Africa
Homo naledi juvenile remains offers clues to how our ancestors grew up
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 19 hours ago
This rare case of an immature fossil hominin sheds light on the evolution of human development PLOS SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: HOMO NALEDI JUVENILE REMAINS OFFERS CLUES TO HOW OUR ANCESTORS GREW UP. view more CREDIT: BOLTER ET AL. PLOS ONE 2020 (CC BY) A partial skeleton of *Homo naledi* represents a rare case of an immature individual, shedding light on the evolution of growth and development in human ancestry, according to a study published April 1, 2020 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* by Debra Bolter of Modesto Junior College in California and the Univer... more »
Oldest ever human genetic evidence clarifies dispute over our ancestors
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 19 hours ago
UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: SKELETAL REMAINS OF HOMO ANTECESSOR view more CREDIT: PROF. JOSÉ MARÍA BERMÚDEZ DE CASTRO Genetic information from an 800.000-year-old human fossil has been retrieved for the first time. The results from the University of Copenhagen shed light on one of the branching points in the human family tree, reaching much further back in time than previously possible. An important advancement in human evolution studies has been achieved after scientists retrieved the oldest human ... more »
Ancient hominins had small brains like apes, but longer childhoods like humans
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 20 hours ago
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICAL CENTER SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: USING PRECISE IMAGING TECHNOLOGY TO SCAN FOSSIL SKULLS, RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT AS EARLY AS 3 MILLION YEARS AGO, CHILDREN HAD A LONG DEPENDENCE ON CAREGIVERS. view more CREDIT: COURTESY OF ZERAY ALEMSEGED Human ancestors that lived more than 3 million years ago had brains that were organized like chimpanzee brains, but had prolonged brain growth like humans, new research from the University of Chicago and other leading institutions shows. That means these hominins -- the species *Australopithecus afare... more »
Regular climbing behavior in a human ancestor
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 day ago
A new study led by the University of Kent has found evidence that human ancestors as recent as two million years ago may have regularly climbed trees. Walking on two legs has long been a defining feature to differentiate modern humans, as well as extinct species on our lineage (aka hominins), from our closest living ape relatives: chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. This new research, based on analysis of fossil leg bones, provides evidence that a hominin species (believed to be either Paranthropus robustus or early Homo) regularly adopted highly flexed hip joints; a posture tha... more »
'Little Foot' skull reveals how this more than 3 million year old human ancestor lived
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Micro-CT scanning of 'Little Foot' skull reveals new aspects of the life of this more than 3-million year-old-human ancestor [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: COMPARISON OF THE NEARLY INTACT FIRST CERVICAL VERTEBRA OF 'LITTLE FOOT' AND TWO OTHER AUSTRALOPITHECUS FROM STERKFONTEIN IN SOUTH AFRICA AND FROM HADAR IN ETHIOPIA SHOWING HOW COMPLETE 'LITTLE FOOT'... view more CREDIT: AMÉLIE BEAUDET/WITS UNIVERSITY High-resolution micro-CT scanning of the skull of the fossil specimen known as "Little Foot" has revealed some aspects of how this *Australopithecus* species used to live more than 3 millio... more »
Eggshell beads exchanged over 30,000 years
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
A clump of grass grows on an outcrop of shale 33,000 years ago. An ostrich pecks at the grass, and atoms taken up from the shale and into the grass become part of the eggshell the ostrich lays. A member of a hunter-gatherer group living in southern Africa's Karoo Desert finds the egg. She eats it, and cracks the shell into dozens of pieces. Drilling a hole, she strings the fragments onto a piece of sinew and files them into a string of beads. She gifts the ornaments to friends who live to the east, where rainfall is higher, to reaffirm those important relationships. They, in turn, do...more »
Human Populations survived the Toba volcanic super-eruption 74,000 years ago
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 5 weeks ago
New archaeological work supports the hypothesis that human populations were present in India by 80,000 years ago and that they survived one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the last two million years MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: STONE TOOLS FOUND AT THE DHABA SITE CORRESPONDING WITH THE TOBA VOLCANIC SUPER-ERUPTION LEVELS. PICTURED HERE ARE DIAGNOSTIC MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC CORE TYPES.view more CREDIT: CHRIS CLARKSON The Toba super-eruption was one of the largest volcanic events over the last two million years,... more »
