Study sheds light on the mystery of the Avar elite origins
In the AD 560s, the Avars established an empire centred on the Carpathian Basin that lasted more than 200 years.
Black Death mortality not as widespread as long thought
The Black Death, which plagued Europe, West Asia and North Africa from 1347-1352, is the most infamous pandemic in history.
Bronze Age women altered genetic landscape of Orkney
An international team led by researchers at the University of Huddersfield has used ancient DNA to rewrite the history of the Orkney islands to show that Orkney actually experienced large-scale immigration during the Early Bronze Age, which replaced much of the local population.
Nits on ancient mummies shed light on South American ancestry
Scientists have recovered ancient DNA from the cement left behind on the hairs of mummified remains that date back 1,500-2,000 years.
Ancient DNA reveals the world’s oldest family tree
Analysis of ancient DNA from one of the best-preserved Neolithic tombs in Britain has revealed that most of the people buried there were from five continuous generations of a single extended family.
Genetic study on the origins of the Tarim Basin mummies
Buried in boat coffins in an otherwise barren desert, the Tarim Basin mummies have long puzzled scientists and inspired numerous theories as to their enigmatic origins.
Human paleofeces suggests prehistoric salt miners drank beer and ate blue cheese
A study of paleofeces in prehistoric salt mines in Austria suggests that miners drank beer and ate blue cheese 2,700 years ago.
Neandertal and Denisovan blood groups deciphered
Blood group analyses for three Neandertals and one Denisovan by a team from the Anthropologie Bio-Culturelle, Droit, Éthique et Santé research unit (CNRS / Aix-Marseille University / EFS) confirm hypotheses concerning their African origin, Eurasian dispersal, and interbreeding with early Homo sapiens.
Human environmental genome recovered in the absence of skeletal remains
The cave of Satsurblia was inhabited by humans in different periods of the Paleolithic: Up to date a single human individual dated from 15,000 years ago has been sequenced from that site. No other human remains have been discovered in the older layers of the cave.
Researchers use genetic and isotopic data to investigate human mobility at Bronze Age city of Alalakh
The Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean has long been considered by researchers to have been the 'first international age,' especially the period from 1600-1200 BC, when powerful empires from Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt set up large networks of subordinate client kingdoms in the Near East.
New method could reveal what genes we might have inherited from Neanderthals
Thousands of years ago, archaic humans such as Neanderthals and Denisovans went extinct. But before that, they interbred with the ancestors of present-day humans, who still to this day carry genetic mutations from the extinct species.
Ten years of ancient genome analysis has taught scientists ‘what it means to be human’
A ball of 4,000-year-old hair frozen in time tangled around a whalebone comb led to the first ever reconstruction of an ancient human genome just over a decade ago.
Bronze Age migrations changed societal organisation and genomic landscape in Italy
A new study from the Institute of Genomics of the University of Tartu, Estonia has shed light on the genetic prehistory of populations in modern day Italy through the analysis of ancient human individuals during the Chalcolithic/Bronze Age transition around 4,000 years ago.
200-year-old poop shows rural elites in New England had parasitic infections
In the early 19th century in North America, parasitic infections were quite common in urban areas due in part to population growth and urbanization.
Recolonisation of Europe after the last ice age started earlier than previously thought
A study that appeared today on Current Biology sheds new light on the continental migrations which shaped the genetic background of all present Europeans.
