Forensic technique uses forehead X-rays to assess age of juvenile remains
Forensic anthropology researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique that can provide an approximate age for juveniles and young people based on an X-ray of the frontal sinus region of the skull.
Why was a teenager with bone cancer buried on Witch Hill in Panama?
A new report by Smithsonian archaeologists identifies a bone tumor in the upper right arm of an adolescent who was buried in about 1300 AD in a trash heap at a site in western Panama called Cerro Brujo or Witch Hill.
Genomics tracks migration from lost empires to modern cities
New genomic tools are enabling researchers to overturn long-held beliefs about the origins of populations, a researcher will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today (Monday). Dr Eran Elhaik, Assistant Professor of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, will say that new technologies are enabling scientists to track the origins and migrations of populations with increasing accuracy.
Resurrecting identities in the Andes
Who are you? A parent? An artist? A veteran? There are lots of different aspects of identity, and it takes more than just one to make you you. Ancient people were just as complex, but until recently, archaeologists didn't have a clear way to capture all the nuances of human identities from the past outside of broader labels like gender and social status.
Movement of early humans into the Indian subcontinent
Prehistoric human migration was mainly driven by human wanderlust and population pressures but relied critically on the habitability of available land.
Flawed forensic science may be hampering identification of human remains
Research from The Australian National University (ANU) has cast doubt on a method used in forensic science to determine whether skeletal remains are of a person who has given birth.
New DNA research shows true migration route of early farming in Europe 8,000 years ago
A NEW article co-authored by experts at the University of Huddersfield bolsters a theory that the spread of agriculture throughout Europe followed migration into the Mediterranean from the Near East more than 13,000 years ago - thousands of years earlier than widely believed.
Study reveals 10,000 years of genetic continuity in northwest North America
A study of the DNA in ancient skeletal remains adds to the evidence that indigenous groups living today in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are descendants of the first humans to make their home in northwest North America more than 10,000 years ago.
Huns and settlers may have cooperated on the frontier of Roman Empire
Analysis of isotopes in bones and teeth from fifth-century cemeteries suggests that nomadic Huns and Pannonian settlers on the frontier of Roman Empire may have intermixed.
Where did the Scythians come from?
The Lomonosov Moscow State University anthropologists have put forward an assumption that the Scythian gene pool was formed on the basis of local tribes with some participation of populations, migrated to the northern Black Sea region from Central Asia. The research results have been published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Diet and mobility end up recorded in our bones and in our teeth
A piece of research has applied standard geological techniques and methods at an architectural site in Zaragoza to establish the diet of individuals
Baltic hunter-gatherers began farming without influence of migration, ancient DNA suggests
New research indicates that Baltic hunter-gatherers were not swamped by migrations of early agriculturalists from the Middle East, as was the case for the rest of central and western Europe. Instead, these people probably acquired knowledge of farming and ceramics by sharing cultures and ideas -- rather than genes -- with outside communities.
Anthropologists uncover art by (really) old masters — 38,000 year-old engravings
An international team of anthropologists has uncovered a 38,000-year-old engraved image in a southwestern French rockshelter--a finding that marks some of the earliest known graphic imagery found in Western Eurasia and offers insights into the nature of modern humans during this period.
Leprosy strain genotyped from medieval pilgrim at UK burial site
Leprosy is a bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae or Mycobacterium lepromatosis. It has afflicted humans for thousands of years, reaching epidemic levels during the Middle Ages, and people continue to be affected by the disease today. However, the genetic origins of the disease are not well understood.
Mummy visualisation impresses in computer journal
Using visualisation technology developed at Linköping University under the auspices of Visualization Center C, visitors to the British Museum can reveal the murder of the mummified Geberlein Man, 5,500 years ago. This world-leading technology has been described in a prestigious journal of computer science, Communications of the ACM.
