Texas A&M Professor Anna Linderholm and a team of researchers examined dog DNA to learn about movement and patterns of ancient dogs and their relationship with humans
Tag: OLD WORLD
Red and black ink from Egyptian papyri unveil ancient writing practices
Scientists led by the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, have discovered the composition of red and black inks in ancient Egyptian papyri from circa 100-200 AD, leading to different hypotheses about writing practices.…
Inks containing lead were likely used as drier on ancient Egyptian papyri
Analysing 12 ancient Egyptian papyri fragments with X-ray microscopy, University of Copenhagen researchers were surprised to find previously unknown lead compounds in both red and black inks and suggest they were used for their drying properties rather than as a…
The First Book of Breathing: A new assessment based on an edition of papyrus FMNH 31324
Existing in the afterlife – the Book of Breathing
Turbulent era sparked leap in human behavior, adaptability 320,000 years ago
New drill core shows a boom-bust landscape in the east African rift valley at a defining moment in human evolution, technology and culture
Tradition of petrified birds in the Dome of the Rock
Solomon and the petrified birds
When good governments go bad
History shows that societies collapse when leaders undermine social contracts
World’s greatest mass extinction triggered switch to warm-bloodedness
Mammals and birds today are warm-blooded, and this is often taken as the reason for their great success. University of Bristol palaeontologist Professor Mike Benton, identifies in the journal Gondwana Research that the ancestors of both mammals and birds became…
Hittite cuneiform scripts will go online
3,500-year-old clay tablet cuneiform texts of the Hittites will be made fully accessible online; Funding by the German Research Foundation
Cultural diversity and racism in the Ancient World
Award will fund display of artefacts for education
If the glove fits
Modern tools and US Army-edition gloves may have uncovered the original dimensions of the tefach, a biblical unit of measurement used by ancient Israelites
Central Asian horse riders played ball games 3,000 years ago
Today, ball games are one of the most popular leisure activities in the world, an important form of mass entertainment and big business. But who invented balls, where and when? The oldest balls that are currently known about were made…
Past tropical forest changes drove megafauna and hominin extinctions
New biochemical research shows significant turnovers in Southeast Asian environments and animals during the Pleistocene
Anglo-Saxon warlord found by detectorists could redraw map of post-Roman Britain
Archaeologists have uncovered a warrior burial in Berkshire that could change historians’ understanding of southern Britain in the early Anglo-Saxon era.
6,500-year-old copper workshop uncovered in the Negev Desert’s Beer Sheva
Tel Aviv University and Israel Antiquities Authority believe copper-producing technology was closely guarded secret
Naked prehistoric monsters! Evidence that prehistoric flying reptiles probably had
The debate about when dinosaurs developed feathers has taken a new turn with a paper refuting earlier claims that feathers were also found on dinosaurs’ relatives, the flying reptiles called pterosaurs
Modern humans reached westernmost Europe 5,000 years earlier than previously known
Discovery may indicate modern humans and Neanderthals lived in the area concurrently
New funerary and ritual behaviors of the Neolithic Iberian populations discovered
Experts from the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology of the University of Seville have just published a study in the prestigious journal PLOS ONE on an important archaeological find in the Cueva de la Dehesilla (Cádiz).
Wild birds as offerings to the Egyptian gods
Millions of ibis and birds of prey mummies, sacrificed to the Egyptian gods Horus, Ra or Thoth, have been discovered in the necropolises of the Nile Valley. Such a quantity of mummified birds raises the question of their origin: were…
Dino teeth research prove giant predatory dinosaur lived in water
Portsmouth Palaeontologists establish Spinosaurus was a real life ‘river monster’
Ancient human footprints in Saudi Arabia give glimpse of Arabian ecology 120000 years ago
New archaeological research presents the oldest securely dated evidence for humans in Arabia
A 48,000 years old tooth that belonged to one of the last Neanderthals in Northern Italy
A milk-tooth found in the vicinity of “Riparo del Broion” on the Berici Hills in the Veneto region bears evidence of one of the last Neanderthals in Italy. This small canine tooth belonged to a child between 11 and 12…
Paleontology — The oldest known sperm cells
In another fascinating snapshot from deep time, an international team of paleontologists has reported the discovery of specimens of a minuscule crustacean that dates back to the Cretaceous (about 100 million years ago), conserved in samples of amber from Myanmar.…
New Viking DNA research yields unexpected information about who they were
In the popular imagination, Vikings were fearsome blonde-haired warriors from Scandinavia who used longboats to carry out raids across Europe in a brief but bloody reign of terror. But the reality is more complex, says SFU Archaeology Prof. Mark Collard.…
Blonde Scandinavians or well-travelled Southern Europeans? Research busts myths of Vikings
When we talk of Nordic history, it is all but impossible not to mention the Vikings. Stories about the Scandinavian warriors and their Old Norse Gods have long since travelled all around the world. But perhaps part of that narrative…
Did our early ancestors boil their food in hot springs?
