Ancient news stories

Our new study, published in the journal Australian Archaeology, is the first archaeological research undertaken on the Great Papuan Plateau. The findings continue to undermine the historical Eurocentric idea that early Indigenous societies in this region were static and unchanging.

New data from the James Webb telescope suggests that Bennu and Ryugu — two asteroids recently visited by sample-return missions — are both fragments of a single massive “parent”. See the findings in a new study, published Aug. 18 in The Planetary Science Journal.

The mystery of the Petralona Cave skull centers around two intriguing unknowns. First, while it is clearly of the Homo genus, it is distinctly different from both Neanderthals and current modern humans. Next, dating the skull has remained difficult to narrow down, with previous estimates spanning about 170,000 to 700,000 years in age. See the study, “New U-series dates on the Petralona cranium, a key fossil in European human evolution,” published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

The research takes a new look at a species known as Denisovans. These ancient relatives of humans lived from what is today Russia south to Oceania and west to the Tibetan Plateau.The researchers published their results in the journal Science.

Isotopes shows animal began life in Wales, adding weight to theory cattle used in hauling stones across country

The people of the ancient Incan empire kept careful records of their economics, religion, demographics and history. Those records took the form of knotted cords called khipus.

In the study, “Arrow heads at Obi-Rakhmat (Uzbekistan) 80 ka ago?,” published in PLOS ONE, researchers designed a traceological search to identify weapon heads in the oldest layers of the Obi-Rakhmat rock shelter.

Evidence from Kenya shows that key stone tools in the development of early humans were made by transporting materials over long distances 600,000 years earlier than previously thought…Geochemical analysis of 401 Oldowan tools from Kenya was published in the journal Science Advances.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has snapped black and white images of a rock on the Martian surface that looks remarkably like a piece of coral.

After using lasers to map the Maya Lowlands, researchers have updated their estimates of the total Maya population during the Late Classic Period (A.D. 600 to 900). The new research was published online July 7 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Archaeologists have found ancient human stone tools dating to more than 1 million years ago on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The tools are 5 times older than the previous earliest evidence of humans on the island. The findings are presented in a paper published today in Nature.

Analysis of ocean sediments has surfaced geochemical clues in line with the possibility that an encounter with a disintegrating comet 12,800 years ago in the Northern Hemisphere triggered rapid cooling of Earth’s air and ocean. Christopher Moore of the University of South Carolina, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the journal PLOS One on August 6, 2025.

Université de Bordeaux-led research reports that spatial statistics can discriminate potential Paleolithic Artificial Memory Systems from butchery and art, aligning prehistoric marked objects with memory devices in Africa and Europe. The study was published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 

A study of a handful of 300,000-year-old teeth revealed an ancient human group had a mix of archaic and modern tooth features. The study is published in the September issue of the Journal of Human Evolution.

In Gabon’s sprawling forest, archaeologists dig for ancient clues that could unlock the secrets of how prehistoric humans lived and interacted in the changing landscape of central Africa.

Ancient teeth found in Thailand show that the practice of chewing on betel nuts emerged at least 4,000 years ago during the Bronze Age. The discovery of 4,000-year-old dental plaque with trace compounds from betel nuts is detailed in a paper published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.