Cultures News

April 19, 2024

Top Headlines

First Evidence of Human Occupation in Lava Tube Cave in Saudi Arabia

Apr. 17, 2024 — New research has highlighted an area in Arabia that once acted as a key point for cultural exchanges and trades amongst ancient people -- and it all took place in vast caves and lava tubes that have remained largely untapped reservoirs of ...

Pacific Cities Much Older Than Previously Thought

Apr. 10, 2024 — New evidence of one of the first cities in the Pacific shows they were established much earlier than previously thought, according to new research. The study used aerial laser scanning to map archaeological sites on the island of Tongatapu in Tonga, ...

The Hidden Role of the Milky Way in Ancient Egyptian Mythology

Apr. 10, 2024 — Astrophysicists shed light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut. The paper draws on ancient Egyptian texts and simulations to argue that the Milky Way might have shone a spotlight, as it were, on Nut's role as ...

Humans Can Increase Biodiversity, Archaeological Study Shows

Apr. 9, 2024 — Through the ages, the presence of humans has increased the heterogeneity and complexity of ecosystems and has often had a positive effect on their ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:54pm EDT

Ancient DNA Reveals the Appearance of a 6th Century Chinese Emperor

Mar. 28, 2024 — What did an ancient Chinese emperor from 1,500 years ago look like? A team of researchers reconstructed the face of Chinese Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou using DNA extracted from his remains. The study ...

New Archive of Ancient Human Brains Challenges Misconceptions of Soft Tissue Preservation

Mar. 20, 2024 — A new study has challenged previously held views that brain preservation in the archaeological record is extremely rare. The team compiled a new ...

Persian Plateau Unveiled as Crucial Hub for Early Human Migration out of Africa

Mar. 25, 2024 — A new study combining genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence has unveiled the Persian Plateau as a pivotal geographic location ...

Toba Supereruption Unveils New Insights Into Early Human Migration

Mar. 20, 2024 — Working in the Horn of Africa, researchers have uncovered evidence showing how early modern humans survived in the wake of the eruption of Toba, one of the largest supervolcanoes in history, some ...

Plant Seed and Fruit Analysis from the Biblical Home of Goliath Sheds Unprecedented Light on Philistine Ritual Practices

Feb. 26, 2024 — While many aspects of Philistine culture are well-documented, the specifics of Philistine religious practices and deities have long remained shrouded ...

Did Neanderthals Use Glue? Researchers Find Evidence That Sticks

Feb. 21, 2024 — Neanderthals created stone tools held together by a multi-component adhesive, a team of scientists has discovered. Its findings, which are the earliest evidence of a complex adhesive in Europe, ...

Innovation in Stone Tool Technology Involved Multiple Stages at the Time of Modern Human Dispersals

Feb. 7, 2024 — A new study illuminates the cultural evolution that took place approximately 50,000 to 40,000 years ago, coinciding with the dispersals of Homo ...

Scandinavia's First Farmers Slaughtered the Hunter-Gatherer Population, Study Finds

Feb. 8, 2024 — Following the arrival of the first farmers in Scandinavia 5,900 years ago, the hunter-gatherer population was wiped out within a few generations, ...

Thailand's Iron Age Log Coffin Culture

Feb. 6, 2024 — A mortuary practice known as Log Coffin culture characterizes the Iron Age of highland Pang Mapha in northwestern Thailand. Between 2,300 and 1,000 years ago, individuals were buried in large wooden ...

Prehistoric Mobility Among Tibetan Farmers, Herders Shaped Highland Settlement Patterns, Cultural Interaction, Study Finds

Feb. 2, 2024 — Using advanced geospatial modeling to compare environmental and archaeological evidence, researchers found evidence that connects ancient mobility ...

Scientists ID Burned Bodies Using Technique Used for Extracting DNA from Woolly Mammoths, Neanderthals

Feb. 29, 2024 — A technique originally devised to extract DNA from woolly mammoths and other ancient archaeological specimens can be used to potentially identify badly burned human remains, according to ...

Experiment Captures Why Pottery Forms Are Culturally Distinct

Feb. 28, 2024 — Potters of different cultural backgrounds learn new types differently, producing cultural differences even in the absence of differential cultural evolution. The research has implications for how we ...

