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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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anthropology

The majority of the prehistoric world remains uncharted, as shown by the blank areas of this map. This visualization is based on a Kernel Density Estimate of assemblages in ROAD. Sites with higher densities of assemblages appear more intense in color. Source: Christian Sommer (ROCEEH); made with Natural Earth/Public domain)

Huge New Prehistoric Sites Database Transforms Understanding of Human History

In another step towards unraveling the intricate tapestry of human history, a huge database of prehistoric sites spanning a history from 3 million to 20,000 years ago has been unveiled. This...
Diver in a cenote in Mexico. Public Domain.

13,700-Year-Old Skeleton in Mexican Cenote Reveals Human Origins (Video)

Deep within Mexico's subterranean realm lies a site of immense archaeological significance. Recent discoveries have reshaped our understanding of the earliest human presence in the Americas,...
Sonora witchcraft market, Mexico City. Source: Belikova Oksana / Adobe Stock.

Inside Mexico's Sonora Witches Market (Video)

Mexican witchcraft has long been a topic of fascination for people around the world, and for good reason. In a bustling city of 20 million people, Mexico City, where the majority are devout Catholics...
A reconstruction of Homo habilis. Source: YouTube Screenshot / Scientists Against Myths.

Watch the Evolution from Ape to Man in this Remarkable Animation (Video)

The journey of evolution has been a long one, spanning over millions of years, and our ancestors have survived some of the toughest conditions imaginable to get where we are today. Starting from the...
Modern day lakatoi at the Hiri Moale Festival, a modern celebration of the previous Hiri trade cycle. (Steve Jurvetson / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Oceania’s Papua New Guinea: Forged In Volcanic Fire

The Australasian realm in the Pacific Ocean includes Australia, New Zealand, eastern Indonesia, and several Pacific island groups - including Papua New Guinea – all scattered along the Ring of Fire,...
The concept of meditating in nature is based in beliefs in animism. Source: ittipol / Adobe Stock

The Meaning of Animism: Philosophy, Religion and Being Alive

In some cultures, life and sentience are believed to exist for only certain beings, such as humans, animals, and plants. In other belief systems, however, places and objects are also believed to have...
Girl of Gran Dolina, Individual H3

The 800,000-Year-Old Gran Dolina Boy Just Became A Girl

History is peppered with stories of women who disguised themselves as men to fight in wars, to steal crowns and to topple empires. However, in this story we have an 800,000-year-old little boy who...
View at Machu Picchu, probably the most famous Inca settlement recorded by the big data archaeology model.          Source: fife76 / Public Domain

Big Data Used to Create Comprehensive Map of Inca Settlements

Parker VanValkenburgh, an assistant professor of anthropology, curated a journal issue that explores the opportunities and challenges big data could bring to the field of archaeology. PROVIDENCE, R.I...
Oldupai (Olduvai) Gorge in Tanzania, one of Africa’s ‘cradles of humankind’.  Source: CC BY 2.0

Archaeological Discoveries Are Occurring Faster Than Ever

In 1924, a 3-year-old child’s skull found in South Africa forever changed how people think about human origins. The Taung Child, our first encounter with an ancient group of proto-humans or hominins...
Top Image: The skeleton of an ancient Egyptian warrior (anibal /Adobe Stock) provides hard evidence for the revolt described on the famous Rosetta stone. (Peter Thoeny/CC BY NC SA 2.0)

Warrior’s Beat Up Body Confirms Rosetta Stone’s Message

A team of archaeologists have excavated the 2,200-year-old remains of a warrior slain in the ancient Egyptian uprising described on the famous Rosetta Stone . On November 22 this year, at the annual...
Migration of Neanderthals discovered on Naxos. Source: eleftherostypos

Early Humans Migrated to Greek Islands 200,000 Years Ago

Scientists have proven early humans migrated through the Mediterranean much earlier than currently believed. A team of international scientists led by Tristan Carter, an associate professor of...
Ancient ecosystems were very different from those found today. Source: Heinrich Harder (1858-1935) / Public Domain

Early Humans Evolved in Ecosystems Unlike Any Found Today

To understand the environmental pressures that shaped human evolution, scientists must first piece together the details of the ancient plant and animal communities that our fossil ancestors lived in...
The mass grave of 15 skeletons and grave goods at the Koszyce burial. Source: H Schroeder et al / PNAS.

