have spanned more than a decade, would have required a no less impressive army of sculptors, painters and kiln operators to complete.

Archaeologists believe that there may have been ancient factory-like workshops, mass-producing heads or arms before shipping them to other workshops for assembly.

Previous research has distinguished between warriors made by 'royal' potters, who marked their work with a special symbol, and those produced by local potters.

Scientists looked at the distance between fingerprint ridges, which increases with age and is different between men and women 

Spread across three vast pits, the army contains life-like sculptures of over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, 520 horses and 150 cavalrymen, and would have taken more than a decade to create 

However, archaeologists still know next to nothing about the people who made this spectacular monument.

The previous assumption had been that large-scale construction projects in ancient China relied almost exclusively on adult male workers, but new evidence has begun to overturn this assumption.

Scientists looked at 79 fingerprints from 36 warriors, found pressed into the arms, heads, and body armour of the sculptures.

They then measured the distance between the fingerprint ridges, which increase in distance as children grow and are different in women and men.

Previous attempts to use this method have struggled to tell the difference between adult women and children, due to the similar gaps between their fingerprint ridges.

However, the researchers were able to use a modern statistical analysis method called a Bayesian mixture model to help detect the differences.

Instead of classifying every single mark individually, this method analyses the entire group of prints as a set and compares it with modern fingerprint databases for different ages and sexes.

The researchers write: 'The model results indicate that the artisan community was not exclusively composed of adult males.

'This biological evidence highly corroborates numerous historical records, vividly reconstructing the production scene in the Qin Dynasty's state-run workshops where men and women served together, and adult artisans worked alongside juveniles, who may have been helpers or beginners.'

However, the researchers admit that the study does have some limitations.

Most significantly, this is a small sample size from a single spot within a staggeringly vast funeral complex.

The full mausoleum is a vast area surrounded by a 3.9-mile-long (6.3km) wall, modelled after the layout of the dynasty's capital city complete with towers, stables, and even simulated rivers made out of liquid mercury.

This collection of prints, therefore, might only represent a single workshop or brief phase of the construction project, rather than representing an overall trend.

The researchers write: 'Future work should extend fingerprint sampling to other pits and workshops to evaluate spatial and temporal variations in workforce structure.'

China's Terracotta Warriors: The 8,000-strong army of statues built to protect the First Qin Emperor

Each of these 2,000-year-old figures was given personality and was coloured

The Terracotta Army is a form of funerary art buried with the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in 210 to 209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.

Arguably the most famous archaeological site in the world, it was discovered by chance by villagers in 1974, and excavation has been on-going at the site since that date.

An extraordinary feat of mass-production, each figure was given an individual personality although they were not intended to be portraits.

The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals.

Current estimates are that there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried.

Since 1998, figures of terracotta acrobats, bureaucrats, musicians and bronze birds have been discovered on site.

They were designed to entertain the Emperor in his afterlife and they are of crucial importance to our understanding of his attempts to control the world even in death.

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Having sunk to the bottom of the sea when the pyramids were being built, its treasures could have been lost to the sands of time.

But a wave of luck has swept over archeologists after they discovered what is believed to be the world's oldest known shipwreck off Turkey's coast - dating back an astonishing 4,700 years.

The vessel was found near Kekova Island in Antalya and is thought to have sunk between 2600 BC and 2400 BC, around the same time the Great Pyramid of Giza was being built.

Although the ship's wooden hull has long since decayed, divers uncovered a cargo of ancient storage pots and stone anchors resting nearly 100ft (30m) below the surface.

Researchers say the discovery predates the famous Dokos wreck in Greece, previously regarded as the world's oldest known shipwreck.

The archaeologists who found the ship say it was about 32ft (10m) in length and was a trade vessel carrying cargo.

‘The shipwreck is a time capsule at the bottom of the sea,’ Professor Hakan Oniz, from Akdeniz University in Turkey, who led the Mediterranean Archaeology Association expedition, said.

