Archaeology

  1. Archaeology

    Ancient birth brick emerges in Egypt

    Investigations at a 3,700-year-old Egyptian town have yielded a painted brick that was used in childbirth rituals.

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  2. Archaeology

    Ancient site yields a copper whopper

    Excavations in Jordan revealed the largest known Early Bronze Age metal-production facility, where workers crafted high-quality copper tools and ingots beginning around 4,700 years ago.

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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