Earliest evidence for humans in rainforests

 

Rainforests are a major world biome which humans are not thought to have inhabited until relatively recently. New evidence now shows that humans lived in rainforests by at least 150 thousand years ago in Africa, the home of our species.

Our species originated in Africa around 300 thousand years ago, but the ecological and environmental contexts of our evolution are still little understood. In the search for answers, rainforests have often been overlooked, generally thought of as natural barriers to human habitation. 

Now, in a new study published in Nature, an international team of researchers challenge this view with the discovery that humans were living in rainforests within the present-day Côte d'Ivoire much earlier than previously thought. The article reveals that human groups were living in rainforests by 150 thousand years ago and argues that human evolution occurred across a variety of regions and habitats. 

The story of this discovery begins in the 1980s, when the site was first investigated by co-author Professor Yodé Guédé of l'Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny on a joint Ivorian-Soviet mission. Results from this initial study revealed a deeply stratified site containing stone tools in an area of present-day rainforest. But the age of the tools – and the ecology of the site when they were deposited there – could not be determined.

“Several recent climate models suggested the area could have been a rainforest refuge in the past as well, even during dry periods of forest fragmentation,” explains Professor Eleanor Scerri, leader of the Human Palaeosystems research group at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and senior author of the study. “We knew the site presented the best possible chance for us to find out how far back into the past rainforest habitation extended.”

The Human Palaeosystems team therefore mounted a mission to re-investigate the site. “With Professor Guédé’s help, we relocated the original trench and were able to re-investigate it using state of the art methods that were not available thirty to forty years ago,” says Dr. James Blinkhorn, researcher at the University of Liverpool and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. The renewed study took place just in time, as the site has since been destroyed by mining activity.

“Before our study, the oldest secure evidence for habitation in African rainforests was around 18 thousand years ago and the oldest evidence of rainforest habitation anywhere came from southeast Asia at about 70 thousand years ago,” explains Dr. Eslem Ben Arous, researcher at the National Centre for Human Evolution Research (CENIEH), the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and lead author of the study. “This pushes back the oldest known evidence of humans in rainforests by more than double the previously known estimate.”

The researchers used several dating techniques, including Optically Stimulated Luminescence and Electron-Spin Resonance, to arrive at a date roughly 150 thousand years ago. 

At the same time, sediment samples were separately investigated for pollen, silicified plant remains called phytoliths, and leaf wax isotopes. Analyses indicated the region was heavily wooded, with pollen and leaf waxes typical for humid West African rainforests.  Low levels of grass pollen showed that the site wasn’t in a narrow strip of forest, but in a dense woodland. 

“This exciting discovery is the first of a long list as there are other Ivorian sites waiting to be investigated to study the human presence associated with rainforest,” says Professor Guédé joyfully. 

“Convergent evidence shows beyond doubt that ecological diversity sits at the heart of our species,” says Professor Scerri. “This reflects a complex history of population subdivision, in which different populations lived in different regions and habitat types. We now need to ask how these early human niche expansions impacted the plants and animals that shared the same niche-space with humans. In other words, how far back does human alteration of pristine natural habitats go?”

The research was funded by the Max Planck Society and the Leakey Foundation. 

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Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-08613-y 

Neanderthals experienced population crash 110,000 years ago

A new study by an international team of scholars, including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, suggests that Neanderthals experienced a dramatic loss of genetic variation during the course of their evolution, foreshadowing their eventual extinction.

The study, co-authored by Binghamton University Professor of Anthropology Rolf Quam and graduate student Brian Keeling, measured the morphological diversity in the semicircular canals, structures of the inner ear responsible for our sense of balance, in two exceptional collections of human fossils from the sites of Atapuerca (Spain) and Krapina (Croatia), as well as from various European and Western Asian sites. 

“The development of the inner ear structures is known to be under very tight genetic control, since they are fully formed at the time of birth,” said Quam. “This makes variation in the semicircular canals an ideal proxy for studying evolutionary relationships between species in the past since any differences between fossil specimens reflect underlying genetic differences. The present study represents a novel approach to estimating genetic diversity within Neandertal populations.”

