Armenia-Azerbaijan ceasefire puts ‘treasures of human history’ at risk
Cornell University
Males of the extinct human species Paranthropus robustus were thought to be substantially larger than females — much like the size differences seen in modern-day primates such as gorillas, orangutans and baboons. But a new fossil discovery in South Africa instead suggests that P. robustus evolved rapidly during a turbulent period of local climate change about 2 million years ago, resulting in anatomical changes that previously were attributed to sex.
The food preparation preferences of Chinese cooks — such as the technological choice to boil or steam grains, instead of grinding or processing them into flour — had continental-scale consequences for the adoption of new crops in prehistoric China, according to research from Washington University in St. Louis. A new study in PLOS ONE led by Xinyi Liu, associate professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences, focuses on the ancient history of staple cereals across China, a country well known for its diverse food products and early adoption of many domesticated plants.
An examination of two documented periods of climate change in the greater Middle East, between approximately 4,500 and 3,000 years ago, reveals local evidence of resilience and even of a flourishing ancient society despite the changes in climate seen in the larger region.
In “Genetic Afterlives,” Noah Tamarkin, assistant professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, writes about the Lemba with an ethnographic approach, opening larger questions about the relationship between genetics, citizenship, race, and origins.
Ancient Maya in the once-bustling city of Tikal built sophisticated water filters using natural materials they imported from miles away, according to the University of Cincinnati.
Papyrus FMNH31324 was acquired by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago on May 24, 1894, after collector Edward E. Ayer purchased the papyrus for the museum while in Europe.
Language is one of the most powerful tools available to humanity, and determining why and when language evolved is central to understand what it means to be human
All good things must come to an end. Whether societies are ruled by ruthless dictators or more well-meaning representatives, they fall apart in time, with different degrees of severity.
Dr. Felipe Natalio and colleagues, studying flint tools from Qesem Cave, found that ancient humans first exposed the flint to different fire temperatures, depending on the type of tool desired. The discovery was made by a team using very modern tools, such as machine learning and spectroscopy.
Though some believe prehistoric humans lived in harmony with nature, a new analysis of fossils shows human arrival in the Bahamas caused some birds to be lost from the islands and other species to be completely wiped out.
Archaeologists have uncovered a warrior burial in Berkshire that could change historians' understanding of southern Britain in the early Anglo-Saxon era.
In her ongoing research about Americans' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Northern Arizona University anthropology professor Lisa Hardy and her collaborators have talked to dozens of people.
Experts from the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology of the University of Seville have just published a study in the prestigious journal PLOS ONE on an important archaeological find in the Cueva de la Dehesilla (Cádiz).
Unearthed, digitized and soon to be repatriated, artifacts from two Native American towns are beginning to share their rich stories online thanks to a collaborative project by anthropologists, librarians and Indigenous community members.
In her latest study, Northern Arizona University professor Lisa Hardy looks at how Americans’ attitudes and responses have changed during the time of the pandemic and how to many people, the virus is not a biological agent but instead a malicious actor.
Lee Gettler, associate professor of anthropology at Notre Dame, led a team that worked with the BaYaka and Bondongo societies in the Republic of the Congo.
New bioarchaeology research from a University of Otago PhD candidate has shown how infectious diseases may have spread 4000 years ago, while highlighting the dangers of letting such diseases run rife.
Situated between Africa and Eurasia, the Arabian Peninsula is an important yet understudied region for understanding human evolution across the continents.
Ancient historiographers described steppe nomads as violent people dedicated to warfare and plundering.
A milk-tooth found in the vicinity of "Riparo del Broion" on the Berici Hills in the Veneto region bears evidence of one of the last Neanderthals in Italy.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, public transport agencies across North America have made significant adjustments to services, including cutting trip frequency in many areas while increasing it in others.
Some of the oldest remains of early human ancestors have been unearthed in Olduvai Gorge, a rift valley setting in northern Tanzania where anthropologists have discovered fossils of hominids that existed 1.8 million years ago.
The devastating effects of human activity on wildlife in the American tropics over the last 500 years are revealed in a new study published today.
Media studies expert Professor Amanda Lotz, from QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre, said there is a lot of misunderstanding about the world’s biggest internet-distributed video service.
A team of Israeli and American researchers has uncovered new evidence that an earthquake may have caused the destruction and abandonment of a flourishing Canaanite palatial site about 3,700 years ago.
People all over the world associate colors with emotions. In fact, people from different parts of the world often associate the same colors with the same emotions.
