Redefining knowledge of elderly people throughout history
An archaeologist from The Australian National University (ANU) is set to redefine what we know about elderly people in cultures throughout history, and dispel the myth that most people didn't live much past 40 prior to modern medicine.
Ancient Native American population discovered through DNA
DNA studies on the ancient remains of an infant discovered in Alaska has revealed a new group of native population previously unknown to scientists.
Could ancient bones suggest Santa was real?
Was St Nicholas, the fourth century saint who inspired the iconography of Santa Claus, a legend or was he a real person?
First-of-its-kind mummy study reveals clues to girl’s story
Who is she, this little mummy girl? Northwestern University scientists and students are working to unravel some of her mysteries, including how her body was prepared 1,900 years ago in Egypt, what items she may have been buried with, the quality of her bones and what material is present in her brain cavity.
Prehistoric women had stronger arms than today’s elite rowing crews
A new study comparing the bones of Central European women that lived during the first 6,000 years of farming with those of modern athletes has shown that the average prehistoric agricultural woman had stronger upper arms than living female rowing champions.
Plague likely a Stone Age arrival to central Europe
A team of researchers led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has sequenced the first six European genomes of the plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis dating from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age (4,800 to 3,700 years ago).
‘Wooden shoe’ rather wear sneakers?
Bio-archeologists have discovered a pattern of unusual bone chips in the feet of clog-wearing 19th-Century Dutch farmers -- injuries that offer clues to the damage we may unwittingly be causing to our own feet.
Neolithic farmers coexisted with hunter-gatherers for centuries in Europe
New research answers a long-debated question among anthropologists, archaeologists and geneticists: when farmers first arrived in Europe, how did they interact with existing hunter-gatherer groups?
Science meets archaeology with discovery that dental X-rays reveal Vitamin D deficiency
Human teeth hold vital information about Vitamin D deficiency, a serious but often hidden condition that can now be identified by a simple dental X-ray, McMaster anthropologists Lori D'Ortenzio and Megan Brickley have found.
6,000-year-old skull could be from the world’s earliest known tsunami victim
Tsunamis spell calamity. These giant waves, caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and underwater landslides, are some of the deadliest natural disasters known; the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed over 230,000 people, a higher death toll than any fire or hurricane.
Genome-wide data from a 40,000-year-old man in China reveals complicated genetic history of Asia
The biological makeup of humans in East Asia is shaping up to be a very complex story, with greater diversity and more distant contacts than previously known, according to a new study in Current Biologyanalyzing the genome of a man that died in the Tianyuan Cave near Beijing, China 40,000 years ago.
Paleogenomic analysis sheds light on Easter Island mysteries
Easter Island is a place of mystery that has captured the public imagination. Famous for ancient carved statues and a location so remote it boggles the mind, the island presents a captivating puzzle for researchers eager to understand how and when it became inhabited, and by whom.
Prehistoric humans are likely to have formed mating networks to avoid inbreeding
Prehistoric humans are likely to have formed mating networks to avoid inbreeding
Morbidity and mortality of leprosy in the Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages, nearly everyone in Europe was exposed to the disfiguring, painful and ostracizing disease of leprosy. But did contracting the disease necessarily increase a person's chances of dying?
Bones reveal social differences between the people buried in dolmens and those in caves
The researcher Teresa Fernández-Crespo, lead author of this study, had in a previous piece of work found demographic differences between the people buried in dolmens and those buried in caves: while male adults predominated in the dolmens, children and women were more common in the caves.
