Featured
-
-
News |
Minoan civilization was made in Europe
DNA casts doubt on Egyptian origin for ancient Cretans.
- Ewen Callaway
-
News |
Hearing changes could be ancient in the human line
Comparison between hominins suggests modern middle-ear bones evolved early.
- Zoe Cormier
-
Comment |
Free digital scans of human fossils
Draconian access requirements are squandering the potential of imaging technology to advance human palaeontology, cautions Jean-Jacques Hublin.
- Jean-Jacques Hublin
-
News |
First Australians may have been migrants rather than drifters
Indirect estimates based on carbon dating point to intentional settlement by a large population.
- Virginia Gewin
-
News |
Ape-like fossils show hints of human ancestry
The hominin Australopithecus sediba was a hodgepodge of simian and human-like features.
- Sid Perkins
-
News & Views |
A potted history of Japan
The discovery of lipids on ceramic fragments from the Japanese Jōmon period provides the earliest evidence for the use of pottery for cooking and may prompt a rethink of some aspects of human innovation. See Letter p.351
- Simon Kaner
-
News Explainer |
Can forensics establish whether Pablo Neruda was poisoned?
Exhumation of Chilean poet's remains might raise as many questions as it answers.
- Michele Catanzaro
-
Letter |
Earliest evidence for the use of pottery
Chemical analysis of food residues associated with Japanese Jōmon pottery, which dates from the Late Pleistocene epoch and is the oldest pottery so far investigated, shows that most deposits were derived from high-trophic-level aquatic food.
- O. E. Craig
- , H. Saul
- & P. Jordan
-
Books & Arts |
Anthropology: A monochrome Eden
Bob Bloomfield assesses a haunting photographic record of remote environments and the indigenous peoples who live in them.
- Bob Bloomfield
-
Research Highlights |
Trilobite fossil spotted
-
Books & Arts |
Evolutionary biology: Twisting the tale of human evolution
John Hawks enjoys a debunking of myths about our evolutionary fitness for the twenty-first century.
- John Hawks
-
Books & Arts |
Archaeology: A distant mirror
Ewen Callaway finds a showing of prehistoric artefacts aesthetically stunning, but a missed scientific opportunity.
- Ewen Callaway
-
News |
Mummies reveal that clogged arteries plagued the ancient world
Scans suggest that there’s more to heart disease than a modern diet.
- Jo Marchant
-
News |
King’s ‘lionheart’ gets a forensic exam
Analysis of heart of Richard I shows that Christians practised embalming.
- Mark Peplow
-
Research Highlights |
Healthier prehistoric plaque
-
News |
Fall of an Ancient Empire Linked to Crisis in Syria
Archaeologists draw comparisons between the fall of the Akkadian empire more than 4,000 years ago and the crises in contemporary Syria.
- Moheb Costandi
-
-
News & Views |
Of humans, dogs and tiny tools
Genomic data hint at the possibility of human migration from India to Australia 4,230 years ago. However, the inference that these humans took along their dogs and tools is difficult to reconcile with previous reports.
- Peter Brown
-
Books & Arts |
Anthropology: Tribal warfare
Douglas William Hume assesses a first-hand account of controversial work with the Yanomami people.
- Douglas William Hume
-
News |
The last Medici may not have died of syphilis after all
Exhumed bones of Anna Maria Louisa de' Medici show no signs of late-stage syphilis.
- Alison Abbott
-
-
News |
Computer program roots out ancestors of modern tongues
Automated reconstruction of long-extinct languages can test theories on how words evolve.
- Philip Ball
-
News |
Genes mix faster than stories
Folk tales' 'DNA' shows that people would sooner have sex with strangers than tell their fables.
- Philip Ball
-
Editorial |
Body of evidence
The identification of a long-dead king is not simply an academic event.
-
News |
Neanderthal settlements point to earlier extinction
New dating suggests bones from Spanish sites are 10,000 years older than previously thought.
- Ewen Callaway
-
News Feature |
Social evolution: The ritual animal
Praying, fighting, dancing, chanting — human rituals could illuminate the growth of community and the origins of civilization.
- Dan Jones
-
Books & Arts |
Anthropology: Power of the past
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder assesses an exploration of how modern industrial and traditional societies differ.
- Monique Borgerhoff Mulder
-
News & Views |
Gritting their teeth
A comparison of the wearing effect of plant-derived silica and desert dust on tooth enamel suggests that extreme wear on teeth might not be caused by food. The findings may change some thoughts about the diets of human ancestors.
- Bernard Wood
-
News |
DNA shows how the sweet potato crossed the sea
Historical specimens reveal that early travellers brought the tuber to Polynesia.
- Brian Switek
-
Research Highlights |
Migration from India to Australia
-
News |
Aboriginal Australian genomes reveal Indian ancestry
Flow of genes suggests continent was not isolated after all.
- Ed Yong
-
News & Views |
50 & 100 Years Ago
-
News |
Art of cheese-making is 7,500 years old
Neolithic pottery fragments from Europe reveal traces of milk fats.
- Nidhi Subbaraman
-
Research Highlights |
Romani have Indian ancestry
-
Comment |
The 100-year mystery of Piltdown Man
Chris Stringer explains why the longest-running whodunnit in palaeontology is still worth solving.
- Chris Stringer
-
Research Highlights |
Nomadic group of Irish descent
-
Research Highlights |
New Neanderthal extinction time
-
Editorial |
Save scientific sites
The push to conserve cultural-heritage sites must not leave out areas of interest to science.
-
Books & Arts |
Conservation: Shoring up the wonders
Forty years on from UNESCO's world heritage convention, Alison Abbott contemplates the state of Italy's vast legacy.
- Alison Abbott
-
News |
Drought hastened Maya decline
A prolonged dry period contributed to civilization's collapse.
- Helen Shen
-
Research Highlights |
A new light on the past
-
News & Views |
Sharpening the mind
The discovery of stone tools dating to 71,000 years ago at a site in South Africa suggests that the humans making them had developed the capacity for complex thought, and passed this knowledge down the generations. See Letter p.590
- Sally McBrearty
-
News |
Early humans tooled up
Sophisticated bladelet find suggests they passed on their technological skill through generations
- Kerri Smith
-
News |
Neanderthals smart enough to copy humans
Radiocarbon dates hint that human sister species was more sophisticated than previously thought.
- Brian Switek
-
Research Highlights |
A more accurate carbon clock
-
Research Highlights |
How to move a 4-tonne statue
-
News |
The DNA of Aztec conquest
Genetic evidence tracks missing inhabitants of Mexican city.
- Brian Switek
-
News |
Easter Island statues 'walked' out of quarry
A contentious theory is put to the test with an almost-life-size replica.
- Ewen Callaway
-
News |
Primates were always tree-dwellers
Rare ankle bone fossil of oldest-known primate suggests it was arboreal.
- Matt Kaplan