Neanderthal DNA: Why the Human X Chromosome Retains So Few Traces
A study published in Science reveals that the "deserts" of Neanderthal DNA on our X chromosome are explained not by genetic incompatibility, but by a mating bias: m…
Read →Prehistory news
From 3 million years ago to the dawn of our era: archaeological discoveries, palaeogenetics, cave art and the great transformations of human societies.
Dental grooves found on hominin fossils were interpreted as evidence of social care between individuals. A 2025 AJBA study shows they appear in pri…
Read the article →A study published in Nature in 2026 has identified domestic dogs 15,800 years old in Anatolia and 14,300 years old in Britain, pushing back the old…
Read the article →A new theory published in BioEssays suggests that burns inflicted by fire use exerted selective pressure on human genes linked to wound healing -- …
Read the article →The 8th excavation campaign at Casas del Turuñuelo has yielded half a votive bronze chariot decorated with Achelous, griffins and Atlantes — the fi…
Read the article →A study published in Science reveals that the "deserts" of Neanderthal DNA on our X chromosome are explained not by genetic incompatibility, but by a mating bias: m…
Read →A groundbreaking study analyzing 12,000 European skeletons reveals that men have had greater access to animal protein than women since the Neolithic. A dietary dimo…
Read →In the Nile Delta, archaeologists have uncovered an exceptional Greco-Roman cemetery: seven centuries of funerary syncretism, wild boars buried in ritual contexts, and barrel-shaped pottery coffins — a first in Egypt.
Gold earrings, gold-plated scarabs, obsidian kohl containers: Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities has announced the first near-complete funerary cache ever discovered at the Heliopolis necropolis.
Discovered in 2004 in Yakutia and reconstructed in 3D by NEFU University in Yakutsk, a 4,200-year-old Ymyyakhtakh bow-warrior carries a Y chromosome that survives today among the Chukchi, Koryak and Even peoples of Kamchatka, according to a 2026 study in the Journal of Human Genetics.
A study published in PLOS ONE in 2026 provides new evidence that hominins -- most likely Homo erectus -- were introducing and maintaining fire inside Wonderwerk Cave (South Africa) between 1.79 and 1.07 million years ago, pushing…
Read →At Kurd Qaburstan in Iraqi Kurdistan, a University of Central Florida team has unearthed cuneiform tablets, fortif…
Read →In Upper Egypt, two tombs dated to the Early Dynastic period (c. 3100-2686 BCE) show an unusual geometry, walls th…
Read →A fire that destroyed a Spanish Bronze Age village 3,500 years ago paradoxically preserved an almost complete loom…
Read →Silent for a century, the script of the kingdom of Elam, in Iran, has been deciphered by François Desset thanks to silver vases. Its lesson: writing was not invented only in Mesopotamia; Iran did so in parallel.
The DNA of West African populations carries up to 19% ancestry from an archaic population unknown from fossils. This 'ghost' lineage and the model of a structured African stem replace the old story of a single, linear origin.
In a Libyan shelter, the DNA of two women mummified 7,000 years ago reveals a North African human lineage that stayed isolated for millennia, close to the Taforalt hunters. Green Sahara pastoralism seems to have spread through ideas, not genes.
In Arne Qvam Cave in northern Norway, bone and ancient DNA reveal 46 species (polar bears, walruses, seabirds) preserved for 75,000 years. Europe's oldest known Arctic ecosystem, its lineages now extinct.
Read →On the Cape south coast, a team has dated seven fossil footprint sites to between 71,000 and 153,000 years. The ol…
Read →A study published in Nature reveals that Yersinia pestis was killing Siberian hunter-gatherer communities 5,500 ye…
Read →A study published in <em>Nature</em> in June 2026 has overturned one of the most widely held hypotheses about Nean…
Read →Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute and the University of Liverpool have sequenced the oldest and most complete genome ever obtained from a pharaonic-era Egyptian. This man who died 4,500 years ago carried 20 % ancestry …
Read →Austrian archaeologists announced in April 2026 the discovery of 32 gold and carnelian jewellery pieces on Kolona …
Read →A CNRS team has succeeded in directly radiocarbon-dating Palaeolithic paintings in Font-de-Gaume cave, Dordogne. A…
Read →Near Târgu Neamț, LiDAR-equipped drones pierced the canopy and unveiled Copper Age fortifications invisible from t…
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