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This is an artist's impression of Çatalhöyük. Image credit: Dan Lewandowski.

8,000-Year-Old Ceramic Vessels from Çatalhöyük Reveal Hidden Cuisine of Early Farmers

Oct 18, 2018 by News Staff

An analysis of ancient food proteins preserved in ceramic vessels found at the key early farming site of Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, in what is...

Stone tools from the Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize. Image credit: Louisiana State University.

Ancient Maya Produced Salt and Salted Fish: Study

Oct 9, 2018 by News Staff

Like the ancient Roman, Asian, and other civilizations, the ancient Maya produced salt and salted fish — storable commodities for marketplace trade,...

Lape et al describe the earliest-known use of nutmeg as a food ingredient. Image credit: Quique.

Archaeologists Find Traces of 3,500-Year-Old Nutmeg-Spiced Food

Oct 5, 2018 by News Staff

Residue on ceramic potsherds found at an archaeological site on the island of Pulau Ay (Ai), Indonesia, shows the nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) was used...

Archaeologist Dr. Marcello Canuto sits beside the ancient Maya altar he and his colleagues discovered in the jungles of northern Guatemala. Image credit: National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Guatemala City / La Corona Regional Archaeological Project.

Archaeologists Uncover 1,500-Year-Old Maya Altar in Guatemala

Sep 18, 2018 by News Staff

An international group of archaeologists has found a carved limestone altar at the Maya site of La Corona, located in jungle forest of the Petén in Guatemala. Archaeologist...

The puma (Puma concolor). Image credit: Jbarreirol / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ancient Maya Captured and Traded Big Cats: Study

Sep 17, 2018 by News Staff

The ancient Maya routinely captured and traded wild jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor) for symbolic and ritual purposes, according to an...

(A) the location of Raqefet Cave and three additional Natufian sites in Mt. Carmel, Israel; (B) field photos of the studied boulder mortars (BM 1, 2) and the location of BM3 on the cave floor; scale bar and arrow - 20 cm; (C) a functional reconstruction of the mortars: a boulder mortar used to store plants in a basket with a stone slab on top, and a bedrock mortar used for pounding and cooking plants and brewing beer. Image credit: Dror Maayan / Anat Regev-Gisis.

13,000-Year-Old Brewery Found in Israel

Sep 17, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from Stanford University and the University of Haifa has found the oldest archaeological evidence of cereal-based...

Image of the Blombos Cave silcrete flake displaying the drawn lines that form a cross-hatched pattern. Image credit: C. Foster.

Earliest Known Drawing by Human Discovered in South Africa

Sep 14, 2018 by News Staff

A cross-hatched pattern drawn with an ochre crayon on a small piece of siliceous rock (silcrete) is 73,000 years old. It pre-dates the earliest previously...

Four Eastern box turtle rattles tied to leather legging with leather string with stone flakes inside of the shells. Image credit: Andrew Gillreath-Brown / McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Tennessee.

North American Indigenous Peoples Used Turtle Shells as Symbolic Musical Instruments

Sep 11, 2018 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE, turtles served as more than tasty treats for Native American tribes throughout North America;...

Pottery Analysis Reveals Earliest Mediterranean Cheese Production 7,200 Years Ago

Sep 7, 2018 by News Staff

An analysis of fatty residue in pottery from two Neolithic archaeological sites in Croatia has revealed evidence of fermented dairy products (soft cheeses...

The ‘Early Acheulean’ and ‘Late Acheulean’ handaxes produced by knappers. Image credit: A.J.M. Key & C.J. Dunmore, doi: 10.7717/peerj.5399.

500,000-Year-Old Artifacts Reveal Modern Human-Like Gripping Capabilities

Sep 4, 2018 by News Staff

New research published in the journal PeerJ demonstrates that a technique used to produce ‘Late Acheulean’ handaxes is likely to have needed a modern...

The occasional use of stone tools as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among Neanderthals in France.

Study: Climate Change Contributed to Neanderthal Demise

Aug 30, 2018 by News Staff

The transition from Neanderthals to modern humans in Europe occurred during a period of recurring cold climate cycles. In a new study, a team of researchers...

Rapanui people. Image credit: © Santiago Caruso.

Tools of Ancient Easter Islanders Hint at Sophisticated Society

Aug 21, 2018 by News Staff

By analyzing the chemical makeup of toki, tools that were used by Easter Island’s inhabitants to create the giant moai statues, Field Museum researcher...

Jar and canvas discovered inside the tomb of Ptahmes, Mayor of Memphis during the XIX dynasty. Image credit: Greco et al, doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02535.

World’s Oldest Solid Cheese Found in 3,200-Year-Old Jar in Egypt

Aug 16, 2018 by News Staff

The world’s oldest solid cheese has been found inside the tomb of Ptahmes in Saqqara, part of the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis. Jar...

This is an artist's reconstruction of Homo erectus. Image credit: Yale University.

Homo erectus Were Technologically Conservative, Used Least-Effort Strategies, Researchers Say

Aug 13, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeological excavations at the Acheulean site of Saffaqah near Dawadmi in central Saudi Arabia have found that Homo erectus, an extinct hominid species...

El Castillo (pyramid of Kukulcán) in the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza. Image credit: Daniel Schwen / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Enormous Drought Played Significant Role in Maya Civilization’s Collapse

Aug 8, 2018 by News Staff

There are multiple theories as to what caused the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization, such as invasion, war, environmental degradation, etc. In...

A ceramic vessel from the Jomon period. Image credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen / CC BY 4.0.

Ancient Pottery Reveals Japanese Hunter-Gatherers’ Taste for Fish

Jul 27, 2018 by News Staff

In one of the largest studies of its kind, an international team of researchers conducted organic residue analysis of almost 800 ceramic vessels from 46...

Balme et al present the results of direct dating of dingo bones from their oldest known archaeological context, Madura Cave on the Nullarbor Plain; these dates demonstrate that dingoes were in southern Australia by between 3,348 and 3,081 years ago. Image credit: Jacqueline Wales.

Study Claims Dingoes Reached Australia 3,500 Years Ago

Jul 26, 2018 by News Staff

A team of scientists in Australia has uncovered new evidence that suggests dingoes (Canis familiaris dingo) arrived on the continent around 3,500 years...

Neanderthals Could Start Fires with Mineral Pyrite and Stone Tools

Jul 23, 2018 by News Staff

New research published in the journal Scientific Reports provides clear evidence that Neanderthals made fire by striking a piece of pyrite, the yellow...

One of the stone structures of the Shubayqa 1 site, Jordan; the fireplace, where the bread was found, is in the middle. Image credit: Alexis Pantos.

Flatbread Baked 14,400 Years Ago Found in Jordan

Jul 17, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Universities of Copenhagen and Cambridge, and University College London have unearthed the charred remains of a flatbread baked...