Archaeology

New fossil discovery shows 50 million-year-old Canada-Australia connection

The discovery of a tiny insect fossil is unearthing big questions about the global movement of animals and the connection to changes in climate...

Scientists find the biggest and oldest Maya monument

The Maya civilization may have developed more rapidly than archaeologists once thought, according to new research. From the ground, it’s impossible to tell that the...

Scientists decode the Dead Sea Scrolls puzzle with DNA fingerprints

The collection of more than 25,000 fragments of ancient manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls include, among other ancient texts, the oldest copies...

Neandertals got picky about bones for their tools

Evidence continues to mount that the Neandertals, who lived in Europe and Asia until about 40,000 years ago, were more sophisticated people than once...

Modern humans and Neanderthals share a tangled genetic history

Our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals at multiple times. In recent years, scientists have uncovered evidence that Neanderthals and modern humans interbred. Previous research has shown that...

Scientists discover the ancestor of all animals in fossils

A team led by UC Riverside geologists has discovered the first ancestor on the family tree that contains most familiar animals today, including humans. The...

These ostrich eggshell beads were Facebook or Twitter’s likes in Stone Age

A clump of grass grows on an outcrop of shale 33,000 years ago. An ostrich pecks at the grass, and atoms taken up from the...

New timeline rewrites history of Easter Island’s collapse

Easter Island’s prehistoric societal collapse didn’t happen as researchers have long thought, according to a new study. Researchers have developed a chronology of monument-building and...

Easter Island society did not collapse prior to European contact, new study finds

Easter Island society did not collapse prior to European contact and its people continued to build its iconic moai statues for much longer than...

Archaeologists find Bronze Age tombs lined with gold

Archaeologists with the University of Cincinnati have discovered two Bronze Age tombs containing a trove of engraved jewelry and artifacts that promise to unlock...