Research Highlight |
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Humans and their livestock have sheltered in this Saudi Arabian cave for 10,000 years
Saudi herders have travelled the same routes for millennia, cave discovery suggests.
- Gillian Dohrn
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Research Highlight |
A horse cemetery in London reveals medieval mounts’ distant origins
Horses buried near the royal complex of Westminster in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had been imported from as far away as Scandinavia.
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Article |
Adaptive foraging behaviours in the Horn of Africa during Toba supereruption
The archaeological site Shinfa-Metema 1 in the lowlands of northwest Ethiopia provides early evidence of intensive riverine-based foraging aided by the likely adoption of the bow and arrow.
- John Kappelman
- , Lawrence C. Todd
- & Sierra Yanny
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News |
Ancient malaria genome from Roman skeleton hints at disease’s history
Genetic information from ancient remains is helping to reveal how malaria has moved and evolved alongside people.
- Tosin Thompson
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Nature Podcast |
Killer whales have menopause. Now scientists think they know why
Data suggest menopause evolved to enable older female whales to help younger generations survive, and how researchers made a cellular map of the developing human heart.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Research Highlight |
Ancient graves reveal that facial piercing dates back at least 11,000 years
Ornaments are positioned near the lower jaw and to the sides of the head of people buried at a site in Turkey.
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Research Highlight |
Buried vases hint that ancient Americans might have drunk tobacco
Ritual vessels found in Guatemala contain traces of nicotine.
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News |
Oldest stone tools in Europe hint at ancient humans’ route there
Dating of artefacts found at a site in western Ukraine suggests that archaic humans had entered Europe’s eastern gate by 1.4 million years ago.
- Giorgia Guglielmi
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Article |
East-to-west human dispersal into Europe 1.4 million years ago
Burial-dating methods using cosmogenic nuclides indicate that the oldest stone tools at Korolevo archaeological site in western Ukraine date to around 1.4 million years ago, providing evidence of early human dispersal into Europe from the east.
- R. Garba
- , V. Usyk
- & J. D. Jansen
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News & Views |
From the archive: New Mexico’s prehistoric pottery, and traces of the Ice Age
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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News |
The life and gruesome death of a bog man revealed after 5,000 years
Vittrup Man, who died in his thirties, was a Scandinavian wanderer who settled down between 3300 and 3100 bc.
- Ewen Callaway
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News & Views |
From the archive: Tutankhamun’s coffin, and Darwin shares a letter
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Research Highlight |
Ancient bronze hand’s inscription points to origins of Basque language
Text on an artefact found in northern Spain resembles a present-day Basque word that means ‘of good fortune’.
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Research Highlight |
Great ‘Stone Age’ wall discovered in Baltic Sea
Megastructure stretching nearly 1 kilometre long is probably one of the oldest known hunting aids on Earth.
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News |
First passages of rolled-up Herculaneum scroll revealed
Researchers used artificial intelligence to decipher the text of 2,000-year-old charred papyrus scripts, unveiling musings on music and capers.
- Jo Marchant
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News & Views |
Stone tools in northern Europe made by Homo sapiens 45,000 years ago
DNA analyses of skeletal fragments from a site in Germany provide evidence that humans, rather than Neanderthals, were responsible for a particular stone-tool industry called the Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician.
- William E. Banks
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Nature Podcast |
Ancient DNA solves the mystery of who made a set of stone tools
Analysis of stone tools and DNA reveals when modern humans reached northern Europe, and why human brain cells grow so slowly.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Article
| Open Access
Homo sapiens reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago
Through archaeological excavation, morphological and proteomic taxonomic identification, mitochondrial DNA analysis and direct radiocarbon dating of human remains, a study reports the presence of Homo sapiens in Germany north of the Alps more than 45,000 years ago.
- Dorothea Mylopotamitaki
- , Marcel Weiss
- & Jean-Jacques Hublin
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Research Highlight |
The clever system that gave Roman wines an amber colour and nutty aroma
Wine-fermentation jars used in Georgia today hint at the properties of ancient vintages.
