Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Cave objects suggest modern humans and Neanderthals shared continent for several thousand years
Modern humans were present in Europe at least 46,000 years ago, according to new research on objects found in Bulgaria, meaning they overlapped with Neanderthals for far longer than previously thought.
Researchers say remains and tools found at a cave called Bacho Kiro reveal that modern humans and Neanderthals were present at the same time in Europe for several thousand years, giving them ample time for biological and cultural interaction.
Discovery adds to growing evidence that Neanderthals were very similar to modern humans
Neanderthals made extensive use of coastal environments, munching on fish, crabs and mussels, researchers have found, in the latest study to reveal similarities between modern humans and our big-browed cousins.
Until now, many Neanderthal sites had shown only small-scale use of marine resources; for example, scattered shells. But now archaeologists have excavated a cave on the coast of Portugal and discovered a huge, structured deposit of remains, including from mussels and limpets, dating to between 106,000 and 86,000 years ago.
Traces of unknown ancestor emerged when researchers analysed genomes from west African populations
Scientists have found evidence for a mysterious “ghost population” of ancient humans that lived in Africa about half a million years ago and whose genes live on in people today.
Traces of the unknown ancestor emerged when researchers analysed genomes from west African populations and found that up to a fifth of their DNA appeared to have come from the missing relatives.
Homo sapien invasion may not have prompted Neanderthals’ demise 40,000 years ago
Perhaps it wasn’t our fault after all: research into the demise of the Neanderthals has found that rather than being outsmarted by Homo sapiens, our burly, thick-browed cousins may have gone extinct through bad luck alone.
The Neanderthal population was so small at the time modern humans arrived in Europe and the Near East that inbreeding and natural fluctuations in birth rates death rates and sex ratios could have finished them off, the scientists claim.
Other scientists raise questions about results, which were based on DNA samples
Scientists claim to have traced the ancestral home region of all living humans to a vast wetland that sprawled over much of modern day Botswana and served as an oasis in an otherwise parched expanse of Africa.
The swathe of land south of the Zambezi River became a thriving home to Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago, the researchers suggest, and sustained an isolated, founder population of modern humans for at least 70,000 years.
Remains discovered on Mani peninsula could rewrite history of Homo sapiens in Eurasia
A broken skull chiselled from a lump of rock in a cave in Greece is the oldest modern human fossil ever found outside Africa, researchers claim.
The partial skull was discovered in the Apidima cave on the Mani peninsula of the southern Peloponnese and has been dated to be at least 210,000 years old.
Scientists extract proteins from a molar to uncover details of mysterious species’ origins
A human jawbone found in a cave on the Tibetan plateau has revealed new details about the appearance and lifestyle of a mysterious ancient species called Denisovans.
The 160,000-year-old fossil, comprising a powerful jaw and unusually large teeth, suggests these early relatives would have looked something like the most primitive of the Neanderthals. The discovery also shows that Denisovans lived at extremely high altitude and, through interbreeding, may have passed on gene adaptations for this lifestyle to modern-day Sherpas in the region.
Homo luzonensis fossils found in Luzon island cave,dating back up to 67,00 years
A new species of ancient human, thought to have been under 4ft tall and adapted to climbing trees, has been discovered in the Philippines, providing a twist in the story of human evolution.
The specimen, named Homo luzonensis, was excavated from Callao cave on Luzon island in the northern Philippines and has been dated to 50,000-67,000 years ago – when our own ancestors and the Neanderthals were spreading across Europe and into Asia.
Underwater haul of Tiwanaku ceremonial relics is unprecedented, say academics
An ancient ceremonial site described as exceptional has been discovered in the Andes by marine archaeologists, who recovered ritual offerings and the remains of slaughtered animals from a reef in the middle of Lake Titicaca.
The remarkable haul points to a history of highly charged ceremonies in which the elite of the region’s Tiwanaku state boated out to the reef and sacrificed young llamas, seemingly decorated for death, and made offerings of gold and exquisite stone miniatures to a ray-faced deity, as incense billowed from pottery pumas.
Location of statues was based on nearby fresh water and other resources, says US study
The huge stone figures of Easter Island have beguiled explorers, researchers and the wider world for centuries, but now experts say they have cracked one of the biggest mysteries: why the statues are where they are.
Researchers say they have analysed the locations of the megalithic platforms, or ahu, on which many of the statues known as moai sit, as well as scrutinising sites of the island’s resources, and have discovered the structures are typically found close to sources of fresh water.
A group of archaeologists and volunteers are working in Paradise to recover cremains of loved ones lost in the debris of homes destroyed in the Camp Fire. The Institute for Canine Forensics and archaeologists from Alta Archaeological Consulting have been working together to locate cremains.
New technology and new laws surrounding burial sites lead to the discovery of several mass graves across the Deep South. In this image taken from video, burial grounds for slaves are located in the wooded area in New Orleans, Wednesday, June 13, 2018.
Thousands of ancient clay tablets, seals and other Iraqi archaeological objects that were smuggled into the U.S. and shipped to the head of arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby were returned to the Iraqi government on Wednesday. The Oklahoma City-based private company, whose devout Christian owners won a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling exempting them from providing certain contraceptive coverage for employees, agreed to pay a $3 million fine last year to settle a lawsuit over the company's role in the smuggling of the artifacts, which authorities say were looted from the war-torn country.
Case closed! FBI finally cracks its oldest mystery after successfully extracting DNA from a 4,000-year-old severed mummy's head that was originally discovered in 1915 The FBI successfully uncovered the identity of a 4,000-year-old mummy's head, after deliberating for years whether it belonged to an Egyptian governor or his wife. The mummy's severed head was found in 1915 by a team of American archaeologists working in the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Deir el-Bersha.
Thousands of ancient clay tablets, seals and other Iraqi archaeological objects that were smuggled into the U.S. and shipped to the head of arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby were returned to the Iraqi government on Wednesday. The Oklahoma City-based private company, whose devout Christian owners won a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling exempting them from providing certain contraceptive coverage for employees, agreed to pay a $3 million fine last year to settle a lawsuit over the company's role in the smuggling of the artifacts, which authorities say were looted from the war-torn country.
Facial reconstructions produced by students in the New York Academy of Art's forensic workshop in New York City. At the academy, graduate students reconstruct faces of the dead found in the Arizona desert using their skulls or 3-D drawings.
Such wanton erasure of culture diminishes our collective history. As an archaeologist who has spent much of my career protecting heritage, I see these as instances of violence against history.
He served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, has a Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA, was the first full-time professional archaeologist to work for the Department of Defense, author and the retired director of the Center for Cultural Site Preservation at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. He was the consulting archaeologist on the Kennewick man case, a 1996 dispute surrounding the discovery of an ancient skeleton in Washington State, and presently serves as chairman of the Vicksburg municipal Fort St. Pierre tercentennial planning commission.
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