Archaeology

Interdisciplinary studies in paleogenetics and archeozoologyCredit: Magdalena Krajcarz A loner and a hunter with highly developed territorial instincts, a cruel carnivore, a disobedient individual: the cat. These features…

The cold, famine and unrest in ancient Rome and Egypt after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE has long been shrouded in mystery. Now, an international team, including researchers from the University of Copenhagen, has found…

An international team of researchers have found a way to determine the origin of colourless glass from the Roman period. Using isotopes of the rare element hafnium, they confirm that the prestigious 'Alexandrian' glass was indeed made in…

Credit: Maike Glöckner / MLU Common domestic cats, as we know them today, might have accompanied Kazakh pastoralists as pets more than 1,000 years ago. This has been indicated by new analyses done on an almost complete cat skeleton…

Simulations and microscopic analysis confirm that ancient shells were hung on strings and painted with ochreCredit: Bar-Yosef Mayer et al, 2020 Ancient humans deliberately collected perforated shells in order to string them…

This fossil is a clue to the history of how dinosaurs dispersed between continents, showing some dinosaurs likely nested in the far northCredit: Andrey Atuchin A small piece of fossil jawbone from Alaska represents a rare…

What makes ships mysteriously slow down or even stop as they travel, even though their engines are working properly? This was first observed in 1893 and was described experimentally in 1904 without all the secrets of this "dead water"…

Archaeologists from Cardiff University and the University of Sheffield have combined the latest scientific methods to offer new insights into life during the Norman Conquest of England. Until now, the story of the Conquest has primarily…

Underwater techniques enable researchers to discover submerged ancient Aboriginal cultural sites Ancient submerged Aboriginal archaeological sites await underwater rediscovery off the coast of Australia, according to a study…

The first underwater Aboriginal archaeological sites have been discovered off Australia dating back thousands of years ago Credit: Flinders University The first underwater Aboriginal archaeological sites have been…

Credit: NIGPAS Nature is full of colors, from the radiant shine of a peacock's feathers or the bright warning coloration of toxic frogs to the pearl-white camouflage of polar bears. Usually, fine structural detail…

Mercury, algae made water undrinkable in heart of city Credit: David Lentz/UC Reservoirs in the heart of an ancient Maya city were so polluted with mercury and algae that the water likely was undrinkable. Researchers from…

Credit: WSU People in what is now Washington State were smoking Rhus glabra, a plant commonly known as smooth sumac, more than 1,400 years ago. The discovery, made by a team of Washington State University researchers,…

Credit: Martti Pärssinen More than ten years ago, large geometric earthworks found in the southwestern parts of the Amazon, called geoglyphs, were reported in the global scientific news. A pre-colonial civilization…

Dogs play an important role in human life all over the world - whether as a family member or as a working animal. But where the dog comes from and how old various groups of dogs are is still a bit of a mystery. Now, light has…

Innovative practical elements are at the core of a new doctoral training program on Roman inscriptions; network of eight European partners selected in EU evaluation processCredit: photo/©: P. Kruschwitz Johannes Gutenberg…

Today's modern cities, from Denver to Dubai, could learn a thing or two from the ancient Pueblo communities that once stretched across the southwestern United States. For starters, the more people live together, the better the living…

Credit: Ben Hur Marimon Junior Innovation by ancient farmers to improve soil fertility continues to have an impact on the biodiversity of the Amazon, a major new study shows. Early inhabitants fertilized the soil with…

DNA science may help restore, preserve historic works, unmask counterfeits; The trait elite baseball hitters share with Leonardo da Vinci: A 'quick eye' with higher 'frames per second' -- a function of training, genetics, or both?Credit:…

Credit: Dr Anthony Romilio North America had the T. rex, South America had the Giganotosaurus and Africa the Spinosaurus - now evidence shows Australia had gigantic predatory dinosaurs. The discovery came in University of…