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.
The collective ossuary of Camino del Molino in Murcia, Spain, reveals that nearly 92% of children buried there 5,000 years ago showed bone lesions characteristic of…
Read →In thé necropolis of Djarkutan, Uzbekistan, archaeologists have identified thé skull of a child approximately 5 years old bearing thé marks of a trépanation perform…
Read →At the Middle Pleistocene site of Bilzingsleben in Thuringia, Germany, researchers have identified the remains of 94 European beavers bearing systematic butchery marks. A study in Scientific Reports reveals that hominins -- probably Homo heidelbergensis -- were intensively exploiting this animal for meat, fat and possibly fur some 400,000 years ago.
Fish remains from Acheulean layers at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel, bear unmistakable signs of controlled low-température cooking. A study published in Nature Ecology and Évolution shows that hominins -- most likely Homo erectus -- were already preparing cooked fish 780,000 years ago, pushing thé oldest cooking évidence back by more than 600,000 years.
Discovered at Bouchain at the confluence of the Scheldt and Sensée rivers, this Neolithic monoxyle dugout is one of the rarest boats of its era found in France. After years of restoration in Grenoble, it testifies to Neolithic populations' mastery of river navigation 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
Cova 338, a cave in the Catalan Pyrenees, has yielded evidence of copper metallurgy spanning 4,000 years, from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age. With 23 combustion hearths and nearly 200 malachite fragments, it proves that high…
Read →Dated to 51,000–56,000 years ago, Neanderthal baby Amud 7 was placed in a cave niche with a red deer jaw resting o…
Read →Partially burned phytoliths recovered from thé sédiments of Cloggs Cave (Victoria, Australia) show that thé GunaiK…
Read →At 1,450 metres in the Lombard Alps, Caverna Generosa yielded 16 Mousterian tools 60,000 years old, made in the va…
Read →An incisor found in a Borneo cave is dated to 52,000–55,000 years ago, pushing back the date of Homo sapiens' arrival in Southeast Asia by 10,000 years. The discovery confirms an early migration along Indian Ocean coastlines, well before previous estimates.
Beneath a rock shelter in the Forest of Fontainebleau, researchers have identified a 13,000-year-old relief model representing the Paris Basin river network. This may be the oldest three-dimensional map ever discovered, predating the first known Bronze Age maps by 10,000 years.
Excavations at Gran Dolina cave in Atapuerca have uncovered a bone from a two-to-four-year-old child bearing a butchery cut mark. Direct evidence that Homo antecessor was eating its own kind 850,000 years ago - including the youngest members of the group.
From thé empty tomb of Thutmose II to 13,000 ostraca from Athribis, seven récent discoveries are reshaping our understanding of ancient Egypt. A roundup of thé most significant advances of récent months.
Read →Between leaving Africa 70,000 years ago and settling in Eurasia around 45,000 years ago, our ancestors went throug…
Read →A mussel shell from Trinil, Java, bears zigzag engravings made 430,000 to 540,000 years ago by Homo erectus. This …
Read →At Marathousa 1 in Greece, two worked wooden objects dated to 430,000 years ago have just been identified as the o…
Read →In 1963, a Cappadocian resident knocked down a wall in his cellar and uncovered a forgotten stairway. Behind it lay eighteen levels carved into volcanic tuff, an underground city able to shelter twenty thousand people. An investi…
Read →About 2100 years ago, beneath the walls of Perusia, the soldiers of Octavian and those of Lucius Antonius pelted o…
Read →In a field in south Belfast, archaeologists from Queen's University, working alongside volunteers and local school…
Read →Deep in a valley of Burgundy, where the Seine is born, the Gauls worshipped Sequana, a healing goddess of the wate…
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