All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

DNA

Study has found that human herpes was spread by kissing throughout history. Source: boyloso / Adobe Stock

Human Herpes Linked to Emergence of Kissing in the Bronze Age

It is generally accepted among historians that kissing had no one point of origin, but the habit began as a human trend in different regions. The earliest known written record of romantic saliva...
The reproduced portrait of the Red Deer Cave People or Mengziren. Source: Xueping Ji / CC BY-SA

Pleistocene Fossil DNA Suggests Native Americans’ East Asian Roots

Genome sequencing of a human Late Pleistocene Fossil in southwest China dating back around 14,000 years is helping shed light on the ancestry of the very first Americans . The mystery surrounding the...
Colonial sources attest that Juan Cortés, slave of the soldier Juan Sedeño, was the first African registered in New Spain. He was part of the military consortium led by Hernán Cortés in 1519 (Bishop Diego Durán). Source: Arqueología Mexicana / Raices / Antiquity Publications Ltd

Cross-Cultural Living and Dying in Colonial Campeche, But No Sex

2022 is shaping up to be a big year for colonial era discoveries in Central and South America. Only in May Ancient Origins covered the story of archaeologists studying “42 syphilis-ridden colonial...
Pompeii man and woman discovered in the Casa de Fabbro, or House of the Crafsman, in a photograph taken in 1934. Source: Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità

First Complete DNA Sequencing Unveils Truth of Pompeii Victim

The skeletons of a man and woman discovered around 100 years ago, as they were trying to survive the notorious Mount Vesuvius eruption of 79 AD, have been put under the scanner by scientists. Using...
Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue, Tsonjin Boldog, Mongolia. Source: Guy Bryant / Adobe Stock

‘Super-Father’: One in 200 Men are Descendants of Genghis Khan

Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan (1162 – 1227 AD) was not just an infamously ruthless warrior, and founder of the largest contiguous empire in history, but was also a prolific father as well, siring so...
Dolmen of Poloutin in a cornfield, representing the origins of farming.	Source: aluxum/Adobe Stock

Ice Age Hunters’ DNA Reveals The Origins Of Farming

What were the origins of the first farmers? Where did they come from and where did they go? This question was recently asked by a team of scientists studying the genomes of Europe's first farmers...
Ancient Uruguayan DNA is being used to understand the migrations of indigenous peoples to South America. This image shows a scientist working in bio-archaeology lab.                        		    Source: Microgen / Adobe Stock

Indigenous Uruguayan DNA Reveals Ancestry New To South America

A new study presents the first whole genome sequences of Uruguayan indigenous peoples, whose last remnants were wiped out in the 18th century through a series of targeted European military campaigns...
In a recent breakthrough study, scientists have proven that meteorites carry all the building blocks of life, which is to say every chemical necessary for the formation of DNA and RNA. This photo is of the world famous Perseid Meteor Shower that occurs annually in Utah, US.		Source: UtahHome

New Study Proves ALL the Building Blocks of Life Found in Meteorites!

So where exactly did the building blocks for life (DNA and its chemical precursors) come from? This is a question that has both puzzled and fascinated scientists for decades, and a couple of possible...
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...

5,000-Year-Old DNA from Skeletons Found in Serbia is Solving Genetic Mysteries

Ancient Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology are characterized by a burial practice known as kurgan burials, wherein mounds of earth and stone are raised over a single or multiple graves...
Maxilla and tooth specimen excavated at the Stone Age burial site in Portugal’s Cabeço da Amoreira. Source: Petroteo-Stjerna et. al. / CC BY 4.0

African Remains Discovered in Prehistoric Shell Heap in Portugal

In an intriguing discovery, the remains of an African man who died just 350 years ago have been found buried in a prehistoric shell midden in Amoreira in Portugal. The middens in Amoreira and other...
The Top 10 Human Evolution Discoveries in 2021. Source: Ancient Origins

