To reconstruct the climate of ancient Egypt, Swiss scientists have resorted to an unexpected source - mummy labels. These labels, which were affixed to the bodies of mummies during the Roman era, are...
Scientists analyzing microscopic plant materials trapped within building materials on The Great Wall of China have derived volumes of information about ancient environmental and climatological...
Fur coats aren’t just a product of the modern industrial period, but now are seen to have a tradition stretching back some 300,000 years ago, albeit in a different setting altogether. People have...
A power vacuum caused by an extreme drought 1,500 years ago in the Arabian Peninsula led to political unrest, war, and societal change. These were the preconditions that led to the development and...
During 536 the world was beset by a long winter. Dubbed “the year of darkness” in the New Scientist , temperatures plummeted and the sun was dimmed by a vast fog which blocked its rays from hitting...
Did the great Maya civilization collapse because of drought-related crop failures and starvation? New research has raised significant doubts about the viability of that theory, which in recent years...
A massive volcanic eruption in 536 AD resulted in dramatic climate catastrophe and the volcanic ash significantly cut the sunshine reaching Earth. As a direct result, temperatures dropped leading to...
New research has found that the so-called hothouse Earth periods in our planet’s remote past were actually periods of extreme hot dry temperatures, hotter than today by 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit (17...
Dune has been all over the news, as the first instalment of Frank Herbert’s novel series has been made into a blockbuster film (for the second time), by the acclaimed Denis Villeneuve. Set in the far...
Hippopotamus antiquus , or the European hippopotamus, is a now extinct species of giant hippo that once roamed Europe much before the last glacial period. In the much explored Westbury Cave, in...
A new 3D visualization is revealing what the Scottish city of Dundee looked like during the Ice Age of 20,000 years ago. At this time, the location of the east coast city was packed flat beneath a 0...
A new study of fossils from the genus Homo from all over the world has concluded that human body size is linked to differences in climate and temperature. In essence they have found that cold...
Did Stone Age Neanderthals wait out the coldest days of winter snuggled up safely beneath furs deep inside caves, in a state of suspended animation for months while the winds raged, and the snow...
A new study of ice cores at a previously unexplored ice dome in the Ötztal Alps on the border of Austria and Italy has examined the environment in which the Tyrolean Iceman, popularly known as Otzi,...
One of the greatest mysteries in science is why there is only one species of humans in the world today. In the past, there were several and they often co-existed for considerable periods. These past...
By Aleks Pluskowski, Alex Brown & Rowena Banerjea / The Conversation The Forest of Białowieża, which straddles the border of Poland and Belarus, is unique in Europe: it is incredibly ancient...