Resilience, Not Collapse: What the Easter Island Myth Gets Totally Wrong
New research from Binghamton University, State University of New York suggests that the demographic collapse at the core of the Easter Island myth didn’t really…
Anthropology
Archaeologists Discover That Ancient Islamic Tombs Cluster Like Galaxies
Statistical methods designed for cosmology reveal tomb distribution in Sudan over millennia governed by environment and social factors. Sudanese Islamic burial sites are distributed according…
The City of David and the 80 Million-Year-Old Sharks’ Teeth Mystery
Scientists have found an unexplained cache of fossilized shark teeth in an area where there should be none — in a 2900-year-old site in the…
“Problematic Stuff” – Tradition of Keeping Mementos in Memory of Loved Ones Goes Back at Least 2,000 Years
Holding onto everyday items as keepsakes when a loved one dies was as commonplace in prehistory as it is today, a new study suggests. The…
New Fossil Discovery of a Distinct, Ancient Human Species Points to Complicated Evolutionary Process
Analysis of recently discovered fossils found in Israel suggests that interactions between different human species were more complex than previously believed, according to a team…
Newly Discovered Human Species “Dragon Man” May Replace Neanderthals As Our Closest Relative
A near-perfectly preserved ancient human fossil known as the Harbin cranium sits in the Geoscience Museum in Hebei GEO University. The largest of known Homo skulls, scientists…
3,000-Year-Old Shark Attack Victim Found – Grim Remains Scarred by at Least 790 Deep, Serrated Injuries
Newspapers regularly carry stories of terrifying shark attacks, but in a paper published today, Oxford-led researchers reveal their discovery of a 3,000-year-old victim — attacked…
Archaeologists Make Dramatic Discovery: A Prehistoric Human Type Previously Unknown to Science
Dramatic Discovery in Israeli Excavation The discovery of a new Homo group in this region, which resembles Pre-Neanderthal populations in Europe, challenges the prevailing hypothesis…
Underwater Archaeology Team Finds 9,000-Year-Old Stone Tool Artifacts
Underwater archaeology team finds ancient obsidian flakes 2,000 miles from quarry. An underwater archaeologist from The University of Texas at Arlington is part of a…
Light in Darkness: Experiment Recreates Paleolithic Cave Lighting
A recreation of three common types of Paleolithic lighting systems (torches, grease lamps, and fireplaces) illuminates how Paleolithic cave dwellers might have traveled, lived, and…
What Is Your Earliest Memory? Can Start From the Age of Two-and-a-Half According to New Research
New study and a review of decades of data pushes the memory clock back over a year, but the study confirms everyone is different. On…
Neanderthal and Early Modern Human Culture Co-existed Alongside Older Traditions for Over 100,000 Years
Research from the University of Kent’s School of Anthropology and Conservation has discovered that one of the earliest stone tool cultures, known as the Acheulean,…
Understanding the Concept of Quietness: Measuring Quiet Sound Diversity
The world is filled with myriad sounds that can overwhelm a person with relentless acoustics. Noise is so prevalent in everyday life that the concept…
First Tales of the Earliest Domesticated Goats Revealed by 10,000-Year-Old DNA
New research has revealed the genetic makeup of the earliest goat herds. The findings, assimilated from DNA taken from the remains of 32 goats that…
Reconstructing Human Ancestors: Soft Tissue Measurements Critical to Hominid Reconstruction
Accurate soft tissue measurements are critical when making reconstructions of human ancestors, a new study from the University of Adelaide and Arizona State University has…
New Research Shows Puppies Are Biologically Wired to Communicate With People
Dogs may have earned the title “man’s best friend” because of how good they are at interacting with people. Those social skills may be present…
Unexpected Discovery of Ancient Bones May Change Timeline for When People First Arrived in North America
An unexpected discovery by an Iowa State University researcher suggests that the first humans may have arrived in North America more than 30,000 years ago…
Surprise Discovery of African “Climate Seesaw” Changes View of Human Evolution
While it is widely accepted that climate change drove the evolution of our species in Africa, the exact character of that climate change and its…