At the Kalambo Falls archaeological site in northeastern Zambia, archaeologists recovered specimens of ancient wood in the form of logs that had been preserved in waterlogged sand next to the Kalambo River for nearly a half-a-million years—or for 476,000 years, to be more exact. Using a new dating technology known as...
“ In another step towards unraveling the intricate tapestry of human history, a huge database of prehistoric sites spanning a history from 3 million to 20,000 years ago has been unveiled. This achievement marks the culmination of 150 years of research and is set to revolutionize our understanding of human evolution. The...
Archaeologists working in the western part of Racibórz, called Studzienna, Poland, have unearthed stone tools that are 130,000 years old, or possibly even older.
“The world's oldest human statue has been unearthed in Karahan Tepe, Turkey. The 7.5-foot-tall statue is estimated to be about 11,000 years and depicts a man clutching his penis with both hands…...
“An international team of scientists have discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago by analyzing ancient tree-rings found in the French Alps. The radiocarbon spike was caused by a massive solar storm, the biggest ever identified.”
“A new study shows that flowering plants escaped relatively unscathed from the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. While they suffered some species loss, the devastating event helped flowering plants become the dominant type of plant they are today.”
Snippet: “One of the most important clues revealing the age of the cave paintings was left behind by cave bears . At various points in the cave these now-extinct inhabitants of Paleolithic Europe left scratch marks on the walls, some of which actually covered a few of the finger flutings made by the cave artists. Since the...
“To the modern observer, the hippopotamus might seem a curious creature - large and often languid in its watery habitat. However, in ancient Egypt, the hippo was regarded as one of the most ferocious beasts, a symbol of power and destruction.”
““Our results suggest that the spheroids of ‘Ubeidiya are a complex formal technology that represent a manifestation of the complex cognitive and skillful capacities of Early Acheulean hominins,” write the authors in the study. Notably, each spheroid possesses a prominent "primary surface" surrounded by smaller worked...
“One of the fascinating aspects of the drainage system was its egalitarian design....
“ What's surprising to researchers is that the settlement of Pingliangtai shows little evidence of social hierarchy. Its houses were uniformly small and show no signs of social stratification or significant inequality amongst the population. Excavations at the town's cemetery likewise found no evidence of a social hierarchy in...
“The culmination of almost a decade of research and excavation, this large-scale steppe pyramid in Kazakhstan—which dates back to the 2nd millennium BC—languished in relative obscurity for countless centuries. Nothing like it has ever been discovered in the Central Asian steppes, making it an especially exciting find.“
“Our results indicate a morphological distinction between the ilia of Neanderthals and anatomically modern neonates. Although AR-63 is slightly outside recent variability, it clearly differs from the Neanderthals. We propose that this is due to its belonging to an early modern human lineage whose morphology differs slightly...
Did the pterosaurs, flying reptiles from the days of the dinosaurs, practice parental care or not? New research by scientists shows that pterosaurs were indeed caring parents – but only the larger species....
A team of archaeologists and environmental researchers have been exploring early Polynesian presence on Aotearoa New Zealand’s Subantarctic Islands.
In the remote hinterlands of southern Siberia, Russian archaeologists recently unearthed something unprecedented.
One of archaeology's most hotly debated topics, the arrival of humans in the Americas, has received an added impetus. New evidence emerged from Parsons Island
The Neolithic site of Dispilio, Northern Greece, is a pile-dwelling site with 900+ piles excavated. Here, the authors use the 5259 BC Miyake event to date the juniper tree-ring chronology constructed from these piles to 5140 BC, making it the first Neolithic site in the region to be absolutely calendar dated.
Snippet: HERVs are “non-coding” sequences comprising of genetic material that originated from the infection of germ cells with ancient retroviruses during evolution, which now constitute approximately 8% of the human genome7,8,9. After the initial infections took place, these sequences inserted in the genome and multiplied...
For the first time, dynamic modelling of terrain at the University of Sydney has helped us better understand how humans first travelled across the combined continent of Sahul - Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania - between 35,000 and 70,000 years ago.
A field campaign provides important new insights into the Late Neolithic period in Southeastern Europe.
Abstract: The transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture stands as one of the most important dietary revolutions in human history. Yet, due to a scarcity of well-preserved human remains from Pleistocene sites, little is known about the dietary practices of pre-agricultural human groups. Here we present the isotopic...
Abstract: Teotihuacan was one of the thriving cultures in the Mesoamerica pre-Hispanic times, located in the Central Valley of Mexico. The city-state was a dominant centre point during the Classic period and its influence affected other contemporaneous cultures. Around the year 550 CE, a continuous decrease in urban population...
Abstract: The known languages of the Americas comprise nearly half of the world's language families and a wide range of structural types, a level of diversity that required considerable time to develop. This paper proposes a model of settlement and expansion designed to integrate current linguistic analysis with other...
Abstract: For the past four decades, the ‘Secondary Products Revolution’ model, i.e., the exploitation of animal resources that do not involve killing the animal, such as the production of milk and wool and the use of animals for physical labour has been the object of heated discussion between Neolithic scholars. According...
