Archaeology

A Large Number of Animal Skulls Were Found in Neanderthal Cave

Steppe bison cranium from Level 3. Credit: Nature Human Behaviour (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01503-7A team of researchers has made an interesting discovery in a Neanderthal cave in southwestern France. They have found several large animal skulls, including those of a bear, a lion, and a hyena, all of which are much larger than the animals typically hunted...

Lasers Show Massive, 650-Square-Mile Maya Site Hidden Beneath Guatemalan Rainforest

A complex of Maya pyramids in Guatemala as seen via lidar. Credit: "LiDAR analyses in the contiguous Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin, Guatemala: an introduction to new perspectives on regional early Maya socioeconomic and political organization," by Richard D. Hansen et al., in Ancient Mesoamerica, Published online by Cambridge University Press December 5, 2022Geologists in northern Guatemala have discovered a...

Mummified Crocodiles Offer Insights Into Mummy-Making Over Time

Overview of the crocodiles during excavation. Credit: Patri Mora Riudavets, member of the Qubbat al-Hawā team, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Crocodiles were mummified uniquely at the Egyptian site of Qubbat al-Hawā during the 5th Century BC, concerning to a study released January 18th, 2023, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Bea De Cupere of the...

DNA Gathered From Slave Skeletons Buried in Unmarked 18th-Century Burial Grounds Reveals Their History

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public DomainA group of scientists affiliated with numerous institutions in the united states, collaborating with members of The Anson Street African Cemetery Project, have found out some of the history behind some of the slaved buried in 18th century Charleston, South Carolina-- home to one of the busiest slave ports in American...

Ancient Chimeras Were Suction Feeders, Not Shell Crushers

Iniopera reconstruction. Credit: Richard Dearden / University of BIrminghamA rare three-dimensional fossil of an ancient chimera has revealed new hints of the diversity of these creatures in the Carboniferous time, some 300 million years ago.Ancient chimeraA research study led by the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (MNHN) and the University of Birmingham revealed an ancient...

Monkeys– Not Humans– Made Old Sets of Stone Tools in Brazil, Study Discovers

(Dorit Bar-Zakay/Moment/Getty Images)Scientists think that old rock tools found in Brazil are the work of capuchin monkeys, not early human beings, the art and design website Artnet reported, mentioning an academic article."We are confident that the very early archeological websites from Brazil might not be human-derived but might come from capuchin apes," wrote archaeologist...

Archaeologists Discover Monumental Evidence of Prehistoric Hunting Throughout Arabian Desert

Guided by Dr. Michael Fradley, a group of scientists in the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and also North Africa (EAMENA) project utilized a range of open-source satellite images to carefully study the area around the eastern Nafud desert, an region little researched in the past. The unexpected results, released in the journal...

A Spider Monkey’s Remains Tell a Story of Old Diplomacy in the Americas

Archaeologists found the complete skeleton of a spider monkey (right) buried beside an eagle (left) and other animals at the base of a pyramid in the ancient city of Teotihuacan. Credit: N. SUGIYAMA/PROJECT PLAZA OF THE COLUMNS COMPLEXIts 1,700-year-old skeletal system excavated at Teotihuacan in Mexico recommends it was likely an offering from the...

Setence Written in Canaanite Language Found on Ivory Comb

Credit: IAAARCHAEOLOGISTS IDENTIFIED AN ENTIRE SENTENCE IN CANAANITE ENGRAVED ON AN IVORY COMB THAT DATES FROM 1700 BC.The comb was uncovered at Tel Lachish in Israel back in 2017 by a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) and Southern Adventist University in the United States.At the time, the shallow nature of the...

Three Elements that Could Describe Why Some Snails Endured the end-Triassic Mass Extinction Occasion

The Heterobrachia was little affected by the end-Triassic mass extinction, possibly because of a flexible mode of feeding of the larvae, an adaptation to relatively warm temperatures, and a flexible attachment of the mantle that allowed for covering the shell. Credit: Mariel Ferrari, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)A set of investigators, one with Instituto Patagónico de...