Archaeology
- Anthropology
Bronze Age herders spread farming around Asia
Ancient seeds indicate that Central Asian animal raisers had an unappreciated impact on early agriculture.
- Archaeology
Black Death grave reveals secrets of 14th century life
Skeletons dug up by London Crossrail excavations are giving scientists a more detailed look at the bubonic plague, or Black Death, of the 1300s.
- Archaeology
Roman gladiator school digitally rebuilt
Imaging techniques unveil a 1,900-year-old Roman gladiators’ training center that’s buried beneath a site in Austria.
- Archaeology
Fire used regularly for cooking for 300,000 years
Israeli cave yields a fireplace where Stone Age crowd may have cooked up social change.
- Humans
Clovis baby’s genome unveils Native American ancestry
DNA from skeleton shows all tribes come from a single population.
- Archaeology
Nearly 1-million-year-old European footprints found
Erosion temporarily unveils remnants of a Stone Age stroll along England’s coast.
- Archaeology
Stone Age fishing spear found on Southeast Asian island
Notched piece of bone found near Indonesia illustrates surprisingly complex tool making 35,000 years ago.
- Archaeology
After 2,000 years, Ptolemy’s war elephants are revealed
A genetic study sheds light on world’s only known battle between Asian and African elephants.
- Anthropology
Skulls from ancient London suggest ritual decapitations
The city’s Roman rulers had special watery places to keep the heads of military enemies or vanquished gladiators.
- Archaeology
Animal mummies were a message direct to the gods
A new theory about the purpose of animals mummified by ancient Egyptians proposes that the cats, ibises and other dead critters were more than just simple sacrifices.
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- Humans
Year in Review: New discoveries reshape debate over human ancestry
Human evolution appears poised for a scientific makeover as the relationships among early hominids are disputed.
