Ancient news stories

Mars ‘asteroid showers’ have stayed steady over 600 million years
26th January 2022 | space.com | Ancient, Space

Fresh analysis of craters on Mars suggests that asteroids have been smashing into the surface at a consistent rate for at least 600 million years.

Human ancestor Homo erectus probably wasn’t the carnivore we thought
26th January 2022 | nhm.ac.uk | Ancient, Humans

A new analysis has looked at multiple sites which show evidence of early humans and found something surprising. It suggests that findings of increasing carnivory over time in Homo erectus are just a quirk of sampling.

Ancient DNA suggests woolly mammoths roamed the Earth more recently than previously thought
24th January 2022 theconversation.com | Ancient, Animal Life

In 2010, small cores of permafrost sediments were collected by a team at the University of Alberta from gold mines in the Klondike region of central Yukon.

Ancient metal tubes unearthed in 1897 could be oldest surviving drinking straws
19th January 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Humans

A set of ancient gold and silver tubes dating to about 5,500 years ago and unearthed in North Caucasus in Russia could be the world’s oldest surviving drinking straws, experts have claimed.

Study Finds Protein Structures That Could Be Responsible For The Origins of Life
19th January 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

The question of how life first sparked into existence on our planet is one we haven’t yet fully answered, but science is getting closer all the time – and a new study identifies the structures of the proteins that may well have made it happen

1st bioengineered hybrid animals discovered — in ancient Mesopotamia
17th January 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Mesopotamians were using hybrids of domesticated donkeys and wild asses to pull their war wagons 4,500 years ago — at least 500 years before horses were bred for the purpose, a new study reveals

Trail of African bling reveals 50,000-year-old social network
17th January 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Humans

Scientists have uncovered the world’s oldest social network, a web of connections that flourished 50,000 years ago and stretched for thousands of miles across Africa.

Million-Year-Old DNA Yields Mammoth Surprises
17th January 2022 | discovermagazine.com | Ancient, Animal Life

A decades-old Siberian tooth sample has revealed a previously unknown mammoth lineage, along with a potential ancestor’s unexpected adaptations.

A Newly Discovered Fossil Could Be The Answer to Darwin’s ‘Abominable’ Mystery
17th January 2022 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Earth

Scientists in China say they have found the oldest flower bud in the fossil record, finally aligning the fossil evidence with the genetic data suggesting flowering plants, or angiosperms, evolved tens of millions of years earlier than we initially thought.

Archaeologists discover ancient highways in Arabia
17th January 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Archeologists from The University of Western Australia have discovered people who lived in north-west Arabia in the Early to Middle Bronze Age built ‘funerary avenues’—long-distance corridors linking oases and pastures, bordered by thousands of elaborate burial monuments.

Early Homo Sapiens Found in Ethiopia Is Older Than Had Been Thought
14th January 2022 | haaretz.com | Ancient, Humans

New analysis based on ash from volcanic cataclysm dates an early human found at Omo, Ethiopia, to 233,000 years, supporting the ‘early evolution’ theory for Homo sapiens

Psychedelic-laced beer may have helped this ancient South American empire rule
14th January 2022 edition.cnn.com | Ancient, Humans

Beer laced with hallucinogenic drugs derived from plant seeds may have helped leaders of a South American culture maintain their political control for hundreds of years, according to new research.

Clovis hunters’ reputation as mammoth killers takes a hit
11th January 2022 | sciencenews.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Tests of stone points show that early Americans may have been better scavengers than hunters of the giant beasts.

Rare African script offers clues to the evolution of writing
11th January 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

The world’s very first invention of writing took place over 5000 years ago in the Middle East, before it was reinvented in China and Central America. Today, almost all human activities—from education to political systems and computer code—rely on this technology.

Medieval warhorses no bigger than modern-day ponies, study finds
11th January 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

In films and literature, they are usually depicted as hulking, foot-stomping, snorting beasts but a new study has claimed that the medieval warhorse was typically a much slighter, daintier animal.

Rare ‘bionic’ armor discovered in 2,500-year-old China burial
11th January 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

About 2,500 years ago, a man in northwest China was buried with armor made of more than 5,000 leather scales, a military garment fashioned so intricately, its design looks like the overlapping scales of a fish, a new study finds

News stories covering history, archaeology, ancient Egypt, and mysteries of the past.