Neanderthals
New research adds to growing evidence that our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals at multiple times in history
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 20 hours ago
In recent years, scientists have uncovered evidence that modern humans and Neanderthals share a tangled past. In the course of human history, these two species of hominins interbred not just once, but at multiple times, the thinking goes. A new study supports this notion, finding that people in Eurasia today have genetic material linked to Neanderthals from the Altai mountains in modern-day Siberia. This is noteworthy because past research has shown that Neanderthals connected to a different, distant location -- the Vindija Cave in modern-day Croatia -- have also contributed DNA to ... more »
Neanderthals ate mussels, fish, and seals too
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 6 days ago
Over 80,000 years ago, Neanderthals were already feeding themselves regularly on mussels, fish and other marine life. The first robust evidence of this has been found by an international research team with the participation of the University of Göttingen during an excavation in the cave of Figueira Brava in Portugal. Dr Dirk Hoffmann at the Göttingen Isotope Geology Department dated flowstone layers - calcite deposits that form like stalagmites from dripping water - using the uranium-thorium method, and was thus able to determine the age of the excavation layers to between 86,000 a... more »
Neanderthal migration to Southern Siberia
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
At least two different groups of Neanderthals lived in Southern Siberia and an international team of researchers including scientists from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have now proven that one of these groups migrated from Eastern Europe. The researchers have now published their findings in the journal *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences* of the United States of America (*PNAS*). Neanderthals were widespread in Europe and also migrated to Southern Siberia, but the origins of these Siberian Neanderthals and when they migrated was not known. An ... more »
Americas
Well-engineered 'watercourts' stored live fish, fueling Florida's Calusa kingdom
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 day ago
FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THE FISH SURPLUS STORED IN WATERCOURTS LIKELY ENABLED THE CALUSA TO COMPLETE LARGE-SCALE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS. THE LARGEST WATERCOURT WAS BUILT DURING A KEY CONSTRUCTION PHASE OF THE KING'S MANOR ON... view more CREDIT: MERALD CLARK/FLORIDA MUSEUM GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- The mighty Calusa ruled South Florida for centuries, wielding military power, trading and collecting tribute along routes that sprawled hundreds of miles, creating shell islands, erecting enormous buildings and dredging canals wider than ... more »
Mesoamerican copper smelting technology aided colonial weaponry
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 day ago
When Spanish invaders arrived in the Americas, they were generally able to subjugate the local peoples thanks, in part, to their superior weaponry and technology. But archeological evidence indicates that, in at least one crucial respect, the Spaniards were quite dependent on an older indigenous technology in parts of Mesoamerica (today's Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras). The invaders needed copper for their artillery, as well as for coins, kettles, and pans, but they lacked the knowledge and skills to produce the metal. Even Spain at that time had not produced the metal dom... more »
Guatemala find reveals early Mayan writing
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 6 days ago
Complete article This undated handout picture by the Tak'alik Ab'aj Archaeologial National Park released by the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture and Sports shows a stone at the Tak'alik Ab'aj archaeological site, in El Asintal municipality, Retalhuleu department, Guatemala. A 2,000 year-old stone discovered in Guatemala in 2018 releals the beginning of writing in the Mayan culture, which dominated the south of Mexico and part of Central America, informed experts on March 10, 2020. Guatemalan Ministry of Culture and Sports / AFP. A 2,000 year old stela recently discovered in Guatema... more »
Maize, not metal, key to native settlements' history in NY
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
New Cornell University research is producing a more accurate historical timeline for the occupation of Native American sites in upstate New York, based on radiocarbon dating of organic materials and statistical modeling. The results from the study of a dozen sites in the Mohawk Valley were recently published in the online journal *PLoS ONE* by Sturt Manning, professor of classical archaeology; and John Hart, curator in the research and collections division of the New York State Museum in Albany. The findings, Manning said, are helping to refine our understanding of the social, polit... more »
