Anthropology.net

anthropology.net4 Ancient Ecuador Genomes Hint at 1,500 Years of ContinuityFour low-coverage genomes from Salango suggest stable ancestry for 1,500 years, but the eruption claim and the 9,800-year split date need caution.

Four ancient genomes from Salango, Ecuador, point to stable ancestry on the Pacific coast across 1,500 years. I explain why the continuity is plausible but unproven, and why the 9,800-year split date needs care. #AncientDNA #Ecuador #Archaeology www.anthropology.net/p/4-ancient-...

anthropology.netPolynesian Founder Effects: Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui LinkedWhole-genome data link Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui to shared ancestral roots in Mangareva, with bottlenecks stronger than the Finnish or Amish cases.

New in Science: Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui sit about 7,000 km apart, yet genomes make them each other’s closest relatives in Polynesia, with ancestral roots in Mangareva. Here is what the data can and cannot say. #Polynesia #AncientDNA #Anthropology www.anthropology.net/p/polynesian...

anthropology.netNeanderthal Beaver Butchery: 4 Cut Bones Out of 231A Spanish cave preprint finds Neanderthal cut marks on beaver and marmot bones, but carnivore tooth marks appear on more than five times as many.

Four of 231 beaver and marmot bones from Valdegoba Cave, Spain, carry cut marks, while carnivore tooth marks turn up on 22. A preprint reads that as occasional Neanderthal processing, and the marmot jaw is from disturbed sediment. #Neanderthals #Zooarchaeology #Archaeology

anthropology.netFirst Recorded Stenciled Rock Art in Southern AfricaTwo 9 cm stenciled figures at La Rochelle, Mpumalanga, appear to be red paint blown over a template; the maker and the date are unknown.

Two 9 cm figures in a church-used rock shelter in Mpumalanga look like southern Africa’s first recorded stenciled rock art. The date, maker and template are unknown. I weigh the paint-spatter evidence against that gap. #RockArt #Archaeology #SouthAfrica www.anthropology.net/p/first-reco...

anthropology.net96 Mounds Suggest People Lived Among Ake’s Maya RuinsA new study argues Postclassic Maya lived inside Ake’s ruined center from AD 1100 to 1550, though the chronology is coarse.

Ake, Yucatán: 96 small mounds, most built on blocks from collapsed Maya buildings, suggest people lived in the ruins after AD 1100. The continuous 450-year story is thinner than the headlines. Dating details on the site. #Maya #Archaeology #Yucatan www.anthropology.net/p/96-mounds-...

anthropology.netEastern Ancestry in a 30,000-Year-Old Gravettian GenomeAncient DNA from Isturitz Cave suggests western Europeans mixed with eastern lineages by about 32,000 years ago, before the Last Glacial Maximum.

A woman from Isturitz Cave who lived about 30,000 years ago carries ancestry linked to central and eastern Europe. A new Science Advances paper models the mixing at 32,500 to 31,500 cal yr B.P. Here is what holds up. #Gravettian #AncientDNA #Paleolithic www.anthropology.net/p/eastern-an...

anthropology.netXujiayao Denisovan Fossils: Two Bones, 18 ProteinsA Nature study reads ancient collagen from two Xujiayao bones, assigns them to Denisovans, and argues against Homo juluensis as a species.

Two bones from Xujiayao in northern China carry lysine at COL1A2-996, a variant found in Denisovans with protein or DNA data. A new Nature study uses it, plus skull anatomy, to reassign a long-debated fossil assemblage. #Denisovans #Paleoproteomics #Anthropology www.anthropology.net/p/xujiayao-d...

anthropology.netEland Collagen Found in 60,000-Year-Old Ochre SurfacePalaeoproteomics found common eland collagen in two of five samples from a Howiesons Poort ochre layer, and a human source is likely but unproven.

