Humans news stories

Prehistoric Polynesian seafarers were highly skilled and undertook some of the longest and most technically demanding voyages in prehistory—but did they ever sail into very high latitudes with landfall in Antarctica, as some scholars have argued? An international team of archaeologists and paleoecologists seeking an answer to this question…Their study is published in the journal Archaeology in Oceania.

A small 4,400-year-old town in the Khaybar Oasis of Saudi Arabia hints that Bronze Age people in this region were slow to urbanize, unlike their contemporaries in Egypt and Mesopotamia, finds a new study published Wednesday (Oct. 30) in the journal PLOS One.

The discovery, led by astronomer Alexia Lopez of the University of Central Lancashire, was presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January, and has been published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.

Scientists have been trying to figure out where kissing came from for a long time. New research suggests that the answer is to be found in the behaviour of ancient ape ancestors of humans…

A study published in L’Anthropologie by Professor Ella Been from Ono Academic College and Dr. Omry Barzilai from the University of Haifa sheds new light on the burial practices of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the Levant region during the Middle Paleolithic (MP).

The city contains up to 6,674 structures, including pyramids like the ones at Chichén Itzá and Tikal, according to a study published Tuesday (Oct. 29) in the journal Antiquity. The researchers used previously created lidar (light detection and ranging) maps, which are created by shooting laser pulses at the ground, to reveal the potentially 1,500-year-old site.

According to a new study published in the journal Fungal Ecology, fungi may have their own unique measure of intelligence, making them capable of basic shape recognition and decision-making throughout the networks they build.

A new study published in iScience on October 25 describes how researchers used ancient DNA to corroborate the events of the saga and discover details about the “Well-man,” blending history and archaeology with science and setting a precedent for future research on historical figures.

‘Bricks’ of DNA, some of which have chemical tags, could one day be an alternative to storing information electronically.

A new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology reveals a surprising link between mystical experiences induced by the psychedelic compound DMT and specific patterns of heart activity.

The first-ever use of cutting-edge drone-based lidar in Central Asia allowed archaeologists to capture stunning details of two newly documented trade cities high in the mountains of Uzbekistan.

Archaeologists have discovered ancient altars and inscribed marble slabs submerged along the Italian coast near Naples….The study was published Sept. 12 in the journal Antiquity.

It’s possible that the wheel was invented by copper miners in the Carpathian Mountains up to 6,000 years ago, according to a modeling study that uses techniques from structural mechanics.

…Over one hundred Shipibo-Conibo Onanyabo, or ancestral medicine healers, from the Ucayali region of Peru…met in July to discuss the future of spiritual tourism, the defense of traditional knowledge, and the protection of the forest and Indigenous territories. One of the main takeaways from the meeting was ayahuasca is under threat of extinction.

Elephant fossils from 300,000–400,000 years ago bear the marks of the earliest signs of ancient humans butchering animals in the Indian subcontinent… The identity of the elephant species and the interaction with ancient humans are detailed in two papers published in the Quaternary Science Reviewsand the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

New, non-hallucinogenic versions of psychedelics are blurring the boundaries of the drug trip.