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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Ancestors

The drum is one of the earliest methods of ancient communication.  Source: zolotareva_elina / Adobe Stock

The Evolution of Ancient Communication Methods

Throughout history, communication wasn’t as effortless as it is today. In today’s world, you can connect with people in every part of the world within seconds and access an almost infinite amount of...
Image of books and family tree diagrams, tracing surname origins. Source: Bazoom

How to Sleuth Your Ancestral History From Your Surname

Have you ever wondered where your last name comes from or what hidden stories it might hold? Embarking on a surname search journey can be both enlightening and engaging. With curiosity and clever...
5,500-Year-Old Neolithic Cranial Amulets Shed Light on Ancient Belief System

5,500-Year-Old Neolithic Cranial Amulets Shed Light on Ancient Belief System

In 1914, a Swiss amateur archaeologist, Ernest Roulin, approached the Museum of Science and Art in Ireland with an incredibly rare discovery – two ancient amulets made from fragments of human cranium...
The fossil fragments in a carbon fiber tube with Professor Lee Berger, Timothy Nash and Mathew Berger.	Source: University of the Witwatersrand

Fossils from Two Ancient Human Ancestors Complete Trip into Space

When Virgin Galactic’s private spaceship, the VSS Unity, was launched into orbit on September 8, it was carrying a most unique cargo. These were two fossilized bones that belonged to two different...
Dartmouth researchers report that apes and early humans evolved more flexible shoulders and elbows than monkeys, shown here, to safely get out of trees. Source: Luke Fannin, Dartmouth College/ Royal Society Open Science

"Downclimbing" is the Overlooked Key to Human Evolution, Says Study

One of the watershed moments in the evolution of ‘human’ or ‘ Homo ’ history is when the first hominids descended from the trees to achieve bipedal locomotion ( Homo erectus ), causing a separation...
Archaeologists in Turkey, have unearthed a partial cranium of a female, challenging the story of the origins of our human ancestors. Source: Sevim-Erol, A., Begun, D.R., Sözer, Ç.S. et al/CC BY 4.0)

Oldest Human Ancestors May Have Evolved Nine Million Years Ago in Turkey

Modern humans first left Africa and migrated to Eurasia between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago . But a fossilized skeleton with surprisingly human-like characteristics found in central Turkey suggests...
Image of several members of the Terracotta Army in Xian. Source: lapas77 / Adobe Stock

Finders of the Terracotta Army Think They Are Cursed

Archaeology lovers around the world have undoubtedly heard of the famed Terracotta Army which was discovered in the 1970s in Xian, in northwest China, and attracts millions of visitors each year. But...
Human ancestors overlooking a bleak, ice-covered landscape. Source: Dr_Microbe / Adobe Stock

Near-Extinction of Our Human Ancestors Revealed by Genetic Research

Approximately one million years ago, the Earth was populated by a few hundred thousand or so ancient human ancestors. But about 900,000 years ago there was a sudden and dramatic crash in this...
Representation of an Australopithecus family. The evolution of human birth takes us back to Australopithecus afarensis like “Lucy” that may have required some help in childbirth. Source:  Andrii/Adobe Stock

The Evolution of Human Birth: An Incredible Story a Million Years in the Making

Australopithecus afarensis, a human ancestor could have given birth in a way that combines the childbirth practices of chimpanzees and human beings a team of scientists have claimed. They reported...
Is the terracotta army created to protect the Chinese emperor imbued with a deadly curse? Source: lapas77 / Adobe Stock

Qin Shi Huang and his Terracotta Army Are Guarded by a Deadly Curse

Archaeology lovers around the world have undoubtedly heard of the famed Terracotta Army which was discovered in the 1970s in Xian, in northwest China, which attracts millions of visitors each year...
The faces of a Neanderthal family. Source: Rawf8 / Adobe Stock.

The Art of Reconstructing the Faces of Ancient Humans (Video)

Imagine being able to step back in time and witness the early ancestors of the human race. While a time machine may not yet exist, art has the power to transport us to different eras and provide a...
Human evolution. Source: pict rider / Adobe Stock.

