People have shaped Earth’s ecology for at least 12,000 years, mostly sustainably
New data challenge previous assessments indicating that most land was uninhabited as recently as 1500 CE and suggest path toward long-term environmental stewardship.
Nuclear DNA from sediments helps unlock ancient human history
For the first time, scientists have succeeded in extracting and analyzing Neanderthal chromosomal DNA preserved in cave sediments.
Neanderthal ancestry identifies oldest modern human genome
The fossil skull of a woman in Czechia has provided the oldest modern human genome yet reconstructed, representing a population that formed before the ancestors of present-day Europeans and...
Humans were apex predators for two million years
What did our ancestors eat during the stone age? Mostly meat
Early humans in the Kalahari were as innovative as their coastal neighbors
Archaeological evidence in a rockshelter at the edge of the Kalahari Desert, South Africa, is challenging the idea that the origins of our species were linked to coastal environments.
The world’s earliest stone technologies are likely to be older than previously thought
A new study from the University of Kent's School of Anthropology and Conservation has found that Oldowan and Acheulean stone tool technologies are likely to be tens of thousands...
Ancient Maya houses show wealth inequality is tied to despotic governance
States with more collective governance had more similarly sized houses.
An ancient Maya ambassador’s bones show a life of privilege and hardship
Ajpach' Waal forged an alliance between two dynasties but died in obscurity.
Researchers solve more of the mystery of Laos megalithic jars
'Plain of Jars' dates put at 1240 to 660 BCE.
