Archaeology
- Anthropology
Macaws bred far from tropics during pre-Columbian times
Colorful birds possibly raised for ceremonial and trade purposes long before Spanish arrival
- Anthropology
Stone Age twining unraveled
Plant fibers excavated at a cave in western Asia suggest that people there made twine more than 30,000 years ago.
- Archaeology
Europe’s oldest stone hand axes emerge in Spain
Researchers report identifying Europe’s oldest stone hand axes at Spanish sites dating to 900,000 and 760,000 years ago.
- Archaeology
Exhuming a violent event
Four graves containing 13 skeletons have given scientists a glimpse of a lethal raid that occurred in central Europe 4,600 years ago.
- Archaeology
Fire engineers of the Stone Age
New evidence indicates that people used fires to heat stones in preparation for making cutting instruments at least 72,000 years ago in southern Africa.
- Anthropology
Maize may have fueled ancient Andean civilization
A chemical analysis of skeletons from Peru’s Andes Mountains suggests that cultivation of key crop made building a prehistoric civilization possible.
- Archaeology
Stone Age flutes found in Germany
Excavations in Germany have unearthed what may be the oldest known musical instruments.
- Archaeology
Ancient granaries preceded the Agricultural Revolution
Granaries excavated in Jordan indicate that people stored large quantities of wild cereals by about 11,300 years ago, a practice that led to the cultivation of domesticated plants, a new study suggests.
- Archaeology
Engraved pigments point to ancient symbolic tradition
Analyses of patterns incised on pieces of ancient pigment indicate that people in southern Africa passed along symbolic practices from 100,000 to 75,000 years ago, scientists say.
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- Archaeology
Stone Age figurine has contentious origins
A new study suggests that an ivory female figurine from Germany dates to at least 35,000 years ago, but that conclusion has sparked debate over the Stone Age origins of figurative art.
- Archaeology
Biocides inducing resistance in Lascaux cave’s microbes
Study makes researchers wonder whether they should treat fungus or not.
