Ancient Civilization

4 entries

A rocky white limestone shoreline with a green shrub in the foreground, a calm blue bay on the right and scrub-covered hills behind under an overcast sky.

Turkish Archaeologists Claim Kekova Wreck Is World's Oldest Shipwreck; Age Rests on Pottery

Archaeologists at Akdeniz University say a wreck about 30 metres down off Kekova Island, Turkey, is 4,400 to 4,700 years old, which would make it the oldest known shipwreck. The date is a claim: it rests on pottery style, no wood survives, and outside experts say it is not yet proved.

By Darrell Wallen · Oct 28, 2026 · ≈31 min listen · Read →

The Ancient Sky: The Hittites Speak Again. The grassy mound of Kayalıpınar in central Turkey.

Ancient Civilization

The Hittites Speak Again: 131 New Tablets from Kayalıpınar, Ancient Šamuḫa

Turkey's Minister of Culture and Tourism announced on October 8, 2026, that excavators at Kayalıpınar had recovered 131 more cuneiform tablets and fragments in Hittite and Hurrian, from the reign of King Tudhaliya II, about 1400 BC. They bring the archive at the site to 184 documents. The ministry reports a high-fever epidemic, a letter asking for chariots and a baby princess who died. It has not published the texts, and it has not named any disease.

By Darrell Wallen · Oct 27, 2026 · ≈26 min listen · Read →

The Ancient Sky: They Were There. Diamond-shaped stone tools from a 13,800-year-old Alaskan camp laid out on a black background with a scale bar.

Ancient Civilization

They Were There: The Alaskan Camp That Is Reshaping the Story of the First Americans

Archaeologists reported on October 14, 2026, that a ridge above the Tanana River in interior Alaska holds a camp dated to about 13,800 years ago, with a probable lean-to shelter, hearths, an earth oven, eyed bone needles and diamond-shaped stone blades. The paper in Science Advances calls it the "earliest potential case of a habitation structure in North America." It does not claim the oldest site in Beringia, and it does not claim dogs.

By Darrell Wallen · Oct 27, 2026 · ≈30 min listen · Read →

The Ancient Sky: Fingerprints of the Gods. A closed old book, an antique map and a brass compass by lamplight (AI-generated illustration).

Ancient Civilization

Fingerprints of the Gods: The Book That Started the Conversation

Today I want to talk about one book. Not a theory, not a television show, not a debate clip. One book. Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods, published in 1995.

By Darrell Wallen · Oct 25, 2026 · ≈22 min listen · Read →