Although the ship's wooden hull has long since decayed, divers uncovered a cargo of ancient storage pots and stone anchors resting nearly 100ft (30m) below the surface

More than 30 ceramic pots called amphorae were identified, along with three stone anchors

The newly identified wreck lies in an area of the Mediterranean that contains several ancient shipwrecks from different periods, including Roman vessels

In total, more than 30 ceramic pots called amphorae were identified at the site, along with three stone anchors.

Experts believe the vessel was a trading ship carrying goods such as olive oil or wine across the eastern Mediterranean.

Analysis of the clay suggests the amphorae were probably produced in workshops in the Jordan Valley before being transported by sea.

Similar vessels have previously been found near the Egyptian pyramids at Giza, Saqqara and Abusir, as well as at Troy and on Crete, hinting at extensive Bronze Age trade networks.

According to the researchers, the ship may have departed from a port on the Levantine coast and been sailing west towards Troy or Crete when disaster struck.

In their study published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, the team wrote: ‘Current information suggests that the shipwreck is from a small vessel that sank while sailing east to west during the Early Bronze Age.’

 Analysis of the clay suggests the amphorae were probably produced in workshops in the Jordan Valley before being transported by sea

According to the researchers, the ship may have departed from a port on the Levantine coast and been sailing west towards Troy or Crete when disaster struck

Experts believe the vessel was a trading ship carrying goods such as olive oil or wine across the eastern Mediterranean

Experts described the find as a 'time capsule at the bottom of the sea'. Their discovery suggests sailors may have produced their own food during voyages

Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, hailed the find as evidence of the world's oldest shipwreck and said it sheds new light on Anatolia's maritime past.

‘We are bringing to light the traces of the world’s oldest shipwreck,’ he said.

‘Clay analyses indicate that the amphorae were probably produced in workshops in the Jordan Valley.

A diver explores an area off Turkey's coast where archaeologists say the world's oldest shipwreck has been found.

Hakan Öniz

‘The discovery of similar examples in Egypt, Troy and Crete is of great importance for understanding the trade networks that connected different regions by sea.’

He added: ‘Among the finds, one amphora stands out, featuring nine different markings and two holes in its body.

‘Thought to have possibly been used as a churn in cheese or butter production, this vessel offers clues that sailors may have produced their own food during long voyages.’

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Mystery man-made mounds in the Deep South are older than the Great Pyramid... and leave experts baffled over their creation

• READ MORE: I'm a Harvard physicist. I believed in evolution my whole life… until I found God and uncovered something science still can't explain

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Ancient mounds in Louisiana that predate Egypt’s Great Pyramid are still puzzling scientists roughly 5,500 years after construction began.

Native American hunter-gatherers built the eleven earthworks at Watson Brake, near Monroe, around 3500 BC, nearly 1,000 years before the pyramid.

‘It is unclear why Watson Brake and other Middle Archaic mounds were built,’ archaeologist Rebecca Saunders wrote for the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

The complex was mapped in the 1980s, but scientific dating in the 1990s revealed its remarkable age. Construction continued in stages for 600 to 700 years, with the builders connecting the mounds with ridges to create an oval enclosure roughly 1,000 feet across.

Using baskets, deer antlers and their bare hands, they raised eleven mounds without draft animals, a feat that likely required large groups working across generations. 

The tallest mound rises 25 feet above the surrounding ground.

The discovery helped overturn the belief that only farming societies could build large monuments, revealing that hunter-gatherers could organize and sustain major construction projects. 

Archaeologist Vincas Steponaitis, an expert in Native American mounds, said: 'It's rare that archaeologists ever find something that so totally changes our picture of what happened in the past, as is true for this case.'

Native American hunter-gatherers built the eleven earthworks at Watson Brake, near Monroe, around 3500 BC, nearly 1,000 years before the pyramid

Although identified decades ago, Watson Brake was featured in a video published by YouTube channel The Silent Ruins on September 10.

The mounds have long been hidden in a dense forest, but local amateur archaeologist Reca Jones recognized the earthworks after timber clearing exposed parts of the site in the early 1980s. 

She worked with Harvard graduate student John Belmont to produce the first map of the complex.

