News Feature Channel: Archaeology and Anthropology

How Ancient Stone Kitchens Preserve Food Secrets

University of Utah — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 21:25:26 EST

University of Utah anthropologists with the Natural History Museum of Utah uncover microscopic plant residues in bedrock metates, revealing insights into the diets and traditions of ancient Indigenous communities.

UWF Students Investigate Fort Kirkland to Preserve a Vital Part of Northwest Florida History

University of West Florida — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:20:56 EST

The University of West Florida Archaeology Institute is leading the search for Fort Kirkland in Okaloosa County, Florida, thanks to a $250,000 grant from the Department of State. UWF students, faculty, archaeologists, local families and veterans with Task Force Dagger Special Operations Foundation are working together to study and memorialize the fort.

Chulalongkorn University's Geology Professor Discovers Evidence of "Another Ancient City Overlapping the Old City of Nakhon Ratchasima"

Chulalongkorn University — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 12:00:41 EST

"A professor at the Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, has discovered evidence of an earthen embankment indicating another large ancient community in the location overlapping the old city of Nakhon Ratchasima."

She's Better at Making Her Bed

Universite de Montreal — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 21:15:51 EST

Young female chimpanzees make their nests earlier and more often than young male chimps, demonstrating their independence right from the start, a new UdeM study finds.

Fontbonne University's Center for Bosnian Studies Moving to Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 18:35:46 EST

Saint Louis University will become the permanent home of Fontbonne University's renowned Center for Bosnian Studies.

Expert Available: COVID-19: Remembrance, Grief and Loss

George Washington University — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 19:25:50 EST

Since May 2020, researchers at the George Washington University have been studying COVID-19 death, memorialization and misinformation. The project, "Rituals in the Making," aims to learn more about how rituals changed during the pandemic, how we honored those who died and the impact on frontline workers and families.

IU Completes Its First International Repatriation of Human Remains to Easter Island

Indiana University — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 19:00:44 EST

Indiana University has completed its first international repatriation of human remains to the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island. IU's Jayne-Leigh Thomas visited the island in December as an invited guest of Rapa Nui representatives and is working with them on several research projects focused on the ethics of repatriation.

Flexible Joints Evolved as Jawed Fish Began Life as Predators

University of Chicago Medical Center — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 18:50:48 EST

Study of modern-day fishes, along with genetic and fossil analyses, shows that synovial joints first appeared in the earliest ancestors of jawed fishes.

Furman Professor Studied Real-Life Nickel Boys

Furman University — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 09:15:10 EST

Furman Professor Studied Real-Life Nickel Boys

New Study Reveals Neanderthals Experienced Population Crash 110,000 Years Ago

Binghamton University, State University of New York — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 09:05:20 EST

A new study by an international team of scholars, including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, suggests that Neanderthals experienced a dramatic loss of genetic variation during the course of their evolution, foreshadowing their eventual extinction.

Scientifically Sniffing Ancient Egyptian Mummified Bodies

American Chemical Society (ACS) — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 17:30:00 EST

Have you ever wondered what a mummy smells like? According to research reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, it's "woody," "spicy," and even "sweet."

Brondizio Awarded 'Nobel Prize for the Environment,' Honoring Decades-Long Research on the Amazon

Indiana University — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 20:10:15 EST

Indiana University environmental anthropologist Eduardo Brondizio was awarded the 2025 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for his work on human-environment interaction in the Amazon and global-level work linking biodiversity to humankind. He is sharing the prize with Argentinian ecologist Sandra Diaz.

Renowned UTHealth Houston Researcher Discusses What 4,000-Year-Old Mummies Tell Us About Heart Disease, and Why It's Preventable

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 08:55:14 EST

An unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, and smoking - considered to be a relatively recent societal curse - are all risk factors to heart disease. But if that is the case, did heart disease exist thousands of years ago?

Missing Link in Indo-European Languages' History Found

University of Vienna — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 11:00:00 EST

Where lies the origin of the Indo-European language family? Ron Pinhasi and his team in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Vienna contribute a new piece to this puzzle in collaboration with David Reich's ancient DNA laboratory at Harvard University. They analyzed ancient DNA from 435 individuals from archaeological sites across Eurasia between 6.400-2.000 BCE. They found out that a newly recognized Caucasus-Lower Volga population can be connected to all Indo-European-speaking populations. The new study is published in Nature.

When Human Ancestors Began Eating Meat Remains a Mystery

Stony Brook University — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 17:30:05 EST

An international team of researchers including Dominic Stratford, PhD, of Stony Brook University and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, have discovered that an ancient human ancestor found in deposits at the Sterkfontein Caves, Australopithecus, which lived more than three million years ago in South Africa, primarily ate plant-based foods. The finding, published in the journal Science, stems from an analysis of tooth enamel from seven Australopithecus fossils and is significant because the emergence of meat eating is thought to be a key driver of a large increase in brain size seen in later hominins.

Pacific Islander Teens Assert Identity Through Language

University of Utah — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 19:30:25 EST

A first-of-its-kind study found subtle, but distinct vowel pronunciations in Pacific Islanders attending more diverse schools in Utah compared to students in a predominately white high school, confirming the theory that groups to differentiate along ethnic lines where more groups share the same social space.

World's Oldest 3D Map Discovered

University of Adelaide — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 20:00:22 EST

Researchers have discovered what may be the world's oldest three-dimensional map, located within a quartzitic sandstone megaclast in the Paris Basin.

Cleopatra's Sister Remains Missing

University of Vienna — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 05:55:36 EST

An interdisciplinary research team led by anthropologist Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna, together with experts from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, has analysed a skull that was found in the ruins of Ephesos (Turkey) in 1929. It was long speculated that it could be the remains of Arsinoe IV, the sister of the famous Cleopatra.

Why Are Lemurs Nearly Extinct, and Yet So Diverse?

Universite de Montreal — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 20:30:47 EST

In the largest research effort to date, anthropologists at Universite de Montreal succeed in sequencing the genomes of 162 lemurs from 50 species across the island of Madagascar - and solve an evolutionary puzzle.

DNA Adds New Chapter to Indonesia's Layered Human History

University of Adelaide — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 18:50:07 EST

A new study from the University of Adelaide and The Australian National University (ANU) has outlined the first genomic evidence of early migration from New Guinea into the Wallacea, an archipelago containing Timor-Leste and hundreds of inhabited eastern Indonesian islands.