Anthropology

Archaeology

Human footprints in New Mexico really may be surprisingly ancient, new dating shows

Two dating methods find that human tracks in White Sands National Park in New Mexico are roughly 22,000 years old, aligning with a previous estimate.

Anthropology

Interlocking logs may be evidence of the oldest known wooden structure

Roughly 480,000-year-old wooden find from Zambia suggests early hominids were more skilled at structuring their environments than scientists realized.

Anthropology

Extreme cold may have nearly wiped out human ancestors 900,000 years ago

Ancestral populations had rebounded by about 800,000 years ago, heralding the evolution of people today, a contested DNA analysis suggests.

Psychology

An apology to Indigenous communities sparks a mental health rethink

The leading U.S. psychological association pledged to embrace Indigenous approaches to healing, which requires rethinking how to address mental health.

Archaeology

A child’s ornate necklace highlights ancient farmers’ social complexity

The intricate necklace, reconstructed by researchers, was found on the remains of a child buried about 9,000 years ago in a Middle Eastern village.

Chemistry

How Benjamin Franklin fought money counterfeiters

Researchers are confirming some of the techniques that Benjamin Franklin and his associates used to help early American paper currency succeed.

Humans

Lauren Schroeder looks beyond natural selection to rethink human evolution

Paleoanthropologists studying the fossil record have long focused on natural selection, but other processes play a big role too.

Archaeology

How Asia’s first nomadic empire broke the rules of imperial expansion

New studies reveal clues to how mobile rulers assembled a multiethnic empire of herders known as the Xiongnu more than 2,000 years ago.

Archaeology

Indigenous input revealed early hints of fiber making in the tropics

To decipher marks on nearly 40,000-year-old stone tools and figure out what they were used for, researchers turned to the Philippines’ Pala’wan people.

Anthropology

Fossil marks suggest hominids butchered one another around 1.45 million years ago

Researchers disagree whether new evidence of stone tool marks on a hominid leg bone reflects ancient cannibalism or perhaps some other, undetected behavior.

Anthropology

These ancient flutes may have been used to lure falcons

Seven bird-bone flutes unearthed from a site in northern Israel are about 12,000 years old and may have been used as bird calls.

Anthropology

Homo naledi may have dug cave graves and carved marks into cave walls

Proposed discoveries of humanlike activities by these ancient, small-brained hominids have elicited skepticism from some researchers.