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Charred food remains from hearths were discovered, left by ancient humans eating starch. Source: PetarPaunchev / Adobe.
21 May, 2019 - 01:41 ancient-origins

Earliest Evidence for a Cooked Starch Paleo Diet

New discoveries made at the Klasies River Cave in South Africa's southern Cape, where charred food remains from hearths were found, provide the first archaeological evidence that anatomically modern...
Group of Neanderthal hunting a bison. New research confirms meat was a major part of the Neanderthal diet.
21 February, 2019 - 13:57 ancient-origins

Neanderthals Definitely Had a Meat-Based Diet: Claims of Plant and Cannibal Diet Refuted

Neanderthals' diets are highly debated: they are traditionally considered carnivores and hunters of large mammals, but this hypothesis has recently been challenged by numerous pieces of evidence of...
A selection of possible food in a Neolithic diet in the Iron Gates region, where people were still more reliant on aquatic resources.
18 January, 2019 - 13:58 ancient-origins

New Insights Into what Neolithic People Ate in Southeastern Europe

With the dawn of the Neolithic age, farming became established across Europe and people turned their back on aquatic resources, a food source more typical of the earlier Mesolithic period, instead...
Example of a lamb stew with vegetables. (Jo del Corro/CC BY 2.0) “Hen with Herbs”. Laura Kelley recreates Recipe 2 from Yale tablet 8958. (Laura Kelley) Lamb shanks in a stew. (E4024/CC BY SA 4.0) YBC 4644, a tablet with a Babylonian recipe, ca. 1750 BC. (Yale University Library)
12 August, 2018 - 19:02 Mark Oliver

Three Babylonian Recipes From 1600 BC You Can Make At Home Today

Ever wanted a taste of life in an ancient civilization? The oldest cookbook ever found was made sometime around 1600 BC in the ancient city of Babylon. It’s a set of cracked tablets engraved by an...
In this illustration, the modern pygmy village, Rampasasa, is shown at left; in the center, a modern Rampasasa pygmy wearing the traditional head covering and clothing is juxtaposed against the face of a Homo floresiensis reconstruction; at right, pygmy elephants play in the Liang Bua cave where theH. floresiensis fossils were discovered in 2004.
5 August, 2018 - 22:55 ancient-origins

Scientists Understand Why there are Short-statured Indonesians Today, But Can they Explain Hobbit Height?

Michael Westaway & Francis David Bulbeck / The Conversation Humans are diverse in size and shape – but some populations are of relatively low average height, and historically described using the...
This pre-Incan mummy found in Chauchilla, an ancient cemetery in the desert of Nazca, Peru, is preserved by the dry desert air with hair intact.
7 June, 2018 - 02:46 Mark Miller

Mummy hair reveals ancient Peruvians enjoyed seafood and beer

The hair of some natural mummies buried about 2,000 years ago in southern Peru appears to have been nicely coiffed prior to burial, with decorated textiles holding it in place. Archaeologists have...
31 May, 2018 - 22:53 ashley cowie

Ancient Murder Victim Had A Very Heavy Heart!

In 1991, hikers in the Italian Alps near Similaun mountain on the border between Austria and Italy discovered a 5,300 year murder victim, now known as Ötzi, who is now housed at the South Tyrol...
European badger (Meles meles)
29 May, 2018 - 00:04 Mark Miller

Stone Age Spaniards ate domestic dogs and badgers

Human bite marks on the fossilized bones of domestic dogs and wild cats, foxes and badgers show people in Spain thousands of years ago ate carnivorous animals if they became hungry enough...
Should Adults Really Be Drinking Milk? Studying Neolithic Ancestors Suggests Not
23 September, 2017 - 18:58 aprilholloway

Should Adults Really Be Drinking Milk? Studying Neolithic Ancestors Suggests Not

Is drinking cow’s milk healthy for humans? Many remember the rush to get to the head of the line for milk at morning recess in elementary school and TV ads showing healthy kids running around the...
Weakened Neanderthal amongst plant foodstuff
9 August, 2017 - 13:58 Theodoros Karasavvas

New Studies Clash with Previous Analyses On the Life and Fate of Neanderthals

Two new studies have emerged in the past week claiming to provide more details than ever about the Neanderthal’s genetic contribution to the modern population plus a new theory on how it eventually...
Mesolithic fish and chips?
16 July, 2017 - 14:00 ancient-origins

Mesolithic Fish and Chips? 8,000-Year-Old Meal Whets the Appetite of Russian Archaeologists

By The Siberian Times reporter A Mesolithic meal found at a site on the Lena River in Yakutia has whetted the appetite of local archeologists. The remarkable discovery includes the skeletons of three...
Ruins of Pompeii seen from the above with a drone, with the Vesuvius in the background
10 July, 2017 - 01:57 aprilholloway

A Diet of Delicacies for the People of Pompeii Included Giraffe and Sea Urchin

Several years ago, surprising discoveries were made in a study , which drew on the findings of a sizable excavation of an area of Pompeii. The study, which was presented to the Archaeological...
Archaeologists Say They Have Unearthed A 5,000-Year-Old Graveyard of Giants in China
5 July, 2017 - 18:59 Alicia McDermott

Archaeologists Say They Have Unearthed A 5,000-Year-Old Graveyard of Giants in China

Archaeologists working in eastern China have unearthed 205 graves of an unknown race of “unusually tall and strong” people. Labelled as ‘giants’ in comparison to the average height of other Chinese...
A reconstruction of a burial site from prehistoric China. In Yinxu, about 2,500 pits filled with remains of sacrificial victims have been found in addition to other cemeteries were elites and other locals were buried.
20 June, 2017 - 14:00 Mark Miller

Thousands of War Captives Enslaved for Years Before Being Slain as Sacrifice in Prehistoric China

Some archaeologists in China have analyzed the makeup of elements in the bones in a prehistoric cemetery and say the people buried there were probably war captives who were forced into slavery before...
Cannibal feast on the Island of Tanna, New Hebrides by Charles E. Gordon Frazer (1863-1899).
8 April, 2017 - 02:01 ancient-origins

Our Ancestors Were Cannibals – and Probably Not Because They Needed the Calories

James Cole / The Conversation In the recently released horror movie Raw , a lifelong vegetarian teenager arrives at a veterinary school and, after being forced to consume a rabbit kidney at a student...
An artist’s impression of the El Sidron Neanderthals who were likely gathering much of their food, rather than hunting large game. Source: CSIC Spain, Author provided
13 March, 2017 - 22:07 ancient-origins

The New Paleo? The Staples of Neanderthal Diets Unlocked by Looking at the Gunk in Their Teeth

Alan Cooper & Laura Weyrich / The Conversation The typical vision of Neanderthals has not been particularly flattering, often featuring a giant club and spear and unfortunate sartorial choices...

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