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UrduResearch from Washington University in St. Louis shows that a practice of purposeful water management, or irrigation, was adopted in northern China about 4,000 years ago as part of an effort to grow new grains that had been introduced from southwest Asia. But the story gets more complex from there. Wheat and barley arrived on the scene at about the same time, but early farmers only used water management techniques for wheat.
Tag: Archaeology
Pioneering research directly dates the earliest milk use in prehistoric Europe
A new study has shown milk was used by the first farmers from Central Europe in the early Neolithic era around 7,400 years ago, advancing humans’ ability to gain sustenance from milk and establishing the early foundations of the dairy industry.
Search for clues may explain the collapse of ancient city in Mexico
Faculty and students from ISU joined an international team of archaeologists this summer to begin excavating one of Teotihuacan’s suburbs. The four-year project could help unlock clues about the ancient city’s mysterious collapse and what happened in the hundreds of years before Spanish conquistadors arrived in central America.
In new book, historian explores archaeologists’ and Egyptologists’ social networks
When most of us think of social networks, we think of connecting digitally with others through sites like Facebook, TikTok or Twitter. A new book by Dr. Kathleen Sheppard, an associate professor of history at Missouri University of Science and Technology, discusses a different type of social network – a physical network of archaeologists, Egyptologists, tourists and other travelers who were drawn to Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Study points to Armenian origins of ancient crop with aviation biofuel potential
Camelina, also known as false flax or Gold-of-Pleasure, is an ancient oilseed crop with emerging applications in the production of sustainable, low-input biofuels. Multidisciplinary research from Washington University in St. Louis is revealing the origins and uses of camelina and may help guide decisions critical to achieving its potential as a biofuel feedstock for a greener aviation industry in the future.
Research finally answers what Bronze Age daggers were used for
Analysis of Bronze Age daggers has shown that they were used for processing animal carcasses and not as non-functional symbols of identity and status, as previously thought.
Terahertz Imaging Reveals Hidden Inscription on Early Modern Funerary Cross
Using terahertz imaging and signal processing techniques to look beneath the corroded surface of a 16th-century lead funerary cross, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech-Lorraine revealed an inscription of the Lord’s Prayer.
Friendship ornaments from the Stone Age
As most archaeological material is found in a fragmented state, the phenomenon has been considered a natural consequence of objects’ having been long buried underground.
Life-sized camel carvings in Northern Arabia date to the Neolithic period
The monumental reliefs at the Camel Site in northern Arabia are unique: three rock spurs are decorated with naturalistic, life-sized carvings of camels and equids. In total, 21 reliefs have been identified.
New evidence supports idea that America’s first civilization was made up of ‘sophisticated’ engineers
The Native Americans who occupied the area known as Poverty Point in northern Louisiana more than 3,000 years ago long have been believed to be simple hunters and gatherers. But new Washington University in St. Louis archaeological findings paint a drastically different picture of America’s first civilization.
Prehistoric climate change repeatedly channelled human migrations across Arabia
Recent research in Arabia – a collaboration between scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, the Heritage Commission of the Saudi Ministry of Culture, and many other Saudi and international researchers – has begun to document the incredibly rich prehistory of Saudi Arabia, the largest country in Southwest Asia.
Researchers identify record number of ancient elephant bone tools
Ancient humans could do some impressive things with elephant bones.
Study shows evidence of beer drinking 9,000 years ago in Southern China
Alcoholic beverages have long been known to serve an important socio-cultural function in ancient societies, including at ritual feasts.
’Til the cows come home
Meat and dairy played a more significant role in human diets in Bronze Age China than previously thought. A new analysis also suggests that farmers and herders tended to sheep and goats differently than they did their cows, unlike in other parts of the world — keeping cows closer to home and feeding them the byproducts of grains that they were growing for their own consumption, like the grass stalks from millet plants.
New York City’s Hidden Old-Growth Forests
In the popular imagination, New York City is a mass of soaring steel-frame skyscrapers. But many of the city’s 1 million buildings are not that modern.
Archaeology: Roman road discovered in the Venice lagoon
The discovery of a Roman road submerged in the Venice Lagoon is reported in Scientific Reports this week. The findings suggest that extensive settlements may have been present in the Venice Lagoon centuries before the founding of Venice began in…
Why weren’t New World rabbits domesticated?
Archaeologists find the answer in rabbit social behavior
Weizmann Institute Archaeologists: Following the Footsteps of Humankind Out of Africa
Boker Tachtit in the Negev is a crucial archaeological site for studying the spread of Homo sapiens out of Africa and the subsequent demise of Neanderthals. Using techniques so sophisticated that they can date grains of sand, Weizmann’s Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto and colleagues have shown that previous dating of the site was incorrect – and that early humans and Neanderthals cohabitated at the site.
