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The Roman aqueduct that supplied water to Viminacium, a large city on the Roman frontier, Serbia.	Source: Carles Lalueza-Foz/Cell

How the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Shifted Populations

Despite the Roman Empire's extensive military and cultural influence on the nearby Balkan peninsula, a DNA analysis of individuals who lived in the region between 1 and 1000 AD found no genetic...
Ancient DNA analysis is unlocking secrets about the genetic legacy of the Levites of ancient Israel. Source: Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing/ CC BY-SA 3.0 overlayed and cropped onto ankreative / Adobe Stock

Ancient DNA Analysis Reconstructs Legacy of the Biblical Levites

The biblical Levites were a group of people from the tribe of Levi set apart for religious service in ancient Israel. The most famous Levite was Aaron, Moses 's big brother and the first priest. The...
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...
The three reconstructed mummy faces taken from 3 ancient Egyptian mummies. Source: Parabon NanoLabs

Three 2000-year-old Egyptian Mummy Faces Reconstructed!

You can now see what three Egyptian men living more than 2000 years ago in the ancient Egyptian city of Abusir el-Meleq really looked like thanks to forensic DNA phenotyping and other advance...
A new study suggests three key phases in human ancestry for scientists to focus future research

Modern Human Ancestry Won’t Be Traced to a Single Point

While we may be attracted by the headlines of “Oldest Human Fossil Discovered” and “New Human Ancestor Found”, the idea that we’re on the route to unearthing an actual, single point in time and space...
Somewhere in Southwestern North America during the late Pleistocene, a pack of dire wolves (Canis dirus) are feeding on their bison kill, while a pair of gray wolves (Canis lupus) approach in the hopes of scavenging. One of the dire wolves rushes in to confront the gray wolves, and their confrontation allows a comparison of the bigger, larger-headed and reddish-brown dire wolf with its smaller, gray relative. Source: Mauricio Antón/ Nature

Beyond Game of Thrones: Study Reveals Secrets of Real Dire Wolves

Have you ever heard of dire wolves? You’ll probably say “Yes” if you are a fan of the TV show Game of Thrones . This canine species appears in the iconic TV series, where it is known as a ‘direwolf’...
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...
Left: Upper jaw bones of a walrus, with tusks removed. Right: an elaborately-carved ecclesiastical walrus ivory plaque.

Lost Norse of Greenland Fueled the Medieval Ivory Trade, Ancient Walrus DNA Suggests

The Icelandic Sagas tell of Erik the Red: exiled for murder in the late 10th century he fled to southwest Greenland, establishing its first Norse settlement. The colony took root, and by the mid-12th...
A human skull (Public Domain) and tobacco. (Public Domain)

Researchers Take a Bite Out of Prehistoric Nicotine Use

A team of scientists including researchers from Washington State University has shown for the first time that nicotine residue can be extracted from plaque, also known as "dental calculus," on the...
Reconstruction of a Beaker burial, (National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid).

90% of the Neolithic British Gene Pool Was Replaced by Beaker Immigrants

Scientists once could reconstruct humanity's distant past only from the mute testimony of ancient settlements, bones, and artifacts. No longer. Now there's a powerful new approach for illuminating...