The Atapuerca fossils—referred to as "pre-Neanderthals"—date to about 400,000 years ago and represent the earliest fossils that anthropologists consider clear Neandertal ancestors. The Neanderthals emerged around 250,000 years ago from these populations which inhabited the Eurasian continent between 500,000 and 250,000 years ago. The Croatian site of Krapina represents the most complete collection of early Neanderthals and dates to approximately 130,000 years ago. The researchers calculated the amount of morphological diversity (i.e., disparity) of the semicircular canals of both samples, comparing them with each other and with a sample of “classic” Neanderthals of different ages and geographical origins.

“It is exciting to be included in this research project which relies on some of the latest cutting-edge methodologies in our field,” said Keeling. “As a student of human evolution, I am always amazed at research that pushes the boundaries of our knowledge.”

Recent research based on ancient DNA samples extracted from fossils revealed the existence of a drastic loss of genetic diversity between early Neanderthals and the later "classic" Neanderthals. Technically known as a "bottleneck", this genetic loss is frequently the consequence of a reduction in the number of individuals of a population. The ancient DNA data indicate that the decline in genetic variation took place approximately 110,000 years ago.

The new study's findings reveal that the morphological diversity of the semicircular canals of classic Neanderthals is clearly lower than that of pre-Neanderthals and early Neanderthals, which aligns with the ancient DNA results. 

The study was led by Alessandro Urciuoli (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and Mercedes Conde-Valverde (director of the Cátedra de Otoacústica Evolutiva de HM Hospitales y la Universidad de Alcalá). Conde-Valverde, co-author of the study, emphasized the importance of the analyzed sample.

“By including fossils from a wide geographical and temporal range, we were able to capture a comprehensive picture of Neanderthal evolution,” said Conde-Valverde. “The reduction in diversity observed between the Krapina sample and classic Neanderthals is especially striking and clear, providing strong evidence of a bottleneck event.”

On the other hand, the results challenge the previously accepted idea that the origin of the Neanderthal lineage was associated with a significant loss of genetic diversity, prompting the need to propose new explanations for their origin. 

“We were surprised to find that the pre-Neanderthals from the Sima de los Huesos exhibited a level of morphological diversity similar to that of the early Neanderthals from Krapina,” said Alessandro Urciuoli, lead author of the study. “This challenges the common assumption of a bottleneck event at the origin of the Neanderthal lineage.”

The study, “Semicircular canals shed light on bottleneck events in the evolution of the Neanderthal clade,” was published in Nature Communications.

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-56155-8  

Origin and diversity of Hun Empire populations

 

Far-reaching genetic ties between the Mongolian steppe and Central Europe under Hun rule

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

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Excavation photo of the Hun-period “eastern-type” burial from Budapest, Népfürdő Street (Hungary).

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Credit: © Boglárka Mészáros, BHM Aquincum Museum

The Huns suddenly appeared in Europe in the 370s, establishing one of the most influential although short-lived empires in Europe. Scholars have long debated whether the Huns were descended from the Xiongnu. In fact, the Xiongnu Empire dissolved around 100 CE, leaving a 300-year gap before the Huns appeared in Europe. Can DNA lineages that bridge these three centuries be found?

To address this question, researchers analyzed the DNA of 370 individuals that lived in historical periods spanning around 800 years, from 2nd century BCE to 6th century CE, encompassing sites in the Mongolian steppe, Central Asia, and the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe. In particular, they examined 35 newly sequenced genomes ranging from: a 3rd-4th century site in Kazakhstan and 5th-6th century contexts in the Carpathian Basin, including exceptional Hun-period burials that exhibit Eastern or “steppe” traits often linked to nomadic traditions (i.e. “eastern-type” burials).

The study was carried out as part of the ERC Synergy Grant project HistoGenes (No. 856453), by a multidisciplinary research team of geneticists, archaeologists and historians, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The results showed that there was not a large Asian- or steppe-descended community living in the Carpathian Basin after the Huns' arrival. However, they identified a small but distinct set of individuals - often belonging to the “eastern-type” burials - who did carry significant East Asian genetic signatures. Advanced comparisons of genealogical connections (the analysis of shared DNA segments known as identical-by-descent, or IBD) led to a remarkable discovery. Co-first author Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology adds: “It came as a surprise to discover that few of these Hun-period individuals in Europe share IBD links with some of the highest-ranking imperial elite individuals from the late Xiongnu Empire”. These connections also include an individual from the largest terrace tomb ever discovered in a Xiongnu context.