Study highlights need to replace ‘ancestry’ in forensics with something more accurate
A new study finds forensics researchers use terms related to ancestry and race in inconsistent ways, and calls for the discipline to adopt a new approach to better account for both the fluidity of populations and how historical events have…
Resilience, not collapse: What the Easter Island myth gets wrong
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — New research from Binghamton University, State University of New York suggests that the demographic collapse at the core of the Easter Island myth didn’t really happen. You probably know this story, or a version of it: On…
Climate changed the size of our bodies and, to some extent, our brains
The average body size of humans has fluctuated significantly over the last million years and is strongly linked to temperature. Colder, harsher climates drove the evolution of larger body sizes, while warmer climates led to smaller bodies. Brain size also…
Ancient ostrich eggshell reveals new evidence of extreme climate change thousands of years ago
Evidence from an ancient eggshell has revealed important new information about the extreme climate change faced by human early ancestors. The research shows parts of the interior of South Africa that today are dry and sparsely populated, were once wetland…
CWRU receives $1.2M W.M. Keck Foundation grant to determine ecological factors affect the evolution of our ancestors
Professor Beverly Saylor leads interdisciplinary global group applying state-of-the art technology to answer ancient questions
Ancient Islamic tombs cluster like galaxies
Statistical methods designed for cosmology reveal tomb distribution in Sudan over millennia governed by environment and social factors
New iguanodon-like dinosaur identified from jawbone fossil from Spain
New iguanodon-like dinosaur identified from jawbone fossil from Spain was likely a 6-8m long herbivore, closely related to species found in modern-day China and Niger. ### Article Title: A new Styracosternan hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Early Cretaceous of Portell,…
Neanderthal artists? Our ancestors decorated bones over 50,000 years ago
Since the discovery of the first fossil remains in the 19th century, the image of the Neanderthal has been one of a primitive hominin.
New species of pseudo-horses living 37 million years ago
Researchers at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country describe two palaeotheriidae mammals that lived in the subtropical landscape of Alava
Scientists warn on the harmful implications of losing Indigenous and local knowledge systems
The study has been published in the Journal of Ethnobiology
Wallonia as an international reference for the timeline
Paleontologists from Univeristy of Liège (Belgium) redefine the geological boundary between the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. A Walloon site could be chosen as a world reference for this boundary.
How can ‘shark dandruff’ contribute to coral reef conservation?
For 400 million years, shark-like fishes have prowled the oceans as predators, but now humans kill 100 million sharks per year, radically disrupting ocean food chains. Based on microscopic shark scales found on fossil- and modern coral reefs in Caribbean…
Scientists reconstruct Mediterranean silver trade, from Trojan War to Roman Republic
Scientists have reconstructed the Eastern Mediterranean silver trade, over a period including the traditional dates of the Trojan War, the founding of Rome, and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. The team of French, Israeli and Australian scientists and…
The City of David and the sharks’ teeth mystery
Scientists have found an unexplained cache of fossilised shark teeth in an area where there should be none – in a 2900 year old site in the City of David in Jerusalem. This is at least 80 km from where…
Solving a long-standing mystery about the desert’s rock art canvas
Wander around a desert most anywhere in the world, and eventually you’ll notice dark-stained rocks, especially where the sun shines most brightly and water trickles down or dew gathers. In some spots, if you’re lucky, you might stumble upon ancient…
After routing de Soto, Chickasaws repurposed Spanish objects for everyday use
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — 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…
New book highlights need for Chaco Canyon preservation
Lincoln, Nebraska, July 1, 2021 — Carrie Heitman can still remember the moment when — as an undergraduate visiting for the first time — Chaco Culture National Historic Park became the cornerstone of her academic career in anthropology. “You have…
Digging into the molecules of fossilized dinosaur eggshells
Dinosaurs roamed the Earth more than 65 million years ago, and paleontologists and amateur fossil hunters are still unearthing traces of them today. The minerals in fossilized eggs and shell fragments provide snapshots into these creatures’ early lives, as well…
How humans brought change to a tropical paradise
After centuries of human impact on the world’s ecosystems, a new study from Flinders University details an example of how a common native bee species has flourished since the very first land clearances by humans on Fiji.
Being Anglo-Saxon was a matter of language and culture, not genetics
A new study from archaeologists at University of Sydney and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, has provided important new evidence to answer the question “Who exactly were the Anglo-Saxons?”
New fossil discovery from Israel points to complicated evolutionary process
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Analysis of recently discovered fossils found in Israel suggest that interactions between different human species were more complex than previously believed, according to a team of researchers including Binghamton University anthropology professor Rolf Quam. The research team,…
Did the ancient Maya have parks?
The ancient Maya city of Tikal was a bustling metropolis and home to tens of thousands of people.
Tiny ancient bird from China shares skull features with Tyrannosaurus rex
Researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have discovered a 120-million-year-old partial fossil skeleton of a tiny extinct bird that fits in the palm of the hand and preserves a unique…
New discovery shows Tibet as crossroads for giant rhino dispersal
The giant rhino, Paraceratherium , is considered the largest land mammal that ever lived and was mainly found in Asia, especially China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan. How this genus dispersed across Asia was long a mystery, however. A new discovery…
Bronze Age Scandinavia’s trading networks for copper settled
Crossing the North Sea before crossing the Alps!
At underwater site, research team finds 9,000-year-old stone artifacts
An underwater archaeologist from The University of Texas at Arlington is part of a research team studying 9,000-year-old stone tool artifacts discovered in Lake Huron that originated from an obsidian quarry more than 2,000 miles away in central Oregon.
National Geographic Society grant to fund research into Easter Island
Binghamton University anthropologists Robert DiNapoli and Carl Lipo received a $60,280 grant from the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration to explore how ancient populations managed freshwater scarcity.
Light in darkness: an experimental look at Paleolithic cave lighting
A recreation of three common types of Paleolithic lighting systems (torches, grease lamps, and fireplaces) illuminates how Paleolithic cave dwellers might have traveled, lived, and created in the depths of their caves, according to a study published June 16, 2021…
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
At underwater site, research team finds 9,000-year-old stone artifacts
Underwater archaeology team finds ancient obsidian flakes 2,000 miles from quarry
Barks in the night lead to the discovery of new species
The raucous calls of tree hyraxes — small, herbivorous mammals — reverberate through the night in the forests of West and Central Africa, but their sound differs depending on the location. Tree hyraxes living between the Volta and Niger rivers…
Sealed, signed and delivered
Hebrew University archaeologists unveil 7,000-year-old seal impressions used for commerce and protection of property