Anthropology News

1.1-Million-Year-Old Facial Bones of Archaic Homo Found in Spain

Archaeological excavation work at the Sima del Elefante, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain. Image credit: Maria D. Guillén / IPHES-CERCA.
Mar 17, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Who the first inhabitants of Western Europe were, what their physical characteristics were, and when and where they lived are some of the pending questions in the study of the settlement of Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene epoch. The available paleoanthropological information from Western Europe is limited and confined to the Iberian Peninsula. Now, paleoanthropologists have found the fragments of the hominin midface at the Sima del Elefante site...

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The 1.5-million-year-old elephant humerus that has been knapped into a tool. Image credit: CSIC.

1.5-Million-Year-Old Bone Tool ‘Factory’ Discovered in Tanzania

Mar 5, 2025 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have documented a bone tool assemblage from a single horizon dated to 1.5 million years ago at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. These bone...

The site of Bété I in Côte d’Ivoire and other African sites dated to around 130,000-190,000 years ago. Image credit: Arous et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-08613-y.

Homo sapiens Were Living in African Wet Tropical Forests as Early as 150,000 Years Ago

Feb 26, 2025 by News Staff

New research led by Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology scientists challenges conventional ideas about the habitability of ancient tropical forests...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neanderthals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

New Study Suggests That There Was Late Bottleneck Event in Neanderthal Evolution

Feb 20, 2025 by News Staff

This bottleneck event happened between 130,000 and 50,000 years ago, according to new research led by scientists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona...

The engraved cortical Levallois core from Manot Cave. Image credit: E. Ostrovsky / M. Smelansky / E. Paixão / L. Schunk.

Paleolithic Artifacts from Levantine Caves were Deliberately Engraved with Geometric Patterns: Study

Feb 5, 2025 by News Staff

In new research, archaeologists analyzed five engraved artifacts from the Levantine Middle Paleolithic: two engraved Levallois cores from Manot and Qafzeh...

C.D. Spiteri et al discovered widespread evidence of prehistoric milk production in southern Europe. Image credit: Samuel Daniell.

Ancient DNA Study Sheds New Light on History of Indo-European Languages

Feb 5, 2025 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists from the University of Vienna and Harvard University have analyzed ancient DNA from 435 individuals from Eurasian archaeological sites...

This is an artist's reconstruction of female Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Image credit: Elisabeth Daynes, via tabula.ge.

Hominins Were Present in Eurasia by At Least 1.95 Million Years Ago

Jan 24, 2025 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have found 1.95-million-year-old cut-marked bones that appear to have been made by early hominins using stone tools at the site of...

Forensic facial reconstruction of another Australopithecus species - A. afarensis. Image credit: Cicero Moraes / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Australopithecus Didn’t Regularly Eat Meat, New Study Shows

Jan 20, 2025 by News Staff

Australopithecus had a variable but plant-based diet, according to an analysis of stable isotope data from seven hominin specimens dating back 3.5 million...

An archaic hominin. Image credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0.

Homo erectus Thrived in Steppe-Desert Landscapes One Million Years Ago, New Study Suggests

Jan 16, 2025 by News Staff

Homo erectus, an early member of the genus Homo, successfully navigated harsher and more arid terrains for longer in Eastern Africa than previously thought,...

Handaxes made on side-struck flakes (a-c) and Kombewa flakes (d-f) from Melka Wakena, Ethiopia. Image credit: Tegenu Gossa & Erella Hovers, doi: 10.1007/s12520-024-02072-8.

New Research Explores Decision-Making Processes of Early Hominin Tool-Makers

Jan 15, 2025 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have characterized the properties of raw stone materials that were selected and used by Early Pleistocene tool-makers at an Acheulian...

El Sidron Neanderthals taste wild mushrooms, pine nuts and forest moss. Image credit: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

Scientists Identify Genetic Variants that Determine Tooth Shape

Dec 17, 2024 by News Staff

One of these genetic variants was inherited from Neanderthals, according to a study led by University College London researchers. El Sidron Neanderthals...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Study: Neanderthal Gene Flow into Modern Humans Occurred between 50,500 and 43,500 Years Ago

Dec 13, 2024 by News Staff

In a genomic study encompassing more than 300 genomes, researchers determined the time period during which Neanderthals interbred with modern humans, starting...

Illustration of the Zlatý kůň/Ranis group. Image credit: Tom Björklund / Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Earliest Modern Human Genomes Decoded

Dec 12, 2024 by News Staff

Scientists have sequenced and analyzed the genomes of seven individuals who lived between 42,000 and 49,000 years ago in Ranis, Germany and Zlatý kůň,...

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Image credit: Maayan Harel.

New Species of Archaic Human Proposed: Homo juluensis

Dec 6, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Homo juluensis — a newly-erected human species that includes enigmatic Denisovans and several hominin fossils from Tibet, Taiwan and Laos —...

An artist’s reconstruction of Clovis life 13,000 years ago shows the Anzick-1 infant with his mother consuming mammoth meat near a hearth. Another individual crafts tools, including dart projectile points and atlatls. A mammoth butchery area is visible nearby. Image credit: Eric Carlson / Ben Potter / Jim Chatters.

Clovis People’s Diet Mainly Included Mammoths and Other Large Mammals, New Study Says

Dec 4, 2024 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have found that the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) was the largest contributor to the diet of the Clovis people — the...

Reconstruction of a Trypillia house. Image credit: Susanne Beyer, Kiel University.

Expanded Opportunities Attracted People to Trypillia Culture’s Mega-Settlements

Dec 2, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

Over its history, archaeology has seen a varied set of uses made of philosophy and philosophical concepts. A persistent critique has been that too often...

A Homo heidelbergensis, a Neanderthal and a Cro-Magnon. Image credit: SINC / José Antonio Peñas.

Increases in Brain Size Occurred within Human Lineages Comprising Single Species, New Study Reveals

Nov 29, 2024 by News Staff

New research by scientists from the University of Reading and the University of Durham shows that encephalization (i.e., relative brain size increase)...

A 3D computerized model of the surface of the area near Lake Turkana in Kenya shows fossil footprints of Paranthropus boisei (vertical footprints) with separate footprints of Homo erectus forming a perpendicular path. Image credit: Kevin Hatala / Chatham University.

At Least Two Hominin Species Coexisted in Kenya 1.5 Million Years Ago

Nov 28, 2024 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have discovered 1.5-million-year-old footprints of two completely different species of hominins — Homo erectus and Paranthropus...

3D analysis of the perforated pebbles and the perforations. Image credit: T. Yashuv & L. Grosman, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0312007.

12,000-Year-Old Spindle Whorls Unearthed in Israel

Nov 15, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have examined an exceptional assemblage of over a hundred perforated pebbles from the 12,000-year-old Natufian village of Nahal Ein-Gev...

Plaquette 341 from the Magdalenian site of Gönnersdorf, Germany. Image credit: Robitaille et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0311302.

15,800-Year-Old Engraved Plaquettes Shed Light on Paleolithic Fishing Techniques

Nov 11, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

Scientists from the Leibniz Zentrum für Archäologie and Durham University have examined a collection of 406 engraved schist plaquettes found at the Magdalenian...

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