Connections across the steppe and mixed legacy

This link suggests that some among the Huns in Europe could trace their lineage back to important late Xiongnu burials from the Mongolian steppe. Yet the archaeogenomic picture for most Hun and post-Hun period individuals in the Carpathian Basin is far more varied. Co-first author Zsófia Rácz of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest adds: “DNA and archaeological evidence reveal a patchwork of ancestries, pointing to a complex process of mobility and interaction rather than a mass migration.” While these connections confirm the presence of some direct descendants of Xiongnu elites, the study also shows that the population of the Hun empire in Europe was genetically highly heterogeneous. Another key conclusion of the study is that the 5th century “eastern-type” burials from Central Europe are highly diverse in both their cultural and genetic heritage.

The findings also underscore that the Huns’ arrival in Europe contrasts with that of the Avars two centuries later. Co-corresponding author Walter Pohl of the Austrian Academy of Sciences adds: “The Avars came directly to Europe after their East-Asian empire had been destroyed by the Turks, and many of their descendants still carried considerable East Asian ancestry until the end of their rule in c. 800. The ancestors of Attila’s Huns took many generations on their way westward and mixed with populations across Eurasia”.

Implications for European history

This research illuminates how past societies in the Carpathian Basin adapted and changed in response to new arrivals. Co-corresponding author Zuzana Hofmanová of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology adds: “Although the Huns dramatically reshaped the political landscape, their actual genetic footprint - outside of certain elite burials - remains limited”. Instead, the population as a whole appears to be predominantly of European origin and have continued local traditions, with some newly arrived steppe influences woven in.

Co-corresponding author Johannes Krause, director of the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthroplogy, adds: “From a broader perspective, the study underscores how cutting-edge genetic research, in combination with careful exploration of  the archaeological and historical context, can resolve centuries-old debates about the composition and origin of past populations”. While many questions remain, this work offers compelling evidence for direct connections between the Hun period population, the steppe and the Xiongnu Empire, deepening our understanding of the dynamic networks that linked East and West Eurasia in the past.

Viking skulls reveal severe morbidity

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Gothenburg

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The skulls of Viking-era individuals were examined with modern computed tomography, in the search for infections, inflammations and other diseases.

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Credit: Photo by Carolina Bertilsson

Sweden's Viking Age population appears to have suffered from severe oral and maxillofacial disease, sinus and ear infections, osteoarthritis, and much more. This is shown in a study from the University of Gothenburg in which Viking skulls were examined using modern X-ray techniques.

About a year ago saw the publication of research based on the examination of a large number of teeth from the Viking Age population of Varnhem in the Swedish province of Västergötland. Varnhem is known for its thousands of ancient graves and excavations of well-preserved skeletons.

Now, odontologists at the University of Gothenburg have taken this research further, looking at not only teeth but also entire skulls, by using modern computed tomography, also known as CT scans.

Detailed image analysis

The results presented in British Dental Journal Open suggest that the fifteen individuals whose skulls were examined suffered from a broad range of diseases. The CT scans show pathological bone growths in the cranium and jawbone, revealing infections and other conditions.

Several individuals showed signs of having suffered from sinus or ear infections that left traces in the adjacent bone structures. Signs of osteoarthritis and various dental diseases were also found. All the skulls came from adults who died between 20 and 60 years of age.

The study lead, Carolina Bertilsson, is an assistant researcher at the University of Gothenburg and a dentist within Sweden's Public Dental Service. The study was performed with specialists in dental radiology at the University of Gothenburg and an archaeologist from Västergötlands museum.

Together, they conducted the examinations and analyzed the images. CT scans provide three-dimensional images that enable researchers to study in detail the various types of skeletal damage, layer by layer, in the different parts of the skull.

Greater understanding

"There was much to look at. We found many signs of disease in these individuals. Exactly why we don't know. While we can't study the damage in the soft tissue because it's no longer there, we can see the traces left in the skeletal structures," says Carolina Bertilsson, and continues:

"The results of the study provide greater understanding of these people's health and wellbeing. Everyone knows what it's like to have pain somewhere, you can get quite desperate for help. But back then, they didn't have the medical and dental care we do, or the kind of pain relief – and antibiotics – we now have. If you developed an infection, it could stick around for a long time."

