9 Jan 2026 · Brazilian coast, Brazil
Science reported bone harpoons used by ancient coastal foragers in Brazil as the oldest known whaling tools.
Why it matters: It shows sophisticated maritime hunting in the Americas.
Source: Science news, Jan 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 ↗
20 Jul 2026 · Dahshur, Egypt
Xavier Landreau, Guillaume Piton and Sayed Hemeda used satellite imagery, 19th-century maps and watershed mapping. They argue that two 600–700 m structures across Wadi Dahshur, west of the Red Pyramid, long read as stone-transport ramps, are dams, one with a duckbill-shaped spillway, linked to a roughly 1 km diversion channel passing close to the pyramid.
ancient technologypyramidsremote sensing
Site guide: Giza & Saqqara · Source: Landreau, Piton & Hemeda 2026, npj Heritage Science ↗
18 Jun 2026 · Sacsayhuamán, Cusco, Peru
Researchers analysed 138 dispersed blocks from a dismantled sector, using geometric silhouettes and computational matching, to propose how the early Inca walls fitted together.
Site guide: Sacsayhuamán & Cusco · Brien Foerster · Source: npj Heritage Science 2026 ↗
21 May 2026 · Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt
An ambient-noise survey at 37 points inside and around Khufu’s pyramid found uniform resonance frequencies and design features that reduce seismic amplification.
Site guide: Giza & Saqqara · Source: Scientific Reports 2026 ↗