Researchers across the globe put on their sleuthing hats in 2025 to provide answers to questions that have lingered from decades to centuries. The thought-provoking findings offer new ways of understanding the past. Here are some of the most memorable findings in 2025 that provided answers to long-standing historical mysteries.

The boat 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 excavated the wooden ship from a bog on the Danish island of Als in the 1920s, more than 2,000 years after it sank. No clues as to where the boat originated or who it carried existed — until now.

A new analysis of the ship’s materials suggest it traveled much farther than previously thought, meaning the attack likely was premeditated. And a partial human fingerprint found in tar residue could provide a direct link to one of the ship’s crew.

Ice age mistaken identity

More than 14,000 years ago, a den collapsed around two female pups in northern Siberia, trapping them. The mummified remains of the “Tumat Puppies,” thought to be sisters, were unearthed separately in 2011 and 2015.Researchers thought they might be early domesticated dogs or tamed wolves that lived near humans. But a new study suggests the Tumat Puppies were wolf cubs that didn’t interact with humans at all. The research is shedding light on the complexities around determining when dogs were domesticated and began living alongside humans.

An ill-fated army

When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Russia in 1812, the French emperor led an army of over half a million men.

Six months later, a fraction of his soldiers — an estimated tens of thousands — returned to France after a forced retreat. While a combination of battle, starvation, cold and a typhus epidemic were considered factors in the loss of hundreds of thousands of men, genetic evidence has suggested newfound culprits.

“Previously, we just thought that there was one infectious disease that decimated the Napoleon army — the typhus,” said lead study author Rémi Barbieri, a postdoctoral researcher at Estonia’s University of Tartu.

Barbieri’s team discovered previously undetected pathogens Salmonella enterica and Borrelia recurrentis in the teeth of fallen soldiers. The bacteria cause paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever, respectively, which could have contributed to the soldiers’ deaths.

Honorable mentions

Scientists also delivered answers to these baffling questions:

— Researchers finally identified the mystery volcano that unleashed an eruption so violent that it cooled Earth in 1831.

— Where did the modern-day potato come from? The tuber apparently evolved from a chance encounter involving a wild tomato millions of years ago.

— The "Song of Wade" was once a popular epic, but it has few surviving phrases today. A newly decoded error shows the long-lost saga wasn’t packed with supernatural creatures as previously believed.

2025年，全球研究人员化身历史侦探，借助前沿科技，逐一破解了那些尘封数十乃至数百年的谜题。一系列突破性发现，为我们重新理解过往打开了一扇崭新的窗口。以下是2025年一些最令人难忘的发现，它们为长期存在的历史谜团提供了答案。

神秘古船寻踪

陈列于哥本哈根丹麦国家博物馆的霍茨斯普林船，长期以来来历成谜。这艘木船于20世纪20年代在丹麦阿尔斯岛的沼泽中被发现，已沉没超过两千年。船内载有大量武器，显示它曾用于军事行动。

最新研究通过对船体材料的分析表明，其航行距离远超此前想象，暗示这是一场经过远距离策划的袭击。更关键的是，在焦油残留物中检测到的一部分人类指纹，可能为指认某位船员提供了直接线索。

冰河时期的“身份误判”

在西伯利亚北部发现的“图马特幼犬”木乃伊，保存极为完好，皮毛犹存。这两具距今约1.4万年的遗骸曾被认为可能是早期驯化犬或与人类共生的狼。

然而，最新的基因与化学特征分析证实，它们实为纯粹的野生狼崽，并未与人类有过互动。这项研究进一步揭示了犬类驯化历程的复杂性。

一支命运多舛的军队

1812年，拿破仑率领超过五十万大军入侵俄罗斯，仅数月后，仅有数万士兵在溃退中生还。传统观点将惨重伤亡归咎于战斗、饥寒与斑疹伤寒。

然而，最新的基因分析在阵亡士兵的牙齿中发现了两种此前未被重视的病原体：肠沙门氏菌与回归热疏螺旋体。它们分别引发的副伤寒和回归热，很可能也是导致大军覆灭的重要因素。

其他重要发现

确定了在1831年曾剧烈喷发并导致全球气温下降的神秘火山。

揭示了现代马铃薯起源于数百万年前一次野生番茄的偶然杂交事件。

通过对中世纪抄本中一处错误的解读，修正了人们对失传史诗《韦德之歌》的理解，它并非如以往认为的那样充满奇幻生物。

(Translated by DeepSeek)