Prehistory news
From 3 million years ago to the dawn of our era: archaeological discoveries, palaeogenetics, cave art and the great transformations of human societies.
In the Liang Tebo cave in eastern Borneo, the remains of an individual who died 31,000 years ago reveal that their left leg had been surgically amputated in childho…
Read →Small spouted ceramic vessels found in children's graves in Bavaria and dated from 1200 to 450 BCE contain residues of animal-origin lipids. A study published in Na…
Read →The collective ossuary of Camino del Molino in Murcia, Spain, reveals that nearly 92% of children buried there 5,000 years ago showed bone lesions characteristic of infectious diseases and malnutrition. A study in the International Journal of Paleopathology documents the catastrophic infant mortality of Neolithic communities in southeastern Iberia.
In thé necropolis of Djarkutan, Uzbekistan, archaeologists have identified thé skull of a child approximately 5 years old bearing thé marks of a trépanation performed some 4,000 years ago. This surgical intervention, carried out within thé Oxus civilisation (BMAC), is one of thé oldest documented cranial opérations in Central Asia.
At the Middle Pleistocene site of Bilzingsleben in Thuringia, Germany, researchers have identified the remains of 94 European beavers bearing systematic butchery marks. A study in Scientific Reports reveals that hominins -- probably Homo heidelbergensis -- were intensively exploiting this animal for meat, fat and possibly fur some 400,000 years ago.
Fish remains from Acheulean layers at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel, bear unmistakable signs of controlled low-température cooking. A study published in Nature Ecology and Évolution shows that hominins -- most likely Homo erectus …
Read →Discovered at Bouchain at the confluence of the Scheldt and Sensée rivers, this Neolithic monoxyle dugout is one o…
Read →Cova 338, a cave in the Catalan Pyrenees, has yielded evidence of copper metallurgy spanning 4,000 years, from the…
Read →Dated to 51,000–56,000 years ago, Neanderthal baby Amud 7 was placed in a cave niche with a red deer jaw resting o…
Read →Partially burned phytoliths recovered from thé sédiments of Cloggs Cave (Victoria, Australia) show that thé GunaiKurnai nation has been performing magic and healing rituals there for at least 25,000 years - long before thé earliest ethnographic records.
At 1,450 metres in the Lombard Alps, Caverna Generosa yielded 16 Mousterian tools 60,000 years old, made in the valley and carried uphill by Neanderthals. Their repeated on-site maintenance reveals remarkable resource planning.
An incisor found in a Borneo cave is dated to 52,000–55,000 years ago, pushing back the date of Homo sapiens' arrival in Southeast Asia by 10,000 years. The discovery confirms an early migration along Indian Ocean coastlines, well before previous estimates.
Beneath a rock shelter in the Forest of Fontainebleau, researchers have identified a 13,000-year-old relief model representing the Paris Basin river network. This may be the oldest three-dimensional map ever discovered, predating…
Read →Excavations at Gran Dolina cave in Atapuerca have uncovered a bone from a two-to-four-year-old child bearing a but…
Read →From thé empty tomb of Thutmose II to 13,000 ostraca from Athribis, seven récent discoveries are reshaping our und…
Read →Between leaving Africa 70,000 years ago and settling in Eurasia around 45,000 years ago, our ancestors went throug…
Read →A mussel shell from Trinil, Java, bears zigzag engravings made 430,000 to 540,000 years ago by Homo erectus. This geometric mark, 300,000 years older than the earliest known patterns attributed to Homo sapiens, transforms our und…
Read →At Marathousa 1 in Greece, two worked wooden objects dated to 430,000 years ago have just been identified as the o…
Read →In 1963, a Cappadocian resident knocked down a wall in his cellar and uncovered a forgotten stairway. Behind it la…
Read →About 2100 years ago, beneath the walls of Perusia, the soldiers of Octavian and those of Lucius Antonius pelted o…
Read →