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News |
Ancient DNA reveals origins of multiple sclerosis in Europe
A huge cache of ancient genomes spanning tens of thousands of years reveals the roots of traits in modern Europeans.
- Sara Reardon
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Article
| Open Access
100 ancient genomes show repeated population turnovers in Neolithic Denmark
Integrated data, including 100 human genomes from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods show that two major population turnovers occurred over just 1,000 years in Neolithic Denmark, resulting in dramatic changes in the genes, diet and physical appearance of the local people, as well as the landscape in which they lived.
- Morten E. Allentoft
- , Martin Sikora
- & Eske Willerslev
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Article
| Open Access
Population genomics of post-glacial western Eurasia
An analysis involving the shotgun sequencing of more than 300 ancient genomes from Eurasia reveals a deep east–west genetic divide from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and provides insight into the distinct effects of the Neolithic transition on either side of this boundary.
- Morten E. Allentoft
- , Martin Sikora
- & Eske Willerslev
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Article
| Open Access
The selection landscape and genetic legacy of ancient Eurasians
Analyses of imputed ancient genomes and of samples from the UK Biobank indicate that ancient selection and migration were large contributors to the distribution of phenotypic diversity in present-day Europeans.
- Evan K. Irving-Pease
- , Alba Refoyo-Martínez
- & Eske Willerslev
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Book Review |
Were Neanderthals soulful inventors or strange cannibals?
To understand the true otherness of Neanderthals, researchers must rethink the meaning they give to their archaeological finds, argues a new book.
- Rebecca Wragg Sykes
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News Feature |
The race to save humanity’s oldest art
Ancient humans painted scenes in Indonesian caves more than 45,000 years ago, but their art is disappearing rapidly. Researchers are trying to discover what’s causing the damage and how to stop it — before the murals are gone forever.
- Dyani Lewis
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News |
A 27,000-year-old pyramid? Controversy hits an extraordinary archaeological claim
The massive buried structures at Gunung Padang in Indonesia would be much older than Egypt’s great pyramids — if they’re even human constructions at all.
- Dyani Lewis
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Research Highlight |
Forty slaughtered horses mark site of ancient mass sacrifices
Cattle and other animals were slaughtered for rituals during the fifth century bc in what is now Spain.
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News & Views |
Ancient DNA uncovers past migrations in California
Genomic data from ancient humans who lived up to 7,400 years ago, sampled from across California and Mexico, unveil patterns of migration that could explain how some Indigenous languages spread in parts of North America.
- Alan Izarraras-Gomez
- & Diego Ortega-Del Vecchyo
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Article |
Genetic continuity and change among the Indigenous peoples of California
Genome-wide analyses of ancient DNA from individuals from California and Mexico shed light on the spread of Mexican ancestry to California and how it correlates with linguistic flow.
- Nathan Nakatsuka
- , Brian Holguin
- & David Reich
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Research Highlight |
Runes on Viking stones speak to an ancient queen’s power
Analysis of carved inscriptions more than 1,000 years old suggests the prominence of the Viking queen Thyra.
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News |
AI reads text from ancient Herculaneum scroll for the first time
Machine-learning technique reveals Greek words in CT scans of rolled-up papyrus.
- Jo Marchant
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Nature Podcast |
This isn’t the Nature Podcast — how deepfakes are distorting reality
The rise of AI-generated fakes, evidence of the earliest-known wooden structure, and how NASA’s OSIRIS-REx brought asteroid samples back to Earth.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News & Views |
Hominins built with wood 476,000 years ago
Understanding the timeline of technological developments sheds light on early societies. A remarkable finding in Africa of a structure made from shaped wood provides clues about our hominin relatives.
- Annemieke Milks
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Article
| Open Access
Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago
Wooden artefacts from waterlogged deposits in Zambia dating back 477 ka indicate hitherto unknown sophistication in woodworking at an early date.
