Archaeology
- Animals
Part donkey, part wild ass, the kunga is the oldest known hybrid bred by humans
Syria’s 4,500-year-old kungas were donkey-wild ass hybrids, genetic analysis reveals, so the earliest known example of humans crossing animal species.
- Archaeology
Clovis hunters’ reputation as mammoth killers takes a hit
Early Americans’ stone points were best suited to butchering the huge beasts’ carcasses, scientists contend.
- Archaeology
Arctic hunter-gatherers were advanced ironworkers more than 2,000 years ago
Swedish excavations uncover furnaces and fire pits from a big metal operation run by a small-scale society, a new study finds.
- Archaeology
Neandertals were the first hominids to turn forest into grassland 125,000 years ago
Neandertals’ campfires, hunting and other activities altered the land over 2,000 years, making them the first known hominids to impact their environs.
- Anthropology
2021 research reinforced that mating across groups drove human evolution
Fossils and DNA point to mixing and mingling among Homo groups across vast areas.
- Anthropology
‘The Dawn of Everything’ rewrites 40,000 years of human history
A new book recasts human social evolution as multiple experiments with freedom and domination that started in the Stone Age.
- Genetics
DNA from mysterious Asian mummies reveals their surprising ancestry
Ancient DNA indicates that an enigmatic Bronze Age group consisted of genetic, but not cultural, loners.
- Archaeology
Lidar reveals a possible blueprint for many Olmec and Maya ceremonial sites
An Olmec site forged a building plan more than 3,000 years ago for widespread Olmec and Maya ritual centers across Mexico’s Gulf Coast.
- Anthropology
Lasers reveal construction inspired by ancient Mexican pyramids in Maya ruins
Archaeologists have uncovered structures in Guatemala that are remarkably similar to La Ciudadela and its temple at the ancient city of Teotihuacan.
- Archaeology
Vikings lived in North America by at least the year 1021
Wooden objects provide the most precise dating yet of a Norse settlement in Newfoundland.
- Archaeology
The earliest evidence of tobacco use dates to over 12,000 years ago
Burned seeds at an archaeological site in Utah hint at tobacco’s popularity long before it was domesticated.
- Archaeology
Dog DNA reveals ancient trade network connecting the Arctic to the outside world
People in Siberia were exchanging canines and probably other goods as early as 7,000 years ago with cultures as far off as Europe and the Near East.
