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ice age

An artist's impression of ice age Earth at the Pleistocene era. Source: Ittiz/ CC BY-SA 3.0

First Ice Age May Have Led to Epic Hominin Migration 900,000 Years Ago

About one million years ago there was a mass exodus of hominin species out of Africa and into Eurasia. Human ancestors fled their home continent in droves, raising questions about why this would have...
Deposits from the Sturtian Glaciation 717¬–664 million years ago in the northern Flinders Ranges, Australia. Research lead author Dr Adriana Dutkiewicz pointing to a thick bed of glacial deposits.  Source:  Professor Dietmar Müller/University of Sydney

What Made Earth a Giant Snowball 700m Years Ago? Scientists Have an Answer

Around 700 million years ago, Earth experienced an extreme ice age known as the Sturtian Glaciation, turning our planet into a vast, icy snowball. This period of deep freeze, marked by glaciers...
Artist's reconstruction of a group of Neanderthals butchering a straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus). (It is unknown whether Neanderthals wore any type of clothing, so the depiction reflects artistic license). Source: Alex Boersma/PNAS

Neanderthals Hunted Elephants Twice the Weight of Modern Ones

Evidence has emerged from Germany dated to 125,000 years ago showing Neanderthals hunted elephants twice the size of contemporaneous ones. Building on that information, which provides new insight...
An early human extinction event wiped out Homo erectus, dating back 900,000 years ago.  Source: emilio100/Adobe Stock

99% of Ancient Human Population Wiped Out 900,000 Years Ago (Video)

Today, our planet teems with over 8 billion human beings, a staggering contrast to the world 800,000 to 900,000 years ago. Recent scientific revelations illuminate a pivotal juncture in human...
The allegedly manmade megalithic site at Gunung Padang, claimed to be an incredibly ancient pyramid in Indonesia, showing the multitude of rocks under question. Source: uskarp2 / Adobe Stock

New Claims of a 27,000-Year-Old Indonesian Pyramid Spark Controversy

A controversial paper recently published in the journal Archaeological Prospection has generated debate and criticism from archaeologists and geologists alike. In this newly completed study, a team...
How Neanderthals Survived the Ice Age (Video)

How Neanderthals Survived the Ice Age (Video)

In a prehistoric drama over 300,000 years ago, early Neanderthals navigated the challenges of northern Europe during the Ice Age , utilizing bear skins as a crucial adaptation to the harsh climate...
Graphic shows how the landscape of Antarctica would appear if the ice were lifted away. Source: Stewart Jamieson/Durham University

Lifting the Lid on Antarctica: Ancient Landscape Revealed Beneath Antarctica

Durham University An international research team has unveiled an ancient landscape hidden beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet for over 14 million years. This vast, pristine expanse—spanning 32,000...
Artists impression of the scene at White Sands National Park 23,000 years ago when teenagers left their prints in the mud. Source: © Davide Bonadonna and Bournemouth University

Humans Got To America 7,000 Years Earlier Than Thought, New Research Confirms

Matthew Robert Bennett & Sally Christine Reynolds /The Conversation When and how humans first settled in the Americas is a subject of considerable controversy. In the 20th century, archaeologists...
New study challenges what was initially believed about 5,300-year-old Ötzi the Iceman genes. (Inset: The Ötzi mummy)  Source: OetziTheIceman/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (Inset; Cell Press)

Ötzi the Iceman Genes Trace to Early Anatolian Farmers, and He Had a Receding Hairline

The world’s oldest Alpine celebrity, fodder for many different kinds of studies and analyses over the years since his discovery on the mountainous border between Austria and Italy in 1991, ‘ Ötzi the...
A frigid apocalypse 1.1 million years ago led to an archaic human extinction in Europe. Source: Lazy_Bear / Adobe Stock.

Massive Climate Catastrophe Froze Europe’s Earliest Humans to Death

An interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, anthropologists and earth scientists have found evidence that a severe cooling event in the North Atlantic region approximately 1.1 million years ago...
The Creswell Horsehead. Source: Trustees of the British Museum / CC by SA 4.0.

The Cresswell Horsehead: The Oldest Art Ever Found in Britain (Video)

The Cresswell Horsehead stands as a significant archaeological discovery, representing the oldest example of art found in Britain. This ancient artifact, dating back to the end of the Ice Age over 11...
Preserved hairy mammoth. Source: YouTube Screenshot / BBC.