Violence accompanied the growth of agriculture in Eastern North America 7,500 to 5,000 years ago
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
E-MAIL The growth of agriculture led to unprecedented cooperation in human societies, a team of researchers, has found, but it also led to a spike in violence, an insight that offers lessons for the present. A new study out today in *Environmental Archaeology* by collaborators from UConn, the University of Utah, Troy University, and California State University, Sacramento examines the growth of agriculture in Eastern North America 7,500 to 5,000 years ago, and finds that while the domestication of plants fostered new cooperation among people, it also saw the rise of organized, int...more »
Miscellaneous
Prehistoric artifacts suggest a neolithic era independently developed in New Guinea
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
Emergence of a Neolithic in highland New Guinea by 5,000 to 4,000 years ago New artifacts uncovered at the Waim archaeological site in the highlands of New Guinea - including a fragment of the earliest symbolic stone carving in Oceania - illustrate a shift in human behavior between 5050 and 4200 years ago in response to the widespread emergence of agriculture, ushering in a regional Neolithic Era similar to the Neolithic in Eurasia. The location and pattern of the artifacts at the site suggest a fixed domestic space and symbolic cultural practices, hinting that the region began to... more »
Global human genomes reveal rich genetic diversity shaped by complex evolutionary history
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
A new study has provided the most comprehensive analysis of human genetic diversity to date, after the sequencing of 929 human genomes by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and their collaborators. The study uncovers a large amount of previously undescribed genetic variation and provides new insights into our evolutionary past, highlighting the complexity of the process through which our ancestors diversified, migrated and mixed throughout the world. The resource, published in *Science* (20 March), is the most detailed representation of the gene... more »
Ancient mantis-man petroglyph discovered in Iran
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
A unique rock carving found in the Teymareh rock art site (Khomein county) in Central Iran with six limbs has been described as part man, part mantis. Rock carvings, or petroglyphs, of invertebrate animals are rare, so entomologists teamed up with archaeologists to try and identify the motif. They compared the carving with others around the world and with the local six-legged creatures which its prehistoric artists could have encountered. CAPTION The 'squatter mantis man' petroglyph next to a 10 cm scale bar. CREDIT Dr. Mohammad Naserifard Entomologists Mahmood Kolnegari, Islamic A... more »
Hunter-gatherer networks accelerated human evolution
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
SHARE PRINT E-MAIL Volume 90% VIDEO: THE NETWORKS OF HUNTER-GATHERER ACCELERATED THE HUMAN EVOLUTION. view more CREDIT: UZH Humans began developing a complex culture as early as the Stone Age. This development was brought about by social interactions between various groups of hunters and gatherers, a UZH study has now confirmed. The researchers mapped the social networks of present-day hunter-gatherers in the Philippines and simulated the discovery of a medicinal plant product. Around 300,000 years ago, our ancestors lived in small communities as hunters and gatherers. This ... more »
Anthropogenic seed dispersal: rethinking the origins of plant domestication
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
In a new manuscript, Dr. Robert Spengler argues that all of the earliest traits of plant domestication are linked to a mutualistic relationship in which plants recruited humans for seed dispersal MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: A PHOTO OF AN EAR FROM A WILD BARLEY PLANT, WITH THE RIPE SEEDS NATURALLY SHATTERING OFF DUE TO THE BRITTLE RACHIS OR STEM STRUCTURE AT THEIR BASE. IN THE... view more CREDIT: ROBERT SPENGLER The plants we consume for food have changed drastically in the 10,000 years since humans began practi... more »
Europe
Study offers new insight into the impact of ancient migrations on the European landscape
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 20 hours ago
UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: A GRAPHIC DEPICTING THE SPREAD OF YAMNAYA ANCESTRY OVER TIME OVER A PERIOD OF AROUND 8,000 YEARS view more CREDIT: FERNANDO RACIMO Neolithic populations have long been credited with bringing about a revolution in farming practices across Europe. However, a new study suggests it was not until the Bronze Age several millennia later that human activity led to significant changes to the continent's landscape. Scientists from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Plymouth led research tracing how the two ma... more »
