Researchers around the world donned their detective hats this year to provide answers to questions that have persisted for decades or centuries. The thought-provoking discoveries offer new ways to understand the past.
Archaeological exploration of historic sites revealed new information. The analysis of a showed how nomadic Polynesians created the huge stone heads found in or Easter Island.
Meanwhile, a new Pompeii exploration project which can reconstruct what the skyline of the ancient Roman city looked like before a volcanic eruption in 79 AD buried it under a thick layer of ash.
A combination of microbotanical analyzes and panoramic aerial images captured by drones also allowed researchers to come up with a new hypothesis about who created the a series of around 5,200 holes spread across the Peruvian Andes.
Some research generates more questions than answers, such as the creative ways scholars have tried to determine analyzing your own words in the absence of medical documents.
Here are some of the most memorable discoveries of 2025 that brought answers to long-standing historical mysteries.
A mysterious mummy
A water leak in a crypt containing the “air-dried chaplain” helped reveal the identity of an exceptionally well-preserved body kept in a church in a remote Austrian village since the 18th century.
With skin and tissue intact, the mummified body, believed to be that of an 18th-century cleric, has sparked speculation about its healing properties and even rumors of poisoning.
Restoration works to repair water damage led to the removal of the body, creating an opportunity to perform CT scans, analysis of bone and tissue samples, and radiocarbon dating. Researchers determined that the remains belonged to Franz Xaver Sidler von Rosenegg, an aristocrat who was a monk before becoming vicar of the parish of St. Thomas am Blasenstein.
The team not only discovered that a was responsible for the dry state of the cleric’s body, as well as proposing a new hypothesis for his death and solving the mystery of a glass object found inside his remains.
The boat that came from nowhere
The Hjortspring boat, on display at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, has long been a vessel of mysterious origin.
Archaeologists first unearthed the wooden ship from a swamp on the Danish island of Als in the 1920s, more than 2,000 years after its sinking. The vessel was loaded with weapons, suggesting that it was transporting warriors with the intention of attacking the island.
There were no clues about the origin of the boat or who it was carrying. – until now.
A new analysis of materials from the ship suggests it traveled much further than previously thought, meaning the attack was likely premeditated. And one found in tar residue may provide a direct link to one of the ship’s crew.
“Fingerprints are very rare for this period and region,” said study lead author Mikael Fauvelle, associate professor and researcher in the department of archeology and ancient history at Lund University in Sweden, adding that “finding one on such a unique boat is extremely special.”
Speaking of historic ships, new analysis has shown that polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the HMS Endurance, was not doomed because of its broken rudder. Instead, the ship sank in 1915 due to structural weaknesses — and before heading off in search of your polar dream.
Ice Age – mistaken identity
More than 14,000 years ago, a burrow collapsed on two female cubs in northern Siberia, trapping them. The mummified remains of the “Cups of Tumat”, believed to be sisters, were unearthed separately in 2011 and 2015.
The cubs were so well preserved that they are still covered in fur and traces of a last meal remain in their stomachs. Researchers believe they could be primitive domesticated dogs or domesticated wolves that lived near humans.
But a new study that analyzed genetic data and chemical signatures suggests that who have not interacted with humans in any way.
Research is shedding light on the complexities surrounding determining when dogs were domesticated and began living alongside humans.
An army doomed to misfortune
When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Russia in 1812, the French emperor led an army of more than half a million men.
Six months later, a fraction of his soldiers—estimated to be in the tens of thousands—returned to France after a forced withdrawal. Although a combination of battle, famine, cold, and a typhus epidemic were considered factors in the costly and tragic loss of hundreds of thousands of men, genetic evidence suggests .
“Previously, we thought there was only one infectious disease that decimated Napoleon’s army — typhus,” said study lead author Rémi Barbieri, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tartu in Estonia.
Barbieri’s team discovered previously unknown pathogens, Salmonella enterica and Borrelia recurrentis, in the teeth of soldiers killed in combat. These bacteria cause paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever, respectively, which may have contributed to the soldiers’ deaths.
Honorable mentions
This year, scientists also provided answers to these intriguing questions:
— Researchers finally which triggered an eruption so violent it cooled the Earth in 1831.
— It’s hard to imagine what our dishes would be like without the modern potato, but where did it come from? Apparently, the tuber evolved from a million years ago.
— Like King Arthur, Wade’s Song was once a popular epic, but few phrases have survived to this day. A newly decoded error shows that the long-lost saga was not as previously believed.
