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An ankle bone from 52 million years ago suggests that the earliest primates, the ancestors of humans, were great at leaping from tree to tree. Credit: Douglas Boyer, Duke University

Why Your Ancestors Would Have Aced the Long Jump

This tiny ankle bone belonged to one of the earliest members of the primate family tree. The 52-million-year-old fossil suggests that the first primates were expert leapers. Discovered more than 30...
Prehistoric human skeleton in the Chan Hol Cave near Tulúm on the Yucatán peninsula prior to looting by unknown cave divers.

Skeleton Stalagmite Reveals Human Inhabitants in Mexico At Least 13,000 Years Ago

A prehistoric human skeleton found on the Yucatán Peninsula is at least 13,000 years old and most likely dates from a glacial period at the end of the most recent ice age, the late Pleistocene. A...
Representation of a group of Neanderthals.

Toolmaking Teachers? Surprising Skills Shared Between Neanderthals and Modern Humans

50,000-year-old tools made from deer ribs suggest modern humans may have learned tool-making from Neanderthals. Found in the southwest of France, these artifacts add to a growing body of evidence...
New DNA Study Suggests African Humans Interbred With European Neanderthals Way Earlier Than We Think

New DNA Study Suggests African Humans Interbred With European Neanderthals Way Earlier Than We Think

Phys Org reports that in 1937, a 124,000-year-old Neanderthal thigh bone was discovered during excavations near the entrance of Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in southwestern Germany. After 80 years its...
The unbroken mastodon ribs and vertebrae, including one vertebra with a large well preserved neural spine.

History Rewritten! Early Humans were in North America 130,000 Years Ago

An amazing find at an Ice Age site in San Diego, California may dramatically alter the accepted timeline for when early humans first reached North America. 130,000-year-old bones and teeth of a...
Hollow bone tube made from the long bone of a bear cuscus, may have been used as an ‘air-brush’ to create human hand stencils on rock surfaces.

Hints of Ancient Symbolic Culture are Revealed in Indonesian Ice Age Art and Jewelry

Adam Brumm & Michelle Langley / The Conversation A cave dig in Indonesia has unearthed a unique collection of prehistoric ornaments and artworks that date back in some instances to at least 30,...
Japanese parade helmet, made from iron, gilded copper, lacquered leather, silk

More Than Metal: Amazing Historical Suits of Armor

Armor was commonly used by warriors for protection during combat. In the history of warfare, various types of armor have been used. Some of these, such as the lorica segmentata of the Roman...
46,000-Year-Old Kangaroo Bone Ornament is Oldest Bone Jewelry Ever Found

46,000-Year-Old Kangaroo Bone Ornament is Oldest Bone Jewelry Ever Found

The oldest known piece of bone jewelry attributed to Homo sapiens has been excavated in the Kimberley region of northern Australia by archaeologists at the Australian National University (ANU). This...
Remarkable Secret Tombs of Maya Snake Kings Reveal Fascinating Story

Remarkable Secret Tombs of Maya Snake Kings Reveal Fascinating Story

Archeologists have unearthed two un-looted Maya tombs in the Holmul ruins of Guatemala. The discoveries within the tombs connect with previous artifacts, and shed light on the famous story of...
Researcher and filmmaker Jake Norton photographs a 1,200-year-old skeleton from Samdzong, Nepal.

Ancient Nepalese People Buried in Caves were Defleshed but Not Consumed

The 1,200-year-old skeleton of a young man found in a cave in Nepal had been defleshed, but researchers are unsure how he died. The lead researcher of this body and other remains said in 2011 that...
Searching for Truth in Bones: The Mysterious Relics of Mary Magdalene

Searching for Truth in Bones: The Mysterious Relics of Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene is one of the most fascinating people from the times of Jesus. Although every year there are more and more people who follow her as if she were a super-heroine, her story has been...
The Death of Lucy: Has a 3.2 Million-Year-Old Mystery Finally Been Solved?

The Death of Lucy: Has a 3.2 Million-Year-Old Mystery Finally Been Solved?

