Europe
Heightened interaction between neolithic migrants and hunter-gatherers in Western Europe
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 17 hours ago
Analyzing the first archaeogenetic data from the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Western Europe, a team of French and German researchers documents levels of admixture between expanding early Neolithic farmers and local hunter-gatherers seen nowhere els MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THE BURIAL OF PENDIMOUN F2 (5480-5360 BC), WOMAN CARRYING ABOUT 55% OF HUNTER-GATHERER COMPONENT. view more CREDIT: HENRI DUDAY The Neolithic lifestyle, including farming, animal domestication and the development of new technologies,... more »
A well-preserved ancient Roman mosaic floor was found by archaeologists under a hillside vineyard in northern Italy
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 days ago
Officials in the township of Negrar, north of Verona, posted photos of the colorful and complex flooring after the discovery, noting that a Roman villa had been known to exist in the area, but scholars had searched in vain for its remnants for a century.
7,000 years of demographic history in France
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 days ago
A team led by scientists from the Institut Jacques Monod (CNRS/Université de Paris)* have shown that French prehistory was punctuated by two waves of migration: the first during the Neolithic period, about 6,300 years ago, the second during the Bronze Age, about 4,200 years ago. This study, published in PNAS on May 25, which looked at the genomes of 243 ancient individuals over 7,000 years, demonstrates how admixture between native hunter-gatherers and the first Anatolian Neolithic migrants, who brought with them a lifestyle based on agriculture, persists to this day in the genomes... more »
Exploring the origins of genetic divergence within the Italian population
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
Genetic adaptations of early Italian ancestors to environmental changes, such as those that occurred soon after the Last Glacial Maximum, may explain some of the genetic differences between northern and southern Italian populations today, according to a study published in *BMC Biology*. The research suggests that northern and southern Italian populations may have begun to diverge genetically as early as 19,000-12,000 years ago and constitutes the earliest known evidence of genetic divergence in Italy so far. A team of researchers at the University of Bologna sequenced the genomes of... more »
New research determines our species created earliest modern artifacts in Europe
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Innovative tools and pendants previously thought to be possibly the work of Neanderthals NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: STONE ARTIFACTS FROM THE INITIAL UPPER PALEOLITHIC AT BACHO KIRO CAVE. 1-3, 5-7: POINTED BLADES AND FRAGMENTS FROM LAYER I; 4: SANDSTONE BEAD WITH MORPHOLOGY SIMILAR TO BONE BEADS; 8:... view more CREDIT: TSENKA TSANOVA, MPI-EVA LEIPZIG, LICENSE: CC-BY-SA 2.0 Blade-like tools and animal tooth pendants previously discovered in Europe, and once thought to possibly be the work of Neanderthals, are in fact the creation of Homo sapiens... more »
Doubt cast on impact of Justinianic plague
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Many have claimed the Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750 CE) killed half of the population of Roman Empire. Now, historical research and mathematical modeling challenge the death rate and severity of this first plague pandemic. Researchers Lauren White, PhD and Lee Mordechai, PhD, of the University of Maryland's National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), examined the impacts of the Justinianic Plague with mathematical modeling. Using modern plague research as their basis, the two developed novel mathematical models to re-examine primary sources from the time of the Justin... more »
Asia
Initial Upper Paleolithic technology reached North China by ~41,000 years ago
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 days ago
Refined dating techniques provide method to discern spread of new culture across Asia PLOS SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: SDG2 T3 STRATIGRAPHY. ON THE LEFT, THE SCHEMATIC COLUMN SUMMARIZES THE GENERAL SEDIMENT CHARACTERISTIC AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAIN DISTRIBUTION OF THE SITE STRATIGRAPHIC SEQUENCE. ON THE RIGHT, THE PHOTOGRAPHS AND SCHEMATIC DRAWINGS...view more CREDIT: PENG ET AL, 2020 (PLOS ONE) CC BY A wave of new technology in the Late Paleolithic had reached North China by around 41,000 years ago, according to a study published May 27, 2020 in the open-access jo... more »
First ancient cultivated rice discovered in Central Asia
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
SCIENCE CHINA PRESS SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: SATELLITE IMAGERY OF KHALCHAYAN AND SURFACE REMAINS WITHIN THE SITE. CREDIT: CHEN GUANHAN AND ZHOU XINYING, IVPP view more CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS Rice has always been the most important food in Asia and the world. About half of the population on earth use rice as their main food source. The origin, spread, evolution, and ecological adaptation of cultivated rice are still one of the most important issues which currently concerned by global archaeologists, biologists, and agricultural scientists. In recent years, ... more »
Ancient DNA unveils important missing piece of human history
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
New ancient genomic research reveals information about human history in China CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS SHARE PRINT E-MAIL IMAGE: SAMPLING A TOOTH IN THE IVPP CLEANROOM view more CREDIT: IVPP Newly released genomes from Neolithic East Asia have unveiled a missing piece of human prehistory, according to a study conducted by Prof. FU Qiaomei's team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study, published in *Science* on May 14, reveals that population movement played a profound role in the ... more »
