A handful of Allied warships sunk off the Indonesian coast in 1942 during the Battle of the Java Sea and other operations have all but disappeared. The Battle of the Java Sea was one of the largest fought on the Asian stage of World War II, between Allied and Japanese forces. It took place on Febru
Jordan has its most emblematic and recognizable tourist icon in Petra. The Siq gorge, the Treasury façade, the hypogea, the theatre, the ascent to the Monastery on a donkey... All these wonders are concentrated in a city half-hidden in the desert that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors ever
130,000-70,000 years ago the Egyptian region known as Nabta Playa , today desert, was a savannah with abundant vegetation and wild fauna. Buffaloes, giraffes, antelopes and gazelles populated this endorheic basin with rainfall reaching 500 mm. annuals, and that came to have a large lake. Archaeologi
Dholavira It is an archaeological site located in the state of Gujarat, in northwestern India. There, archaeologists have been excavating since 1990 an ancient city that is among the five largest found belonging to the Indus Valley culture. It is also considered the largest port city of its time. It
Imagine a field strewn with huge stone vases . Large vases capable of sheltering a person and that seem to sprout from the ground, forming a landscape worthy of Game of Thrones or some other fantasy story from a visionary filmmaker, imaginative writer, or sci-fi comic book artist. Only there really
Near the French town of Montesquieu-Avantès, in the Midi-Pyrénées region, there is an underground system of caves, some of which are connected, and which present engravings and cave paintings from the Magdalenian period , dated around 17,000-10,000 BC In one of them, that of Tuc dAudoubert, a uniqu
A monolith It is a large block of stone in one piece. May be of natural origin , as in the cases of the Australian Ayers Rock or the Spanish Peñón de Ifach, or the result of human labor , carved with a specific purpose and of which the classic examples are the prehistoric menhirs. Now, within this s
The Bada Valley is located in the Poso district on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, within the Lore Lindu National Park. Its main attraction is the more than 400 megalithic sculptures scattered throughout the place, 30 of which have anthropomorphic representations , which some compare to the moai
Recently Bulgarian archaeologists found two new votive tablets depicting the Thracian Horseman in the ancient Byzantine city of Abritus, in the northeast of the country. They are the latest of many discoveries related to this indigenous deity, whose character and function are still unclear, despite
As with most burial mounds scattered throughout much of Europe, the two that are still preserved in the Polish city of Krakow hold more questions than answers. They are known by the name of Krakus (in Polish Krakusa) and Wanda (in Polish Wandy), and they were originally accompanied by four other sma
Old Persian was the colloquial language spoken in the Achaemenid empire, known from tablets and seals dating to between 600 and 300 BC. Circa 521 B.C. King Darius ordered the creation of a new alphabet, which is said to have been called the Aryan alphabet , and that it was used only for the actual i
The presence of menhirs is not common in India, although there are some examples in the states of Megalaya, Nagaland and Andhra Pradesh. In 2010, a team of researchers from the countrys Archaeological Survey discovered 171 more in the state of Mizoram, in northeastern India. They are located in a f
Ani It was an Armenian city of medieval origin that had between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants, a walled perimeter with up to 40 gates and so many religious buildings that it was known as the city of 1001 churches . Today it is a vast desert wasteland dotted with ruins and forgotten. The problem is
Even though the Etruscan language has not been completely deciphered yet, researchers have partial knowledge and understanding, which allows them to read some texts and extract their meaning. This is possible thanks to the Pirgi sheets , three gold plates with a text in Phoenician and two in Etrusca
In the Turkish province of Eskisehir there is a city today called Yazilikaya (literally engraved rock ), but also known as the City of Midas . It is known to have been built by the Phrygians sometime between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, although archaeologists suspect it may be much older. The most
At this point it may seem strange that there are still practically unknown civilizations, of which we barely know the place they inhabited and the approximate dates of their appearance and disappearance. If the level of development of that civilization is more advanced than it should be , according
Also called Siloam tunnel due to the inscription discovered in it, which tells the story of its opening, the Hezekiah Tunnel is an underground water conduction under the city of David in Jerusalem. Mentioned in the Bible (Kings 2, 20:20) as the work of King Hezekiah within the preparations for the d
Devices that produce drinking water from condensation are common today. The technology is simple and probably very old, although it is not really known exactly if it was already used in ancient times. An archaeological discovery made in 1900 led its author to think so, and in his attempt to replicat
On the Djado Plateau , a small 20,000 square kilometer region northeast of Niger first explored by Europeans in 1906, are the impressive ruins of several fortified cities built approximately 1,000 years ago. But even more amazing are the nearby Ténéré desert petroglyphs , among which is the largest
The passage tombs are funerary chambers that are accessed by a narrow passage of stones or megaliths arranged as an entrance. They date from the Neolithic era and examples exist throughout Europe, from Portugal to Scandinavia, and even in North Africa. In Spain they are especially abundant in Cant
Science and the Future 851 is on newsstands. Our cover story:the great adventure of the lost cities. Presentation in text and video by Dominique Leglu, the editorial director. The cover of Sciences et Avenir 851. We all have something of an explorer in us. Child, it is undeniable, as soon as arms
A team of archaeologists from New York University, working on the temple of Ramses II in Abydos, discovered the foundation stones of the building, according to the Egyptian Council of Antiquities. The discovery came after finding the royal palace annexed to the pharaohs temple, discovered about 16
This body discovered in Finland belongs to a man with Klinefelter syndrome, characterized by an extra sex chromosome. The body, dressed in a womans coat held by two brooches, had been buried with swords (illustration). This article is from the magazine Sciences et Avenir - La Recherche n°896 dat
Right arm of the Duke of Burgundy Philippe le Bon, Nicolas Rolin appears in a famous painting by Van Eyck. The discovery of the tomb of the founder of the Hospices de Beaune, who died in 1462, constitutes a remarkable new find in archaeology. On the left, the Chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy Nic