Ancient news stories

The question of what happened to our Ice Age megafauna does not fall under the purview of a single discipline. It’s a mystery at the intersection of various sciences.

Stanford University researchers have identified DNA sequences that evolved in our ancient cousins can produce antivirus proteins, which more than likely gave some human populations the edge they needed to survive.

The 450,000-year-old teeth, discovered on the Italian Peninsula, are helping anthropologists piece together the hominid family tree.

Using this new approach, a team of researchers has determined that vessels from this early farming site in central Anatolia, in what is now Turkey, contained cereals, legumes, dairy products and meat.

The 450,000-year-old teeth, discovered on the Italian Peninsula, are helping anthropologists piece together the hominid family tree

Using a drill, scientists extract a tiny chip from each bone, treat it with chemicals that pull out collagen, use an enzyme that cuts the collagen into pieces, and weigh those pieces with a mass spectrometer.

Stone engravings found in a temple in southern Egypt may reveal new information about Seti I, who launched a series of military campaigns in North Africa and the Middle East after he became pharaoh in about 1289 or 1288 B.C.

Stone sinkers dated to 29,000 years ago are evidence of ancient fishing technology—but some archaeologists have doubts.

A mysterious piece of pottery shaped as a female head sends a smile from 7,300 years ago, as its host museum in east China’s Anhui Province starts a global naming bid for the ancient relic.

Precisely what the retrovirus now known as HERV-K HML-2 (HK2) did 30m years ago, when it first infected some primates whose descendants would eventually come to be called human beings, remains a mystery.

A revved-up version of traditional CT scanning shows it’s possible to acquire microscopic-scale images of ancient Egyptian mummies, revealing previously unseen features such as blood vessels and nerves.

Malta has always been a way-station on journeys between Africa and southern Europe, with extraordinary diversity in its past and current inhabitants.

Extinct comet classified as potentially hazardous because of its size and proximity to our planet.

Humans did not accelerate the decline of the ‘Green Sahara’ and may have managed to hold back the onset of the Sahara desert by around 500 years, according to new research led by UCL.

The discovery of rock carvings believed to be tens of thousands of years old in India’s western state of Maharashtra has greatly excited archaeologists who believe they hold clues to a previously unknown civilisation.

Neanderthals have long been associated with brutish behavior, but a new study adds to the growing body of literature that challenges this stereotype.