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Oxen and goat hoofprints found at the site, which were found alongside the oldest plough marks (top left) in Europe, are evidence that cattle domestication existed very early in the Neolithic Revolution in agriculture. Source: Nature.com; ARIA SA

Europe’s Oldest Plough Marks Discovered in Switzerland, Dated to 7,000 Years Ago!

Excavations at the Anciens Arsenaux site in Sion, Switzerland, have changed the way we understand prehistoric agriculture in Europe forever. Compelling evidence has emerged suggesting that Neolithic...
Part of the extensive East Bay Wall network. Source: Chris/Adobe Stock

Unravelling the Mystery Behind the East Bay Walls: Who Really Made Them and Why?

In the hills around East Bay and elsewhere near San Francisco, there is a series of stone walls that extend discontinuously for miles. The walls are about 3-4 feet (a meter or so) high in most places...
A set of bone tools thought to have been used for bleeding cows.	Source: M.Osypinska/PAP

New Evidence Suggests Masai Practice of Bleeding Cows May Go Back 7,000 Years

Excavations in a 7,000-year-old cemetery in Sudan have uncovered bone tools that were probably used to bleed cows. This may be the earliest evidence of a practice that is still prevalent among the...
Kulning is an ancient singing technique that calls cattle back from the pastures. Source: Iurii Seleznev / Adobe Stock.

Ancient Nordic Chant to Call Cattle is Hauntingly Beautiful (Video)

Kulning, the ancient Nordic chant to call cattle, is a singing technique that has been passed down through generations. Historically, it was used by Norse women in Sweden to call their cattle back...
Uncovered bulls head from the northeast platform in building 77 at Çatalhöyük. Source: Çatalhöyük Research Project / CC BY-NC 4.0

How Domesticated Cattle Changed Life in Çatalhöyük

Those who have studied Çatalhöyük are aware that cattle appear to have been a hugely important animal in the Neolithic Central Anatolian town of Çatalhöyük East on the Konya Plain in modern-day...
A group of three mustatils.

Mapping Mustatils, Saudi Arabia’s 7000-Year-Old Stone Monuments

Over 7,000 years ago, people built hundreds of large stone structures in the area that is now northwest Arabia. Archaeologists have identified this act as the earliest known example of a widespread...
The facial cream found in a 2,700-year-old nobleman’s grave in Liujiawa, China.

Jar Of 2,700-Year-Old Facial Cream Found In A Chinese Nobleman’s Tomb

Archaeologists who opened and searched the 2,700-year-old tomb of a buried nobleman at the Liujiawa site in northern China found something unusual . In among the long-deceased nobleman’s ample...
Remembering Winter in Kashmir: Shaping A Collective Memory of the Past

Remembering Winter in Kashmir: Shaping A Collective Memory of the Past

During nineteenth and first-half-of-the-twentieth century, a popular proverb on every Kashmiri’s tongue was Sountas na keneras, Te hardas na neeles , meaning “plough the soil in spring even if it is...
Main: Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire (valeryegorov / Adobe Stock). Inset: Blick Mead (Photo: Tom Lyons via Archaeology.co.uk)

Britain’s First City Discovered and Inhabitants Built Stonehenge

Archaeologists have made an astonishing discovery near England’s famous ancient site of Stonehenge – Britain’s first ever ‘city’, AND its inhabitants were the builders of the world’s most iconic...
Waiting yak.’ A new study analyzing ancient Mongolian teeth may help explain the origins of lactose intolerance in humans.

Ancient Mongolian Teeth Demand New Research Into the Mysterious Origins of Lactose Intolerance in Humans

Over 3000 years ago, the Steppes of Mongolia were dominated by herds of horses, sheep, cows and yaks, and the humans that ate them, according to a new study published this week in the Proceedings of...
Sixth-Century silver plate of Hercules

The Rocks, Stained Red with Blood: A Son of Hercules Slew Giants at Salcombe, Devon?

The myth of Brutus of Troy is well over a thousand years old, yet it continues to fascinate and current scholarship seeks to find new truths hidden in its mossy folds. John Clark’s excellent paper ‘...
A replica of a painting of an aurochs in Lascaux cave in France. Scientists have estimated these paintings may be 20,000 years old.

Scientists Have Almost Completed the Resurrection of Extinct Aurochs and Plan to Reintroduce Them to the Wild

A group of scientists is attempting to re-wild 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of European lands, and one of the keys in the circle of life will be reintroducing the fierce, huge, wild...
Aurochs in a Lascaux cave animal painting.

Will Aurochs, a Cattle Species Found in Ancient Cave Paintings, be Resurrected?

A group of researchers is looking to resurrect aurochs, a species of wild cattle which disappeared in the first half of the 17th century. It's another attempt to bring this animal back to life - Nazi...
Fermented shark, hákarl, is an example of a culinary tradition that has continued from the settlement of Iceland in the 9th century to this day.

Viking diet was better than in many parts of the Medieval world

The Vikings are famous for their great feasting halls, in which an image of a rowdy bunch of beer-drinking men gnawing on meaty bones comes to mind. But what did they really consume besides beer and...
Xiaohe Cemetery glue

Ancient ritual artifact found in Xiaohe Cemetery reveals glue made 3,500 years ago

The remarkable Xiaohe Cemetery in China is renowned for its rich trove of mummies and artifacts, and it has now given up another secret of the ages; the oldest glue ever found in China. Yang Yimin,...