Archaeology

Archaeology

50 years ago, Stonehenge’s purpose mystified scientists. It still does

In 1972, scientists thought Stonehenge may have been a calendar. Today, we still don’t know its purpose, but we have gained insight on its origin.

Humans

This ancient Canaanite comb is engraved with a plea against lice

The Canaanite comb bears the earliest known instance of a complete sentence written in a phonetic alphabet, researchers say.

Archaeology

King Tut’s tomb still has secrets to reveal 100 years after its discovery

More of Tut’s story is poised to come to light in the coming years. Here are four things to know on the 100th anniversary of his tomb’s discovery.

Genetics

Black Death immunity came at a cost to modern-day health

A genetic variant that boosts Crohn’s disease risk may have helped people survive the 14th century bubonic plague known as the Black Death.

Archaeology

Drone photos reveal an early Mesopotamian city made of marsh islands

Urban growth around 4,600 years ago, near what is now southern Iraq, occurred on marshy outposts that lacked a city center.

Anthropology

How mythology could help demystify dog domestication

The path that dog myths took around the world closely parallels that of dog domestication, a new study finds.

Archaeology

Indigenous Americans ruled democratically long before the U.S. did

Oklahoma’s Muscogee people, among others, promoted rule by the people long before the U.S. Constitution was written.

Anthropology

‘The Five-Million-Year Odyssey’ reveals how migration shaped humankind

A globe-trotting trek through history shows how past population migrations changed the course of human biology and culture.

Archaeology

Britons’ tools from 560,000 years ago have emerged from gravel pits

A new study confirms that an archaeological site in southeastern England called Fordwich is one of the oldest hominid sites in the country.

Archaeology

Ancient bacterial DNA hints Europe’s Black Death started in Central Asia

Archaeological and genetic data pin the origins of Europe’s 1346–1353 bubonic plague to a bacterial strain found in graves in Asia from the 1330s.

Anthropology

A new origin story for domesticated chickens starts in rice fields 3,500 years ago

Chickens, popular on today’s menus, got their start in Southeast Asia surprisingly recently, probably as exotic or revered animals, researchers say.

Archaeology

Lasers reveal ancient urban sprawl hidden in the Amazon

South America’s Casarabe culture built a network of large and small settlements in what’s now Bolivia centuries before the Spanish arrived.