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An international research team led by the University of Tübingen's Dr. Márton Rabi has found that the giant crocodile Deinosuchus - often called the "terror crocodile" or "greater alligator" - was such a successful predator that it posed a threat even to large dinosaurs. Deinosuchus lived in the wetlands and coastal areas of North America in the Cretaceous period, 82 to 75 million years ago.

A groundbreaking study involving our Department of Archaeology has uncovered the first physical evidence of human-animal gladiatorial combat in the Roman period. The study conducted by an international team of archaeologists and osteologists centres on a skeleton discovered in a Roman-period cemetery outside York, UK.

Study challenges long-held assumptions about the Mediterranean Phoenician-Punic civilization, one of the most influential maritime cultures in history To the point Secret of the Phoenician-Punic civilization's success: Their culture spread across the Mediterranean not through large-scale mass migration, but through a dynamic process of cultural transmission and assimilation.

Wealth inequality has been linked to human sustainability for over 10,000 years. That's according to a new study led by Professor Dan Lawrence from our Archaeology department.

In the study, researchers including Oxford archaeologists Shadreck Chirikure and Helena Hamerow considered the implications for wealth distribution of variation in house sizes and their storage capacities within settlements, and how land use and farming practices impacted this variation. They found that in regions with land-intensive farming systems, such as those with specialised animal traction for ploughing, high wealth inequality became persistent, with a small number of households controlling productive land.

Differences between the fireplaces indicate ingenious use Whether for cooking, heating, as a light source or for making tools - it is assumed that fire was essential for the survival of people in the Ice Age. However, it is puzzling that hardly any well-preserved evidence of fireplaces from the coldest period of the Ice Age in Europe has been found so far.

A new study reveals a long-isolated North African human lineage in the Central Sahara during the African humid period more than 7,000 years ago To the point DNA analysis from two naturally mummified individuals from Libya: More than 7,000 years ago, during the so-called African Humid Period (Green Sahara), a long isolated human lineage existed in North Africa.

For the first time ever, a team of researchers has found chemical evidence that wine was actually drunk in Troy, verifying a conjecture of Heinrich Schliemann , who discovered the legendary fortress city in the 19th century. In addition, the researchers from the Universities of Tübingen, Bonn and Jena found that not only members of the Trojan elite but the common people too drank wine.

Researchers at UZH have studied the impact of pandemics on the birth rate in Switzerland for the first time. While the number of births unexpectedly rose initially during COVID-19, it fell significantly during previous pandemics in history. Birth rates are currently declining in Switzerland, just like they are in other European countries.

Twenty-seven standardised bone tools dating back more than 1.5 million years were recently discovered in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania by a team of scientists from the CNRS and l'université de Bordeaux 1 , in collaboration with international and Tanzanian researchers. This discovery challenges our understanding of early hominin technological evolution, as the oldest previously known standardised bone tools date back approximately 500,000 years.

The oldest collection of mass-produced prehistoric bone tools reveal that human ancestors were likely capable of more advanced abstract reasoning one million years earlier than thought, finds a new study involving researchers at UCL and CSIC- Spanish National Research Council. The paper, published in Nature, describes a collection of 27 now-fossilised bones that had been shaped into hand tools 1.5 million years ago by human ancestors.

The results of the excavations at Kach Kouch, published in the journal Antiquity , demonstrate a pre-Phoenician occupation of this geographical area. Most Bronze Age settlements have been documented in European territory. Despite its geographical proximity, the Maghreb has always been absent from these historical narratives, erroneously characterized as an 'empty land' until the arrival of the Phoenicians around 800 BC.

An international research team led by Dr Knut Bretzke from Friedrich Schiller University Jena has succeeded in presenting the oldest evidence to date for the systematic production of stone blades on the Arabian Peninsula. These long, narrow stone tools can be dated to an age of 80,000 years using a luminescence method.

From a tiny electric jolt when touching a doorknob to styrofoam peanuts that cling to a mischievous cat's fur-the well-known and seemingly simple phenomenon of static electricity has puzzled people since antiquity. How could this ubiquitous effect, frequently demonstrated to bedazzled children by rubbing a balloon on their hair, still not be completely understood by scientists? Static electricity goes by multiple names, but scientists prefer to call it 'contact electrification'.

Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies smell 'woody,' 'spicy' and 'sweet', finds a new study led by researchers from UCL and the University of Ljubljana, revealing new details about mumification practices. The research, published in Journal of the American Chemical Society , is the first time that the smells of mummified bodies have been systematically studied combining a mix of instrumental and sensory techniques, including an electronic 'nose' and trained, human 'sniffers.' Nine ancient Egyptian mummified bodies were studied.

Historical inhabitants of the region that is now Ukraine have had diverse European, Asian and Middle Eastern ancestry for thousands of years, finds a new study co-led by UCL researchers. The analysis of ancient DNA shows the genetic imprint of Ukraine's history as a crossroads of human migrations, connecting people from the vast Eurasian steppe with central Europe.

Researchers analyse traces of manipulation of human remains from Maszycka Cave An international research team including the University of Göttingen has gained new insights into the burial rituals of Late Ice Age societies in Central Europe. Signs of human remains from the Maszycka Cave in southern Poland being manipulated indicate systematic dissection of the deceased, as well as cannibalism.

In response to a request from the French government, and following a diagnostic study carried out in 2017, which revealed numerous flint remains, Inrap and Chartres Métropole carried out an excavation at the Enclos site (1500 m²), in Mainvilliers, west of Chartres.

In Germany, there were different socialisations and sensitivities on both sides of the Berlin Wall and the inner-German border, which continue to have an impact to this day. A recent international study involving scientists from the University of Jena now shows how strongly even a spatial separation that dates back almost two thousand years can shape psychology in the present day: The Limes forms another "psychological border" that divides Germany.

New insights into our linguistic roots via ancient DNA analysis Where lies the origin of the Indo-European language family? Ron Pinhasi and his team in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Vienna contribute a new piece to this puzzle in collaboration with David Reich's ancient DNA laboratory at Harvard University.