Humans domesticated animals way earlier than we thought – about 13,000 years ago at least.
Science News reports on the discovery of charred dung in Syria that has rewritten history, pushing back the date of the oldest domesticated animals by […]
archaeology
Genetic finding shows how modern humans grew more brain cells than Neanderthals.
Science magazine reveals the single gene change that gave Homo sapiens sapiens the edge in brain matter over Homo sapiens neanderthalensis: [Wieland Huttner, a Max […]
Sunken megaliths revealed by Spanish drought.
The Guardian reports on a crisis for Spanish farmers and water utilities that has turned into a boon for archaeologists – and tourists – as […]
Mammoth hunt pushes first North American settlers back by a few millennia.
PhysOrg looks at the remains of what UT Austin researchers have determined was a 37,000-year-old mammoth hunt in New Mexico, a place where scientists didn’t […]
Chicken and rice go together – all the way to the origins of domestic fowl in grain fields.
Science News discusses two new studies that place the origins of domestic chickens in one specific place – Southeast Asia – and much more recently […]
Reading the DNA from Pompeii
BBC reports on a study reassembling the genome of a man and woman preserved for centuries under the ash of Pompeii, and what the ancient […]
Inca sacrifices were given ayahuasca in their final hours.
IFL Science (among other outlets) is reporting on studies published in Nature and the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports that looked at the mummified remains […]
A 3,000-year-old skull surgery in Alabama
Science News checks out the evidence for the oldest known skull surgery in America, a forehead-opening operation that took place between 3,000 and 5,000 years […]
The earliest North Americans were hanging out hunting horses in the Yukon 24,000 years ago.
Hakai Magazine (via Smithsonian) shares some discoveries from the Bluefish Caves in the northern Yukon, where archaeologists have unearthed clues to a whole human society […]
Venus of Willendorf actually not of Willdendorf – she’s Italian!
Archaeology Today has the news – heartwrenching to Austrians, joyous to Italians – that one of the world’s most famous figurines, the round-bodied Venus of […]
Prehistoric pigment points to archaic brain trust.
Nature reports on the discovery of an unusually advanced settlement in East Asia. Around 40,000 years ago, when Denisovans, Neanderthals, and the very first Homo […]
The first hybrid humans ever bred was a kunga.
Science News takes us back 4,500 years to ancient Syria, where domesticated donkeys and wild asses called “hemippes” were bred together for war – as […]
Rare “exquisitely carved” Roman-era figure found along British railway route.
The Guardian shares archaeological treasure – the discovery of a 2,000-year-old wooden statue unearthed in the massive dig along the 150-mile HS2 rail project: The […]
Science Art: Magdalenian engraving of bison
This is a drawing of a drawing, a likeness of a bison engraved on cave floor at Niaux. The likeness is part of the Wellcome […]
A robot will be rebuilding Pompeii from fragments
Scientific American reports on a project using autonomous robots to reassemble the smallest fragments of the ruins of Pompeii: Their project—dubbed RePAIR (Reconstructing the Past: […]