Latest Archaeology News - Americas

Why weren't New World rabbits domesticated?

Archaeologists find the answer in rabbit social behavior Domesticated rabbits come in all sizes and colors, including tiny Netherland Dwarfs, floppy-eared French lops, Flemish Giants, and fluffy Angoras. These breeds belong to Europe's only rabbit species, originally limited to the Iberian Peninsula and Southern France and use... read more

After routing de Soto, Chickasaws repurposed Spanish objects for everyday use

FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: FLORIDA MUSEUM ARCHAEOLOGIST CHARLES COBB HOLDS AN AXE HEAD KNOWN AS A CELT, ONE OF MORE THAN 80 METAL OBJECTS LIKELY FROM THE DE SOTO EXPEDITION. TO CREATE THIS DISTINCT... view more CREDIT: JEFF GAGE/FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Archaeologists have unearthed a rare trove of more than 80 metal objects in Mississippi thought to be from Hernando de Soto's 16th-century expedition through the Southeast. Many of the objects were repurposed by the resident Chickasaws as household ... read more

Maya population affected by climate change - settlement in city of Itzan started earlier and lasted longer than previously known

MCGILL UNIVERSITY Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: FECAL RECORDS FROM LAKE SEDIMENT SHOW THAT MAYA LIVED IN THE AREA FOR LONGER THAN PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED. view more CREDIT: ANDY BRECKENRIDGE A McGill-led study has shown that the size of the Maya population in the lowland city of Itzan (in present-day Guatemala) varied over time in response to climate change. The findings, published recently in *Quaternary Science Reviews*, show that both droughts and very wet periods led to important population declines. These results are based on using a relativel... read more

'Dragon man' fossil may replace Neanderthals as our closest relative

CELL PRESS Research News A near-perfectly preserved ancient human fossil known as the Harbin cranium sits in the Geoscience Museum in Hebei GEO University. The largest of known *Homo* skulls, scientists now say this skull represents a newly discovered human species named *Homo longi* or "Dragon Man." Their findings, appearing in three papers publishing June 25 in the journal *The Innovation*, suggest that the *Homo longi* lineage may be our closest relatives--and has the potential to reshape our understanding of human evolution. "The Harbin fossil is one of the most complete hum... read more

Did the ancient Maya have parks?

First-of-its-kind DNA analysis finds trees and wild vegetation grew around reservoirs in Tikal UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: A PYRAMID AT TIKAL RISES FROM THE RAINFOREST IN GUATEMALA. view more CREDIT: DAVID LENTZ The ancient Maya city of Tikal was a bustling metropolis and home to tens of thousands of people. The city comprised roads, paved plazas, towering pyramids, temples and palaces and thousands of homes for its residents, all supported by agriculture. Now researchers at the University of Cincinnati say Tikal's res... read more

Ten years of ancient genome analysis has taught scientists 'what it means to be human'

A ball of 4,000-year-old hair frozen in time tangled around a whalebone comb led to the first ever reconstruction of an ancient human genome just over a decade ago. The hair, which was preserved in arctic permafrost in Greenland, was collected in the 1980s and stored at a museum in Denmark. It wasn't until 2010 that evolutionary biologist Professor Eske Willerslev was able to use pioneering shotgun DNA sequencing to reconstruct the genetic history of the hair. He found it came from a man from the earliest known people to settle in Greenland known as the Saqqaq culture. It was th... read more

Early migrations of humans to the Americas from Siberia around 12,000 years ago have been traced using the bacteria they carried

Research News - International team used the stomach bacteria Helicobacter pylori as a biomarker for ancient human migrations - DNA sequences catalogued at University of Warwick in EnteroBase, a public genomes database, demonstrate that a migration of Siberians to the Americas occurred approximately 12,000 years ago - Project began in 2000s but new statistical techniques allowed researchers to reconstruct and date the migrations of Siberian Helicobacter pylori Early migrations of humans to the Americas from Siberia around 12,000 years ago have been... read more

Indigenous mortality following Spanish colonization did not always lead to forest regrowth

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: TROPICAL LAKE SEDIMENTS ARE NATURAL ARCHIVES THAT RECORD CHANGES IN THE SURROUNDING FOREST OVER HUNDREDS OF YEARS. view more CREDIT: R. HAMILTON A new study, published now in *Nature Ecology and Evolution*, draws on pollen records from tropical regions formerly claimed by the Spanish Empire in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, to test the significance and extent of forest regrowth following widespread mortality among Indigenous populations after European contact i... read more

Uncovering lost Indigenous NE Florida settlement of Sarabay

Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: UNF ARCHAEOLOGY LAB AT THE DIG SITEview more CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA UNF archaeology researchers are uncovering the lost Indigenous NE Florida settlement of Sarabay Jacksonville, Fla. - The University of North Florida archaeology team is now fairly confident they have located the lost Indigenous northeast Florida community of Sarabay, a settlement mentioned in both French and Spanish documents dating to the 1560s but had not been discovered until now. The type and amounts of Indigenous pottery the team is ... read more

This forest has stayed wild for 5,000 years -- we can tell because of the soil

We sometimes think of the Amazon rainforest as unaltered by humans, a peek into the planet's past. In recent years, scientists have learned that many parts of the Amazon aren't untouched at all--they've been cultivated by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, and mere centuries ago were the sites of cities and farmland. But that's not the case everywhere. In a new study in *PNAS*, researchers determined that a rainforest in the Putumayo region of Peru has been home to relatively unaltered forest for 5,000 years, meaning that the people who have lived there found a long-term... read more

Indigenous peoples were stewards of the Western Amazon

Study points to a history of indigenous sustainable use of the Western Amazon stretching back 5,000 years SMITHSONIAN Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: AN AERIAL PHOTO OF THE ALGODÓN RIVER FLOWING THROUGH A FOREST OF THE AMAZON BASIN IN THE REMOTE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PERU. TO EXPLORE THE EXTENT AND SCALE OF INDIGENOUS... view more CREDIT: ÁLVARO DEL CAMPO Smithsonian scientists and their collaborators have found new evidence that prehistoric Indigenous peoples did not significantly alter large swaths of forest ecosystems in the western Amazon, eff... read more

Study sheds light on pre-Columbian life in understudied area of SW Amazon

Evidence showing intensive land use for farming and fishing more than 3,500 years ago helps researchers better understand the history of a culturally significant area and is counter to the often-held notion of a pristine Amazon before Europeans arrived UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Research News SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: AS PART OF THIS STUDY, THE RESEARCHERS COMMISSIONED AN ILLUSTRATION BY ARTIST KATHRYN KILLACKEY. THE ILLUSTRATION IS A REPRESENTATION OF THE PRE-COLUMBIAN LANDSCAPE AROUND 3,500 YEARS AGO, BASED ON THEIR... view more CREDIT: KATHRYN KILLACK... read more