https://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils en-us The latest news on archaeology, archaeological research and archaeological advancements. A research group led by the Nagoya University Museum and Graduate School of Environmental Studies in Japan has clarified differences in the physical characteristics of rocks used by early humans during the Paleolithic. They found that humans selected rock for a variety of reasons and not just because of how easy it was to break off. This suggests that early humans had the technical skill to discern the best rock for the tool. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-paleolithic-humans-understood-properties-stone.html Archaeology Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:23:03 EST news620637781 A series of 'bone biographies' created by a major research project tell the stories of medieval Cambridge residents as recorded on their skeletons, illuminating everyday lives during the era of Black Death and its aftermath. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-bone-biographies-reveal-medieval-england.html Archaeology Social Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 19:00:01 EST news620582536 Scientists should seek answers hidden in the dirt using proven and state-of-the-art archaeological science techniques to support new discoveries about human evolution following recent controversies at a cave site in Africa, says a group of international experts. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-dishing-dirt-human-evolution-scientific.html Archaeology Thu, 30 Nov 2023 11:57:48 EST news620567865 About 350 million people across Africa speak one or more of the 500 Bantu languages. New genetic analysis of modern and ancient individuals suggests that these populations probably originated in western Africa and then moved south and east in several waves. The study has been published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-bantu-speaking-populations-expansion-africa.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:20:03 EST news620482801 The double burial of an adult woman and an infant, dating to about 7000–6800 BCE, discovered in 1934 during construction works at the spa gardens of Bad Dürrenberg, is regarded as one of the outstanding burial finds of the Mesolithic in Central Europe. Because of the unusual equipment with the woman, who was buried in a seated position, and her bodily anomalies, the burial is interpreted as that of a shaman. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-genetic-year-old-shaman-burial-germany.html Archaeology Wed, 29 Nov 2023 09:40:04 EST news620473201 In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (SHEP) at the University of Tübingen show that early humans of the Middle Paleolithic had a more varied diet than previously assumed. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-early-humans-paleolithic-age-game.html Archaeology Tue, 28 Nov 2023 09:37:12 EST news620386630 The national park of Koli in eastern Finland is home to a famous, 34-meter-long crevice cave known as Pirunkirkko, or Devil's Church in English. In folklore, this crevice cave was known as a place where local sages would meet to contact the spirit world. Even today, the place is visited by practitioners of shamanism, who organize drumming sessions in the cave. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-witchcraft-devil-church-koli-based.html Archaeology Mon, 27 Nov 2023 10:25:03 EST news620303101 Research led by Nathan Nakatsuka of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Boston, has found evidence supporting migrations into California from Mexico and the presence of Mexican-related ancestry in Central and Southern California starting around 5,200 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-years-migrations-mexico-california-mystery.html Archaeology Social Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 09:29:25 EST news620299762 A possibly pre-Christian temple from the time of the East Anglian Kings, some 1,400 years ago, has been found at Rendlesham, near Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, by a team of archaeologists led by UCL researchers. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-year-old-temple-suffolk-royal-settlement.html Archaeology Fri, 24 Nov 2023 13:32:56 EST news620055173 In a landmark collaboration between Wiradjuri people, NSW State government and archaeologists, new research has revealed the deep-time hidden story of Wiradjuri carved trees (marara) and burials (dhabuganha) in Southeast Australia. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-unveiling-sacred-wiradjuri-trees.html Archaeology Fri, 24 Nov 2023 08:43:36 EST news620037806 The Iron Age site of Casas del Turuñuelo was used repeatedly for ritualized animal sacrifice, according to a multidisciplinary study published November 22, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mª Pilar Iborra Eres of the Institut Valencià de Conservació, Restauració i Investigació, Spain, Sebastián Celestino Pérez of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain, and their colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-casas-del-turuuelo-site-animal.html Archaeology Wed, 22 Nov 2023 14:00:01 EST news619869578 New research findings reveal that some children in early medieval Bavaria were breastfed for much longer periods than today. Also, many early Bavarians buried around 500 AD originate from other geographical regions where feeding practices apparently differed. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-childhood-medieval-bavaria-teeth-reveal.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:51:04 EST news619872662 Archaeologists from University College Dublin, working with colleagues from Serbia and Slovenia, have uncovered a previously unknown network of massive sites in the heart of Europe that could explain the emergence of the continent's Bronze Age megaforts—the largest prehistoric constructions seen prior to the Iron Age. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-archaeologists-uncover-europe-hidden-bronze.html Archaeology Mon, 20 Nov 2023 10:52:18 EST news619699935 On a summer's day in July 1943, a U.S. B-25 Mitchell bomber left Tunisia in North Africa on a mission to attack the Sciacca Aerodrome in Sicily, Italy. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-forensic-scientists-world-war-decades.html Archaeology Other Thu, 16 Nov 2023 16:40:04 EST news619375201 New dates provide detailed insights into the timing of events in the ancient city of Gezer, according to a study published November 15, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Lyndelle Webster of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-radiocarbon-dating-egyptology-biblical-accounts.html Archaeology Wed, 15 Nov 2023 14:00:02 EST news619262927 Infants and toddlers may be psychologically wired to thrive with high levels of "sensitive care" and personal attention, according to a study conducted with contemporary hunter-gatherer societies. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-hunter-gatherer-approach-childcare-key-mother.html Archaeology Social Sciences Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:45:05 EST news619098300 For almost 10 years, debate has raged over the book Dark Emu by Aboriginal historian Bruce Pascoe. In it, Pascoe argues many pre-colonial Aboriginal groups were farmers, pointing to examples like eel aquaculture in Victoria, and grain planting and threshing of native millet in the arid center. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-farmers-foragers-pre-colonial-aboriginal-food.html Archaeology Sat, 11 Nov 2023 11:50:01 EST news618839273 How did our species, Homo sapiens, arrive in Western Europe? Published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, our new study analyzes two skull fragments dating back between 37,000 and 36,000 years to conclude that our ancestors came from Eastern Europe and migrated westwards. These two individuals interbred with Neanderthals and with the very first European Homo sapiens, who arrived around 45,000 years ago and were thought to have become extinct following a major climatic catastrophe. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-archaeological-skull-fragments-ukraine-reveal.html Archaeology Thu, 09 Nov 2023 13:06:48 EST news618757602 On the shores of Lake Turkana in east Africa, about 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, pastoralists buried their dead in communal cemeteries that were marked by stone circles and pillars. The north-west Kenya "pillar sites" were built around the same time as Stonehenge in the UK. But these places have a different story to tell: about how mortuary traditions reflect people's environments, behaviors and reactions to change. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-turkana-stone-beads-story-herder.html Archaeology Thu, 09 Nov 2023 11:21:04 EST news618751262 A case study led by Southern Illinois University, Illinois, has described the earliest discovery of an ovarian teratoma, a type of tumor that contains well-differentiated tissues developed from three germ cell layers (ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm). https://phys.org/news/2023-11-ancient-egyptian-burial-reveals-ovarian.html Archaeology Thu, 09 Nov 2023 10:40:01 EST news618746441 The hunter-gatherers who settled on the banks of the Haine, a river in southern Belgium, 31,000 years ago were already using spearthrowers to hunt their game. This is the finding of a new study conducted at TraceoLab at the University of Liège. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-long-distance-weaponry-year-old-archaeological-site.html Archaeology Mon, 06 Nov 2023 11:51:03 EST news618493862 A team of archaeologists, geophysicists, geologists, and paleontologists affiliated with multiple institutions in Indonesia has found evidence showing that Gunung Padang is the oldest known pyramid in the world. In their paper published in the journal Archaeological Prospection, the group describes their multi-year study of the cultural heritage site. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-evidence-strongly-indonesia-gunung-padang.html Archaeology Mon, 06 Nov 2023 11:10:01 EST news618489333 Archaeologists have unearthed more ancient ruins of what they believe was once a bustling port city near the capital of modern-day Morocco, digging out thermal baths and working class neighborhoods that the country hopes will lure tourists and scholars in the years ahead. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-moroccan-archaeologists-unearth-chellah-tourism-friendly.html Archaeology Fri, 03 Nov 2023 12:09:16 EDT news618232150 A re-analysis of more than 300 sets of 5,000-year-old skeletal remains excavated from a site in Spain suggests that many of the individuals may have been casualties of the earliest period of warfare in Europe, occurring over 1,000 years before the previous earliest known larger-scale conflict in the region. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-larger-scale-warfare-europe-years-earlier.html Archaeology Thu, 02 Nov 2023 12:00:01 EDT news618137839 Historians and archaeologists have, over centuries, explored the mysteries behind the Great Sphinx of Giza: What did it originally look like? What was it designed to represent? What was its original name? But less attention has been paid to a foundational, and controversial, question: What was the terrain the Ancient Egyptians came across when they began to build this instantly recognizable structure—and did these natural surroundings have a hand in its formation? https://phys.org/news/2023-10-nature-formation-great-sphinx.html Archaeology Tue, 31 Oct 2023 12:00:10 EDT news617972408 In a twist in the ancient human story, emerging evidence suggests that we may have worn shoes as early as the Middle Stone Age (75,000—150,000 years ago). This could mean that our species had complex cognitive and practical abilities much earlier than was previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-earliest-evidence-flip-flops-middle.html Archaeology Fri, 27 Oct 2023 13:44:29 EDT news617633065 Excavations on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi have uncovered two unique and deadly artifacts dating back some 7,000 years—tiger shark teeth that were used as blades. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-shark-knife-year-old-shark-tooth-knives.html Archaeology Fri, 27 Oct 2023 12:28:12 EDT news617628484 Archaeologists have used declassified spy satellite imagery from the 1960s and 70s to reevaluate one of the first aerial archaeology surveys ever, revealing 396 previously undiscovered Roman forts in what is now Syria and Iraq. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-spy-satellites-reveal-hundreds-undiscovered.html Archaeology Fri, 27 Oct 2023 10:35:57 EDT news617621753 A team of archaeologists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology, Sorbonne Universite and Conservatoire national des arts et métiers has found the oldest-known example of the use of organic red pigments to color an object—in this case, beads. In their study, reported on the open-access site PLOS ONE, the group used a variety of techniques to identify the source of red coloring on shell beads found in an Israeli cave decades ago. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-beads-israel-oldest-red-pigments.html Archaeology Thu, 26 Oct 2023 10:20:02 EDT news617533925 Ancient people immigrated to Cancun Island and were treated just like locals, according to a study published October 25, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Andrea Cucina of the Autonomous University of Yucatan, Mexico and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-prehispanic-cancun-immigrants-maya-locals.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 25 Oct 2023 14:00:01 EDT news617447842