The study is described as a pilot study. One important aspect was to test CT as a method for future and more extensive studies."Very many of today's archaeological methods are invasive, with the need to remove bone or other tissue for analysis. This way, we can keep the remains completely intact yet still extract a great deal of information," says Carolina Bertilsson.

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Journal

BDJ Open

DOI

10.1038/s41405-025-00309-9 

Clues of advanced ancient technology found in the Philippines and Island Southeast Asia

 

Ateneo de Manila University

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New archaeological evidence suggests that ancient inhabitants of the Philippines and Island Southeast Asia had the advanced plant-working technology needed for sophisticated boat building and open-sea fishing.

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Credit: Alfred Pawlik

The ancient peoples of the Philippines and of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) may have built sophisticated boats and mastered seafaring tens of thousands of years ago—millennia before Magellan, Zheng He, and even the Polynesians.

In a new paper coming out in the April 2025 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Ateneo de Manila University researchers Riczar Fuentes and Alfred Pawlik challenge the widely-held contention that technological progress during the Paleolithic only emerged in Europe and Africa.

They point out that much of ISEA was never connected to mainland Asia, neither by land bridges nor by ice sheets, yet it has yielded evidence of early human habitation. Exactly how these peoples achieved such daring ocean crossings is an enduring mystery, as organic materials like wood and fiber used for boats rarely survive in the archaeological record. But archaeological sites in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Timor-Leste are now providing strong evidence that ancient seafarers had a technological sophistication comparable to much later civilizations.

Microscopic analysis of stone tools excavated at these sites, dating as far back as some 40,000 years ago, showed clear traces of plant processing—particularly the extraction of fibers necessary for making ropes, nets, and bindings essential for boatbuilding and open-sea fishing. Archaeological sites in Mindoro and Timor-Leste also yielded the remains of deep ocean fish such as tuna and sharks as well as fishing implements such as fishing hooks, gorges, and net weights. 

“The remains of large predatory pelagic fish in these sites indicate the capacity for advanced seafaring and knowledge of the seasonality and migration routes of those fish species,” the researchers said in their paper. Meanwhile, the discovery of fishing implements “indicates the need for strong and well-crafted cordage for ropes and fishing lines to catch the marine fauna.” 

This body of evidence points to the likelihood that these ancient seafarers built sophisticated boats out of organic composite materials held together with plant-based ropes and also used the same rope technology for open-sea fishing. If so, then prehistoric migrations across ISEA were not undertaken by mere passive sea drifters on flimsy bamboo rafts but by highly skilled navigators equipped with the knowledge and technology to travel vast distances and to remote islands over deep waters.  

Several years of fieldwork in Ilin Island, Occidental Mindoro, inspired the researchers to think of this topic and to test this hypothesis. Together with naval architects from the University of Cebu, they recently started the First Long-Distance Open-Sea Watercrafts (FLOW) Project, supported by a research grant from the Ateneo de Manila University, with the aim of testing raw materials that were probably used in the past, and to design and test scaled-down seacraft models. 

The presence of such advanced maritime technology in prehistoric ISEA highlights the ingenuity of early Philippine peoples and their neighbors, whose boat-building knowledge likely made the region a center for technological innovations tens of thousands of years ago and laid the foundations for the maritime traditions that still thrive in the region today. 

 

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Journal

Journal of Archaeological Science Reports

DOI

10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105020 

Iberian nailed head ritual was more complex than expected

 

The isotope analysis of the Puig Castellar and Ullastret sites point to different mobility patterns in these individuals, who would not have been randomly selected.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

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One of the severed heads found at Ullastret (Girona, Spain). © Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya (MAC)-Ullastret a De Prado, 2015

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Credit: © Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya (MAC)-Ullastret a De Prado, 2015

The nailed heads ritual did not correspond to the same symbolic expression among the Iberian communities of the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, but rather a practice that differed in each settlement. In some, external individuals were used as symbols of power and intimidation, while other settlements could have given priority to the veneration of members of the local community.

This is the conclusion reached by a study led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) which analyses the mobility patterns of these human communities existing in the Iron Age of the last millenium BCE. Researchers studied seven nailed skulls of men found in two sites dating back to this period: the city of Ullastret (found in the same town of the province of Girona) and the settlement of Puig Castellar (Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona).

