https://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils en-us The latest news on archaeology, archaeological research and archaeological advancements. New University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka research has uncovered the unlikely location of one of the earliest securely dated sites of sweet potato (kūmara) cultivation in Polynesia. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-unexpected-discovery-early-sweet-potato.html Archaeology Thu, 26 Sep 2024 12:06:14 EDT news646571170 A multidisciplinary research team led by the Archaeometry research group of the University of Tübingen and the GEA research group of the University of Granada made a surprising discovery in the megalithic necropolis of Panoría (Granada, Spain): twice as many women as men were buried, a bias that is even more pronounced among the juvenile population, where the ratio is 10 females for every male. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-women-men-megalithic-necropolis-panora.html Archaeology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 11:50:02 EDT news646483801 Archaeologists analyzed thirteenth century BC bronze and flint arrowheads from the Tollense Valley, north-east Germany, uncovering the earliest evidence for large-scale interregional conflict in Europe. The Tollense Valley in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is well-known as the site of a large conflict dating to c. 1250 BC. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-archaeologists-southern-army-fought-europe.html Archaeology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:40:01 EDT news646400058 Archaeologists have analyzed textiles from the ancient city of Huacas de Moche, Peru, showing how the population's cultural traditions survived in the face of external influence. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-year-textiles-reveal-cultural-resilience.html Archaeology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:40:01 EDT news646400045 A small team of archaeologists at Yamagata University, working with a colleague from Université Paris, and a pair of AI researchers from the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, used an AI model to find more geoglyphs on the floor of Peru's Nazca Desert. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-archaeologists-ai-hundreds-geoglyphs-peru.html Archaeology Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:29:37 EDT news646392570 Archaeological fieldwork in Morocco has discovered the earliest previously unknown farming society from a poorly understood period of northwest African prehistory. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-previously-unknown-neolithic-society-morocco.html Archaeology Mon, 23 Sep 2024 19:10:01 EDT news646321861 At the turn of the first millennium AD, an unknown group of people lived in the inland Isalo massif of southern Madagascar. Here, they built vast terraces and carved large stone chambers and small hollow rock niches. The architecture is unlike anything else found in Madagascar or the adjacent East African coast. Who built these structures, when they arrived, and why was unknown. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-enigmatic-archaeological-site-madagascar-built.html Archaeology Mon, 23 Sep 2024 10:30:01 EDT news646304356 As anyone who's spent time in the saddle knows, riding a horse can be hard on your body. But can it change the way your skeleton looks? https://phys.org/news/2024-09-scientists-explore-horseback-human-skeletons.html Archaeology Sun, 22 Sep 2024 07:06:23 EDT news646207570 A new way of looking at tooth enamel could give scientists a path to deeper understanding of the health of human populations, from the ancient to the modern. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-proteins-tooth-enamel-window-ancient.html Archaeology Thu, 19 Sep 2024 15:07:04 EDT news645977221 A team of researchers from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) have analyzed human remains from the Oakhurst rock shelter in southernmost Africa and reconstructed the genomes of thirteen individuals, who died between 1,300 and 10,000 years ago, including the oldest human genome from South Africa to date. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-year-human-dna-insights-south.html Archaeology Thu, 19 Sep 2024 12:06:16 EDT news645966373 A mysterious tusked animal depicted in South African rock art might portray an ancient species preserved as fossils in the same region, according to a study published September 18, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Julien Benoit of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-south-african-art-possibly-extinct.html Archaeology Wed, 18 Sep 2024 14:00:02 EDT news645867781 Jamestown, Virginia, was founded in 1607 and was the first English permanent settlement in America. It has been the subject of many archaeological and historical analyses, including a recent study by Prof. Markus M. Key and Rebecca K. Rossi, which set out to determine the provenance of Jamestown's black "marble" knight's tombstone. What they determined was unexpected, says Prof. Key. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-reveals-america-oldest-tombstone-belgium.html Archaeology Wed, 18 Sep 2024 07:40:01 EDT news645784785 From 22 July to 19 August 2024, a team of researchers from the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA) and the University of Trier investigated the remains of the late Republican city of Fregellae in present-day Italy to better understand the social and economic fabric of the region before and after its destruction in 125 BCE. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-archaeological-excavation-ancient-fregellae-reveals.html Archaeology Tue, 17 Sep 2024 12:20:26 EDT news645794419 In an article recently published in Latin American Antiquity, Dr. Jill Mollenhauer argues that the Gulf Lowland Olmec, one of Mesoamerica's earliest major civilizations, sometimes incorporated aesthetic and ritual practices associated with their rock art into their sculptures. She argues that this allowed Olmec elites to harness the spiritual and natural potency of the wild and sacred landscape and bring it into the domestic and urban centers, where it legitimized their political power. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-olmec-elite-legitimize-political-power.html Archaeology Mon, 16 Sep 2024 07:30:01 EDT news645450474 New research shows Ice Age teens from 25,000 years ago went through similar puberty stages as modern-day adolescents. In a study published today in the Journal of Human Evolution of the timing of puberty in Pleistocene teens, researchers are addressing a knowledge gap about how early humans grew up. