Ancient Europeans may have evolved an ability to digest milk thanks to periodic famines and disease outbreaks. Europeans avidly tapped into milk drinking starting around 9,000 years ago, when dairying…
Category: Anthropology
Ancient DNA links an East Asian Homo sapiens woman to early Americans
A previously undetected Homo sapiens population inhabited what’s now southwestern China around 14,000 years ago and contributed to the ancestry of ancient Americans. This far-ranging Asian group’s evolutionary identity has…
Demond Mullins climbed Everest to inspire more Black outdoor enthusiasts
Demond “Dom” Mullins’ days as a student at Lehman College in New York were interrupted in 2004 when his National Guard unit was deployed to Baghdad. A year later, he…
The idea that many people grow following trauma may be a myth
“What does not kill me, makes me stronger,” 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote. Variations of that aphorism abound in literary, spiritual and, more recently, psychological texts. That…
A new origin story for domesticated chickens starts in rice fields 3,500 years ago
It turns out that chicken and rice may have always gone together, from the birds’ initial domestication to tonight’s dinner. In two new studies, scientists lay out a potential story…
A Denisovan girl’s fossil tooth may have been unearthed in Laos
A molar tooth from Southeast Asia probably belonged to a member of a cryptic group of Stone Age hominids called Denisovans, researchers say. If so, this relatively large tooth joins…
A special brew may have calmed Inca children headed for sacrifice
Two Inca children slated for ritual sacrifice more than 500 years ago quaffed a special soothing concoction that has gone undetected until now. Those young victims, most likely a girl…
Ancient ‘smellscapes’ are wafting out of artifacts and old texts
Ramses VI faced a smelly challenge when he became Egypt’s king in 1145 B.C. The new pharaoh’s first job was to rid the land of the stench of fish and…
How ancient, recurring climate changes may have shaped human evolution
Recurring climate changes may have orchestrated where Homo species lived over the last 2 million years and how humankind evolved. Ups and downs in temperature, rainfall and plant growth promoted…
North America’s oldest skull surgery dates to at least 3,000 years ago
A man with a hole in his forehead, who was interred in what’s now northwest Alabama between around 3,000 and 5,000 years ago, represents North America’s oldest known case of…
