Archaeology

Humans

Good times led to grisly custom

Ancient Chileans developed artificial mummification after an increase in the numbers of living and dead people made naturally preserved bodies hard to ignore.

Anthropology

Sticks, stones and bones reveal emergence of a hunter-gatherer culture

A cave in southern Africa was occupied by people very much like those living in the region today.

Humans

Apocalypse, not so fast

Guatemalan find suggests mention of a date far in the future served a Maya king’s immediate needs.

Archaeology

Oldest pottery comes from Chinese cave

New dates show that East Asian hunter-gatherers fired up cooking vessels 20,000 years ago.

Humans

Ancient North Africans got milk

Pottery study unveils early dairy practices among Saharan cattle herders.

Humans

European cave art gets older

Ancient illustrations in northern Spain date to more than 40,000 years ago.

Humans

Stone Age art gets animated

Cave paintings and decorated disks provided moving experiences in ancient Europe.

Humans

Maya wall calendar discovered

Classic-era structure displays rare calculations of lunar and planetary cycles.

Humans

From the ashes, the oldest controlled fire

A South Africa cave yields the oldest secure evidence for a blaze controlled by human ancestors.

Humans

Shelters date to Stone Age

Middle Eastern foragers inhabited dwellings for months at a time around 20,000 years ago.

Archaeology

Archaeoacoustics: Tantalizing, but fantastical

While compelling, findings lack scientific rigor.

Humans

Tools of a kind

People in southern Arabia around 100,000 years ago made tools like those of East Africans.