The Top 10 Revelations in Human Evolution in 2021

The year 2021 was filled with all kinds of human evolution discoveries and scientific progress. From the 250,000-year-old skeletal remains of a Homo naledi child in South Africa, to the smiley face...
A roughly 2000-year-old mummified man of the Ansilta culture, from the Andes of San Juan, Argentina, had lice eggs and cement in his hair which preserved his own DNA.		Source: Universidad Nacional de San Juan

Head Lice on South American Mummies Shed Light on Ancient Virus Spread

The scientific understanding of ancient South American ancestry and the future of DNA research just got a whole lot clearer thanks to mummy hair lice. Two thousand years ago the pre-Columbian Ansilta...
Artists representation of the small Caudipteryx dinosaur specimen in the Jehol Biota, from which dinosaur DNA could be extracted. Source: Zheng Qiuyang

Scientists in China May Have Found 125-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur DNA

The idea that scientists might be able to recover dinosaur DNA from fossilized remains seems absurd. But now, the concept has moved beyond the realms of the absurd to the absolutely possible, thanks...
Ezekiel’s vision The Valley of Dry Bones: loswl / CC BY-SA 2.0 .

Seeking The Ten Lost Tribes Of Israel, Finding DNA

The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel have been considered lost for over 3,000 years, but recent evidence demonstrates that they were not lost, they had merely been scattered around the world and had...
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...
The Beauty of Loulan, a Tarim Basin Mummy Source: Mummipedia

Origin Mystery of Controversial Tarim Basin Mummies Was Solved With DNA

Located in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, the Tarim Basin is a rich confluence of geology, history, and culture. In fact, it is speculated that this region may be one of the last to be...
Michelle Freson Ancient Origins Compilation

The Golden Age Of Heroes: The Glory Of The Mycenaean Civilization

The myths and legends of classical Greece told of a Golden Age of Heroes, of mighty kings, glorious palaces and warriors who fought courageously in fierce battles. This age that inspired the...
Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco), Pre-Columbian archaeological site, Bolivia	Source: worldwonders / Adobe Stock

Hotly Debated Origins of Pre-Inca Civilization of Tiwanaku Revealed by Genetic Study

Tiwanaku – one of the largest Pre-Columbian settlements and archaeological sites, located in western Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca, has hotly debated origins. Even its name, or what would have been...
First Americans, photo of mural in the Page Museum, Los Angeles, by Travis S (CC BY-NC 2.0)

The Chumash: The Seashell First People Of North America

The question of how people first came to North America is as complicated as when they arrived. With new evidence comes new theories and the dates are being revised constantly. While the colonization...
Meeting Between Cambyses II and Psammetichus III by Adrien Guignet (Public Domain)

The Assyrian, Persian And Greek Conquest Of Ancient Egypt

During the eighth century BC, ancient Egypt was experiencing turbulent times. The country was split with a pharaoh ruling in Lower Egypt, but powerful priests of Amun were ruling Middle and Upper...
An artist’s illustration of the Segorbe Giant along with genetic information about his maternal and paternal lines. 	Source: University of Huddersfield

DNA Analysis of Spain’s Segorbe Giant Reveals Ancient Ethnic Cleansing

Genetic experts have completed a full sequencing of a DNA sample obtained from a 1,000-year-old skeleton unearthed in 1999 in an ancient Islamic cemetery near the village of Segorbe, Spain, which is...
Bust of an Etruscan woman. Source: Ana Tramont / Adobe Stock

Mysterious Origins of the Etruscans: DNA Study Solves the Riddle

A new study published in the journal Science Advances offers evidence to support the theory of local origins of the Etruscans, an advanced Iron Age peoples in central Italy. For the study, scientists...
Woman with arctic dog. Source: Demian / Adobe Stock

Ancient Siberians Bred, Bought and Traded Arctic Dogs

Genetic breeding programs in the ancient Arctic required fresh DNA from faraway places. Therefore, long-distance trade routes rang with the barks and howls of horny Arctic dogs as they marched...

Pages