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From 3 million years ago to the dawn of our era: archaeological discoveries, palaeogenetics, cave art and the great transformations of human societies.

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· 20/07/2026

Tell Kom Aziza: a Greco-Roman cemetery unveiled beneath the Nile Delta sands

In the Nile Delta, the Tell Kom Aziza site has yielded an exceptionally well-preserved Greco-Roman cemetery, with mummies adorned with painted portraits that fuse Egyptian and Hellenistic traditions.

· 20/07/2026

The Denisovans: the Dragon Man skull and the reconstruction of their face

A giant skull from China, a mandible from the Tibetan plateau, and a novel epigenetic method: how scientists reconstructed the face of our Denisovan cousins, long reduced to a handful of bone fragments.

· 20/07/2026

Fire and burns: the selection pressure that shaped human skin

How Homo erectus's mastery of fire created selection pressure on human skin, favoring reduced body hair, eccrine sweat glands, and melanin pigmentation as UV protection.

· 20/07/2026

Neanderthals cooked birds: Mousterian techniques and symbolic behaviors

Bird bones bearing cut marks and heat traces reveal that Neanderthals hunted and cooked birds using elaborate Mousterian techniques -- and may have accorded them symbolic value beyond mere nutrition.

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Middle Palaeolithic · 19/07/2026

115,000 years ago, Neanderthals already wore ochre-painted shell ornaments

At Cueva de los Aviones in Spain, pierced, ochre-dyed shells show Neanderthals mastered symbolic adornment, 20,000 to 40,000 years before comparable evidence for Homo sapiens.

Hominids · 19/07/2026

400,000 Years Ago, Hominins Hunted Beaver at Bilzingsleben with Deadly Efficiency

A 2023 study published in <em>Scientific Reports</em> reveals that hominins at Bilzingsleben (Germany) systematically hunted the Eurasian beaver: 94 individuals identified, predominantly young adults targeted for their fur and meat.

Hominids · 19/07/2026

780,000 Years Ago, Hominins Were Already Cooking Fish at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov

A study published in <em>Nature Ecology & Evolution</em> in 2022 reveals that hominins were cooking carp on the banks of the Jordan River in Israel 780,000 years ago, pushing back the earliest known fish-cooking episode by 530,000 years.

Upper Palaeolithic

Upper Palaeolithic · 19/07/2026

Czech Republic: an Ice Age hunter's toolkit, intact for 30,000 years

At Milovice IV, 29 flint blades gathered in a vanished pouch form the personal kit of a Gravettian hunter. Their stones, from 130 km away, reveal the vast networks of glacial Europe.

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Prehistoric Tools

Prehistoric Tools · 19/07/2026

The Mysterious Acheulean Culture: 1.7 Million Years of an Unsolved Enigma

Born in Kenya 1.76 million years ago, the Acheulean culture produced identical bifaces across three continents with no apparent contact between populations. Why so much craft invested in tools so often never used?

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