The Perfectly Preserved Yuka Wooly Mammoth Mummy (Video)

The perfectly preserved mummified Yuka Mammoth Mummy is a remarkable archaeological discovery that has captivated the world with its exceptional state of preservation. Unearthed from the permafrost...
Mercator world map Public Domain and Gerardus Mercator of Rupelmonde at the age of 62 by Frans Hogenburg (1574) (Public Domain)

16th-Century Maps Reveal 1800 BC Ice Free Greenland And Antarctica

There is a large body of maps of the Americas which cannot be explained by known explorations. Mercator’s 1569 World Map shows all of Greenland without ice at its coasts. Finaeus’ 1531 World Map...
The largest giant handaxe found at the Maritime Academy School site in Frindsbury, Kent, UK.	Source: Ingrey et al/Internet Archaeology

Giant Handaxes Are Among Largest Prehistoric Stone Tools Ever Unearthed in Britain

Researchers from the UCL Institute of Archaeology have discovered some of the largest ever prehistoric stone tools unearthed in Britain. A thorough excavation conducted in Kent unveiled ancient...
Ancient spearheads. Source: Enrique / Adobe Stock.

Blood Residue Found on 13,000-Year-Old Ice Age Weapons

The earliest people who lived in North America shared the landscape with huge animals. On any day these hunter-gatherers might encounter a giant, snarling saber-toothed cat ready to pounce, or a...
Archaeologist John Maxwell passes up an artifact from the excavation site on Triquet Island. Some of the artifacts were dated to over 14,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest ever sites found in North America. Photo: Grant Callegari/Hakai Institute.

Lost World Revealed: 14,000-Year-Old Village on Triquet Island (Video)

Archaeologists recently made a groundbreaking discovery on Triquet Island , Canada, unearthing a 14,000-year-old village that sheds light on ancient human settlements. Nestled in a remote coastal...
AI generated image of Greenland Vikings during extreme conditions of the Little Ice Age. Source: Jenar/Adobe Stock

How the Little Ice Age Caused Greenland Vikings to Jump Ship

A new study challenges previous ideas as to why Vikings abandoned their Greenland settlements. It found this northern exodus wasn’t sparked by political wrangling or social unrest, but by the Little...
The 30,000-year-old ball of preserved fur and bones that has been found to be an Ice Age squirrel. Source: Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre

Fossilized Fur Ball Turns out to be Frozen Ice Age Squirrel!

In 2018, miners working in northern Canada discovered a small, tannish-brown, grapefruit-sized lump. This mass of claws and limbs appeared to be made of fossilized fur upon examination with the naked...
The Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan undergoing imaging to reveal the hidden text. Source: Lumiere Technology/Pascal Cotte and Salvatore Apicella

Humans Have Been Keeping Dildos Handy for at Least 28,000 Years

When archaeologists assembled the pieces of an ancient stone artifact discovered in a cave in Germany, it was pretty clear what they’d found. Known as the Hohle Fels phallus, this prehistoric tool...
Environment around the La Brea Tar Pits, with Columbian mammoth herd in the background, by Charles Knight (1921) (Public Domain)

Tracking The Old Ways Of Ice Age Megafauna Hunters

While mammoths were hunted by early human populations in North America , Europe, Asia, and Africa, the primary cause of their extinction was changing climate, and disease. During the last Ice Age, in...
The people who lived in Gough's Cave are thought to have practiced cannibalism, even making what appear to be cups from skulls of people. Source: © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

UK’s Oldest Human DNA Reveals Two Distinct Ancient Tribes of Britain

The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was the most recent time in Earth’s history when the ice sheets were at their greatest extent, with the decline starting somewhere around 15,000-14,000 years ago. At...
The Pre-Maya human remains were found in a cenote near a section of the Maya Train route. Source: Peter Broger/ INAH

Will a Pre-Maya Skeleton be Destroyed by the Maya Train?

A cave-diving archaeologist has made a remarkable discovery in Mexico – a Pre-Maya human skeleton which may date to as far back as the end of the last ice age. It’s a fascinating find, but the human...
Some of the ancient ghost footprints marked with pin flags discovered in Utah. Source: R. Nial Bradshaw / US Air Force

Almost 100 Human “Ghost Footprints” Found in Utah Dating Back to the Ice Age

88 human “ghost tracks” dated to the erstwhile Ice Age more than 12,000 years ago, have been discovered in Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert. Mystical in nature, they appear when just the right amount of...
Dolmen of Poloutin in a cornfield, representing the origins of farming.	Source: aluxum/Adobe Stock

Ice Age Hunters’ DNA Reveals The Origins Of Farming

What were the origins of the first farmers? Where did they come from and where did they go? This question was recently asked by a team of scientists studying the genomes of Europe's first farmers...

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