news 2023

Publication involving a former ENS de Lyon PhD candidate and the EVS laboratory, in the journal Marine Geology . Earliest Evidence of Port-Related lead pollution in Bronze Age Greece First discovery of brown coal in a stratigraphic context at the end of the Bronze Age Lechaion's harbour archaeological chronology pushed back by at least 5 centuries New perspectives on regional economy and trade during the LBA/EIA transition Lechaion in Corinth, Greece, is the largest ancient port in Greece.

Scientists have developed a new computational tool to detect up to second to third degree cousins using ancient genomes If two persons are biologically related, they share long stretches of DNA that they co-inherited from their recent common ancestor. These almost identically shared stretches of genomes are called IBD ("Identity by Descent") segments.

Ancient bricks inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings have yielded important insights into a mysterious anomaly in Earth's magnetic field 3,000 years ago, according to a new study involving UCL researchers. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) , describes how changes in the Earth's magnetic field imprinted on iron oxide grains within ancient clay bricks, and how scientists were able to reconstruct these changes from the names of the kings inscribed on the bricks.

Humans have wiped out around 1,400 bird species - twice as many as previously thought - with major implications for the ongoing biodiversity crisis, a new study involving UCL researchers has found. Many of the world's islands were previously untouched paradises, but the arrival of people to places like Hawaii, Tonga and the Azores led to far-reaching impacts including deforestation, overhunting and the introduction of invasive species.

US researchers participate in a study that shows the application of new wood and stone technologies that allowed the construction of an unprecedented monument.

Team of international researchers analyzed the remains of over 1,500 individuals who lived roughly 6,000 to 8,000 years ago Body size differences between females and males in northern Europe during the early Neolithic period (6,000 to 8,000 years ago) may reflect cultural factors in play. The findings of an international research project led by the University of Pennsylvania (USA) suggest that differences in stature during that period cannot be explained solely by genetics and diet.

Many reports from antiquity about outbreaks of plague mention Egypt as the source of pestilences that reached the Mediterranean. But was this really the case? Researchers from the University of Basel are conducting a critical analysis of the ancient written and documentary evidence combined with archaeogenetic findings to add some context to the traditional view.

International research team studied more than 1,500 individuals who lived around 6,000 to 8,000 years ago The difference in body size between male and female individuals in Northern Europe during the early Neolithic period (8,000 to 6,000 years ago) could have been influenced by cultural factors. The results of an international research team led by the University of Pennsylvania (USA) suggest that the differences in body size during this period cannot be explained by genetic and dietary factors alone.

A new multidisciplinary study reconstructs the genomic history of the Balkan Peninsula during the first millennium of the common era, a time and place of profound demographic, cultural and linguistic change. The Balkan Peninsula is broadly defined as the region surrounded by the Adriatic, Aegean and Black Seas.

Archaeologists from Freie Universität Berlin together with an international team confirm ancient prehistoric fortifications in Siberia. Research results published in the scientific journal "Antiquity." In a groundbreaking archaeological discovery, an international team led by archaeologists from Freie Universität Berlin has uncovered fortified prehistoric settlements in a remote region of Siberia.

A possibly pre-Christian temple from the time of the East Anglian Kings, some 1,400 years ago, has been found at Rendlesham, near Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, by a team of archaeologists led by UCL researchers. The discovery was made over the summer by Suffolk County Council's Rendlesham Revealed community archaeology project.

Recent research has shown that engravings in a cave in La Roche-Cotard (France), which has been sealed for thousands of years, were actually made by Neanderthals. This research was performed by Basel archaeologist Dorota Wojtczak together with a team of researchers from France and Denmark, whose findings reveal that the Neanderthals were in fact the first humans with an appreciation of art.

Over 2,000 seal impressions discovered provide vivid insights into city administration in Roman Antiquity Archaeologists from the Asia Minor Research Centre have uncovered the city archives in the ancient city of Doliche in south-eastern Türkiye and recovered more than 2,000 seal impressions used to seal documents.

Scientists also recover more than 2,000 seal impressions in the ancient city of Doliche Archaeologists from the Asia Minor Research Center have uncovered the city archives in the ancient city of Doliche in south-eastern Turkey and recovered more than 2,000 seal impressions used to seal documents. The team led by Michael Blömer and Engelbert Winter from the University of Münster thus made a significant discovery: although there were archives for storing contracts in every city, for example, only a handful of archive buildings from the Roman Empire have been identified to date.

Heidelberg Earth scientists lead research ship METEOR's voyage to the eastern Mediterranean How did climatic and environmental change impact early eastern Mediterranean cultures, and what were the consequences of human settlement on land and marine ecosystems? In order to collect research data to answer these questions, the German research ship METEOR - under the guidance of Earth scientists from Heidelberg University - is embarking on a multi-week expedition to the Aegean and Ionian seas.

Between 13,000 and 9,650 years ago, the Natoufian culture developed on the eastern Mediterranean coast of northern Israel. According to recent discoveries, these hunter-gatherers were the first to use red pigments of organic origin. "It was a great surprise to discover such ancient and well-preserved pigments of organic origin" , confides Laurent Davin, archaeologist at the Laboratoire Technologie et ethnologie des mondes préhistoriques (Temps) 1 and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and co-author of the study just published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Before modern humans settled definitively in Europe, other human populations left Africa for Europe beginning approximately 60,000 years ago, albeit without settling for the long term. This was due to a major climatic crisis 40,000 years ago, combined with a super-eruption originating from the Phlegraean Fields volcanic area near current-day Naples, subsequently precipitating a decline in ancient European populations.

By analyzing genomes up to 40,000 years old, a team from the University of Geneva has traced the history of migrations between Sapiens and Neanderthals. About 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals, who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years in the western part of the Eurasian continent, gave way to Homo sapiens, who had arrived from Africa.

Researchers from the University of Valencia have revealed that social relations during the Copper Age in the Iberian Peninsula went from a first homogeneous phase of great connectivity to a more fragmented and regionalised stage. Through the analysis of the ceramic decorations of the Bell Beaker vase, characteristic of the European Chalcolithic and associated with funerary contexts of the elites, the work published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory concludes that these vessels were -democratised- in almost 300 years, with the consequent reinterpretation and heterogenisation.

Study reveals our European ancestors ate seaweed and freshwater plants Published: 17 October 2023 Researchers say they have found "definitive" archaeological evidence that seaweeds and other local freshwater plants were eaten in the Mesolithic, through the Neolithic transition to farming and into the Early Middle Ages.