The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the opioid epidemic, according to our new research, which finds that opioid…
Category: Anthropology
Vikings brought animals to England as early as the year 873
Vikings brought horses and dogs to the British Isles from Scandinavia, a new study suggests. A chemical analysis of bone fragments from a cemetery in England provides the first solid…
Mysterious marks on Ice Age cave art may have been a form of record keeping
As far back as roughly 25,000 years ago, Ice Age hunter-gatherers may have jotted down markings to communicate information about the behavior of their prey, a new study finds. These…
These science discoveries from 2022 could be game changers
These reported discoveries from 2022 could be game changers, if only we were sure of the findings. News reports this year left us wondering … Is new physics around the…
Homo naledi may have lit fires in underground caves at least 236,000 years ago
An ancient hominid dubbed Homo naledi may have lit controlled fires in the pitch-dark chambers of an underground cave system, new discoveries hint. Researchers have found remnants of small fireplaces…
Carvings on Australia’s boab trees reveal a generation’s lost history
Brenda Garstone is on the hunt for her heritage. Parts of her cultural inheritance are scattered across the Tanami desert in northwestern Australia, where dozens of ancient boab trees are…
King Tut’s tomb still has secrets to reveal 100 years after its discovery
One hundred years ago, archaeologist Howard Carter stumbled across the tomb of ancient Egypt’s King Tutankhamun. Carter’s life was never the same. Neither was the young pharaoh’s afterlife. Newspapers around…
Ancient DNA unveils Siberian Neandertals’ small-scale social lives
DNA from a group of Neandertals who lived together and a couple of others who lived not far away has yielded the best genetic peek to date into the social…
