Anthropology News

Professor Gaudzinski-Windheuser standing next to a life-size reconstruction of an adult male European straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) in the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Germany. Image credit: Lutz Kindler, LEIZA.

Neanderthals Hunted Straight-Tusked Elephants 125,000 Years Ago

Feb 2, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene epoch, present in Europe and western Asia between...

La Pasiega Cave, section C, cave wall with paintings: the ladder shape composed of red horizontal and vertical lines (center left) dates to older than 64,000 years and was made by Neanderthals. Image credit: P. Saura.

World’s Oldest Art Was Created by Neanderthals, Researcher Says

Jan 24, 2023 by The Conversation

Neanderthal art was perhaps more abstract than the stereotypical figure and animal cave paintings Homo sapiens made after Neanderthals disappeared about...

An examples of animal depiction associated with dots. Image credit: Bacon et al., doi: 10.1017/S0959774322000415.

Archaeologists Uncover Upper Paleolithic Proto-Writing System

Jan 6, 2023 by News Staff

In at least 400 European caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet and Altamira, Upper Paleolithic humans drew, painted and engraved non-figurative signs from at...

This map illustrates the geography of Beringia, the land bridge that formed between North America and Asia during the last glaciation. Humans crossed Beringia from Asia to North America during the glacial period depicted on this map. Lakes and drainages have been reconstructed to provide a better perspective on the environment of the land mass according to bathymetric data having a grid spacing of 1 km (100 m for Norton Sound). Some of the lake basins are shallow and may have been wetlands rather than open water bodies. Image credit: J.D. Bond / Yukon Geological Survey / Government of Yukon.

Bering Land Bridge Remained Flooded Until 35,700 Years Ago, Scientists Say

Dec 27, 2022 by News Staff

In new research, led by the University of California, Santa Cruz and Princeton University, scientists reconstructed the history of sea level at the Bering...

Bear skins have high insulating properties and might have played a role in the adaptations of Middle Pleistocene hominins, such as Homo heidelbergensis depicted here, to the cold and harsh winter conditions of Northwestern Europe. Image credit: Benoît Clarys.

320,000-Year-Old Cutmarked Bones Provide Evidence for Exploitation of Bear Skins

Dec 23, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers from the University of Tübingen and elsewhere have unearthed the cutmarked bones of cave bears at the Middle Pleistocene site of Schöningen...

The flint chips from Schöningen, Germany, which were created as ‘waste’ during the re-sharpening of knife-like tools; they are sorted by size in millimeters. Scale bar - 3 cm. Image credit: Flavia Venditti.

300,000-Year-Old Microartifacts Provide Glimpse into Life of Middle Pleistocene Hominins

Dec 15, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists at the University of Tübingen have performed a careful and in-depth analysis of tiny resharpening flakes from the famous Middle Pleistocene...

Drummond-Clarke et al. show that trees were an essential component of the hominin adaptive niche, with bipedalism evolving in an arboreal context, likely driven by foraging strategy. Illustration by Arturo Asensio, via Quo.es.

Human Bipedalism May Have Evolved in Trees, Study Says

Dec 15, 2022 by News Staff

Bipedalism — walking upright on two legs — us a defining feature of the human lineage. It is thought to have evolved as forests retreated in...

Denisovan DNA Shaped Papuans’ Immune System, New Study Shows

Dec 9, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Modern humans have admixed with multiple species of archaic hominins. Papuans, in particular, owe up to 5% of their genome to Denisovans, a sister group...

Iberian owl-like plaques and local owl species: (a) engraved slate plaque found in Cerro de la Cabeza, Valencina de la Concepción, Sevilla, Spain; (b) wild little owl (Athene noctua) pictured in an agricultural area in Valencina de la Concepción in 2021; (c) slate plaque from Mértola, Alentejo, Portugal; the orifices on the upper part may have been used to insert actual feathers; (d) long-eared owl (Asio otus) with erected ear tufts, pictured in Valencina de la Concepción in 2021. Image credit: Juan J. Negro.