The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, was coordinated by researchers from the Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology of the UAB and also included the collaboration of researchers from the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia (MAC), the Museum Torre Balldovina and the universities of Lleida, Bordeaux (France), and Tübingen (Germany).

Severed heads: more than just simple war trophies

Severed heads were a unique funerary practice within the Iberian world and represent an exceptional opportunity to analyse these communities, of which very little archaeological record exists since cremation was the predominant burial ritual. This practice consisted of the public exhibition of the skulls of certain individuals, subjected to a post-mortem treatment. Some of these skulls have been recovered with signs of nailing and in some cases with an iron nail still in place.

 “Who were these individuals and for what were their heads used?” Traditionally, archaeologists have debated whether the skulls were war trophies — to intimidate their enemies — or venerated relics of important community members. These hypotheses, however, based on oral and ethnographic sources, have not yet been verified, nor has there been in-depth studies on the relationship between these groups and the land they inhabited. “Our premise in approaching the study was that if they were war trophies they would not come from the sites analysed, while if they were venerated individuals, these would most likely be local”, explains Rubén de la Fuente-Seoane, archaeologist at the UAB and first author of the study.

“Our results reveal that the individuals from Puig Castellar and Ullastret would not have been randomly selected. There would have been a homogeneous trend towards men in these rituals. However, the mobility and localisation patterns suggest a greater diversity, which could also imply social and cultural differences among the individuals of the two communities,” says the UAB researcher.

Isotope analysis reveals differences between the sites

To carry out the study, the research team combined bioarchaeology and the analysis of stable strontium and oxygen isotopes in the dental enamel of seven severed skulls of men recovered from Puig Castellar and Ullastret, together with archaeozoological data and a detailed sampling of sediment and vegetation collected in the vecinity of the sites. The results of the strontium isotopes of the sediment and vegetation allowed researchers to define the reference range of the strontium in the area near each site (bioavailable strontium). This in turn made it possible to discern which individuals coincided or not with this range and, therefore, identify whether they were local or not.

“At Puig Castellar the isotope values of three of the four individuals differ significantly from the local strontium reference, which suggests that they were probably not from the local community. In contrast, Ullastret revealed a mixture of local and non-local origins. This result suggests that the practice of severed heads was applied in a different way at each site, which seems to rule out a homogeneous symbolic expression. But more research is needed to be sure”, says de la Fuente-Seoane.

The fact that in Puig Castellar the skulls were exposed in an area such as the wall makes the researchers opt for the hypothesis that the reason for their exposure was aimed at the demonstration of power and coercion, both for internal repression and towards a group outside the community. In the case of Ullastret, the two local individuals were found in a street, in the middle of the city, which suggests that they were exhibited on a wall or doorway of the adjacent houses. This fact would provide support to the hypothesis suggesting that they could have belonged to important people of this community, venerated or vindicated by its inhabitants. A third Ullastret skull, of possible foreign origin, was found in one of the external walls of the settlement, which could represent a war trophy.

New tools to help understand the Iberian society

The results of the study reveal for the first time direct evidence of human mobility patterns during the Iron Age in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula, and provide new perspectives on the territorialisation contexts of northeastern Iberia.

Previous research on Iberian territorial management suggested differences in how these societies exploited the resources surrounding them. With this study researchers were able to see that the skulls found at Puig Castellar and Ullastret also show different mobility patterns, given that the values of the humans and their relationship with the values of the area are completely different in each site. The faunal samples also reveal a very differentiated resource management, in coherence with the typology of each of the settlements.

“This differentiation reflects a dynamic and complex society with important local and external interactions. Our study is a first approach to this archaeological problem using a method that is revolutionising the way we study mobility in the past. At the same time, it suggests that the selection of individuals for the severed heads ritual was more complex than initially thought”, indicates Rubén de la Fuente-Seoane.

The study underlines the importance of integrating bioarchaeological and isotope data to improve the understanding of social structures and human interactions in the past. “We have established a local strontium reference based on a rigorous protocol, applying in humans a pioneering methodology in Catalonia that, moreover, serves as a first step towards the creation of a Catalan map of bioavailable strontium. This will favour other future studies and the group of archaeologists studying mobility”, concludes the UAB researcher.

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Journal

Journal of Archaeological Science Reports

DOI

10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105035