Global cooling event 4,200 years ago spurred rice's evolution, spread across Asia
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Scientists use genomics, archeology, and climate data to reconstruct history of rice NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: A SIMPLIFIED MAP SHOWS THE SPREAD OF RICE INTO BOTH NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN ASIA FOLLOWING A GLOBAL COOLING EVENT APPROXIMATELY 4,200 YEARS BEFORE PRESENT (YBP). view more CREDIT: RAFAL GUTAKER, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY A major global cooling event that occurred 4,200 years ago may have led to the evolution of new rice varieties and the spread of rice into both northern and southern Asia, an international team of researchers has found. Their... more »
Early humans in China innovated technology to adapt to climate change 1-million years ago
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
SCIENCE CHINA PRESS SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: ECOLOGICAL, BIOLOGICAL AND STONE TOOL INFORMATION FROM 2.2 MILLION YEARS AGO TO THE PRESENT (THE LIGHT RED HORIZONTAL BAR SHOWS INCREASED CLIMATE VARIABILITY) (A) GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE. (B) VEGETATION... view more CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS To assess the degree to which early stone tool using hominins modified their tool manufacturing behaviours in Eastern Asia, Shixia Yang and colleagues examined three well-known archaeological sites from the Nihewan Basin in North China. Stone tool comparisons between the archaeol... more »
Neanderthals
ADHD: genomic analysis in samples of Neanderthals and modern humans
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 days ago
A new evolutionary perspective UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: ACCORDING TO THE STUDY, SOME FEATURES LIKE HYPERACTIVITY OR IMPULSIVENESS COULD HAVE BEEN FAVOURABLY SELECTED FOR SURVIVAL IN ANCESTRAL ENVIRONMENTS DOMINATED BY A NOMAD LIFESTYLE. view more CREDIT: PAULA ESTELLER (CNAG-CRG / IBE, CSIC-UPF) The frequency of genetic variants associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has decreased progressively in the evolutionary human lineage from the Palaeolithic to nowadays, according to a study published in the journal *Scien... more »
Women with Neandertal gene give birth to more children
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 days ago
KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET SHARE PRINT E-MAIL One in three women in Europe inherited the receptor for progesterone from Neandertals - a gene variant associated with increased fertility, fewer bleedings during early pregnancy and fewer miscarriages. This is according to a study published in *Molecular Biology and Evolution* by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. "The progesterone receptor is an example of how favourable genetic variants that were introduced into modern humans by mixing with Neandertals ... more »
Neandertals were choosy about making bone tools
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: EVIDENCE CONTINUES TO MOUNT THAT THE NEANDERTALS, WHO LIVED IN EUROPE AND ASIA UNTIL ABOUT 40,000 YEARS AGO, WERE MORE SOPHISTICATED PEOPLE THAN ONCE THOUGHT. A NEW STUDY FROM UC... view more CREDIT: NAOMI MARTISIUS, UC DAVIS Evidence continues to mount that the Neandertals, who lived in Europe and Asia until about 40,000 years ago, were more sophisticated people than once thought. A new study from UC Davis shows that Neandertals chose to use bones from specific animals to make a tool for specific purpose... more »
Africa
Early African Muslims had a halal -- and cosmopolitan diet -- discovery of thousands of ancient animal
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 days ago
Early Muslim communities in Africa ate a cosmopolitan diet as the region became a trading centre for luxury goods, the discovery of thousands of ancient animal bones has shown. Halal butchery practices became common when Islam spread through Ethiopia as vibrant communities developed because of the import and export of products around the Red Sea, and to Egypt, India, and the Arabian Peninsula, archaeologists have found. New excavations at three sites in the east of the country completed by the University of Exeter and the Ethiopian Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultur... more »
Migration patterns reveal an Eden for ancient humans and animals
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: ANTELOPE IN SOUTH AFRICA view more CREDIT: N/A Pinnacle Point, a series of archaeological sites that overlook a now submerged section of South Africa's coastline and one of the world's most important localities for the study of modern human origins, was as much of an Eden for animals as it was for early humans. Jamie Hodgkins, PhD, assistant professor of anthropology at University of Colorado Denver, and her team drilled ancient herbivore teeth to find that many local animals stayed put in the ecologically ... more »
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 1 week ago
UNIVERSITY OF KENT SHARE PRINT E-MAIL Research by anthropologists at the University of Kent has identified hand use behaviour in fossil human relatives that is consistent with modern humans. The human lineage can be defined by a transition in hand use. Early human ancestors used their hands to move around in the trees, like living primates do today, whereas modern human hands have evolved to primarily perform precision grips. However, new research led by Dr Christopher Dunmore, Dr Matthew Skinner and Professor Tracy Kivell from Kent's School of Anthropology and Conservation ... more »
Archaeology: Fossilized footprints suggest ancient humans divided labor