Iberian Owl-Shaped Plaques Were Toys Made by Copper Age Children: Study

Dec 5, 2022 by News Staff

In the Copper Age, around 5,000 years ago, owl-shaped, engraved plaques were produced massively in the southwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula. Researchers...

Ancient inhabitants of the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov site in Israel likely used some kind of earth oven that maintained a temperature below 500 degrees Celsius to cook their fish. Image credit: Ella Maru / Tel Aviv University.

Scientists Find Earliest Evidence of Hominins Cooking with Fire

Nov 15, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have found the 780,000-year-old remains of a cooked carp-like fish at the wetland Acheulean site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel. Ancient...

A hominin footprint at the Matalascañas site in Spain. Image credit: Mayoral et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-22524-2.

296,000-Year-Old Hominin Footprints Found in Spain

Nov 11, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The possible track-makers are individuals from the Neanderthal lineage, according to new research led by Universidad de Huelva paleoanthropologists. The...

A Neanderthal father and his daughter. Image credit: Tom Bjorklund.

Ancient Genomes Provide Insights into Social Organization of Neanderthals

Oct 19, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoanthropologists have explored the social organization of Neanderthals using ancient nuclear, Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA data from the remains...

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

Study Confirms High Level of Carnivory in Iberian Neanderthals

Oct 18, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoanthropologists have analyzed zinc, strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope and trace element ratios in a fossilized Neanderthal tooth as well as animal...

Neanderthals (University of Utah via kued.org)

Study: Neanderthals and Homo sapiens Co-Existed in France and Spain for at least 1,400 Years

Oct 13, 2022 by News Staff

A new modeling study by Leiden University and University of Cambridge scientists predicts the appearance of Homo sapiens and the Protoaurignacian culture...

Surgically amputated site of the left tibia and fibula of the Liang Tebo individual: (a) left and right legs with pelvic girdle, demonstrating the complete absence of the distal third of the left lower leg; (b) left tibia and fibula showing the amputation surface, atrophy and necrosis; the bone surface is more porous because lysis occurred to remove the dead bone (necrosis); (c) radiograph of the left tibia and fibula; (d) left tibia medial aspect; (e) left tibia medial aspect; (f) left fibula anterior aspect. Scale bars - 5 cm in (a), 5 mm in (b and c) and 2 mm in (d-f). Image credit: Maloney et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05160-8.

Stone Age Humans Conducted Surgical Amputation 31,000 Years Ago

Sep 12, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists excavating Liang Tebo Cave on the Indonesian island of Borneo have discovered the skeletal remains of a young individual who had the distal...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neocortical Neurogenesis in Modern Humans Greater Than It Was in Neanderthals

Sep 9, 2022 by News Staff

Neanderthal brains were similar in size to those of modern humans but differed in shape. What scientists cannot tell from fossils is how Neanderthal brains...

Representation of the modes of locomotion practiced by Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Image credit: Sabine Riffaut, Guillaume Daver, Franck Guy / PALEVOPRIM / CNRS / University of Poitiers.

Hominins Were Already Bipedal 7 Million Years Ago, Researchers Say

Aug 25, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoanthropologists have examined three fossilized limb bones of Sahelanthropus tchadensis, one of the oldest known species in the human family tree. Representation...

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

Study: Much of Neanderthal-Modern Human Interbreeding Took Place in Near East

Aug 24, 2022 by News Staff

Studies of human fossils, and the DNA extracted from them, reveal a complex history of interbreeding between various human lineages over the past 100,000...

Top: map of South Africa with the location of Ga-Mohana Hill (GHN); inset map shows the approximate extent of the Kalahari Basin in southern Africa and the location of the region of interest in relation to it. Bottom: representative photographs of each of the tufa morphologies identified on the Ga-Mohana hillside. Image credit: von der Meden et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270104.

Ancient Humans Lived in Kalahari Desert More Than 20,000 Years Ago

Aug 18, 2022 by News Staff

Detailed, well-dated palaeoclimate and archaeological records are critical for understanding the impact of environmental change on human evolution. In...