A red ochre surface at Klipdrift Shelter, South Africa, about 60,000 years old, contains eland collagen. Proteomics found it in two of five samples. Here is what that does and does not show about early ochre use. #Archaeology #Paleoproteomics #MiddleStoneAge

anthropology.netLiDAR Locates 3 Unregistered Blue Mountains Rock SheltersDrone and aircraft LiDAR led archaeologists to Aboriginal rock art and stone artifacts, but this pilot study cannot yet say how often the method is right.

A drone equipped with LiDAR scans the rugged terrain of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, helping archaeologists identify potential Aboriginal cultural heritage sites beneath dense vegetation. Credit: University of Sydney www.anthropology.net/p/lidar-loca...

anthropology.netRoman Lead Mining: A 2-Meter Peat Core Doubts Spain’s RoleLead isotopes preserved in a French peat bog trace silver mining across six millennia and suggest Roman supply ran through Gaul and Germany.

A 2-meter peat core from France records Roman lead mining in Gaul, Germany and Britain loudly and in Spain faintly. The authors do not call that a contradiction. #Archaeology #Rome #AncientMining www.anthropology.net/p/roman-lead...

archaeologymag.comNeanderthal hand fossils from a Spanish cave preserved 46,000-year-old DNA | Archaeology News Online MagazineSix hand bones from a Neanderthal man found at Abauntz Cave in Spain yielded ancient DNA and direct radiocarbon dates.

Exciting archaeology news! 🦴🧬 Researchers extracted 46,000-year-old DNA from Neanderthal hand fossils in Abauntz Cave, Navarre. These are the first direct human remains found in the western Pyrenees! Read more: archaeologymag.com/2026/10/nean... #Neanderthal #Archaeology

anthropology.netWhite Sands Footprints: 20 Layers Say Less Than You ThinkTwo new studies on the White Sands footprints date a Last Glacial Maximum climate record and ask what repeated track surfaces can and cannot show.

Twenty footprint layers at White Sands span about 1,800 years of ice age climate swings. A new agent-based model says the gaps between them prove nothing about who was absent. #WhiteSands #Archaeology #IceAge www.anthropology.net/p/white-sand...

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A round hole in a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal shoulder blade from Shanidar Cave points to a wooden spear, maybe the first trace of wooden weapons in the prehistoric Middle East. #Neanderthals #Archaeology #HumanEvolution www.anthropology.net/p/75000-year...

anthropology.netVocal Tract Variation Explains Half of Vowel DifferencesAn MRI study of 32 speakers suggests the anatomy behind individual accents may seed phonetic divergence, and with it language evolution, between groups.

Thirty-two speakers in an MRI scanner, five vowels: vocal tract anatomy accounts for about half the leftover acoustic variation, and the same pattern shows up across ten languages. #Linguistics #Anthropology #LanguageEvolution www.anthropology.net/p/vocal-trac...

anthropology.net13,800-Year-Old Beringia Camp Shows People Settled InAt Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ in Alaska, an earth oven, bone needles and diamond-shaped stone tools complicate the story of the Bering Land Bridge.

At Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ in Alaska, people left 80,000 specimens, an earth oven and bone needles 13,800 years ago, and their diamond-shaped tools have matches in Siberia. #Beringia #Archaeology #FirstAmericans www.anthropology.net/p/13800-year...

anthropology.net2,316 Burials Say Farming Didn’t Start Inequality in ChinaCentral Plain graves from 7000 to 1500 BCE show high inequality among hunter-gatherers, then livestock, violence and ritual power hardened it.

A new Science Advances analysis of 2,316 burials in China’s Central Plain finds Gini coefficients near 0.6 among hunter-gatherers at Jiahu, before livestock, violence or states. #Archaeology #AncientChina #Inequality www.anthropology.net/p/2316-buria...

anthropology.net89% of Ancient Inuit Dog Bones Match Modern Sled DogsA biomechanical model and 82 ancient bones from Chukotka suggest dog sledding in the Bering Strait, though no site yields clear sled evidence.

