All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

aDNA

Pierced deer tooth discovered from Denisova Cave in southern Siberia that yielded ancient human DNA. Source: © MPI f. Evolutionary Anthropology/Nature

Siberian Woman Identified from DNA Washed Off 20,000-Year-Old Deer Tooth!

Achieving an historic and groundbreaking first, an international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany have successfully extracted intact...
Ancient DNA from human remains like this representation were used in the study. Source: Erin Cadigan / Adobe Stock

Ancient DNA Reveals Hitherto Unknown Aspects of Human Evolution

Ancient DNA from human remains that are around 45,000 years old has given scientists new insights into human evolution. It has enabled them to conclude that human populations fairly quickly adopted...
Paper co-author Steven Goldstein discussing pottery traditions associated with early farmers in Kenya with Christopher Kirwa of NMK Source: Jennifer Miller

Mixture and Migration Brought Food Production to Sub-Saharan Africa

A new interdisciplinary study reports on 20 newly sequenced ancient genomes from sub-Saharan Africa, including the first genomes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana, and Uganda. The...
Ancient DNA shows movement and interactions encouraged by pastoralism in Africa. Source: kubikactive / Adobe Stock

Ancient DNA is Revealing the Origins of Livestock Herding in Africa

Visitors to East Africa are often amazed by massive herds of cattle with a gorgeous array of horn, hump and coat patterns. Pastoralism – a way of life centered around herding – is a central part of...
DNA molecule representation

Ancient DNA Data Fills in Thousands of Years of Human Movement and Genetic Adaptation in Africa

By sequencing the ancient genomes of 15 individuals from different parts of Africa, researchers reporting in the journal Cell in September 2017 reconstructed the prehistory of humans on the continent...
Testing of DNA molecules

DNA Tool Allows You To Trace Your Ancient Ancestry

University of Sheffield Scientists at the University of Sheffield studying ancient DNA have created a tool allowing them to more accurately identify ancient Eurasian populations, which can be used to...
Gneiss stone axe found on the shores of Loch of Stenness.

Archeologists Unearth Axes and Human Hair at Two Ancient Sites in Orkney

Archaeologists high five in Orkney as a large number of 5,000-year-old stone axes were discovered among 30,000 artifacts, including “pottery, bones and tools” according to a recent report by The BBC...
Artists impression of a group of australopith

The Origin of ‘Us’: What We Know So Far About Where We Humans Come From

The question of where we humans come from is one many people ask, and the answer is getting more complicated as new evidence is emerging all the time. For most of recorded history humankind has been...
Egyptian sarcophagus containing mummified remains

The First Genome Data from Ancient Egyptian Mummies: Ancient Egyptians Were Most Closely Related to Ancient Populations from the Near East

An international team of scientists, led by researchers from the University of Tuebingen and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, successfully recovered and analyzed...
A three-dimensional volume rendering of the Tuli mummy.

Scans and DNA tests reveal the secrets of a rare African mummy

Natasha Joseph / The Conversation He lay alone in a shallow grave at the base of a cliff for hundreds of years. Then, in 2008, patrol staff at a game lodge stumbled across the man’s remains - and he...