news 2024

Genetic study also reveals long-distance travelling in Neolithic societies An international team of researchers led by Pere Gelabert and Ron Pinhasi of the University of Vienna and David Reich of Harvard University has produced the most complete set of Early Neolithic genetic data from Central Europe to date.

A new study in the journal Nature shows that the oceans were less cold in the early 20th century (1900-1930) than previously thought. During this period the ocean appears too cold due to the way some measurements were taken. This makes global ocean surface temperature measurements during this period inconsistent with both land air temperatures and palaeoclimatic data and the differences between land and ocean are larger than shown in climate models.

Evidence of oldest known alphabetic writing unearthed in ancient Syrian city Archaeological findings suggest alphabetic writing may be some 500 years older than other discoveries What appears to be evidence of some of the oldest alphabetic writing in human history is etched onto finger-length, clay cylinders excavated from a tomb in Syria by a team of Johns Hopkins researchers.

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications examines the use of ochre in southern Africa and shows that the earth mineral has been used there as a dye and for ritual purposes for almost 50,000 years. The researchers analyzed 173 samples from 15 Stone Age sites and reconstructed methods of ochre extraction, use and transport networks, with local strategies and long-distance trade playing a role.

The Roman-era temple of Esna, 60 kilometers south of Luxor in Egypt, is undergoing extensive restoration work in an Egyptian-German cooperation project.

In a thrilling quest to uncover secrets from one of Scotland's most significant historical sites, archaeologists and volunteers have begun a remarkable dig at Culloden Battlefield, where the course of British, European and world history changed dramatically nearly 280 years ago. Experts armed with both traditional archaeology tools and cutting-edge technology are peeling back layers of earth to reveal untold stories of the final clash of the Jacobite Rising in 1746.

Göttingen archaeology team uncovers representative room - colonnaded courtyards with fountains For more than 20 years, archaeologists from the University of Göttingen have been researching how people lived and traded in Sicily in the past. Now they have made another important discovery: In the province of Catania, they excavated the remains of a Roman house with a mosaic floor from the 2nd to 4th century AD.

Joint discovery by an Armenian-German team in the ancient city of Artaxata Archaeologists from the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia and the University of Münster have discovered the remains of a previously unknown early Christian church in the ancient city of Artaxata. The find consists of an octagonal building with cruciform extensions.

PUM launches a collection of comic strips. The first two volumes address the problems of access to vaccination during the pandemic and the sociology of young people in public places. A new collection entitled "Enquêtes scientifiques" is being launched this autumn by Presses de l'Université de Montréal (PUM), offering an original and accessible approach to disseminating scientific approaches in the form of comic strips.

Researchers study marks on spearheads creating reference data to understand fighting in past   How can we tell whether and how a prehistoric weapon was used? How can we better understand the dexterity and combat skills involved in Bronze Age spear fighting? A research team including Göttingen University present a new approach to answering these questions: they simulated the actual fight step-by-step to get new insights into fighting styles and the formation of marks on the weapons.

Multi-disciplinary archaeological survey at the site of Oued Beht, Morocco, reveals a previously unknown 3400-2900 BC farming society, shedding new light on North Africa's role in Mediterranean prehistory. For over thirty years I have been convinced that Mediterranean archaeology has been missing something fundamental Prof Cyprian Broodbank Archaeological fieldwork in Morocco has discovered the earliest, previously unknown 3400-2900 BC farming society from a poorly understood period of north-west African prehistory.

The skeletal remains of a senior officer of Sir John Franklin's 1845 Northwest Passage expedition have been identified by researchers from the University of Waterloo and Lakehead University using DNA and genealogical analyses. In April of 1848 James Fitzjames of HMS Erebus helped lead 105 survivors from their ice-trapped ships in an attempt to escape the Arctic.

Press release: Battlefield in the Tollensetal valley: arrowheads point to early supra-regional violent conflicts Research team discovers Bronze Age evidence of fighters from the south In the Tollensetal valley in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, researchers have been investigating the remains of Europe's oldest battlefield since 2008.

Research team led by Göttingen University discovers evidence of warriors travelling from the South   In the Tollense valley in Northern Germany, researchers have been investigating the remains of Europe's oldest battlefield since 2008. At various sites along the river, they have discovered human skeletal remains of around 150 individuals - mainly young men - and remains of weapons from the Bronze Age.

A team of researchers from the University of Cape Town (South Africa), the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the University of Valencia has analysed human remains from the Oakhurst rock shelter in the far south of Africa and has reconstructed the genomes of thirteen individuals who died between 1,300 and 10,000 years ago, including the oldest human genome recovered from southern Africa to date.

The findings challenge previous claims that dingoes derived from pariah dogs from India or Thailand. New archaeological research by the University of Sydney has discovered for the first time clear links between fossils of the iconic Australian dingo, and dogs from East Asia and New Guinea. The remarkable findings suggest that the dingo came from East Asia via Melanesia, and challenges previous claims that it derived from pariah dogs of India or Thailand.

Together with Egyptian restorers, a team from the University of Würzburg has discovered traces of gold leaf, remnants of the colorful paintings and handwritten testimonies of the priests in the temple of Edfu.

Political posts on social media that most frequently referenced ancient history tended to be more extreme, hostile and overwhelmingly negative in tone than average, finds a new study by researchers from UCL and the University of Edinburgh. Their study, published in PLOS One , scrutinised nearly 1.5 million posts using a combination of AI, computational and manual techniques and used a range of sentiment analysis tools to evaluate the attitudes behind those posts that reference Britain's distant past.

This megalithic construction, located in Antequera and built 6000 years ago, shows signs of advanced techniques that suggest the great precocity of the technical and scientific developments existing i