Sled dogs carry the evidence in their legs: radius, ulna and tibia about 6% shorter than other canids. 73 of 82 ancient Chukotka dog bones fit, though no sled came with them. #SledDogs #Archaeology #Zooarchaeology www.anthropology.net/p/89-of-anci...

anthropology.netA 700,000-Year-Old Elephant Tooth From Gesher Benot Ya’aqovA straight-tusked elephant molar found among Acheulian handaxes in Israel records roughly three years of one animal’s diet and drinking water.

A straight-tusked elephant molar from Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel, found among 700,000-year-old Acheulian handaxes, records about three years of one animal’s drinking water. #Paleoanthropology #Acheulian #Archaeology www.anthropology.net/p/a-700000-y...

anthropology.netNeanderthal Woodworking: 13 Artifacts in 597 Wood RemainsTravertine at Abric Romaní kept the shapes of Neanderthal spears, trays and a club, and the Middle Paleolithic toolkit looks larger for it.

Neanderthals worked wood. At Abric Romaní, travertine kept the molds of 597 wooden pieces, 13 of them worked: spears, bark trays and a club with no known Old World parallel. #Neanderthals #Archaeology #HumanEvolution www.anthropology.net/p/neandertha...

anthropology.netTrypillia Pottery: Six Decoration Styles Became OnePottery diversity can rise or fall as Neolithic societies grow, and Trypillia and Linear Pottery sites in Europe show both directions.

Six pottery decoration styles became one in Copper Age Ukraine while towns grew. In Neolithic Germany, diversity rose first. A new PLOS One model asks what pot variety really measures. #Archaeology #Neolithic #Trypillia www.anthropology.net/p/trypillia-...

anthropology.netMaya Maize Farming Was Wetland Farming for 4,000 YearsSoil isotopes from southern Belize show wetland-adjacent maize fields by 6,000 years ago and a slow move uphill that began only after 4,000 years ago.

Soil isotopes from southern Belize put wetland-adjacent Maya maize farming at 6,000 years ago, and it lasted about 4,000 years. A drying of under 1 per mil in one cave record may have ended it. #Maya #Archaeology #Maize www.anthropology.net/p/maya-maize...

anthropology.netHadza and Tsimane Share 1,231 Gut Microbiome SpeciesGut bacteria from Tanzania and the Bolivian Amazon share deep ancestry, and a Nature study says their split roughly tracks human migration.

People in Tanzania and the Bolivian Amazon, separated for tens of thousands of years, share 1,231 gut microbial species. A new Nature study dates the bacterial split. #Microbiome #HumanEvolution #Anthropology www.anthropology.net/p/hadza-and-...

anthropology.netScandinavian Aurochs: Still Alive 6,500 Years AgoAncient DNA, 108 radiocarbon dates and Mesolithic bone piles suggest hunting, inbreeding and spreading forest together ended the Scandinavian aurochs.

Two aurochs from Scania carry the most uniform DNA of any aurochs sampled. A Holocene study argues hunting, isolation and closing forest together ended Scandinavia’s wild cattle. #aurochs #archaeology #paleogenetics www.anthropology.net/p/scandinavi...

anthropology.netCoca Leaves Found in Wool of 3 Sacrificed Inka LlamasExcavations at Tambo Viejo in Peru’s Acarí Valley found whole coca leaves where Spanish chroniclers said the Inka burned them.

Coca leaves caught in llama wool, Tambo Viejo: Spanish chroniclers said the Inka burned coca as an offering. At Tambo Viejo in Peru, archaeologists found whole leaves caught in the wool of three sacrificed llamas, buried between A.D. 1450 and 1500. #Archaeology #Inka #Coca

anthropology.netFirst Americans: DNA Lineages No Older Than 21,000 YearsAncient DNA from 1,204 people in the Americas shows lineages diversifying no earlier than 21,000 years ago, an awkward fit for the oldest sites.

