Archaeology
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Archaeology
Bones from an Iron Age massacre paint a violent picture of prehistoric Europe
Bones left unburied, and in one case still wearing jewelry, after a massacre add to evidence that prehistoric Europe was a violent place.
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Humans
Drones find signs of a Native American ‘Great Settlement’ beneath a Kansas pasture
An earthwork buried under a cattle ranch may be part of one of the largest Native American settlements ever established north of Mexico.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Stonehenge enhanced sounds like voices or music for people inside the monument
Scientists created a scale model one-twelfth the size of the ancient stone circle to study its acoustics.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
X-rays reveal what ancient animal mummies keep under wraps
A new method of 3-D scanning mummified animals reveals life and death details for a snake, a bird and a cat.
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Archaeology
The oldest known grass beds from 200,000 years ago included insect repellents
Found in South Africa, 200,000-year-old bedding remnants included fossilized grass, bug-repelling ash and once aromatic camphor leaves.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
A submerged Inca offering hints at Lake Titicaca’s sacred role
Divers found a stone box holding a figurine and a gold item, highlighting Lake Titicaca’s sacred status to the Inca.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Ancient DNA suggests Vikings may have been plagued by smallpox
Viral genetic material from human remains provides direct evidence that smallpox infected people dating back to the year 603.
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Archaeology
Stone artifacts hint that humans reached the Americas surprisingly early
Finds uncovered in a Mexican cave suggest North America may have had human inhabitants more than 30,000 years ago — way before archaeologists thought.
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Archaeology
This 1.4-million-year-old hand ax adds to Homo erectus’ known toolkit
A newly described East African find, among the oldest bone tools found, shows the ancient hominids crafted a range of simple and more complex tools.
By Bruce Bower -
Humans
Underwater caves once hosted the Americas’ oldest known ochre mines
Now-submerged chambers in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula contain ancient evidence of extensive red ochre removal as early as 12,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Genetics
DNA from a 5,200-year-old Irish tomb hints at ancient royal incest
Ruling families in Ireland may have organized a big tomb project, and inbred, more than 5,000 years ago, a new study suggests.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Clues to the earliest known bow-and-arrow hunting outside Africa have been found
Possible arrowheads at a rainforest site in Sri Lanka date to 48,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower