DNA study sheds new light on the people of the Neolithic battle axe culture
In an interdisciplinary study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, an international research team has combined archaeological, genetic and stable isotope data to understand the demographic processes associated with the iconic Battle Axe Culture and its introduction in Scandinavia.
Preserving old bones with modern technology
A team of University of Colorado Boulder anthropologists is out to change the way that scientists study old bones damage-free.
Teeth offer vital clues about diet during the Great Irish Famine
Scientific analysis of dental calculus - plaque build-up - of the Famine's victims found evidence of corn (maize), oats, potato, wheat and milk foodstuffs.
Bones of Roman Britons provide new clues to dietary deprivation
Researchers at the University of Bradford have shown a link between the diet of Roman Britons and their mortality rates for the first time, overturning a previously-held belief about the quality of the Roman diet.
Researchers find earliest evidence of milk consumption
Researchers have found the earliest direct evidence of milk consumption anywhere in the world in the teeth of prehistoric British farmers.
Tiny ear bones help archaeologists piece together the past
Archaeologists from the University of Bradford have examined ear ossicles taken from the skeletons of 20 juveniles, excavated from an 18th and 19th century burial ground in Blackburn.
Student reveals the face of Iron Age female druid
A University of Dundee student has revealed the face of one of Scotland’s oldest druids, believed to have been more than 60 years old when she died during the Iron Age.
Murder in the Paleolithic? Evidence of violence behind human skull remains
New analysis of the fossilized skull of an Upper Paleolithic man suggests that he died a violent death, according to a study published by an international team from Greece, Romania and Germany led by the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany
Maize-centric diet may have contributed to ancient Maya collapse
The question of how to best adapt to extreme climate is a critical issue facing modern societies worldwide.
DNA from 31,000-year-old milk teeth leads to discovery of new group of ancient Siberians
Two children's milk teeth buried deep in a remote archaeological site in north eastern Siberia have revealed a previously unknown group of people lived there during the last Ice Age.
Ancient ritual bundle contained multiple psychotropic plants
A thousand years ago, Native Americans in South America used multiple psychotropic plants -- possibly simultaneously -- to induce hallucinations and altered consciousness, according to an international team of anthropologists.
Funerary customs, diet, and social behavior in a pre-Roman Italian community
Analysis of human remains from a Pre-Roman Celtic cemetery in Italy shows variations in funerary treatment between individuals that could be related to social status, but these variations were not reflected by differences in their living conditions.
Ancient DNA research shines spotlight on Iberia
The largest study to date of ancient DNA from the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Portugal and Spain) offers new insights into the populations that lived in this region over the last 8,000 years.
From Stone Age chips to microchips: How tiny tools may have made us human
Anthropologists have long made the case that tool-making is one of the key behaviors that separated our human ancestors from other primates.
Pottery reveals America’s first social media networks
Long before Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and even MySpace, early Mississippian Mound cultures in America's southern Appalachian Mountains shared artistic trends and technologies across regional networks that functioned in similar ways as modern social media, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.
