Archaeology
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Anthropology
Year in review: Asian cave art got an early start
Stone Age cave painting began at about the same time in Southeast Asia as in Europe, challenging the idea that Western Europeans cornered the market on creativity 40,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Year in review: Roster of dinosaurs expands
With the discovery of several new species and a few dogma-shaking revelations, dinosaurs got a total rethink in 2014.
By Meghan Rosen -
Archaeology
Human ancestors engraved abstract patterns
Indonesian Homo erectus carved zigzags on a shell at least 430,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Magnetism paved way for excavation without digging
In the 1960s, archaeologists used a new technique to locate and map a submerged Greek city without digging.
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Archaeology
Genetic tests confirm remains are those of King Richard III
DNA evidence has finally confirmed that remains found beneath a parking lot in Leicester, England, are those of King Richard III.
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Archaeology
Golden Fleece myth was based on real events, geologists contend
Jason’s legend grew out of long-distance trade with people who used sheepskins to collect gold.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Barley elevated Central Asian farmers to ‘the roof of the world’
Hardy western crops allowed villagers to settle in the cold, thin air atop the Tibetan Plateau.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Feedback
Readers ask questions about a study on sweeteners, how scientists recognize primitive tools and the purpose of a dinosaur's sail.
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Animals
Few humans were needed to wipe out New Zealand’s moa
A new study finds that the Maori population was still small when it managed to drive several species of large, flightless birds extinct.
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Archaeology
Ice Age hunter-gatherers lived at extreme altitudes
Two archaeological sites in the Andes indicate that hunter-gatherers inhabited extreme altitudes earlier than previously thought.
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Humans
Anglo-Saxons left language, but maybe not genes to modern Britons
Modern Britons may be more closely related to Britain’s indigenous people than they are to the Anglo-Saxons, a new genetic analysis finds.
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Anthropology
Ancient Greek shipwreck found to be world’s largest
Special diving suits enable discovery that much of a nearly 2,100-year-old Greek vessel and its cargo survive.
By Bruce Bower