- L. Barham
- , G. A. T. Duller
- & P. Nkombwe
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News |
These ancient whittled logs could be the earliest known wooden structure
Stacked timbers dated to roughly 476,000 years ago show that ancient hominins worked with wood.
- Ewen Callaway
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News |
Human ancestors nearly went extinct 900,000 years ago
A new technique analysing modern genetic data suggests that pre-humans survived in a group of only 1,280 individuals.
- Anna Ikarashi
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News |
Ötzi the Iceman has a new look: balding and dark-skinned
Improved DNA analysis updates thinking on alpine mummy’s skin colour, ancestry and more.
- Freda Kreier
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Research Highlight |
Drone missions uncover hidden features of the Battle of the Bulge
Laser-based system penetrates the deep forest covering the site of a key battle in the Second World War.
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Research Highlight |
Curry has tempted diners in southeast Asia for more than 1,500 years
Scientists identify traces of ginger, nutmeg and other spices on ancient kitchen tools that were found in Vietnam.
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Research Briefing |
Family trees of a Neolithic community uncovered by ancient DNA
Ancient DNA has enabled the reconstruction of two large genetic ‘family trees’ from a 6,700-year-old Neolithic burial site in France called Gurgy ‘Les Noisats’. The DNA data combined with other lines of evidence offer insights into biological relationships within the site and across a broader social and cultural context.
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Article
| Open Access
Extensive pedigrees reveal the social organization of a Neolithic community
The burial community at Gurgy ‘les Noisats’ (France) was genetically connected by two main pedigrees, spanning seven generations, that were patrilocal and patrilineal, with evidence for female exogamy and exchange with genetically close neighbouring groups.
- Maïté Rivollat
- , Adam Benjamin Rohrlach
- & Wolfgang Haak
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Article
| Open Access
Early contact between late farming and pastoralist societies in southeastern Europe
Archaeogenetic analysis of 135 individuals from the zone between southeastern Europe and the northwestern Black Sea region indicates contacts between farming and pastoralist populations at the end of the Copper Age.
- Sandra Penske
- , Adam B. Rohrlach
- & Wolfgang Haak
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News |
Ancient-DNA researcher fired for ‘serious misconduct’ lands new role
Former co-workers have expressed shock that Charles Sturt University in southeastern Australia has appointed Alan Cooper to its faculty.
- Dyani Lewis
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News |
Laos cave fossils prompt rethink of human migration map
A skull fragment and shin bone suggest that early modern humans might have passed through southeast Asia earlier than thought.
- Jude Coleman
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News & Views |
Ancient DNA reveals how farming spread into northwest Africa
Genomic data from bones and teeth found at archaeological sites across Morocco paint a picture of how Neolithic farmers and pastoralists spread into northwest Africa that is more complex than previously thought.
- Louise Humphrey
- & Abdeljalil Bouzouggar
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Article
| Open Access
Northwest African Neolithic initiated by migrants from Iberia and Levant
Genome sequencing of nine individuals shows ancestry shifts in the Neolithization of northwestern Africa that probably mirrored a heterogeneous economic and cultural landscape in a more multifaceted process than observed in other regions.
- Luciana G. Simões
- , Torsten Günther
- & Mattias Jakobsson
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News & Views |
From the archive: ancient timelines and a west-side story of cities
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Where I Work |
I use a robot to restore Pompeii’s shattered frescoes
Cultural and heritage researcher Arianna Traviglia uses robotic technology to painstakingly reconstruct 2,000-year-old mural paintings in Pompeii.
- Stav Dimitropoulos
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News |
Human-evolution story rewritten by fresh data and more computing power
Humans did not emerge from a single region of Africa, suggests a powerful modelling study. Rather, our ancestors moved and intermingled for millennia.
- Jude Coleman
Burnt remains of Maya royalty mark a dramatic power shift