The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/category/features/undercovering-the-past)
Medusa is making a little comeback. Recent archaeological discoveries in Türkiye and Austria reveal unexpected images of Medusa, from a smiling ceiling carving to a finely cut gemstone cameo. These finds highlight her ancient role as a protective figure and her enduring presence in religious, civic, and personal life.
A Viking woman’s grave in Trøndelag has stunned archaeologists: scallop shells laid over her mouth and bird-wing bones nearby reveal a burial practice unknown in pre-Christian Norway, raising new questions about ritual, belief, and symbolism.
Archaeologists in Poland have uncovered a rare Celtic trepanation tool, offering the strongest evidence yet that ancient Celtic healers—most likely Druids—practiced skull surgery far beyond their traditional homelands.
Archaeologists in northern Iraq have uncovered a monumental Uruk-period building that may have served as a “cultic space.” The find at Kani Shaie reveals early ritual architecture and deepens understanding of how mountain communities connected to ancient Mesopotamia’s first cities.
Enrico Tosti-Croce’s father took a piece of marble from the Parthenon in the 1930s and brought it with him to Chile. Nearly a century later, Enrico has returned the stone – and discovered it is part of an even older structure.
A rare wooden statue of Hercules has been unearthed beneath Ibiza Town, astonishing archaeologists with its preservation. Sealed for nearly two millennia in a Roman well, the figure, and accompanying seeds and fruit, may reveal how Western Mediterranean landscapes and agriculture evolved over centuries.