Researchers initially associated the mounds with the much younger Poverty Point culture, best known for another Louisiana earthwork complex built around 1700 to 1100 BC.

Investigations in the early 1990s by archaeologist Joe Saunders, soil scientist E Thurman Allen and colleagues revealed evidence that Watson Brake was considerably older.

Strongly developed soils suggested the earthworks had been weathering for thousands of years. 

The team used radiocarbon analysis and an independent technique called luminescence dating to investigate their age.

Radiocarbon analysis dates carbon-bearing remains such as charcoal, while luminescence estimates when mineral grains in sediment were last exposed to daylight.

The findings, published in Science on September 19, 1997, placed Watson Brake roughly 1,900 years before other then-known North American mound complexes with earthen enclosures.

The mounds have long been hidden in a dense forest near, but local amateur archaeologist Reca Jones recognized the earthworks after timber clearing exposed parts of the site in the early 1980

A detailed study published in American Antiquity in 2005 reinforced the chronology using 25 radiocarbon dates and six luminescence dates.

Food remains show that the builders relied on fish, shellfish, deer, nuts and other wild plants, rather than cultivated crops.

Stone tools, beads and fired-earth objects offer clues about their daily lives, but the reason they devoted so much labor to the mounds remains uncertain.

One possibility is that construction helped bring scattered communities together.

'It could have been a way to reinforce relationships and cooperation,' Diana Greenlee, station archaeologist at Poverty Point and an adjunct professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, told Heart of Louisiana in an article published in 2022.

She also suggested that the earthworks could demonstrate a community's resources and ability to undertake major construction.

Archaeologists have uncovered ancient arrow heads or spear points found at Watson Brake

Small bricks made of dirt have also been found at the mound site

The 2005 study proposed that mound building may have been a communal response to droughts and flooding that made food supplies less predictable. That remains a hypothesis.

The mystery has parallels at Poverty Point, a separate Louisiana site whose main complex was built around 1700 to 1100 BC, centuries after Egypt's Great Pyramid.

Its largest mound stands 72 feet high and contains enough earth to fill roughly 31,000 modern dump trucks. A 2013 study suggested it was built in fewer than 90 days, possibly as little as 30.

In research published in 2025, Tristram 'T R' Kidder and colleagues proposed that Poverty Point was a temporary gathering place for trade, socializing and worship. 

They suggested mound building and offerings may have been a shared religious response to severe weather and flooding.

Those interpretations remain proposals, while Watson Brake's original purpose is still unresolved.

Watson Brake is not open to the public. Some of its mounds stand on privately owned land, although Louisiana has acquired part of the site for preservation.

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Forget stone tools! Neanderthals were master woodworkers who crafted spears, trays and even tripods, scientists discover

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Neanderthals might be famous for their use of sophisticated stone tools, but new evidence suggests that they were also accomplished carpenters.

Archaeologists investigating the site of Abric Romaní in Spain discovered evidence of wooden tools, structures, and woodworking dating from 40,000 to 62,000 years ago.

The researchers uncovered the imprints and charred remains of 13 objects ranging from spears and a club to trays and tripods.

It appears that Neanderthals even specifically sought out different types of wood for different applications, displaying a surprising level of technical know-how.

A collection of small trays, for example, were shaped from the flexible bark of the juniper tree – perfect for lightweight, flexible equipment.

Meanwhile, the Neanderthal carpenters sought out Scots pine for their harder-wearing tools, selecting a wood which is 'relatively compact and resistant, yet easy to work with'.

In their paper, published in Science Advances, the researchers say that this small collection of artefacts shows 'a remarkable technological versatility and the diversified exploitation of wood as a raw material'.

Archaeologists have uncovered wooden tools created by Neanderthals, including a club that could have been used as a weapon in war or hunting. Pictured: The preserved impression of a club in the ground and a model of what it would have looked like

The remains of wooden tools were found in the Abric Romaní, an enormous sheltered area covering more than 300 metres squared, where our ancient relatives once took shelter

Researchers also discovered trays, expertly shaped from the light, flexible bark of mulbury trees

(pictured) 

The Abric Romaní is an important archaeological site tucked beneath a dense limestone cliff known as Cinglera del Capelló.