5000-Year-Old Family Found In Mass Burial Was Brutally Murdered

New research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ( PNAS ) entitled “Unravelling ancestry , kinship, and violence in a Late...
Whole rattlesnake found in human-produced coprolites.

Whole Rattlesnake Including Fangs Found Inside Lump of Fossilized Human Poo

Rattlesnake fangs are known to deliver hemotoxic venom which destroys human tissue causing disrupted blood clotting (necrosis and coagulopathy). But scientists have found one encased inside a human-...
Forensic facial reconstruction of Homo erectus

Forensic Facial Reconstruction: The Journey to Connect with our Ancestors

Facial reconstructions allow us to look eye to eye with our ancient ancestors and relate to them in a way that skeletal remains do not inspire. It can be dehumanizing to look at a bare skull , and...
Unravelling the Mystery of the Maronite Mummies: Why Were Medieval Mummies Hidden in a Cave?

Unravelling the Mystery of the Maronite Mummies: Why Were Medieval Mummies Hidden in a Cave?

When archaeologists found a cache of medieval mummies in a Lebanese cave, the amazing discovery took their breath away. The remarkably well-preserved bodies of eight people who were buried in Qadisha...
A Sumerian king and an official

Where Sumerian Rulers Lie: The Royal Tombs of Ur

The Royal Tombs of Ur is a 4,800-year-old Sumerian burial site of around 2,000 graves located in the ancient city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia (in the south of modern day Iraq). Sixteen of the...
Rock paintings in Tadrart Acacus region of Libya dated from 12,000 BC to 100 AD.

Have Humans Always Gone to War?

The question of whether warfare is encoded in our genes, or appeared as a result of civilization, has long fascinated anyone trying to get to grips with human society. Might a willingness to fight...
Hawaiian sacrifice, from Jacques Arago's account of Freycinet's travels around the world from 1817 to 1820.

Why Did Early Human Societies Practice Violent Human Sacrifice?

Joseph Watts / The Conversation Human sacrifice was practiced in many early human societies throughout the world. In China and Egypt the tombs of rulers were accompanied by pits containing hundreds...
Easter Island statues by Honey Hooper, Fig. 92. Obsidian Spear-heads

New Study Asserts that Easter Island Was Not Destroyed by Warfare

By: Jack Phillips , Epoch Times The ancient civilization that inhabited Easter Island wasn’t destroyed by warfare, according to a recent study, contrary to what some researchers believe. Researchers...
Two varying depictions of the same figure, Jesus. (Deriv)

Reconstructing Jesus: Using Science to Flesh out the Face of Religion

For being one of the most widely recognized men in the last 2,000 years, the true appearance of Jesus of Nazareth remains a mystery. Traditionally portrayed in western art as a be-robed, light-...
The toothy smiles of the hobbit skull (left) and a modern human skull (right).

A Telling Smile: Tooth Variation Shows Hobbit was Entirely Separate Human Species

A big debate over a little person is getting a new perspective after recent analysis of prehistoric teeth. Scientists now suggest that the remains of Homo floresiensis , popularly known as the Hobbit...
A human skull. Representational image only.

Giant 7 – 8 Foot Skeletons Uncovered in Ecuador sent for Scientific Testing

Strikingly tall skeletons uncovered in the Ecuador and Peru Amazon region are undergoing examination in Germany, according to a research team headed by British anthropologist Russell Dement. Will...
Bronze Age skeleton found at Stragglethorpe, during archaeological work on the Highways Agency scheme, England.

Bronze Age Britons Mummified the Dead: Smoked over Fires, Preserved in Bogs

Mummification may have been more common in Bronze Age Britain than previously believed, and the ancient Britons may have purposefully mummified their dead with unknown funerary rituals—but why and...

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