Archaeology

  1. An engraving of Hercules capturing the three-headed dog Cerberus with a rope around its neck amidst mysterious flames
    Anthropology

    How mythology could help demystify dog domestication

    The path that dog myths took around the world closely parallels that of dog domestication, a new study finds.

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  2. A painting of a Muscogee (Creek) village in the 1790s shows a circular council house next to four clan structures positioned around a square. The village is on the banks of a pond and surrounded by trees.
    Archaeology

    Indigenous Americans ruled democratically long before the U.S. did

    Oklahoma’s Muscogee people, among others, promoted rule by the people long before the U.S. Constitution was written.

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  3. a grayscale drawing of native Hawaiians rowing long boats, one of which has a sail
    Anthropology

    ‘The Five-Million-Year Odyssey’ reveals how migration shaped humankind

    A globe-trotting trek through history shows how past population migrations changed the course of human biology and culture.

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  4. photo of a hand ax in the palm of someone's hand
    Archaeology

    Britons’ tools from 560,000 years ago have emerged from gravel pits

    A new study confirms that an archaeological site in southeastern England called Fordwich is one of the oldest hominid sites in the country.

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  5. a drawing of the citizens of Tournai, Belgium digging graves and carrying caskets during the Black Death
    Archaeology

    Ancient bacterial DNA hints Europe’s Black Death started in Central Asia

    Archaeological and genetic data pin the origins of Europe’s 1346–1353 bubonic plague to a bacterial strain found in graves in Asia from the 1330s.

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  6. portrait of brown chicken with lots of head feathers
    Anthropology

    A new origin story for domesticated chickens starts in rice fields 3,500 years ago

    Chickens, popular on today’s menus, got their start in Southeast Asia surprisingly recently, probably as exotic or revered animals, researchers say.

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  7. lidar image of Cotoca site
    Archaeology

    Lasers reveal ancient urban sprawl hidden in the Amazon

    South America’s Casarabe culture built a network of large and small settlements in what’s now Bolivia centuries before the Spanish arrived.

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  8. photo of the remains of an Inca child bundled in a textile and wearing a ceremonial headdress
    Archaeology

    A special brew may have calmed Inca children headed for sacrifice

    The mummified remains contained a substance that may reduce anxiety and is found in ayahuasca, a psychedelic ceremonial liquid still drunk today.

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  9. image of a campfire
    Humans

    Prehistoric people may have used light from fires to create dynamic art

    When brought near flickering flames, prehistoric stone engravings of animals seem to move, experiments with replicas and virtual reality show.

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  10. carved relief of an ancient Egyptian queen smelling a lotus flower
    Archaeology

    Ancient ‘smellscapes’ are wafting out of artifacts and old texts

    In studying and reviving long-ago scents, archaeologists aim to understand how people experienced, and interpreted, their worlds through smell.

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  11. illustration of muon particles raining down on the Great Pyramid of Giza
    Particle Physics

    Muons spill secrets about Earth’s hidden structures

    Tracking travel patterns of subatomic particles called muons helps reveal the inner worlds of pyramids, volcanoes and more.

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  12. two fragment so of a Maya mural showing a drawing of the 7 Deer hieroglyph
    Archaeology

    This hieroglyph is the oldest known record of the Maya calendar

    Plaster fragments with the markings date to at least 200 B.C. and indicate that the calendar system, still used today, might be centuries older.

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