It comprises an enormous sheltered area covering more than 300m squared, where our ancient relatives once took refuge.

In the Middle Palaeolithic period, 300,000 to 30,000 years ago, the site was a vital corridor connecting inland Catalonia with the coast, attracting both Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens.

Excavations began in 1983, but what makes this site so important is the fact that it is one of the few places to preserve evidence of ancient woodwork.

Scientists have observed that even our distant primate relatives, such as chimpanzees, are capable of using simple wooden tools to crack nuts or catch ants.

This means that the evolution of wooden technology likely plays an extremely important role in the development of human society.

However, unlike stone tools which can survive for millennia, wood rapidly breaks down and decays, making evidence extremely rare.

Luckily, at Abric Romaní, researchers have found charred remains preserved by carbonisation and imprints preserved by a process called travertine incrustation.

The wooden works were mainly found as impressions in the surrounding ground, preserved through a process called travertine incrustation

Archaeologists say that Neanderthals could have used the club and wooden spear to hunt down animals such as deer and horses

(artist's impression) 

This is a process by which calcium carbonate from the surrounding rock builds up in a layer around the wooden artefact as it slowly decays.

This leaves an impression on the rock which can preserve fine details, even down to the cellular level.

Using these remains, archaeologists have found extensive evidence of Neanderthal woodwork at the site, spanning a period of 22,000 years.

Some of the simplest are a collection of wooden trays crafted from bark that have been preserved in a carbonised state.

The researcher suggests that these may have 'functioned as containers for transporting food or as scoops or ladles, perhaps for collecting embers or ashes'.

The excavations have also revealed a collection of pointed sticks that appear to bear the marks of deliberate shaping.

These sticks could have been used as spears for hunting, fishing and warfare, or as simple tools for digging holes.

However, the archaeologists also uncovered evidence of more elaborate woodwork, including structural features.

In one part of the site, researchers found fragments of three sticks, each over a metre in length, that likely came together to form an elevated structure or tripod that could have been used in food processing.

In another, the team found a 16.7-feet-long (5.1m) tree that had been stripped of its branches, apparently intended to function as a 'structural element and as part of a resting area'.

Neanderthals also appear to have carved large pieces of wood to create structures, either for shelter or to help with processing food 

But the most advanced object of all is a unique wooden club carved from a single piece of wood.

Shaped almost like a kitchen knife, the club features a clear handle and head section that show a 'deliberate and technically controlled shaping process'.

The handle is wider towards the bottom end, making it more secure in the hand during a swing, and there is a sharp transition between handle and head which would have stopped the hand from slipping on impact.

Likewise, the 'blade' section is carefully tapered to a point to form a working point.

Wooden Neanderthal clubs like this are astonishingly rare, with only one other possible example dating from around 400,000 years ago, making it hard to determine what it was used for.

However, the researchers say that its shape suggests it might have been used as a weapon against other Neanderthals or for 'dispatching' animals like deer and horses.

So, although they might have lived in the Stone Age, the researchers say Neanderthals' craftwork may have been a lot more diverse than you would expect.

The researchers conclude: 'Beyond their deftness with stone, Neanderthals had a remarkable ability to work with organic materials such as bone, shell, fiber, and wood.'

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EXCLUSIVE - Scholars hail 2,000-year-old burial chest as first 'direct connection' to Jesus: Extraordinary etching clues after owner acquitted of forgery... as DNA tests begin on ancient bones

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Some deem it 'the most significant item ever found' from the time of Christ.

The 2,000-year-old limestone chest, known as the James ossuary, measures roughly one foot nine inches long and ten inches wide and bears the inscription 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,' written in ancient Aramaic. Bone fragments have been recovered from inside the box.

But the inscription has been at the center of a decades-long forgery controversy. In 2003, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) declared it a modern forgery carved into a genuine ancient burial box.

Its owner, Israeli collector Oded Golan, who says he acquired the box in the 1970s, was accused of adding the words 'brother of Jesus.' He was acquitted of forgery in 2012, although the judge stressed that the verdict did not establish the inscription's authenticity or its connection to the biblical Jesus.

