Colorful birds possibly raised for ceremonial and trade purposes long before Spanish arrival

Plant fibers excavated at a cave in western Asia suggest that people there made twine more than 30,000 years ago.

Researchers report identifying Europe’s oldest stone hand axes at Spanish sites dating to 900,000 and 760,000 years ago.

Four graves containing 13 skeletons have given scientists a glimpse of a lethal raid that occurred in central Europe 4,600 years ago.

New evidence indicates that people used fires to heat stones in preparation for making cutting instruments at least 72,000 years ago in southern Africa. (p. 15)

A chemical analysis of skeletons from Peru’s Andes Mountains suggests that cultivation of key crop made building a prehistoric civilization possible. (p. 16)

Excavations in Germany have unearthed what may be the oldest known musical instruments. (p. 13)

Granaries excavated in Jordan indicate that people stored large quantities of wild cereals by about 11,300 years ago, a practice that led to the cultivation of domesticated plants, a new study suggests. (p. 13)

Analyses of patterns incised on pieces of ancient pigment indicate that people in southern Africa passed along symbolic practices from 100,000 to 75,000 years ago, scientists say.

Ida provides details about life in the Eocene. (p. 8)

A new study suggests that an ivory female figurine from Germany dates to at least 35,000 years ago, but that conclusion has sparked debate over the Stone Age origins of figurative art. (p. 11)

New lines of evidence indicate that horses were domesticated for riding and milking more than 5,000 years ago by members of a hunter-gatherer culture in northern Kazakhstan. (p. 15)

A new study suggests that people in America’s Southwest were making cacao beverages as early as A.D. 1000. (p. 14)