The oldest genome from the Americas is 12,800 years old, yet models fitted to it and later ones put the first lineage split near 21,000 years ago. What that does to White Sands and Cerutti. #Archaeology #AncientDNA #FirstAmericans www.anthropology.net/p/first-amer...

anthropology.netFlat Head Syndrome in 42% of Iron Age ItaliansSkulls from Matelica, Italy, show deformational plagiocephaly nearly 3,000 years before the Back to Sleep campaign

Iron Age skulls from Matelica, Italy show flat head syndrome in 42% of adults tested, centuries before “Back to Sleep.” What did ancient parents do that flattened their babies’ heads? #Paleopathology #IronAge #Bioarchaeology www.anthropology.net/p/flat-head-...

anthropology.netHomo erectus in South Africa: Outnumbered 10 to 1A skull fragment from Drimolen pushes the adult Homo erectus record back to 2 million years ago, among far more Paranthropus.

A skull fragment pulled from a lime-mining pit near Johannesburg may be the oldest adult Homo erectus known. At Drimolen, our ancestors were outnumbered by Paranthropus more than 10 to 1. #HumanEvolution #Paleoanthropology #Drimolen www.anthropology.net/p/homo-erect...

anthropology.netWas Meretneith a Pharaoh? 13 Lost Seals, 1 PhotographA 2026 study uses digital tracing on Walter Emery’s photograph of a Saqqara sealing to argue that Meretneith held the royal serekh of the First Dynasty.

Thirteen mud stoppers, one surviving photograph, and a fight over whether Meretneith wore the royal serekh. A new digital tracing says she did; at least one Egyptologist disagrees. #Egyptology #Meretneith #AncientEgypt www.anthropology.net/p/was-meretn...

anthropology.netBabylonian Scribes Learned 2,000 Gods, Then Rearranged ThemBabylonian scribal schools taught religion through god-lists, and at Uruk the priests trained on them used the lists to raise Anu above Ištar.

Babylonian scribes copied a list of almost 2,000 gods. At Uruk, priests trained on it used the lists to put the sky god Anu on top, fold Ištar into his wife Antu, and build a temple to match. #Assyriology #Mesopotamia #Archaeology www.anthropology.net/p/babylonian...

anthropology.net489 Spear Points Show Clovis Newcomers Wasted Less StoneIn Tennessee’s chert-rich river valley, the first Ice Age hunters resharpened their points to stubs while Cumberland successors discarded usable ones.

The first Ice Age hunters in Tennessee’s chert-rich valley resharpened Clovis points to stubs, while their Cumberland successors tossed usable ones. The scarce thing was knowledge. #Archaeology #Clovis #IceAge www.anthropology.net/p/489-spear-...

anthropology.netTeotihuacan Writing Was Real: 3 Glyphs on a Mexican CliffRed glyphs painted in Cave 19 at Chalcatzingo, Morelos, name a Singing Mountain and add new evidence that Teotihuacan had a true writing system.

On a cliff in Morelos, red Teotihuacan glyphs name a “Singing Mountain” also named in a mural inside the city, adding fresh evidence that Teotihuacan had real writing. #Teotihuacan #Archaeology #Mesoamerica www.anthropology.net/p/teotihuaca...

primatology.netYoung Orangutans Keep Learning From a Look for 145 MinutesA 12-year study of wild Sumatran orangutans finds that most of what looks like an infant’s solo trial and error starts with watching another ape.

Most of a young orangutan’s solo trial and error starts with watching. In a 12-year study of wild Sumatran orangutans, one bout of peering kept exploration elevated for about 145 minutes. #Primatology #Orangutans #AnimalCulture www.primatology.net/p/young-oran...

anthropology.netGöbeklitepe’s 928 Bone Fragments May Be Landslide DebrisThe site’s first intact burials suggest much of its scattered human bone began in graves under house floors, not in the rites of a Neolithic skull cult.

Göbeklitepe’s first intact graves suggest many of the 928 human bone fragments scattered through its pillared buildings began in burials under house floors, then slid downhill. #Archaeology #Neolithic #Göbeklitepe www.anthropology.net/p/gobeklitep...

anthropology.netIsotopes Flag Just 17 of 199 as Migrants in Bronze Age GreeceStrontium isotope analysis of six Greek sites puts migrants at 5 to 10 percent across the Bronze Age, with young adults the likeliest newcomers.