Bone analyzes tell about kitchen utensils in the Middle Ages
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
Clay pots? Wooden spoons? Copper pots? Silver forks? What materials has man used for making kitchen utensils throughout history? A new study now sheds light on the use of kitchen utensils made of copper. At first thought, you would not expect hundreds of years old bones from a medieval cemetery to be able to tell you very much - let alone anything about what kinds of kitchen utensils were used to prepare food. But when you put such a bone in the hands of Professor Kaare Lund Rasmussen, University of Southern Denmark, the bone begins to talk about the past. A warehouse full of bones -... more »
Mysterious bone circles made from the remains of mammoths reveal clues about Ice Age
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THE MAJORITY OF THE BONES FOUND AT THE SITE INVESTIGATED, IN THE RUSSIAN PLAINS, ARE FROM MAMMOTHS. A TOTAL OF 51 LOWER JAWS AND 64 INDIVIDUAL MAMMOTH SKULLS WERE USED... view more CREDIT: ALEX PRYOR Mysterious bone circles made from the remains of dozens of mammoths have revealed clues about how ancient communities survived Europe's ice age. About 70 of these structures are known to exist in Ukraine and the west Russian Plain. New analysis shows the bones at one site are more than 20,000 years old, making it the old... more »
Bronze Age diet and farming strategy reconstructed using integrative isotope analysis
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
The El Algar society thrived in complex hilltop settlements across the Iberian Peninsula from 2200-1550 cal BCE, and gravesites and settlement layouts provide strong evidence of a marked social hierarchy. Knipper and colleagues conducted carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis at two different El Algar hilltop settlements: the large fortified urban site La Bastida (in present-day Totana, Murcia), and the smaller settlement Gatas (Turre, Almería). Their sample included remains of 75 human individuals from across social strata, 28 bones from domestic animals and wild deer, charred barle... more »
Each Mediterranean island has its own genetic pattern
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 5 weeks ago
CAPTION Researchers found a large proportion of North African ancestry in one of the studied individuals who lived in Sardinia during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. CREDIT © David Caramelli The Mediterranean Sea has been a major route for maritime migrations as well as frequent trade and invasions during prehistory, yet the genetic history of the Mediterranean islands is not well documented despite recent developments in the study of ancient DNA. An international team led by researchers from the University of Vienna, Harvard University and University of Florence, Italy, i... more »
Asia
Tang Dynasty noblewoman buried with her donkeys, for the love of polo
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
A noblewoman from Imperial China enjoyed playing polo on donkeys so much she had her steeds buried with her so she could keep doing it in the afterlife, archaeologists found. This discovery by a team that includes Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is published March 17 in the journal *Antiquity*. The research provides the first physical evidence of donkey polo in Imperial China, which previously was only known from historical texts. It also sheds light on the role for donkeys in the lives of high status... more »
How millets sustained Mongolia's empires
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
The historic economies of Mongolia are among the least understood of any region in the world. The region's persistent, extreme winds whisk away signs of human activity and prevent the buildup of sediment which archaeologists rely on to preserve the past. Today crop cultivation comprises only a small percent of Mongolia's food production, and many scholars have argued that Mongolia presents a unique example of dense human populations and hierarchical political systems forming without intensive farming or stockpiling grains. The current study, led by Dr. Shevan Wilkin of the Max Planc... more »
5,000-year-old milk proteins point to the importance of dairying in eastern Eurasia
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 4 weeks ago
Today dairy foods sustain and support millions around the world, including in Mongolia, where dairy foods make up to 50% of calories consumed during the summer. Although dairy-based pastoralism has been an essential part of life and culture in the eastern Eurasian Steppe for millennia, the eastward spread of dairying from its origin in southwest Asia and the development of these practices is little understood. The current study, led by Shevan Wilkin and Jessica Hendy of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, presents the earliest evidence for dairy consumption in... more »
