Archaeology

Archaeology

Farmers took fast track in settling Europe

A review of radiocarbon evidence indicates that farming groups colonized southern Europe over no more than 100 to 200 years, beginning around 7,400 years ago.

Archaeology

Ancestors who came in from the cold

Researchers found the remains of a 36,000-year-old human occupation in the Russian Arctic, which represents the earliest evidence of a human presence that far north.

Archaeology

Neandertals used tools with versatility

Microscopic data from artifacts found at two Ukrainian sites indicate that Neandertals used stone tools in flexible ways that allowed them to maintain a broad diet for nearly 50,000 years.

Archaeology

Stone Age folk in Asia adapted to extremes

Preliminary evidence indicates that people occupied the harsh, high-altitude environment of Asia's Tibetan Plateau in the late Stone Age, between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago.

Archaeology

Ancient ash flow brought sudden death

Analysis of the excavation in Herculaneum of the victims of the A.D. 79 eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius indicates that when the initial ash flow swept through the city, it arrived so quickly that some residents didn't even have time to flinch.

Archaeology

Maize domestication grows older in Mexico

Maize cultivation existed in southern Mexico at least 6,300 years ago, according to a recent radiocarbon analysis of two maize cobs unearthed in a cave nearly 40 years ago.