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Featured
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Iceman's DNA reveals health risks and relations
Ötzi’s genome hints at heart disease, bacterial infection and common ancestry with modern-day Sardinians.
- Ewen Callaway
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News Feature |
Human evolution: Cultural roots
A South African archaeologist digs into his own past to seek connections between climate change and human development.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Research Highlights |
Hobbit small, but not stunted
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News & Views |
Hunter-gatherer cooperation
A study of social networks in the hunter-gatherer Hadza people in Tanzania illuminates the evolutionary origins of humans' unique style of cooperation in groups. See Letter p.497
- Joseph Henrich
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News Feature |
Underwater archaeology: Hunt for the ancient mariner
Armed with high-tech methods, researchers are scouring the Aegean Sea for the world's oldest shipwrecks.
- Jo Marchant
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Letter |
Social networks and cooperation in hunter-gatherers
The social networks of Hadza hunter-gatherers are structurally similar to modern social networks and show signs of clustering in cooperative behaviour, which suggests that these networks may have contributed to the emergence of cooperation in early humans.
- Coren L. Apicella
- , Frank W. Marlowe
- & Nicholas A. Christakis
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News |
Filling in the gaps in the slave trade
Diverse disciplines combine forces to study dark chapter in human history.
- Jo Marchant
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Research Highlights |
Diet sculpts human jaws
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News |
Archaeologists land world's oldest fish hook
First deep-sea fish supper dated to 42,000 years ago.
- Zoë Corbyn
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Editorial |
The heritage trail
Egypt and Libya can look to the past to help build a more stable future.
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News & Views |
The earliest modern humans in Europe
The reanalysis of findings from two archaeological sites calls for a reassessment of when modern humans settled in Europe, and of Neanderthal cultural achievements. See Letters p.521 & p.525
- Paul Mellars
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News Feature |
Archaeology meets politics: Spring comes to ancient Egypt
As the country struggles to refashion its government, archaeologists are looking warily towards the future.
- Jo Marchant
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News |
Revolution offers chance for Libyan archaeology
Change of government presents opportunities for, and threats to, the country's heritage.
- Declan Butler
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Books & Arts |
Neuroscience: Neanderthals in mind
Clive Gamble relishes the inside story on the cognitive abilities of our fossil relatives.
- Clive Gamble
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News & Views |
The path to sociality
A comparative analysis traces the trajectory of change in social organization among primates and establishes a firm foundation for modelling the origins of social complexity. See Letter p.219
- Joan B. Silk
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Letter |
Energetics and the evolution of human brain size
- Ana Navarrete
- , Carel P. van Schaik
- & Karin Isler
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Letter |
Stepwise evolution of stable sociality in primates
- Susanne Shultz
- , Christopher Opie
- & Quentin D. Atkinson
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News & Views Forum |
Drought and the Maya
The collapse of the Maya civilization is often attributed to drought, but is the explanation really as simple as that? On the basis of evidence from their respective fields, an archaeologist and a palaeoclimatologist call for a more nuanced assessment.
- James Aimers
- & David Hodell
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Letter |
Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe and implications for Neanderthal behaviour
- Stefano Benazzi
- , Katerina Douka
- & Gerhard W. Weber
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Letter |
The earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans in northwestern Europe
- Tom Higham
- , Tim Compton
- & Michael Fagan
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Books & Arts |
Books in brief
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News |
Mastodon fossil throws up questions over 'rapid' extinction
A bone tool embedded in a mastodon rib suggests humans were hunting big game earlier than thought.
- Brian Switek
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News |
Pentagon cultural analyst helped with interrogations
'Experiment' raises alarm among social scientists.
- Sharon Weinberger
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News |
Rebuilding the genome of a hidden ethnicity
Participants in the 1000 Genomes project reconstruct the genetic variation of a Native American tribe from their descendants.
- Susan Young
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News |
Ancient Greek ships carried more than just wine
DNA tests of shipwrecked jars illuminate early trade markets in the Mediterranean.
- Jo Marchant
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News |
African cave's ancient ochre lab
Find suggests that Stone Age sophistication extends further back than thought.
- Zoë Corbyn
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Books & Arts |
Anthropology: Centuries of skulls
Alison Abbott enjoys a German exhibition charting how the human head is revered by cultures worldwide.
- Alison Abbott
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Letter
| Open AccessA draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death
- Kirsten I. Bos
- , Verena J. Schuenemann
- & Johannes Krause
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Research Highlights |
Adding bite to hominin history
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News & Views |
Malapa and the genus Homo
Two remarkably well-preserved skeletons of the hominin species Australopithecus sediba, found at Malapa, South Africa, show an intriguing combination of features, and open up a debate about the origins of the genus Homo
- Fred Spoor
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Books & Arts |
Palaeoanthropology: Craniums with clout
A look at two early human fossils reveals the prejudices in ideas about human evolution, finds Henry Gee.
- Henry Gee
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Editorial |
Heritage threats
Research that underpins the preservation of cultural treasures should be championed.
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Research Highlights |
Denisovan dispersal details
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News |
Aboriginal genome analysis comes to grips with ethics
Sequencing effort provides a model for future studies of museum samples.
- Ewen Callaway
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News |
First Aboriginal genome sequenced
1920s hair sample reveals Aboriginal Australians' explorer origins.
- Ewen Callaway
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Research Highlights |
A mixture of old and new
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News & Views |
Selection for positive illusions
Everybody knows that overconfidence can be foolhardy. But a study reveals that having an overly positive self-image might confer an evolutionary advantage if the rewards outweigh the risks. See Letter p.317
- Matthijs van Veelen
- & Martin A. Nowak
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News |
Fossils raise questions about human ancestry
Australopithecus sediba is a mosaic of modern and primitive traits.
- Ewen Callaway
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Research Highlights |
Migration encoded in teeth
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News |
Human ancestors interbred with related species
Analysis suggests genetic mixing occurred in Africa around 35,000 years ago.
- Matt Kaplan
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News |
Stone tools shed light on early human migrations
Hominins with different tool-making technologies coexisted.
- Matt Kaplan
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Books & Arts |
Palaeoanthropology: African origins
Jean-Jacques Hublin enjoys a book supporting the idea that modern humans replaced Neanderthals.
- Jean-Jacques Hublin
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News |
Ancient Egyptians used 'hair gel'
Mummy analysis finds that fat-based product held styles in place.
- Jo Marchant
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Books & Arts |
Evolution: The long trek to domesticated bliss
Our fondness for fauna comes from an evolved human need to nurture, argues Juliet Clutton-Brock.
- Juliet Clutton-Brock