A study on mice has revealed that ayahuasca acts as a potent analgesic without causing any detectable toxic effects. This analgesic property is partly due to harmine, a significant component of ayahuasca. The findings were published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

The founder of a rich data base of Indigenous Australian “message sticks” believes it showcases historic communication techniques of first nations people. You can access the beta version of the database here.

The elongated, cone-shaped skulls of Viking Age women buried on the Baltic island of Gotland may be evidence of trading contacts with the Black Sea region, a new study finds.

Hunter-gatherers in what is now Patagonia, Argentina, kept foxes as pets before the arrival of European dogs about 500 years ago, a new study suggests. In some cases, the ancient people were so closely bonded with their pet foxes that they were even buried with them.

Dozens of broken pieces of pottery dating between 2,000 and 3,000 years old have been unearthed on a windswept island on the Great Barrier Reef – the oldest pottery ever discovered in Australia. The research has been published in Quaternary Science Reviews.