Ancient dog DNA confirms domestication 16,000 years ago
Two studies published in March 2026 in Nature reveal the oldest genetically analysed domestic dogs ever found, from Turkey and England, pushing back our knowledge o…
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.
Two studies published in March 2026 in Nature reveal the oldest genetically analysed domestic dogs ever found, from Turkey and England, pushing back our knowledge o…
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 invente…
Read →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 northern Kazakhstan, the Botai culture maintained a close relationship with horses as early as 3,500 BC. But ancient DNA has upended the story: these horses are not the ancestors of modern horses. Was domestication achieved twice?
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 →At Heliopolis, in Cairo's Matariya district, an Egyptian mission has unearthed the most complete funerary cache ev…
Read →45,000 years ago, in the Third Cave of Goyet in Wallonia, six Neanderthals , four adult women and two boys , wer…
Read →During construction of a power line in Saxony-Anhalt, archaeologists unearthed the body of a man around 25 years old, with a fractured skull, buried in a firing pit belonging to the Corded Ware culture. The hypothesis of human sacrifice is being seriously considered.
In the Alentejo, a 16-hectare ditched complex built between 3400 and 2000 BCE reveals an inter-regional ceremonial centre: African ivory, Sicilian amber, and a timber circle unique on the Iberian Peninsula. The 29th excavation season begins in July 2026.
In Egypt's Minya governorate, Predynastic tombs with tapered walls illuminate the path from simple pits to the monuments of Giza.
A study published in Nature reveals that Yersinia pestis was killing Siberian hunter-gatherer communities 5,500 years ago, long before cities, rats, and fleas. The oldest genetically documented epidemic on record.
Read →A 2026 study in the Journal of Archaeological Science shows that Border Cave occupants in South Africa built and m…
Read →At 6 months old, Neanderthal infant Amud 7 was already the size of a 13-month-old modern human. A 2026 study in Cu…
Read →Far from being a remote backwater, the Orkney archipelago now looks like a hub of innovation that radiated south a…
Read →A study published in <em>Nature</em> in June 2026 has overturned one of the most widely held hypotheses about Neanderthal extinction. The 27 individuals analysed, from ten sites in Belgium and France, show perfectly healthy genet…
Read →Near Târgu Neamț, LiDAR-equipped drones pierced the canopy and unveiled Copper Age fortifications invisible from t…
Read →In a cairn in northern Scotland, a woman's bones were shaped into points and edges, used, then carefully returned …
Read →At Vitry-sur-Seine, an Inrap excavation uncovers a rare Mesolithic camp preserved by the Seine's floods. A first w…
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