Archaeology

Archaeology

The Original Cocoa Treat: Chemistry pushes back first use of the drink

Analysis of residues from ancient Maya vessels has revealed that the pots held cocoa almost 1,000 years before its previously known earliest use.

Archaeology

Openings to the Underworld

Archaeological finds indicate that ancient groups in Mexico and Central America, including the Maya, held beliefs about a sacred landscape that focused on natural and human-made caves as sites of important ritual activities and burials.

Archaeology

New World hunters get a reprieve

New radiocarbon evidence indicates that, beginning around 11,000 years ago, human hunters contributed to North American mammal extinctions that had already been triggered by pronounced climate shifts.

Archaeology

Stone Age Siberians move up in time

Siberian sites previously thought to have been bases for early human excursions into North America may only date to about 11,300 years ago, when people have traditionally been assumed to have first reached Alaska.

Archaeology

Wild Chimps Rocked On: Apes left unique record of stone tools

Researchers have uncovered the first archaeological site attributed to chimpanzees, which includes stone implements that were used to crack nuts on top of thick tree roots.

Archaeology

Almond Joy, Stone Age Style: Our ancestors had a bash eating wild nuts

New finds at a 780,000-year-old Israeli site indicate that its ancient residents used stone tools to crack open a variety of hard-shelled nuts that were gathered as a dietary staple.

Archaeology

Skulls attest to Iron Age scalping

Archaeologists identified four skulls, previously found in southern Siberia, that bore incisions attesting to the practice of scalping in that region around 2,500 years ago.

Archaeology

Farmers took fast track in settling Europe

A review of radiocarbon evidence indicates that farming groups colonized southern Europe over no more than 100 to 200 years, beginning around 7,400 years ago.

Archaeology

Ancestors who came in from the cold

Researchers found the remains of a 36,000-year-old human occupation in the Russian Arctic, which represents the earliest evidence of a human presence that far north.

Archaeology

Neandertals used tools with versatility

Microscopic data from artifacts found at two Ukrainian sites indicate that Neandertals used stone tools in flexible ways that allowed them to maintain a broad diet for nearly 50,000 years.

Archaeology

Stone Age folk in Asia adapted to extremes

Preliminary evidence indicates that people occupied the harsh, high-altitude environment of Asia's Tibetan Plateau in the late Stone Age, between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago.

Archaeology

Ancient ash flow brought sudden death

Analysis of the excavation in Herculaneum of the victims of the A.D. 79 eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius indicates that when the initial ash flow swept through the city, it arrived so quickly that some residents didn't even have time to flinch.