Biblical scholar Dr Jeremiah Johnston, however, points to the acquittal and the support of leading experts in ancient inscriptions as evidence of its authenticity. 

Johnston also rejects the suggestion that a Christian added the words centuries later, arguing that the practice of collecting bones in burial boxes had disappeared from Jerusalem after AD 70. 

He and a team of experts plan to conduct a DNA analysis on the bone fragments in 2027.

'If it is truly his, we are looking at the only known archaeological artifact directly connected to the family of Jesus of Nazareth,' Johnston told the Daily Mail. 

A stunning 2,000-year-old ossuary could be the first link to Jesus' family

The limestone burial chest is engraved with 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus'

Golan reportedly found the ossuary in an antiquities shop in Silwan, just outside Jerusalem's Old City, near the Siloam Spring.

He paid $200 for it, and years later had one of the world's leading experts on ancient Hebrew and Aramaic script, André Lemaire, analyze the limestone box.

'Its inscription read Ya'akov bar Yosef, akhui di Yeshua: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,"' Johnston wrote in his book The Jesus Discoveries. 

'Oded had always assumed it named three generations of one family. Lemaire reminded him that Jesus of Nazareth had a brother named James.'

Johnston, who has a PhD from Middlesex University in the UK and studied the James ossuary extensively, explained that the box fits a burial custom practiced in first-century Jerusalem: Families placed the deceased in a tomb, then returned about a year later to collect the bones and transfer them into a limestone ossuary.

James, Joseph and Jesus were all common names at the time. But Johnston argued that naming a brother makes this inscription particularly significant.

Of roughly 900 ossuaries in the catalog he cites, only about a quarter carry inscriptions, and Johnston said just one other names a brother. He believes the unusual addition suggests that the brother was a prominent figure.

Johnston also pointed to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, who recorded the stoning of James, identified as 'the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ,' in AD 62.

According to the Bible, Jesus' brother, James, did not believe he was the Messiah throughout their lives

Some experts believe 'brother of Jesus' was added later as a forgery

Dr Jeremiah Johnston and a team of experts plan to conduct a DNA analysis on the bone fragments recovered from the ossuary

'If James died in AD 62, custom says his bones were gathered about a year later, around AD 63,' Johnston said. 'That is precisely the window the ossuary’s style and epigraphy point to.'

Early examinations by two Geological Survey of Israel researchers supported the case for authenticity. 

However, the agency later endorsed findings that the mineral coating inside the inscription could not have formed under the region's natural conditions, highlighting the scientific disagreement.

The ossuary went on public display in 2002, attracting international attention and scrutiny from the IAA.

Golan was subsequently accused of adding 'brother of Jesus' to an ancient inscription reading 'James, son of Joseph,' and applying a coating to make the new lettering appear old.

'What followed was one of the most unusual trials in the history of archaeology,' Johnston said.

Experts challenged the forgery allegations, including the respected scholar of ancient handwriting Ada Yardeni, whom Johnston said defended the inscription’s authenticity in court.

A 1976 family photograph showing the box and its disputed inscription also became part of Golan’s defense. A photographic expert testified that the paper and fading were consistent with its age and found no evidence of tampering.

When Golan was acquitted of forgery the judge said that the verdict did not establish the inscription's authenticity.

Johnston nevertheless believes the evidence makes a compelling case.

'So where do I land? Exactly where honest history always lands: not absolute certainty, but historical probability,' he said.

The Daily Mail has contacted IAA for comment. 

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The Sphinx’s secret: Egyptian monument was built from rocks filled with the hidden fossils of ancient crocodiles, scientists discover

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

The Sphinx is one of ancient Egypt's most enigmatic monuments, and now scientists have found that it could be hiding a very unusual secret.

According to new research, the legendary half-human-half-lion was built from rocks filled with the hidden fossils of ancient crocodiles.

Scientists discovered a new species of extinct crocodile in the rocks of the Mokattam Formation in northern Egypt, which are 54million years old.

