Archaeology
- Anthropology
‘Little Foot’ pushes back age of earliest South African hominids
Study suggests Lucy’s species had a South African foil nearly 3.7 million years ago.
- Astronomy
What’s in a name? In science, a lot
Classification systems are essential to science. But any classification system, however useful, is ultimately simplistic.
- Archaeology
Telling stories from stone tools
Existing stone tool categories may hide more than they reveal. New methods for analyzing stone artifacts aim to better reconstruct how hominids interacted and moved across Africa, Asia and Europe.
- Anthropology
Cache of eagle claws points to Neandertal jewelry-making
Eagle-claw jewelry points to Neandertals’ symbolic behavior before contact with humans, researchers argue.
- Archaeology
Ring brings ancient Viking, Islamic civilizations closer together
Ancient find fingers ninth century connection between Vikings and Islamic civilization.
- Anthropology
Ancient Maya bookmakers get paged in Guatemala
New discoveries peg ritual specialists as force behind bark-paper tomes and wall murals.
- Archaeology
Scrolls preserved in Vesuvius eruption read with X-rays
A technique called X-ray phase contrast tomography allowed scientists to read burnt scrolls from a library destroyed by the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius.
- Archaeology
Ancient bone hand ax identified in China
People may have dug up roots with the 170,000-year-old bone tool, the first found in East Asia.
- Archaeology
Stones challenge dating of Easter Island collapse
Despite losing ground in some areas, Polynesian farmers outlasted European contact.
- Health & Medicine
Online favorites of 2014
Science News' website traffic reveals the most-read news stories and blog posts of 2014.
- Archaeology
Ancient Egyptian blue glass beads reached Scandinavia
Chemical analysis of Danish discoveries extends northern reach of Bronze Age trade.
- 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.
