Ancient news stories

A new study published in Neuroscience Bulletin suggests that mescaline, a chemical found in certain cacti that can cause hallucinations, may alter how the brain responds to incoming sensory information.

A new skull-based analysis of Neanderthal brains suggests that these ancient hominins’ range of intelligence largely overlapped with our own. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

Mars once had rivers of magma bubbling beneath its crust, new research suggests. The surprise find makes it more probable that Mars could have supported life and widens the selection of rocky planets that may once have been habitable.

The GunaiKurnai, an Australian Aboriginal nation, are the acknowledged traditional custodians of Gippsland and the southern Victorian Alps. Within their territory are caves known from 19th-century ethnographic reports and oral traditions to have been settings for magic, healing and cursing rituals by powerful learned women and men called “mulla-mullung,” as well as by other spiritual practitioners. The new study was published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.

A new study, published in Royal Society Open Science, reveals that moss cushions produce surprisingly complex electrical activity, with patterns that undulate across the velvety patch in dynamic waves.

This particular altar, found in the former Toltec capital of Tula – known in Nahuatl as Tollan – and tentatively dated to the city’s Tollan phase between 950 and 1100 CE, gave researchers a macabre surprise.

For decades, scientists have disputed the meaning of the weapons found in the burial chambers of some ancient Egyptian princesses. Were they symbolic or practical tools? Now, a reassessment of five royal women’s mummies from the Middle Kingdom has shown that some princesses buried with weapons could use them. The research was published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology

Joël Lapointe was using Google Maps to plan a camping trail through Quebec’s Côte-Nord region when he stumbled across a large indentation. Now, scientists have confirmed that the pit was indeed a meteor impact crater that dates back roughly 390 million years.

The Upton Lovell Shaman, a Bronze Age individual depicted in museum exhibits as a bearded spiritual leader and metalworker, was female, an ancient DNA analysis has revealed. The 4,000-year-old skeleton, along with the extensive collection of stone axes, metalworking tools, and the remains of an elaborate ceremonial cloak found in the grave, is regarded as one of the most significant Bronze Age burials in Britain.

Archaeological work conducted at the Coves del Fem (Ulldemolins, Priorat)—located within the Serra de Montsant Natural Park—between May 30 and June 28, 2026, has yielded important new evidence for understanding the prehistory of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula.

While the possibility that dark matter exists in an extra, hidden dimension has been extensively researched in recent years, scientists at the University of Sheffield have now taken that concept a step further. A new study, published in Physical Review D, proposes a framework to explain how dark matter behaves and why it remains so difficult to detect.

For 65m years, this landscape has sheltered all manner of astonishing creatures. But some of the most fascinating life forms found here are even older. Before animals walked the Earth or trees began converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, fungi helped to create the conditions necessary for complex life on our planet. “People often say that fungi grow in the forest,” Dr Alison Pouliot, a mycologist, tells me as we inhale cool air perfumed with the gentle spice of sassafras. “But there wouldn’t be a forest without fungi. Fungi are the ecosystem engineers that created the foundation for the forest.”

Research published on Thursday has revealed that the humble birds were first domesticated 3,500 years ago, meaning they have been enmeshed in our lives for nearly a millennium longer than previously thought.

Neandertal babies seem to have started life much the same as modern humans, then grew a lot faster…One study, published June 17 in Royal Society Open Science, looked at the remains of a very young Neandertal child. The other study, published April 15 in Current Biology, examined the remains of a six-month-old Neandertal from a cave in northern Israel.

In an anthropology-expanding study published in Nature Communications, an international team reports that human DNA can be preserved on cave walls for millennia.

A microscopic analysis of the skull of Qafzeh 25 revealed a cut mark likely made by a stone tool 100,000 years ago. The study was published June 30 in the journal Scientific Reports.