Anthropology

Archaeology

A special brew may have calmed Inca children headed for sacrifice

The mummified remains contained a substance that may reduce anxiety and is found in ayahuasca, a psychedelic ceremonial liquid still drunk today.

Archaeology

Ancient ‘smellscapes’ are wafting out of artifacts and old texts

In studying and reviving long-ago scents, archaeologists aim to understand how people experienced, and interpreted, their worlds through smell.

Anthropology

How ancient, recurring climate changes may have shaped human evolution

Climate changes drove where Homo species lived over the last 2 million years, with a disputed ancestor giving rise to H. sapiens, a new study claims.

Anthropology

North America’s oldest skull surgery dates to at least 3,000 years ago

Bone regrowth suggests the man, who lived in what’s now Alabama, survived a procedure to treat brain swelling by scraping a hole out of his forehead.

Anthropology

Social mingling shapes how orangutans issue warning calls

The new findings hint at how modern language may have taken root in sparse communities of ancient apes and humans.

Chemistry

One forensic scientist is scraping bones for clues to time of death

The bones of more than 100 cadavers are shedding light on a more precise and reliable way to determine when someone died.

Genetics

Africa’s oldest human DNA helps unveil an ancient population shift

Long-distance mate seekers started staying closer to home about 20,000 years ago.

Archaeology

Homo sapiens may have reached Europe 10,000 years earlier than previously thought

Archaeological finds in an ancient French rock-shelter suggest migrations to the continent started long before Neandertals died out.

Archaeology

‘Origin’ explores the controversial science of the first Americans

A new book looks at how genetics has affected the study of humans’ arrival in the Americas and sparked conflicts with Indigenous groups today.

Anthropology

Homo sapiens bones in East Africa are at least 36,000 years older than once thought

Analyses of remnants of a volcanic blast push the age of East Africa’s oldest known H. sapiens fossils at Ethiopia’s Omo site to 233,000 years or more.

Archaeology

Clovis hunters’ reputation as mammoth killers takes a hit

Early Americans’ stone points were best suited to butchering the huge beasts’ carcasses, scientists contend.

Archaeology

Neandertals were the first hominids to turn forest into grassland 125,000 years ago

Neandertals’ campfires, hunting and other activities altered the land over 2,000 years, making them the first known hominids to impact their environs.