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-reveals-reality-puberty-ice-age.html Archaeology Thu, 12 Sep 2024 13:44:06 EDT news645367437 A US dive team has discovered the wreck of a French steamship, Le Lyonnais, that sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1856 after a "hit-and-run" collision with an American sailing vessel, claiming 114 lives. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-french-steamship-sank-atlantic.html Archaeology Thu, 12 Sep 2024 04:08:22 EDT news645332897 The earliest humans to settle the Great Lakes region likely returned to a campsite in southwest Michigan for several years in a row, according to a University of Michigan study. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-clovis-people-great-lakes-annually.html Archaeology Wed, 11 Sep 2024 16:30:12 EDT news645291002 Rapa Nui or Te Pito o Te Henua (the navel of the world), also known as Easter Island, is one of the most isolated inhabited places in the world. Located in the Pacific, it lies over 1,900 km east of the closest inhabited Polynesian island and 3,700 km west of South America. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-ancient-dna-rapa-nui-easter.html Archaeology Wed, 11 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news645265141 A fossilized Neanderthal discovered in a cave system in the Rhône Valley, France, represents an ancient and previously undescribed lineage that diverged from other currently known Neanderthals around 100,000 years ago and remained genetically isolated for more than 50,000 years. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-archaeologists-ancient-neanderthal-lineage-isolated.html Archaeology Wed, 11 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news645262142 A team of archaeologists and paleo-geneticists from Université de Bordeaux, working with colleagues from Université Côte d'Azur, both in France, has found that a mass grave from the Neolithic contains the remains of mostly adult males who were related. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-stone-age-mass-grave-adult.html Archaeology Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:19:50 EDT news645178787 Recent research by Dr. Mikael Fauvelle and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, proposes that the neolithic Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) may have used skin boats to conduct trade, travel, fishing, and hunting activities. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-archaeologists-neolithic-scandinavians-skin-boats.html Archaeology Tue, 10 Sep 2024 08:49:11 EDT news645176946 A study by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Murcia (UM) challenges the theory that warrior groups with a "Steppe" genetic component originating from Eastern Europe violently replaced the male population of the Iberian Peninsula some 4,200 years ago and presents a different scenario, in which groups with Steppe ancestry mixed with other demographically weakened locals. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-archaeologists-theory-violent-steppe-invasion.html Archaeology Mon, 09 Sep 2024 15:56:04 EDT news645116161 A small team of archaeologists, two from Germany, one from Denmark and another from Iran, has identified a potential region for interbreeding between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens during the Late Pleistocene. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-archaeologists-neanderthal-homo-sapiens-interbreeding.html Archaeology Mon, 09 Sep 2024 09:50:01 EDT news645093400 Ph.D. candidate Elysia Petras and archaeologist Dr. Brandi MacDonald recently discovered 15 sherds of Afro-Caribbean pottery ware at Jackson Wall Manor on the Cayman Islands. Through their analysis, they discovered that the pottery was not locally produced but originated in Jamaica, suggesting that local slaves likely participated in inter-island trade between the Caymans and Jamaica. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-pottery-shards-insight-networks-enslaved.html Archaeology Sat, 07 Sep 2024 09:00:01 EDT news644831841 Researchers from the Sonia & Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University have used a range of modern technologies, including drones, remote sensing, and 3D digital modeling, to generate the first objective, quantified analysis of the Roman siege system at Masada. Findings indicate that, contrary to the widespread myth, the Roman army's siege of Masada in 73 CE lasted no more than a few weeks. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-roman-siege-masada-weeks-years.html Archaeology Thu, 05 Sep 2024 15:15:03 EDT news644768101 An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Cologne's Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology and the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology has developed a new model, the "Our Way Model." The team modeled the movements and population densities over time and space during the Aurignacian (approximately 43,000 to 32,000 years ago) to better understand how the first anatomically modern humans populated Europe. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-population-phases-human-dispersal-europe.html Archaeology Wed, 04 Sep 2024 10:18:05 EDT news644663881 A new study led by the University of South Florida has shed light on the human colonization of the western Mediterranean, revealing that humans settled there much earlier than previously believed. This research, detailed in a recent issue of the journal, Communications Earth & Environment, challenges long-held assumptions and narrows the gap between the settlement timelines of islands throughout the Mediterranean region. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-submerged-ancient-bridge-spanish-cave.html Archaeology Fri, 30 Aug 2024 05:00:02 EDT news644152262 An archaeogenetic study sheds new light on the isolated medieval community Las Gobas in northern Spain. Besides isolation and endogamy, researchers have also identified the variola virus, which can offer a new explanation of how smallpox entered Iberia. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-reveals-isolation-endogamy-pathogens-early.html Archaeology Wed, 28 Aug 2024 15:20:33 EDT news644077229 Rates of violence in Viking Age Norway and Denmark were long believed to be comparable. A team of researchers including University of South Florida sociologist David Jacobson challenges that assumption. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-viking-societies-norway-violent-denmark.html Archaeology Wed, 28 Aug 2024 13:42:41 EDT news644071359 Since the end of the last Ice Age, growth of the human population has been far from uniform, marked instead by periods of rapid expansion followed by sharp declines. The reasons behind these fluctuations remain only partially understood. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-links-conflict-population-neolithic-europe.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 28 Aug 2024 01:10:02 EDT news643992122