Lunar Anthropocene: Are We in New Epoch of Moon’s History?
In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Kansas Geological Survey researcher Justin Holcomb and his colleagues argue the new epoch may have dawned in 1959, thanks to the…
Anthropologists Reconstruct Face of Homo heidelbergensis
Anthropologists in Greece have used facial reconstruction techniques to show how Homo heidelbergensis, a poorly understood relative of Neanderthals that lived between 700,000 to 200,000 years ago, might have once…
300,000-Year-Old Footprints of Homo heidelbergensis Found in Germany
Archaeologists have discovered three footprints of Homo heidelbergensis — a direct ancestor of Neanderthals — and numerous footprints of elephants and other species of herbivores at Schöningen, a well-known Middle…
Neanderthal Diet Included Crab Meat, Archaeologists Say
Archaeologists have unearthed a rich assemblage of human-accumulated terrestrial and marine faunal remains, including those of several crab species, in Gruta da Figueira Brava, a cave in Portugal that was…
Neanderthals Hunted Straight-Tusked Elephants 125,000 Years Ago
Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest terrestrial mammals of the Pleistocene epoch, present in Europe and western Asia between 800,000 and 100,000 years ago. A new analysis of 125,000-year-old…
World’s Oldest Art Was Created by Neanderthals, Researcher Says
Neanderthal art was perhaps more abstract than the stereotypical figure and animal cave paintings Homo sapiens made after Neanderthals disappeared about 30,000 years ago. But archaeologists are beginning to appreciate…
Archaeologists Uncover Upper Paleolithic Proto-Writing System
In at least 400 European caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet and Altamira, Upper Paleolithic humans drew, painted and engraved non-figurative signs from at least 42,000 years ago and figurative images…
320,000-Year-Old Cutmarked Bones Provide Evidence for Exploitation of Bear Skins
Researchers from the University of Tübingen and elsewhere have unearthed the cutmarked bones of cave bears at the Middle Pleistocene site of Schöningen in Lower Saxony, Germany. Bear skins have…
300,000-Year-Old Microartifacts Provide Glimpse into Life of Middle Pleistocene Hominins
Scientists at the University of Tübingen have performed a careful and in-depth analysis of tiny resharpening flakes from the famous Middle Pleistocene site of Schöningen in Lower Saxony, Germany. The…
Scientists Find Earliest Evidence of Hominins Cooking with Fire
Archaeologists have found the 780,000-year-old remains of a cooked carp-like fish at the wetland Acheulean site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel. Ancient inhabitants of the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov site…