Scientists analyzing the bones of the Australopithecus Afarensis skeleton known as ‘Lucy’ have suggested that she died from injuries sustained by falling from a tree. They say that fractures present...
Labrets are a kind of jewelry, which can be made of shell, bone, or stone, and is inserted into the lip as an ornament in some cultures. Picture here and below: Krasnoyarsk Geoarkheologiya

Neolithic Chic: Body Piercing Fashion from the Arctic Around 5,000 Years Ago

By The Siberian Times reporter Ancient items of jewellery found by archeologists on Taymyr peninsula are stone labrets which were inserted into the face below the bottom lip. The discovery was made...
Foissac Cave. Inset: The newly-discovered Paleolithic figurine

Remarkable Paleolithic Sculpture Discovered in the Famous Cave of Foissac

A fascinating and unique Paleolithic sculpture of a figurine carved from a large bovine bone and with unusual designs engraved in it was discovered in the well-known cave of Foissac in Aveyron,...
A view of the fossilized, 1.7-million-year-old hominin toe bone upon which the cancerous tumor was diagnosed.

Researchers Diagnose Earliest Known Cancer on 1.7-Million-Year-Old Hominin Fossil

Scientists have identified a particularly lethal form of cancer on the fossilized toe bone of an early human relative who lived about 1.7 million years ago in South Africa. The tumor is the oldest...
Mini Golden Coffin Found in Crypt May Hold Skull Bone of Buddha

Mini Golden Coffin Found in Crypt May Hold Skull Bone of Buddha

When archaeologists were excavating the Grand Bao’en Temple of Nanjing, China in 2008 they came across a significant find – a relic linked to Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. The artifact was a skull bone...
Carved and painted human mandible (jawbone) was found in a ceremonial area within a residential complex at the site of Dainzú-Macuilxóchitl in Mexico.

Jawbone Jewelry: Archaeologists Discover 1,300-Year-Old Painted Bone Pendants in Mexico

Archaeologists have unearthed painted human jawbones at a ceremonial site in Mexico associated with the ancient Zapotec civilization. It is believed the bones were worn as necklace pendants as part...
The Mystical Pentatonic Scale and Ancient Instruments, Part I: Bone Flutes

The Mystical Pentatonic Scale and Ancient Instruments, Part I: Bone Flutes

One of the ancient technologies that is often overlooked is the creation of musical instruments. The purpose, development and in some cases the techniques used to develop music remains a mystery...
Bone artifacts recovered from the Ma’anshan site.

Paleolithic Bone Tools Discovered in Chinese Cave Are Some of the Oldest in the World

A research team studying 17 bone tools recovered from the Paleolithic site of Ma'anshan Cave, Guizhou Province, southern China have named the artifacts as the oldest formal bone tools in China to...
Close-up of human skulls that are part of the Chapel of Bones of the Church of San Francisco in Évora, Portugal.

The Story Behind a Frightening Chapel of Bones in Portugal

There is a Church of San Francisco found in the Portuguese city of Évora, 140 km (87 miles) from Lisbon. Inside this church, next to the cloister of the former Franciscan monastery, in the place...
Main: The twin pillars at Göbekli Tepe (g.frilli / flickr). Inset: The tiny bone plaque found at Göbekli Tepe and now on display at Sanliurfa’s new archaeological museum.

First Pictorial Representation of Gobekli Tepe Found

A tiny bone plaque in Sanliurfa museum holds the key to the orientation of the 11,500 year-old temple complex. It was found during routine excavations at the 11,500-year-old site of Göbekli Tepe in...
12,300-Year-Old Bone Pendants discovered in Alaska

12,300-Year-Old Bone Pendants May be Oldest Artwork Ever Discovered in Alaska

Carved bone pendants have been found at a prehistoric site in Alaska that may prove to be the very first known examples of artwork in the northern region of North America. Two pairs of pendants were...
4,000-year-old Siberian knight armour made of bone

The discovery of 4,000-year-old Siberian knight armor made of bone

In September this year, archaeologists in Russia reported on the discovery of a suit of armor made entirely of bone, which belonged to an ancient Siberian knight who lived around four millennia ago...
Gold Mining

The fight to save the ancient gold mine of Sakdrissi

In 2004, German archaeologists from Ruhr-University Bochum discovered the gold mine in Sakdrissi. Dated to the third millennium BC, it is one of the oldest known gold mines in the world and has been...

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