“There is no natural explanation,” says paleoanthropologist John Hawks. Neo, the type specimen for Homo naledi, was originally thought to […]
Category: Archaeology
Hunter-gatherers in Siberia died of a plague outbreak 5,500 years ago
We can’t blame the Neolithic Transition for the plague anymore. This artist’s illustration, by Kevin Wilson, shows how the ancient […]
Did Iron Age Britons remove brains of the dead?
Postmortem manipulation in an Iron Age female Briton Credit: Rebecca Ellis-Haken Postmortem manipulation in an Iron Age female Briton Credit: […]
Some ancient microbes frozen with Ötzi the Iceman are still growing
Please don’t lick the science What’s the difference between a person, an artifact, and an ecosystem? Sarhan holds up a […]
If I had a hammer… it might actually be a rhino tooth
One way archaeologists learn how ancient people, including Neanderthals, did things is to attempt to do those things themselves, a […]
Why cats prefer silver vine to catnip and other May highlights
Prehistoric mining in the Pyrenees, a new species of tiny blue octopus, slapstick acoustics, and more. Malachite fragments recovered during […]
Australian Aboriginals cared for a dingo’s grave for decades
For some ancient Aboriginal Australian communities, dingoes were part of the family. Archaeologists and Barkindji custodians worked together to excavate […]
Pompeii victim ID’d as a likely doctor
Archaeologists used a combination of advanced CT scans and 3D digital reconstruction to identify one of the Pompeii victims who […]
Neanderthals drilled cavities to treat a toothache 59,000 years ago
Two of the teeth were museum specimens, whose age and context curators didn’t know, making them less useful for other […]
DNA identifies four more crew members of doomed Franklin expedition
Skip to content “some very hard ground to heave” Three served on the HMS Erebus; the fourth was Petty Officer […]