Strontium in the teeth and skulls of 199 people from Bronze Age Greece flagged just 17 who grew up elsewhere. None of the 38 under age 18 were outsiders; young adults were likeliest to be. #Archaeology #BronzeAge #AncientGreece www.anthropology.net/p/isotopes-f...

anthropology.netThe 315,000-Year-Old Homo sapiens Face Is Not One PersonA new facial reconstruction from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, joins one fossil’s braincase, another’s jaw and a modern stranger’s CT scan

The newest face of the oldest known member of our species was built from a 2017 press video, fossils from at least two individuals and a modern stranger’s CT scan. #JebelIrhoud #HumanEvolution #Paleoanthropology www.anthropology.net/p/the-315000...

anthropology.netHuman Joints Evolved a Threefold Cartilage DeficitGene switches set before we parted from Neanderthals cut the sugars that cushion human cartilage, a clue to why we are so prone to osteoarthritis.

Human cartilage holds a third of the cushioning sugars found in ape cartilage, even in the elbow, which apes load harder. Gene switches set before we split from Neanderthals may be why. #HumanEvolution #Osteoarthritis #Genetics www.anthropology.net/p/human-join...

anthropology.netUp to 700 People and No Clear Elite at Neolithic OpovoA resurvey of a Vinča culture village in Serbia finds it nearly twice the size once thought, ringed by five ditches, with little house-size inequality.

The Vinča culture village of Opovo in Serbia may have held up to 700 people inside five ditches, one of them 11 meters wide, yet its house sizes point to little inequality. #Archaeology #Neolithic #Prehistory www.anthropology.net/p/up-to-700-...

anthropology.netLargest Cucuteni-Trypillia Kiln Found in a 60-House VillageA 5,900-year-old Copper Age pottery kiln at Ursoaia, Romania, is larger than any kiln yet published from the Trypillia megasites.

17 Sept

The largest securely documented Cucuteni-Trypillia kiln, about 7.5 square meters, came from a Copper Age village in Romania rather than one of the vast Trypillia megasites. #Archaeology #CopperAge #CucuteniTrypillia www.anthropology.net/p/largest-cu...

anthropology.net8,000 Insect Remains Show a Gran Canaria Tomb Was a GranaryArchaeoentomology at Cruz de la Esquina shows Indigenous Canarians buried their dead fresh, on planks laid over the leftovers of stored grain.

17 Sept

A burial cave on Gran Canaria began as a granary. Beneath the planks where the dead lay: 932 weevil fragments, and 4,107 blowfly cases showing the bodies went in soon after death. #Archaeology #CanaryIslands #Archaeoentomology www.anthropology.net/p/8000-insec...

anthropology.netLittle Foot Still Climbed Like an Ape 3.67 Million Years AgoBone scans show Australopithecus climbed like an African ape while walking on two legs, and that early Homo had quit the trees by 1.8 million years ago.

Little Foot, 3.67 million years old, loaded its arms like a climbing gorilla and its legs like a walking human. Early Homo had left the trees by 1.8 million years ago. #HumanEvolution #Australopithecus #Paleoanthropology www.anthropology.net/p/little-foo...

anthropology.netAncient DNA Shows a Spanish Grape Cloned for 1,100 YearsSeeds from Phoenician-era Huelva and Islamic Valencia put some Iberian wine grapes two or three generations from vines that reached Spain 3,000 years ago.

A grape seed from a 10th-century moat in Valencia came from a child of Heben, a vine still grown in Logroño. Ancient DNA puts some Iberian wine grapes 2 or 3 generations from Iron Age vines. #AncientDNA #Archaeology #Wine www.anthropology.net/p/ancient-dn...

anthropology.netLebanon’s Ice Age Coast Stayed Wooded for 300,000 YearsEnamel isotopes from teeth gathered by Jesuit collectors show the central Levant kept its woodlands through glacial cycles as parts of the south opened up.

