When the team of archaeologists from Aarhus University began finding human bones in Alken Enge bog in eastern Denmark three years ago, they weren’t sure what to think—but they knew they wanted to return. After more than two months in the field this past summer, they have now recorded the remains of nearly 250 individuals, as well as spearheads, shields, clubs, and an ax, all part of what project archaeologist Mads Holst believes is evidence for a catastrophic military event that occurred around A.D. 1. At this time the Roman Empire had reached its northern boundary just 185 miles south of Alken, resulting in turmoil and increased militarization of the local tribes in response to the empire’s expansion. According to Holst, it appears that the soldiers from the bog, a unique find in northern Europe, may have been killed in battle—their wounds are consistent with battle damage—and then buried in the bog in some sort of ritual. 

Holst is certain there is a great deal more to uncover and to learn. “We have only excavated about 1,600 square feet so far, just a small part of the complex. But we know from surveying and doing small test excavations that there are finds from an area that covers almost 100 acres,” says Holst. “The scale of the conflict is much larger than we expected and reveals a much higher level of organization than most ancient descriptions of these tribes would have you believe.” 

In 2008, archaeologists working at Paisley Caves in central Oregon presented evidence, in the form of coprolites, or fossilized feces, of human occupation in the Americas dating back more than 14,000 years. That’s 1,000 years before the emergence of the Clovis culture, the previously agreed-upon first Americans. Critics discounted the findings because no tools had been found with the coprolites. They asserted that human DNA found on the feces might have washed down onto the droppings over time.

This summer the Paisley Caves team presented new evidence from the cave, including stone tools and radiocarbon dates for them and the coprolites—all as many as 13,200 years old. The Paisley Caves tools belong to the so-called Western Stemmed tradition, and are markedly different from Clovis tools, which are best exemplified by their fluted, Christmas tree–shaped projectile points. Loren Davis, an archaeologist at Oregon State University and part of the Paisley Caves team, says that Clovis points were made from large stone cores, while the Western Stemmed tools were fashioned from stone fragments.

Davis says the findings indicate that another population was here at the same time, or possibly before, Clovis, requiring a new model for the peopling of the Americas. “It can’t be a straight-line evolutionary model where everything descends from Clovis,” he explains. “Now the scene early on is very complicated.” 

When archaeologists pulled up the floorboards during extensive restoration work at Lengberg Castle in Austria, they found a space filled with dry organic material, including branches and straw, processed wood, leather, shoes, yarn, rope, and more than 2,700 textile fragments. Among the textiles were 17 linen shirts, a complete pair and a fragment of men’s underwear, and four lace-decorated linen bras—which push back the earliest date for this type of women’s undergarment more than 500 years. Using both their archaeological context—the fill layer was likely created during a fifteenth-century renovation of the castle—and radiocarbon analysis of fibers from two of the bras, Beatrix Nutz of the University of Innsbruck dated the garments to between A.D. 1390 and 1485. There are numerous medieval written sources that describe bras as “breastbags,” but until this discovery no one had any idea what these garments looked like. According to Nutz, we also know from contemporary sources that women likely made the garments themselves and did not rely on male tailors. The discovery will enable archaeologists and clothing historians to learn more about tailoring by women.