This ancient predator has been dubbed Herugavialis cairensis, after the ancient Egyptian god Heru, which the Sphinx is believed to depict.

The fossil crocodile was found in the very same limestone rocks that had been quarried over 4,000 years ago to construct the legendary Great Sphinx of Giza.

And the scientists even think that the Sphinx itself might now contain fossils of these long-extinct crocs.

Lead author Dr Paul Burke, of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, told the Daily Mail: 'It could! It was built from the same rocks where Herugavialis was found, so who knows.

'What I don’t recommend is tearing apart the Sphinx to see if there is!'

According to new research, the Great Sphinx of Giza was built using rocks filled with the fossilised remains of ancient crocodiles 

Scientists discovered a new species of extinct crocodile in the 54-million-year-old rocks of the Mokattam Formation in Egypt that were used to make the Sphinx, naming it Herugavialis cairensis (artist's impression)

Co-author Professor Philip Mannion, of University College London, says: 'Given this coincidence with the famously missing nose of the Great Sphinx, we decided to name the new crocodile after the Egyptian god Heru, who was possibly the inspiration for this iconic monument.'

Herugavialis is a member of the gavial family, a group of crocodiles characterised by their long, thin snouts.

Today, there are only two living species, which are found in freshwater environments across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

The fossilised skull of Herugavialis was actually discovered all the way back in the 1920s, during excavations on the Mokattam Formation.

However, scientists initially thought that the skull belonged to the 'false gharial', or Tomistoma schlegelii, one of the living species of gavials.

But today, analytical advances in palaeontology, including the use of CT scanning to look inside the skull, have allowed researchers to find key differences between the false gharial and the ancient fossil.

That meant the skull was from an entirely new, previously undiscovered species of extinct crocodile, described in a paper published in Royal Society Open Science. 

And, just like the Sphinx is famously missing its nose, the fossilised skull is missing the tip of its snout.

Scientists say that the Sphinx itself might contain more fossils of Herugavialis cairensis (artist's impression), but don't recommend taking it apart to find them

Just as the Great Sphinx is famously missing its nose, the fossilised skull of this ancient predator is missing the tip of its snout 

Even though that part of the fossil is slightly damaged, this distinctive skull shape gives palaeontologists a clue as to how the animal might have once lived.

Dr Burke says: 'Herugavialis has a long, thin snout with razor-sharp, pointed teeth, similar to the extant Indian gharial, Gavialis.

'The Indian gharial feeds primarily on fish, so we think that Herugavialis did the same. In addition, the Mokattam Formation where Herugavialis was recovered from, also preserves plenty of fish fossils, so we assume they fed on these species.'

While the gavials have now vanished from the Mediterranean, the fossil records show that these aquatic hunters once spanned nearly the entire globe for more than 100million years, with many living in shallow marine habitats.

In fact, scientists think that Herugavialis would have once shared its home with at least two other species of long-snouted gavials.

Dr Paul Burke, of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, says: 'Throughout much of the last 50million years, the Mediterranean region hosted a high diversity of crocodiles, including gavials.

'However, this diversity fluctuated over time, seemingly corresponding to changes in global temperature and sea level, before the loss of all crocodiles in this region as a result of the drying of the Mediterranean approximately six million years ago.'

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The Sphinx Mystery: Everything That Doesn’t Add Up in the Official Story

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How did the ancient Egyptians create objects of such extraordinary precision — thousands of years before modern machinery, power tools, and computer-controlled manufacturing? 

Across Egypt, archaeologists have discovered hard-stone vessels with remarkably thin walls, perfectly polished surfaces, circular grooves, and astonishingly symmetrical forms. Massive granite sarcophagi appear to have been shaped and finished with a level of precision that seems, at first glance, almost impossible for their time. 

Then there are the drill cores, mysterious machining-like marks, and complex stone forms that raise an even deeper question: What tools were the ancient Egyptians actually using? 

Were these objects created entirely with the tools and techniques known from the archaeological record, using copper, stone abrasives, sand, pounding, grinding, and enormous amounts of time and skilled labor? Or do some of these artifacts preserve evidence of techniques that we have yet to fully understand? 