Museum teeth gathered by Jesuit priests in Lebanon show the central Levant kept its woodlands and steady seasons for 300,000 years while parts of the south grew more open. #Archaeology #HumanEvolution #Paleoclimate www.anthropology.net/p/lebanons-i...

anthropology.netZigzags on 18,000-Year-Old Venus Figurines Copy Tusk GrainAt Mizyn in northern Ukraine, Ice Age carvers engraved the Schreger lines of mammoth ivory onto some of Europe’s earliest schematic female figurines.

Ice Age carvers at Mizyn, Ukraine, engraved the zigzag grain found inside mammoth tusks onto the backs of 18,000-year-old Venus figurines. The part that looks most abstract was copied. #Archaeology #IceAge #Paleolithic www.anthropology.net/p/zigzags-on...

anthropology.netAustralia Was Home to 2.2 Million Indigenous People in 1788DNA, radiocarbon dates and climate models put 1788 Aboriginal Australia at over seven times the old estimate, with excess deaths near 2 million by 1861.

More than 2 million Indigenous people likely lived in Australia in 1788, over seven times the figure used for a century, and numbers fell by over 90 percent by 1861. #Archaeology #IndigenousAustralia #PopulationGenetics www.anthropology.net/p/australia-...

anthropology.netAncient DNA: Coastal and Inland Finns Were One People in 1250Genomes from 34 Iron Age and medieval burials show how Swedish migration after 1250 reshaped Finland’s southwest coast while inland Häme barely changed.

Ancient DNA from 34 burials shows coastal and inland Finns were one people around 1250. Swedish migration later reshaped the coast, while Häme kept nearly 1,000 years of continuity. #AncientDNA #Finland #Archaeogenetics www.anthropology.net/p/ancient-dn...

primatology.netWild Chimpanzees Teach Tool Use: 33 Transfers on CameraAt Dindefelo, Senegal, camera traps caught savanna chimpanzees handing tools to infants and others, and in all but one case the recipient reached first.

Wild savanna chimps at Dindefelo rarely actively teach tool use: in 32 of 33 camera-trap tool transfers, learners initiated the handover. A new Frontiers in Psychology study offers key empirical data on the social learning roots of hominin technology. #Anthropology #Primatology

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Camera traps in Senegal filmed wild chimpanzees passing tools to one another 33 times, most often to infants, and in all but one case the recipient made the first move. #Primatology #Chimpanzees #AnimalBehavior www.primatology.net/p/wild-chimp...

anthropology.netMonkeys Have Rhythm, a Study Said. The Data Disagrees.A 2025 study said two macaques could synchronize to a beat. A rebuttal, and what newborn brains already do, say otherwise.

12 Sept

A 2025 study said two trained monkeys could keep a beat. A 2026 rebuttal says the data show tempo matching, not real synchronization, and three-day-old humans already beat them at it. #Primatology #AnimalCognition #Evolution www.anthropology.net/p/monkeys-ha...

anthropology.netTasmanian Devils Roamed the Pilbara for 45,000 YearsTwo teeth from a Pilbara rock shelter show devils scavenged human camps in Australia’s arid interior, until the dingo’s arrival changed everything.

11 Sept

Two teeth from a Pilbara rock shelter show Tasmanian devils scavenged human campsites in Australia’s driest interior for 45,000 years, until the dingo arrived and the relationship broke down. #Archaeology #TasmanianDevil #Pilbara www.anthropology.net/p/tasmanian-...

anthropology.netBetel Nut Sucking Pushes Drug Use Back 12,000 YearsDental wear and arecoline traces from two Sulawesi foragers show psychoactive nut use began in the Late Pleistocene, long before farming or slaked lime.

10 Sept

Two Ice Age skeletons from Sulawesi show teeth ground into deep grooves by decades of sucking raw betel nuts, no lime needed. It pushes the record of human drug use back to 25,000 years ago, long before farming. #Archaeology #HumanEvolution #Paleoanthropology www.anthropology.net/p/betel-nut-...