Anthropology

More Stories in Anthropology

  1. illustration showing rotting mean, fruit, vegetables and an animal carcass
    Anthropology

    A surprising food may have been a staple of the real Paleo diet: rotten meat

    The realization that people have long eaten putrid foods has archaeologists rethinking what Neandertals and other ancient hominids ate.

    By Bruce Bower
  2. A photo of two men walking side by side on a road. Both men have a piece of fabric across their foreheads that attaches to a large log on their backs.
    Anthropology

    Two scientists’ trek showed how people of Chaco Canyon may have hauled logs

    By carrying a log with the aid of head straps called tumplines, the duo demoed how people may have hauled timbers to Chaco about 1,000 years ago.

    By McKenzie Prillaman
  3. An overhead photo of a skeleton.
    Archaeology

    The Yamnaya may have been the world’s earliest known horseback riders

    5,000-year-old Yamnaya skeletons show physical signs of horseback riding, hinting that they may be the earliest known humans to do so.

    By McKenzie Prillaman
  4. composite image of stone tool artifacts on a black background
    Anthropology

    Hominids used stone tool kits to butcher animals earlier than once thought

    Finds in Kenya push Oldowan tool use back to around 2.9 million years ago, roughly 300,000 years earlier than previous evidence.

    By Bruce Bower
  5. A pile of cremated animal and human bone fragments suggests Vikings travelled from Scandinavia across the North Sea to England.
    Archaeology

    Vikings brought animals to England as early as the year 873

    A chemical analysis of cremated remains offers physical evidence of the arrival of Norse animals to England in the ninth century.

    By Anna Gibbs
  6. A photo of an ancient cave marking of aurochs (similar to modern cattle) with four dots on the animal's torso.
    Archaeology

    Mysterious marks on Ice Age cave art may have been a form of record keeping

    Hunter-gatherers during the Ice Age may have recorded when prey mated and gave birth, suggesting that these people possessed complex cognitive skills

    By Anna Gibbs
  7. Two monkeys standing on a tree branch; a juvenile monkey is being groomed by a female silvered-leaf monkey
    Life

    These science discoveries from 2022 could be game changers

    Gophers that farm, the earliest known hominid, a strange hybrid monkey and the W boson's mass are among the findings awaiting more evidence.

    By Elizabeth Quill
  8. a child's partial skull, belonging to Homo naledi, against a black backdrop. The area around the bridge of the nose and eyebrows is brown, while the rest of the skull is mostly white.
    Anthropology

    Homo naledi may have lit fires in underground caves at least 236,000 years ago

    Homo naledi may have joined the group of ancient hominids who built controlled fires, presumably for light or warmth, new finds hint.

    By Bruce Bower
  9. A photo of a large boab tree in the center with several smaller trees spread out around it
    Anthropology

    Carvings on Australia’s boab trees reveal a generation’s lost history

    Archaeologists and an Aboriginal family are working together to rediscover a First Nations group’s lost connections to the land.

    By Freda Kreier