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS SHARE PRINT E-MAIL The largest collection of footprints from the human fossil record in Africa is described in *Scientific Reports* this week. The findings, which further our understanding of human life during the Late Pleistocene period (126,000 to 11,700 years ago), suggest a division of labour in ancient human communities. Kevin Hatala and colleagues uncovered 408 human footprints in Engare Sero, Tanzania after the site was discovered by members of a nearby Maasai community. The researchers dated the footprints to between 19,100 and 5,760 years ago. Based... more
Early humans thrived in this drowned South African landscape
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Early humans lived in South African river valleys with deep, fertile soils filled with grasslands, floodplains, woodlands, and wetlands that abounded with hippos, zebras, antelopes, and many other animals, some extinct for millennia. In contrast to ice age environments elsewhere on Earth, it was a lush environment with a mild climate that disappeared under rising sea levels around 11,500 years ago. An interdisciplinary, international team of scientists has now brought this pleasant cradle of humankind back to life in a special collection of articles that reconstruct the paleoecology... more »
Chemical evidence of dairying by hunter-gatherers in Lesotho in the first millennium AD
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: VIEW FROM JUST NORTH OF LIKOAENG (SITE LOCATION INDICATED WITH AN ARROW), LOOKING DOWNSTREAM ALONG THE SENQU RIVER. THE LINE OF CLIFFS RUNNING MIDWAY THROUGH THE PHOTO FROM THE LEFT... view more CREDIT: PETER J. MITCHELL After analysing organic residues from ancient pots, a team of scientists led by the University of Bristol has uncovered new evidence of dairying by hunter-gatherers in the landlocked South African country of Lesotho in the mid-late first millennium AD. The study on organic residue analysis from Sout... more »
Americas
Beads made of boa bones identified in lesser Antilles
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
The first identifications of Boa on Martinique, Basse-Terre and La Désirade islands point to the snake's significance for pre-Columbian Amerindians MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: THE VERTEBRAE FOUND IN THIS STUDY ARE THE FIRST IDENTIFICATION OF BOA ON THESE ISLANDS. view more CREDIT: CORENTIN BOCHATON Today Boa snakes have a patchy distribution in the islands that form the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea, but the constrictors are nearly absent from archaeological deposits in the region. Whether this scarcity is... more »
Cahokia's rise parallels onset of corn agriculture
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, NEWS BUREAU SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: CORN CULTIVATION BEGAN IN THE VICINITY OF THE CITY OF CAHOKIA BETWEEN A.D. 900 AND 1000, RESEARCHERS REPORT IN A NEW STUDY. ITS ARRIVAL MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE ABRUPT... view more CREDIT: GRAPHIC BY DIANA YATES CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Corn cultivation spread from Mesoamerica to what is now the American Southwest by about 4000 B.C., but how and when the crop made it to other parts of North America is still a subject of debate. In a new study, scientists report that corn was not grown ... more »
The first large-scale genomic portrait of pre-Columbian Andean civilizations
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: AN INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH TEAM HAS CONDUCTED THE FIRST IN-DEPTH, WIDE-SCALE STUDY OF THE GENOMIC HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS IN THE CENTRAL ANDES MOUNTAINS AND COAST BEFORE EUROPEAN CONTACT. THE ANALYSIS... view more CREDIT: MIGUEL ANGEL LÓPEZ At a glance: - Analysis yields first comprehensive genomic profile of ancient populations in central Andes - Findings emerge from DNA of 89 individuals who lived as long as 9,000 years ago, including some of the legendary ancient civilizations such as In... more »
Ancient DNA paints genetic portrait of Andes civilizations
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: IMAGE OF MACHU PICCHU FROM PIXABAYview more CREDIT: FROM PIXABAY An international team of researchers including the University of Adelaide, has completed the first large-scale study of DNA belonging to ancient humans of the central Andes in South America and found early genetic differences between groups of nearby regions, and surprising genetic continuity over thousands of years. In the study, published in the journal *Cell*, researchers analysed the DNA of 89 ancient humans who lived in the central Andes between ... more »
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: OUT-OF-TOWNERS FLOCKED TO CEREMONIAL SITES ON FLORIDA'S GULF COAST FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS TO SOCIALIZE AND FEAST. CRYSTAL RIVER WAS HOME TO ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT SITES, WHICH FEATURED... view more CREDIT: THOMAS J. PLUCKHAHN GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- More than a thousand years ago, people from across the Southeast regularly traveled to a small island on Florida's Gulf Coast to bond over oysters, likely as a means of coping with climate change and social upheaval. Archaeologists' analysis of present-day... more »
Demographic expansion of several Amazonian archaeological cultures
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Archaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
The study uses simulation techniques and shows that some cultural expansions from Amazonia during the late Holocene may have arisen from similar demographic processes to the Neolithic in Eurasia UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA - BARCELONA SHARE PRINT E-MAIL [image: IMAGE] IMAGE: COMPUTER SIMULATION OF THE EXPANSIONS OF SEVERAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL CULTURES IN SOUTH AMERICA. view more CREDIT: UPF Expansions by groups of humans were common during prehistoric times, after the adoption of agriculture. Among other factors, this is due to population growth of farmers which was greater than of tha... more »
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