The Incredible Odyssey of Mankind: Ape to Human in a Million Years (Video)

In this fascinating video, the evolution from ape to man is traced, beginning with the Proconsul, a fruit-eating creature that lived in African trees about 20 million years ago. As the African jungle...
Sacrifice and care on Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day. Source: tuayai / Adobe Stock

The Myths, Legends and Traditions of Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day

Every year, the Chinese celebrate the historic Qingming Festival. Fondly known as Ancestors Day or Tomb Sweeping Day, it is a day that commemorates the onset spring and the occasion when families...
Oxford University's Big Data Institute has used ancient and modern DNA to create the world's "largest family tree" spanning 100,000 years! 		Source: milankubicka / Adobe Stock

“Largest Family Tree” Is Helping Trace the Entirety of Human History

Researchers from Oxford University’s Big Data Institute have engaged in the most Herculean of tasks and combined ancient and modern DNA to record the largest family tree ever made , dating back a...
There are no color images of Sitting Bull, but this could be him sitting with the first of his descendants, which we know exist from the breakthrough Autosomal DNA study of his hair.		Source: Shchipkova Elena / Adobe Stock

Breakthrough DNA Study Proves Sitting Bull Has a Living Great-Grandson

Sitting Bull was the brave Native American leader who defeated the forces of General Custer in 1876. After analyzing DNA from a lock of the legendary warrior’s hair, scientists have now identified...
Paracas National Reserve, Peru

Research Reveals New Link In Australasian and South American Ancestry

A new DNA study has confirmed that indigenous people living in multiple locations in South America are distantly related to the people of Australasia, an umbrella term that includes indigenous...
The first waves of Caribbean inhabitants were diverse. Source: pxfuel / Public Domain.

DNA Studies Reveals True Origins of First Inhabitants of the Caribbean

Archaeologists and anthropologists know that the Caribbean was one of the last parts of the Americas settled by humans, but a new study of DNA has revealed when, how, and where the original Caribbean...
Sarcophagus of Canaanites, now at Israel Museum   Source: Davidbena / CC BY-SA 4.0

Canaanite Genomes Reveal Truth About Their Descendants

The people who lived in the area known as the Southern Levant - which is now recognized as Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Lebanon, and parts of Syria - during the Bronze Age (circa 3500-...
Octavio del Rio recording one of the bonfires in the Yucatan cenote, Aktun Ha. 	Source: Krzysztof Starnawski / INAH

Ancient Fires In Yucatán Cenote Dated To 10,000 Years Ago

The oldest charcoal remains ever discovered in Mexico have been found submerged in a Yucatán Peninsula cenote. New archaeological evidence from burnt charcoal samples has determined the earliest...
Ancient Hominids Face Reconstruction

The Faces of Ancient Hominids Brought to Life in Remarkable Detail

Several years ago, a team of scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, set out to put a human face to ancient hominid species that once walked the Earth. Using...
Neanderthal ancestry found in Africans.        Source: procy_ab / Adobe Stock

Neanderthal Ancestry Detected in Africans For the First Time

When the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced, using DNA collected from ancient bones, it was accompanied by the discovery that modern humans in Asia, Europe and America inherited approximately 2%...
The Uluru sacred site in Australia

The Sacred Site of Uluru has Seen its Last Climber

In the 1999 movie The Matrix , Agent Smith said that when trying to classify our species it came to him we are “A virus, a disease, a cancer of this planet, a plague” eating up all the natural...
Modern Scots Share DNA With Dark Age Picts. Source: Peter Atkins / Adobe Stock.

Modern Scots Share DNA With Dark Age Picts

Scientists reveal modern Scots have strong genetic links with their Dark Age ancestors. “ We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns” (We are all Jock Tamson’s children) is an old Scottish phrase meaning all...
The first people to walk along the shores of northern Australia arrived more than 50,000 years ago.    Source: Nicolaas Weber /Adobe Stock

Ancient Ancestors Made A Large and Deliberate Migration to Australia

The size of the first population of people needed to arrive, survive, and thrive in what is now Australia is revealed in two studies published on June 17. It took more than 1,000 people to form a...

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