archeology
What’s Next for Ancient DNA Studies After the Nobel?
Mary Prendergast, The Conversation | Oct 5, 2022 | 4 min read
The award highlights tremendous opportunities for aDNA as well as challenges related to rapid growth, equity, and misinformation.
Dog Ancestry Provides Clues to Ancient Human Activities
Niki Spahich, PhD | Sep 1, 2022 | 3 min read
Researchers combined evidence found in dog genomes with physical materials recovered from archeological sites to discover factors behind major societal changes.
Black Death Likely Originated in Central Asia
Andy Carstens | Jun 15, 2022 | 5 min read
Genetic testing of people who died in Kyrgyzstan eight years before plague reached Europe reveals an ancient strain of the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
Ancient Human Footprints in New Mexico Dated to Ice Age
Rachael Moeller Gorman | Sep 23, 2021 | 4 min read
Researchers excavated human footprints out of a small bluff next to a dried-up playa lake and radiocarbon-dated embedded seeds to around 23,000 years ago. Their results suggest that people entered the Americas thousands of years earlier than the accepted estimate.
Scholars Boycott Meeting, Citing Misconduct Accusations
Shawna Williams | Aug 30, 2019 | 5 min read
The European Society for the study of Human Evolution (ESHE) faces criticism after public allegations emerge that its president engaged in sexual harassment and bullying.
A. anamensis Hominin Skull Could Recast Our Human Family Tree
Ashley Yeager | Aug 28, 2019 | 2 min read
Researchers say the skull belongs to an Australopithecus species once thought to be a predecessor to “Lucy,” but now that relationship is murky.
Ancient Wooden Pots from China Contain Cannabis Residue
Chia-Yi Hou | Jun 12, 2019 | 2 min read
A brazier and charred stones, thought to be part of burial ceremonies, preserve signs that people used the drug thousands of years ago.
Image of the Day: Stale Cereal
Chia-Yi Hou | Jun 10, 2019 | 1 min read
Archaeologists find ring-shaped objects made from grains at a site in Austria thought to date back to 960 BCE.
Ancient Genomes Reveal Clues About Native Americans’ Past
Jef Akst | Jun 6, 2019 | 2 min read
Sequences from dozens of ancient remains from Siberia reveal the closest ancient relative of Native Americans found outside of North America.
Cranial Craters, 1000-1250
Sukanya Charuchandra | Nov 1, 2018 | 3 min read
Prehistoric Andeans seemed especially fond of trepanation—holes drilled in the skull as a treatment for various ills.
Original North American Dogs Descended From Siberian Populations
Catherine Offord | Jul 5, 2018 | 2 min read
European settlers likely wiped out these ancient dogs, but the animals seem to have left a lasting legacy in a transmissible canine cancer.
Humanity May Have Flourished After Supervolcano Eruption
Diana Kwon | Mar 13, 2018 | 2 min read
A new study counters the popular theory that after Mount Toba blew its top 74,000 years ago, humans almost went extinct.
Oldest Known Paintings Created by Neanderthals, Not Modern Humans
Catherine Offord | Feb 25, 2018 | 2 min read
The animal pictures and hand stencils were made in caves in Spain thousands of years before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe.
Study Links Brazilians to Polynesians
Edyta Zielinska | Apr 3, 2013 | 1 min read
New research shows that some early settlers of the Americas may have come from the Pacific islands archipelago.
Paleolithic People Were into Fashion
Kate Yandell | Mar 8, 2013 | 1 min read
Ancestral Homo sapiens’ jewelry changed with the times.