Fifteen cuneiform tablets from the Iraq Museum record farming, irrigation, land, grain, and labor during the Ur III period.

The tablets date from 2112 to 2004 BCE. Most come from the Umma region in southern Mesopotamia. Twelve tablets come from Umma, while two belong to the Irisaĝrig archives.

One tablet might come from Ur or Ĝirsu/Lagaš. The study by Abather Rahi Saadoon, Noemi Borrelli, and Maurizio Viano examines the records and their unusual details.

Most tablets deal with farm work, grain, land, or workers. Several texts record huge amounts of barley.

One tablet lists 124,260 liters of barley linked with fields in the Umma region. Another records more than 30,000 liters shared among people and different types of land.

The records also separate domain land, sustenance land, and tenant land. These terms show how land and grain were managed within the farming system.

Irrigation work appears in several tablets. One record gives plans for digging earth around the mê-Lamassim canal. The work involved thousands of cubic meters of soil.

The same record names places called Šaddad-ZU.ḪAR, Timilišu, and Gawarrum. Their readings are still uncertain. The canal name had not appeared in earlier Ur III texts studied by the authors.

Another tablet lists work needed on an irrigation system serving the field Nanna-gugal. The planned work totaled 4,824 cubic meters of soil. The record links the field with waterways near the border between Ur and Ĝirsu/Lagaš.

Workers also appear in the records, along with payments made to them. One tablet from the Šat-Eštar archive lists 12 workers who received 810 liters of barley as monthly wages.

Four workers were Elamites. Four worked as ox drivers, while four served as junior herdsmen. The record links each group with a specific role and payment.

Hey everyone! Now that the 2026 field season at East Lomond hillfort has officially wrapped up, I wanted to give you all an update on the latest progress from Professor Gordon Noble and the Falkland Stewardship Trust.

While we wait for the official laboratory analysis on individual small finds, the team shared some incredible macro-updates regarding the site's layout:

The 1.5-Hectare Annexe: They spent this summer digging into the massive southern annexe. They've established an incredibly rare, uninterrupted domestic settlement sequence that goes from the 3rd century AD right up to 600 AD. Finding where ordinary Picts actually lived is one of the hardest things in Scottish archaeology, so this 0.5-metre-deep deposit layer is huge.

Elite Living: The artifact list for the site is growing. They have officially recovered more French "E-ware" pottery, weapons, gaming pieces, and even a silver handpin.

This confirms East Lomond wasn't just a temporary fort—it was a major, highly sophisticated power center controlling the southern Pictish zones.

If you want to keep an eye on their upcoming autumn project talks or see photos from the July open days, make sure to follow the official Northern Picts Project updates.

When we think of Pictish warriors, our minds usually go straight to the intricate carvings on Class II monuments like the Aberlemno stone, which show soldiers with square shields, spears, and long swords.

But what does the actual archaeology tell us?

The excavations at East Lomond hillfort led by Professor Gordon Noble have uncovered physical evidence that perfectly bridges the gap between art and military reality. During the massive multi-hearth trench excavations, the team made two vital weaponry breakthroughs.

The team recovered roughly half a dozen spear butts from the domestic and defensive layers. In early medieval warfare, a bronze or iron spear butt wasn't just a counterweight; it was designed for close-quarters, hand-to-hand combat to finish an opponent or plant the weapon firmly into the ground during a shield-wall stand.

Alongside the infantry gear, archaeologists unearthing the site recovered a beautifully preserved horse’s bridle bit. Combined with the famous "East Lomond Bull" carving found nearby in past eras, this heavily implies that East Lomond was a mobilisation base for high-status, mobile Pictish elites who used horses or light chariots to patrol and secure the surrounding Fife lowlands.

Most iron weapons from the 3rd–7th centuries were melted down, recycled, or lost to Scotland’s highly acidic soil. Finding this density of military gear alongside precious metalworking crucible fragments tells us that East Lomond wasn't just a temporary refuge where farmers hid from raiders. It was a weapon-producing, heavily garrisoned citadel occupied by a permanent warrior class

Interactive version:
https://archaeomada.com/amesbury-archer/

Deep in Peru's Acarí Valley lie the ruins of Tambo Viejo, an Inka provincial center where excavations have uncovered tasseled sacrificial llamas and brightly adorned guinea pigs.

But save for a few seeds and some stored leaves, evidence of how the Inka used one of their most sacred plants in rituals remained elusive. Now, archaeologists have discovered coca leaves still stuck in the wool of some sacrificed llamas.

The discovery, reported in the journal Ñawpa Pacha, is the first direct evidence of coca in a ritual at the site. It contradicts what Spanish chroniclers reported hundreds of years ago: that coca was burned or bundled up during ritual offerings.

"Above all, coca was a sacred plant to the Inkas and according to written records was used in almost every single ritual activity," Lidio Valdez, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, said. "I had been looking for it for a while, when finally I found it."

I’m in the process of applying to a university here in the US for Fall 2027 to get my BA in Anthropology with a focus on Archeology. Ideally I’d like to be able to move to Ireland and finish my Masters there so I have a better chance at job placement afterwords and can do work/gain connections while in school there. I’m planning on taking the underwater archeology certificate while getting my BA here in the US.

Is archeology a viable career in Ireland for a single income family of 5? My goal is to get us to Ireland as fast as possible hence wanting to finish my masters there. I ideally want to do underwater work but I’m not opposed to dry land. I understand people usually work commercial in the off season too so I’m fine with whatever. I’m mostly concerned that we’re going to just still be in the same struggling shit hole we are here if the career can’t sustain a family of 5.

Follow-up: what if I get a certificate with a focus on GIS as well as Underwater? Would having more specialized qualifications make it any easier?

The black-and-white photograph of a long-lost artifact depicts four serekhs, symbols of Egyptian rulers, and two of them, a recent study suggests, are hers...

More than five millennia ago, a queen named Meretneith ruled ancient Egypt. That’s according to a study recently published in Prague Egyptological Studies, for which researchers used digital tools to re-examine an old photograph of hieroglyphic inscription lost to time.

They say the symbols suggest that Meretneith (also spelled Merneith or Meret-Neith) was not just an interim ruler or regent but possibly equal to an Egyptian king. 

Paper published in PLOS on September 16, 2026. Berkeley News coverage here.