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Human skeleton in a grave (representational image). Source: Idanthyrs / Adobe Stock.

Teenage Colonist's 400-Year-Old Dumped Remains Found in Maryland

The skeleton of one of the first colonists in the U.S. has been discovered in a ‘haphazard’ burial in Maryland. It is believed that this teenager, who was buried with a shattered leg and no coffin,...
Weekly Top Stories: A Quick Catch Up On What You Missed

Weekly Top Stories: A Quick Catch Up On What You Missed

In last week’s top stories; doubts cast on Neo-Darwinist theory, where did you get your features from? European traits tracked, Nottingham’s man-made cave system, fantastic 5,000-year-old drum...
European traits vary due to historic genetic influences. Here a blue-eyed, blonde-haired woman, typical traits of Estonia where the study is based. 	Source: Jeremy Francis / Adobe Stock

How Mixed Ancestries Shaped European Traits

An eye-opening new study appearing in the journal Current Biology delves into the extensive interactions between different ethnic groups that shaped the genomes of contemporary Europeans. The...
Victims of Arrogance and Cruelty: The Pendle Witch Trials of 1612

Victims of Arrogance and Cruelty: The Pendle Witch Trials of 1612

Witch trials are among some of the cruelest events in European history. Thousands of innocent women were murdered by people who provided fake accusations. In England, one of the most famous witch...
New Testing Indicates European Neanderthals Vanished Earlier

New Testing Indicates European Neanderthals Vanished Earlier

In a game-changing Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences article , a multinational team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists have produced persuasive evidence that shows northern...
Early Medieval Europe – Dark Age Death Practices Spread Quickly

Early Medieval Europe – Dark Age Death Practices Spread Quickly

A new study suggests that Europe has been ‘global’ for over a millennium. The evidence for this claim comes from a set of shared cultural practices spread over a wide area in early Medieval Europe...
Painting titled ‘Free Women of Color with their Children and Servants in a Landscape.’ Life changed for American women as the eighteenth century progressed. Source: Public Domain

Culturally Misunderstood: The Struggles and Advances of Early American Women

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw a series of transitions in life in America, as many, particularly women, strove to find their identities in patriarchal society. Early American women were...
Medieval maritime trade. Credit: Yury Kisialiou / Adobe Stock

The Hanseatic League: Dominating the Baltic Maritime Trade

The Baltic Sea has historically been an important region for maritime trade. Its favorable location, which acts as a connection between major nations and trading hubs, always made it a focal point...
European standing stones: Rudston Monolith (CC0), Maen Llia (Tony Martin Long /Adobe Stock), Maen Madoc (Alan Bowring/CC BY SA 2.0), Kerloas Menhir (mariof /Adobe Stock), Riesenstein (Tecty/CC BY SA 4.0), Menir da Meada. (StockPhotosArt /Adobe Stock)

European Standing Stones: The Mute Witnesses of Forgotten Times

If we reach far back into the distant past of our ancestors, as far back as the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, we can get a critical glimpse into the lives and traditions of Europe’s ancient...
Top view of the Dolmen of Oberbipp in Switzerland, one of the largest burial sites in the study, where Neolithic remains were studied, revealing clues to the Yamnaya Culture’s migration to Europe.       Source: Urs Dardel / Archäologischer Dienst des Kanton Bern

Neolithic DNA Reveals Surprising Truth of the Yamnaya Culture in Europe

Genetic research has revolutionized our understanding of Switzerland’s prehistoric past. A group of researchers have carried out a study of genomes from individuals who lived in the Late Neolithic...
Zultepec-Tecoaque archaeological site in Tlaxcala, Mexico

Archaeological site in Mexico reveals sacrifice and cannibalization of Spanish conquistadors

Excavations at the Zultepec-Tecoaque archaeological site in Tlaxcala, Mexico, have revealed that indigenous Acolhuas peoples captured a caravan of 550 conquistadors and their allies in 1520, kept...
13,000-year-old Saharan remains

13,000-year-old Saharan Remains Tell Of First Known Homo Sapiens War In Africa

In 2014, a fresh analysis on a set of human remains dating back 13,000 years, which were found on the east bank of the Nile in northern Sudan , suggested the individuals were victims of an intergroup...
Portrait of three girls of different nationalities.

Genetic Breakthrough Changes the Way We View Skin Color

University College London / Science Daily Skin color is one of the most visible and variable traits among humans and scientists have always been curious about how this variation evolved. Now, a study...
Maoi statues on Easter Island

Demise of ancient Rapa Nui civilization linked to European contact

A 2015 study suggests that European “exploration” of the world resulted in the collapse of yet another indigenous people previously thought to have died out pre-contact: the Rapa Nui of Easter Island...
Slaves working in a mine. Corinthian terracotta plaque painting, 5th century BC.

Ice-Core Study Finds Evidence of Ancient European Plagues, Wars, and Imperial Expansion

To learn about the rise and fall of ancient European civilizations, researchers sometimes find clues in unlikely places: deep inside of the Greenland ice sheet, for example. Thousands of years ago,...
Bayeux Tapestry - Scenes 29-30-31: the coronation of Harold II of England. He receives orb and sceptre. On his left stands Archbishop Stigand.

Bayeux and Brexit: What the tapestry says about the UK’s shared European heritage

Kathryn Hurlock / The Conversation The Bayeux Tapestry is finally coming to England , or so the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has promised . There have long been calls to bring the work to...
Artist's impression of prehistoric hunters.

Dark Skin and Blue Eyes: European Hunter-Gatherers Did Not Fit with Common Representations

The popular image of the light-skinned European hunter-gatherer is not correct. DNA taken from a 7,000-year-old wisdom tooth found in Spain in 2006 shows a different story. A study of the tooth shows...
Albany Bulb Sea Witch Prays to the Pink and Purple Sky.

Untwisting the Knotted History of Sea Witches

You might have noticed that Ursula, the antagonist in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989), was a sea witch disguised as a half-human, half-octopus mythological hybrid creature . And, the antagonist of...
Top left section detail of (1593) [The Codex Quetzalecatzin]. [Mexico: Producer not identified] [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

Library of Congress Obtains Mesoamerican Map from the Dawn of the Americas

The U.S. Library of Congress has recently announced that a unique, indigenous-made map of Mexico from the era of the Nahuatl people's first contact with European explorers is now part of its vast...
Piles of clamshells (Schvin/CC BY 2.0), background: men in a Curragh, a skin boat (WilliamMurphy/CC BY-SA 2.0);Deriv.

Seafarers and Shell Rings: Strange Formations on the American Coast a Hallmark of Faraway Visitors?

Just south of Awendaw, South Carolina, in the Francis Marion National Forest, is an example of a type of architectural artifact that still baffles archaeologists. For every explanation someone offers...
Two of the ancient Kilwa coins.

Ancient African Coins Found in Australia Pose Interesting Questions About the Nation’s History

According to Australia’s established history, European adventurers and explorers were the first foreigners to step foot on the continent – first Dutchman Willem Janszoon in 1606, and later Captain...
The Royal Tombs of Tanis

Three Famous Sites in One – The Story of the Legendary City of Tanis

For centuries, it was believed the city of Tanis was nothing more than a legend. Many people had doubts that it ever really existed. But that all changed when researchers who Napoleon Bonaparte...

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