Neanderthals and Humans Lived Side by Side in Northern Europe 45,000 Years Ago

Jan. 31, 2024 — Archaeologists have debated whether Neanderthals or modern humans made stone tools that are found at sites across northern Europe and date from about 40,000 years ago. A new excavation at one site in ...

Excavated Dolmen in Sweden One of the Oldest in Scandinavia

Jan. 29, 2024 — The first analysis results now confirm that the grave in Tiarp is one of the oldest stone burial chambers in Sweden. The researchers noted that some parts of the people buried in the grave are ...

New Research Challenges Hunter-Gatherer Narrative

Jan. 24, 2024 — Analysis of the remains of 24 individuals from the Wilamaya Patjxa and Soro Mik'aya Patjxa burial sites in Peru shows that early human diets in the Andes Mountains were composed of 80 percent ...

DNA from Preserved Feces Reveals Ancient Japanese Gut Environment

Jan. 24, 2024 — DNA from ancient feces can offer archaeologists new clues about the life and health of Japanese people who lived thousands of years ago, according to a new ...

Woolly Mammoth Movements Tied to Earliest Alaska Hunting Camps

Jan. 17, 2024 — Researchers have linked the travels of a 14,000-year-old woolly mammoth with the oldest known human settlements in Alaska, providing clues about the relationship between the iconic species and some ...

Cult Mentality: Monumental Discovery in Italy

Jan. 5, 2024 — Researchers have discovered an ancient Roman temple that adds significant insights into the social change from pagan gods to Christianity within the Roman ...

Early Primates Likely Lived in Pairs

Jan. 3, 2024 — Primate social organization is more flexible than previously assumed. According to a new study, the first primates probably lived in pairs, while only around 15 percent of individuals were ...

Rise of Archery in Andes Mountains Dated to 5,000 Years Ago -- Earlier Than Previous Research

Dec. 21, 2023 — Focusing on the Lake Titicaca Basin in the Andes mountains, anthropologists found through analysis of 1,179 projectile points that the rise of archery technology dates to around 5,000 years ago. ...

Mesopotamian Bricks Unveil the Strength of Earth's Ancient Magnetic Field

Dec. 18, 2023 — Ancient bricks inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings have yielded important insights into a mysterious anomaly in Earth's magnetic field 3,000 years ago, according to a new ...

'A Ticking Clock': First Ground-Based Survey of Damage to Ukrainian Cultural Sites Reveals Severity, Need for Urgency

Dec. 13, 2023 — And after nearly two years of fighting, war is destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage on a scale not seen since World War II, according to new ...

Archaeologists Unearth One of Earliest Known Frame Saddles

Dec. 12, 2023 — Recovered from looters, a new archaeological discovery from a cave in western Mongolia could change the story of the evolving relationship between humans and horses around the ...

Paleolithic Humans May Have Understood the Properties of Rocks for Making Stone Tools

Dec. 1, 2023 — Research suggests that Paleolithic humans in the Middle East selected flint for their cutting tools based on differences in the mechanical properties of the rock. They seem to have purposefully ...

Study of Ancient British Oral Microbiomes Reveals Shift Following Black Death

Nov. 29, 2023 — The Second Plague Pandemic of the mid-14th century, also known as the Black Death, killed 30-60 percent of the European population and profoundly changed the course of European history. New research ...

Neanderthals Were the World's First Artists, Research Reveals

Nov. 21, 2023 — Recent research has shown that engravings in a cave in La Roche-Cotard (France), which has been sealed for thousands of years, were actually made by Neanderthals. The findings reveal that the ...

'Woman the Hunter': Studies Aim to Correct History

Nov. 20, 2023 — New research combined both physiological and archaeological evidence to argue that not only did prehistoric women engage in the practice of hunting, but their female anatomy and biology would have ...

Radiocarbon Dating Meets Egyptology and Biblical Accounts in the City of Gezer

Nov. 16, 2023 — New dates provide detailed insights into the timing of events in the ancient city of Gezer, according to a new ...

Long-Distance Weaponry Identified at the 31,000-Year-Old Archaeological Site of Maisières-Canal

Nov. 6, 2023 — The hunter-gatherers who settled on the banks of the Haine, a river in southern Belgium, 31,000 years ago were already using spearthrowers to hunt their game. The material found at the archaeological ...

In Prehispanic Cancun, Immigrants Were Treated Just Like Maya Locals

Oct. 25, 2023 — Ancient people immigrated to Cancun Island and were treated just like locals, according to a new ...