Scientists have found evidence of hot springs near sites where ancient hominids settled, long before the control of fire
Ancient Earthquake May Have Caused Destruction of Canaanite Palace at Tel Kabri
A team of Israeli and American researchers has uncovered new evidence that an earthquake may have caused the destruction and abandonment of a flourishing Canaanite palatial site about 3,700 years ago.
Tel Aviv University study confirms widespread literacy in biblical-period kingdom of Judah
Texts dating back to around 600 BCE were written by 12 different authors
True size of prehistoric mega-shark finally revealed
A new study led by Swansea University and the University of Bristol has revealed the size of the legendary giant shark Megalodon, including fins that are as large as an adult human.
New dating of Nebra sky disk
Archaeologists from Frankfurt and Munich prove origins in the first millennium B.C.
Drone survey reveals large earthwork at ancestral Wichita site in Kansas
Results show possible council circle at what may be Etzanoa near Wichita
A 400-year-old chamois will serve as a model for research on ice mummies
Discovered in Val Aurina, South Tyrol (Italy) and now in the laboratory of Eurac Research’s mummy experts, the remains will be studied in order to improve the conservation techniques of mummies around the world
Lactose tolerance spread throughout Europe in only a few thousand years
Palaeogeneticists at Mainz University have found evidence of lactase persistence in only a small proportion of human bones from the Bronze Age battlefield in the Tollense valley
Anthropologist receives NSF funding to explore new fossil site in Kenya
The work will lead to a better understanding of the origins of modern humans at the time they migrated out of Africa
How Neanderthals adjusted to climate change
German-Italian research project investigates different cutting tools from the Sesselfelsgrotte cave.
Evidence of hibernation-like state in Antarctic animal
Researchers discover Fossil evidence of ‘hibernation-like’ state in tusks of 250-million-year-old Antarctic animal
Proven: Historical climate changes occurred simultaneously in several parts of the world
A new study published by researchers from the University of Copenhagen and partner institutions has proven that repeated and abrupt climate changes during the last ice age occurred simultaneously in South America, Southeast Asia, Europe and Greenland
New neural network differentiates Middle and Late Stone Age toolkits
By analyzing the tool forms that frequently occur together, researchers have developed a neural network that reliably distinguishes between Middle and Later Stone Age assemblages
Vast stone monuments constructed in Arabia 7,000 years ago
New archaeological research in Saudi Arabia documents hundreds of stone structures interpreted as monumental sites where early pastoralists carried out rituals
Researchers link end of Green Sahara with SE Asia megadrought
Previously unknown mid-Holocene event led to major changes in human settlement
Archaeology: X-ray imaging provides unique snapshot of ancient animal mummification
Analysis of three mummified animals – a cat, a bird and a snake – from Ancient Egypt using advanced 3D X-ray imaging is described in a paper published in Scientific Reports . The technique provides insights into the conditions in…
Animal mummies unwrapped with hi-res 3D X-rays
Scans give clues to how they lived and died
Research into ancient Chinese chime stones receives highest honour from Chinese Government
Her extensive research, the first comprehensive study of its kind, has earned her the ‘Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad’ by the China Scholarship Council
200 000 years ago, humans preferred to kip cozy
Humans prepared beds to sleep on right at the dawn of our species — over 200 000 years ago
Cremation in the Middle-East dates as far back as 7,000 B.C.
The gender of the human remains found inside a cremation pyre pit in Beisamoun, Israel remains unknown. What is known is that the individual was a young adult injured by a flint projectile several months prior to their death in…
New study confirms the power of Deinosuchus and its ‘teeth the size of bananas’
A new study, revisiting fossil specimens from the enormous crocodylian, Deinosuchus, has confirmed that the beast had teeth “the size of bananas”, capable to take down even the very largest of dinosaurs. And, it wasn’t alone! The research, published in…
New study sheds light on evolution of hell ants from 100 million years ago
Ants are the most successful social insects and play an important role in modern terrestrial ecosystems. The origin and early evolution of ants have attracted lots of attention. Among the earliest fossil ants known, haidomyrmecine “hell ants” from Cretaceous amber…
In ancient Arabia, some tools were created to show off skills
Fluted projectile points were used like a “peacock’s feathers”
Native American stone tool technology found in Arabia
Stone fluted points dating back some 8,000 to 7,000 years ago, were discovered on archaeological sites in Manayzah, Yemen and Ad-Dahariz, Oman. Spearheads and arrowheads were found among these distinctive and technologically advanced projectile points. Until now, the prehistoric technique…
An iconic Native American stone tool technology discovered in Arabia
The recovery of distinctive fluted points from both America and Arabia provides one of the best examples of ‘independent invention’ across continents