The ability to read and write was more widespread than expected among the people of Judah in the late 7th century BCE, according to a study published September 9, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Arie Shaus of Tel Aviv University, Israel, and colleagues.
Around 100,000 years ago, the climate worsened abruptly and the environment of Central-Eastern Europe shifted from forested to open steppe/taiga habitat, promoting the dispersal of wooly mammoth, wooly rhino and other cold adapted species from the Arctic.
For the first time, researchers use a metabolomics approach to find more detailed information about how tobacco use and smoking practices changed after colonization in North America.
A Dartmouth-led study using multisensor drones has revealed a large circular earthwork at what may be Etzanoa, an archaeological site near Wichita, Kansas.
While 'trolls' have been around almost as long as the Internet, 'Incels' are a more recent and distinctly different cyber sub-culture which warrants more study says a QUT researcher.
A new study led by Swansea University and the University of Bristol has revealed the size of the legendary giant shark Megalodon, including fins that are as large as an adult human.
A Rochester Institute of Technology researcher developed a mathematical method that shows climate change likely caused the rise and fall of an ancient civilization.
Using radiocarbon dating and CT scanning to study ancient bones, researchers have uncovered for the first time a Bronze Age tradition of retaining and curating human remains as relics over several generations.
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden can now reveal what the Danish King Hans had planned to offer when laying claim to the Swedish throne in 1495: a two-metre-long Atlantic sturgeon.
Sturt Manning is leading investigations into the timelines of ancient events, using tree ring data to refine the widely used radiocarbon dating method.
Physical evidence found in caves in Laos helps tell a story about a connection between the end of the Green Sahara, when once heavily vegetated Northern Africa became a hyper-arid landscape, and a previously unknown megadrought that crippled Southeast Asia 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
Irvine, Calif., Aug. 21, 2020 – Physical evidence found in caves in Laos helps tell a story about a connection between the end of the Green Sahara – when once heavily vegetated Northern Africa became a hyper-arid landscape – and a previously unknown megadrought that crippled Southeast Asia 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. In a paper published today in Nature Communications, scientists at the University of California, Irvine, the University of Pennsylvania, William Paterson University of New Jersey and other international institutions explain how this major climate transformation led to a shift in human settlement patterns in Southeast Asia, which is now inhabited by more than 600 million people.
From 2007 to 2009, a yellow fever virus outbreak nearly decimated brown and black and gold howler monkey populations at El Parque El Piñalito in northeastern Argentina. A study found that in brown howlers, there were two mutations on immune genes that resulted in amino acid changes in the part of the protein that detects the disease.
From suburbia to cities across the globe, caffeine and wine are often a source of collective comfort: the first for a morning pick-me-up, the latter to unwind. Now a Wichita State University professor has discovered evidence to suggest that even our ancient ancestors enjoyed these drinks.
A new analysis of ancient genomes suggests that different branches of the human family tree interbred multiple times, and that some humans carry DNA from an archaic, unknown ancestor.
Alarming results from a 2019 survey of well-known archaeological site Ageröd reveal drastic bone and organic matter deterioration since the site’s initial excavations in the 1940s, suggesting action is needed to preserve findings from Ageröd and similar sites, according to a study published July 29, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Adam Boethius from Lund University, Sweden, and colleagues.
Unlike businesses or governments, organisms can't go into evolutionary debt -- there is no borrowing one's way back from extinction. This can lead to seemingly irrational economic choices that suddenly make sense when viewed as a multiplicative, evolutionary process.
A mountain people in Uganda — branded as selfish and loveless by an anthropologist half a century ago — really is not, according to a study led by a Baylor University anthropologist.
The effects of the forced deportation of over 10 million African people during the transatlantic slave trade remain entrenched in the DNA of people from North, Central, and South America as well as the Caribbean.
As several Neandertal genomes of high quality are now available researchers can identify genetic changes that were present in many or all Neandertals, investigate their physiological effects and look into their consequences when they occur in people today.
In 1988, archaeologists from the RAS Institute for the History of Material Culture discovered a unique Scythian burial mound dating from the seventh century B.C. In one of the coffins, they found what was long believed to be the mummified remains of a teenage warrior boy buried with his weapons. According to cutting-edge DNA analysi by researchers from the Historical Genetics Lab at MIPT, the body actually belongs to a female, confirming Herodotus’ 2,500-year-old accounts of the Amazons, previously considered mythical.
A new method for estimating the biological sex of human remains based on reading protein sequences rather than DNA has been used to study an archaeological site in Northern California.