Pits and seeps full of tar and asphalt offer new insights into old ecosystems and cultures.

Neanderthals, suggest recent studies, had complex societies and even some culture.

The famous Persian carpet, woven by female artisans in southwestern Iran, may be going extinct. Its story can be told in spindles and whorls.

Like the Nazca lines of Peru, a strange series of shapes have been found in the Middle East. New research has tried to understand their purpose.