Modern experiments have demonstrated that surprisingly sophisticated stoneworking can be achieved using relatively simple tools when combined with abrasive materials, patience, skill, and careful technique. Yet some examples continue to provoke debate because of their extraordinary precision and the difficulty of reproducing certain features. 

In this documentary, we go beyond the mystery and examine the physical evidence. 

We will look closely at the sarcophagi, hard-stone vessels, Schist Disk, drill cores, circular grooves, thin walls, and geometric surfaces, comparing them with both ancient-tool experiments and modern manufacturing techniques. 

The question is not simply whether the ancient Egyptians were capable of remarkable craftsmanship but how such precision could have been achieved without modern machinery, were these techniques uniquely Egyptian or could ancient civilizations have received knowledge, guidance, or even direct assistance from an unknown intelligence, perhaps an advanced extraterrestrial civilization?

 

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The dark secret of Egypt’s ancient kings: 5,000-year-old skulls suggest royal servants were bludgeoned to death so they could follow their ruler into the afterlife

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

When Egypt's earliest kings died, they may not have gone to the afterlife alone.

Archaeologists examining the remains of people buried around royal tombs have discovered many had suffered devastating blows to the head.

This suggests trusted servants were killed and entombed alongside their rulers in a brutal ritual dating back 5,000 years.

And these sacrifices would have been made to ensure kings had attendants in the afterlife, experts said.

‘Retainer sacrifice is a type of human sacrifice where those close to a ruler are killed when the ruler dies,’ lead author Dr Roselyn Campbell, from Purdue University, said.

‘In many cultures, retainer sacrifice is practised 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 honour; others may have been chosen or even forced.’

Researchers re-examined 46 skulls belonging to servants and officials buried around the funerary enclosures of three First Dynasty rulers at Abydos in southern Egypt

A fresco depicting a funeral procession in ancient Egypt. The study suggests trusted servants were killed and entombed alongside their rulers in a brutal ritual dating back 5,000 years

Plan of the royal tombs (left) and funerary enclosures (right) at Umm el-Qaab in Abydos, southern Egypt. The diagrams show the tombs of First Dynasty rulers surrounded by rows of subsidiary burials, where researchers believe some royal retainers may have been sacrificed to accompany their rulers into the afterlife

For their investigation, researchers re-examined 46 skulls belonging to servants and officials buried around the funerary enclosures of three First Dynasty rulers at Abydos in southern Egypt.

The remains, originally excavated in the 1920s by British archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie, are now housed in the University of Cambridge's Duckworth Collections.

When they were first discovered, experts believed they may have been an example of human sacrifice – but the remains showed no signs of trauma.

Now, using modern forensic techniques unavailable to earlier archaeologists, the team looked for hints of injuries that occurred around the time of death.

They found evidence of potentially fatal cranial trauma in 18 of the skulls, including fractures and, in one case, a chopping wound near the eye.

The researchers concluded that at least 39 per cent of the individuals examined may have been deliberately killed by blows to the head, providing fresh evidence that some royal retainers were sacrificed when their ruler died.

These linear fractures may have initially been mistaken for naturally caused damage, the team said.

A detail from a wooden label discovered in the tomb of an official at the Saqqara cemetery, which appears to depict a bound individual being stabbed in the chest while another figure collects the blood in a vessel... the findings add to previous evidence that ancient Egyptians carried out sacrificial practices

An ancient Egyptian tomb painting showing a funerary or offering scene. The new study showed 39 per cent of servants and officials buried near the funerary enclosures of kings had potentially fatal head wounds

‘The injuries on the preserved crania are generally linear fractures, which would likely cause rapid unconsciousness, internal bleeding and death,’ Dr Campbell said.

The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, states it remains unclear exactly how the individuals were killed.

Ancient Egyptian rulers are frequently depicted striking enemies with maces, but the injuries seen on the retainers' skulls do not match the type of damage such weapons would typically cause.

Instead, the fractures suggest they were struck with a broad, flat object, although the possibility of accidental falls cannot be ruled out entirely.

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