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Cosmos Magazine reports that a new genetic study suggests that the Rapa Nui of Easter Island had contact with the peoples of South America and maintained a stable population before Europeans reached the remote island in the Pacific Ocean in 1722. The DNA samples in the study were obtained from 15 Rapa Nui individuals who lived between 1670 and 1950, and whose remains are currently held in France at the Museum of Mankind. "We looked into how the Indigenous American DNA was distributed across the Polynesian genetic background of the Rapa Nui," said Víctor Moreno-Mayar of the University of Copenhagen....

Recent research by Dr. Mikael Fauvelle and his colleagues, published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology, proposes that the neolithic Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) may have used skin boats to conduct trade, travel, fishing, and hunting activities.The PWC was a neolithic culture that had migrated from the East during the Early and Middle Neolithic. They settled in what is modern-day Scandinavia around 3500–2300 BCE. This hunter-gatherer culture was named after the pottery they produced, which was characteristically decorated with deep pits along its circumference.The Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) was unusual among European marine-specialized hunter-gatherer groups. While other such groups gradually...

A historic journey ended in tragedy this week when a Viking replica ship capsized off the coast of Norway, killing an American archaeologist who was part of its international crew. The six-person team had been piloting the open wooden ship, named Naddodd, on a roughly 1,000-mile trip from the Faroe Islands to Trondheim, Norway. "This expedition, honoring the Viking navigator Naddodd, aims to preserve Viking culture and navigational skills for future generations," Sail2North expeditions, which organized the voyage, said in an Instagram post in May. The team — made up of four Swiss, one Faroese and one American — departed...

Reuters reports that a bronze ram has been recovered from some 260 feet of water off the coast of western Sicily, near the Aegates Islands, by divers from the Society for the Documentation of Underwater Sites. The front of the ram is decorated with a helmet topped with three feathers, but deposits of shells and seaweed currently cover any other possible marks or inscriptions. Such a ram would have been placed on the bow of a warship and used to attack enemy vessels. This ram, and 26 others recovered from the area, have been assigned to the Battle of the...

In their study, Dr. Gaffney and colleagues say that new evidence of manually collected and processed 50,000-year-old tree resin shows that humans using sophisticated technological processes arrived on Waigeo Island, which lies along the northern route most suited for human expansion into Australia, as much as 50 to 55 thousand years ago. The new finding exceeds past estimates by close to 10,000 years, revealing that humans likely traversed the Pacific millennia earlier than once thought."The tree resin artefact provides evidence for complex plant processing during early human dispersal," they write. The researchers note that the resin sample is "rectilinear," which...

Cosmos Magazine reports that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge, which weighs more than six tons, may have been transported to southwestern England from Scotland. The Altar Stone currently rests under two toppled sarsen stones at the site. Anthony Clarke of Curtin University and his colleagues analyzed the composition of the minerals in the Altar Stone with mass spectrometry, and found that it has a distinct chemical fingerprint matching rocks in Scotland's Orcadian Basin, which is located more than 460 miles away. "Given its Scottish origins, the findings raise fascinating questions, considering the technological constraints of the Neolithic era, as to...

It looks like the original explanation for where Homo floresiensis came from was right all along. The Hobbit humerus fragment (left) from Mata Menge next to one from Liang Bua to scale, and the full collection of bones from the most complete Liang Bua Hobbit. Image Credit: Yousuke Kaifu ================================================================================ Three new fossils, including part of a humerus, have been found at Mata Menge on the Indonesian island of Flores. They indicate that Homo floresiensis, popularly known as Hobbits, were descended from Homo erectus, and became small relatively soon after arriving on Flores. Indeed, it seems at least some Hobbits...

An expert team of maritime archeologists and scientists uses state-of-the-art technology to search for ancient shipwrecks and evidence of prehistoric human activity in the deep Black sea. Equipped with advanced sonar, laser technology, and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), the team investigates the Black Sea, reaching depths up to 2,000 meters. The Black Sea, once a prehistoric lake, is believed to hold shipwrecks and artifacts from ancient civilizations, including the Greek and Ottoman Empires. The unique anoxic conditions below 150 meters preserve these underwater treasures, offering unique insights into human history and early seafaring.The Hunt For Ancient Shipwrecks In The Mysterious...

Cosmos Magazine reports that 42,000-year-old evidence of human occupation has been identified at the site of Elivavan in southeast Indonesia's Tanimbar Islands. "Along with tiny fragments of pottery we also found evidence of things like bones, shells, and sea urchins that point to the island's role as a hub for early maritime activities," said Hendri Kaharudin of Australian National University. Kaharudin and his colleagues suggest the site is situated along a possible southern route traveled by prehistoric migrants to the region of the paleocontinent known as Sahul, which includes what are now Papua New Guinea and Australia. "This island-hopping strategy...

While working at the Anglo-Saxon site of Sutton Hoo in England, archaeologists found the missing pieces of a 1,500-year-old copper bucket imported from Turkey. The bucket, which is at least a century older than the famed ship burial, may provide a window into how people lived in early medieval times.A team of archaeologists, conservators and volunteers from Time Team, the U.K.'s National Trust and FAS Heritage discovered the metal fragments in late June during excavation and metal-detecting work at Sutton Hoo.Sutton Hoo is best known for its magnificent seventh-century ship burial, whose 1939 discovery was featured in the 2021 movie...

Archaeologists have carried out new excavations at the site of the ship that was carrying one of the world’s oldest scientific instruments among its valuable cargo of marble sculptures, ceramic vessels, and other items from the east to Greece, according to a statement released by the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece (ESAG). The most extraordinary discovery the underwater team made was a portion of the ship’s hull preserved in excellent condition still in its original position from when the vessel sank in the first century B.C. “This allows us to better understand the ship’s construction characteristics that had remained...

New insights into the function of the world's oldest analog computer, the famous Antikythera mechanism, have been made with help from an unlikely source: technology developed for the study of gravitational waves...Roughly the size of a shoebox, the device features an array of intricately tooled gears that are surprisingly complex for any innovation from the second century BCE. Over the decades, studies of the device have revealed that it likely functioned as a hand-operated computer that would have allowed its operator to predict the arrival of eclipses, as well as calculate the positions of planets over time.Fast forward to 2020,...

In a groundbreaking archaeological discovery, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday that a natural gas company's standard survey of the Eastern Mediterranean floor had uncovered the most ancient ship ever found in the deep seas.The discovery of the remains of the ship from the 14th-13th century BCE proves that Late Bronze Age mariners could navigate the seas without a line of sight to the shore, contrary to what was previously believed, the IAA said.The approximately 3,300-year-old ship with a cargo of hundreds of intact amphorae was found 90 kilometers off northern Israel's coast, at a depth of 1.8 km...The exciting...

Hollywood movies like Marley & Me or Hachi: A Dog’s Tale have brought both joy and tears to millions of viewers around the world, with their ability to capture the special bond between humans and their canine companions – aptly dubbed “man’s best friend”. In some ways, not much has changed over thousands of years. The ancient Greeks had their very own stories concerning this special relationship between man and dog. Of all the tales in Greek mythology, one of the most touching and relatable is that of the loyal dog Argos separated from his master Odysseus. Argos was Odysseus’...

-------------- 00:00 Introduction 07:25 China 35:54 Rome 1:13:01 The Fall

Nearly half of the world's language families are found in the Americas. Although many of them are now thought extinct, historical linguistics analysis can survey and compare living languages and trace them back in time to better understand the groups that first populated the continent.In a study published March 30 in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology, Johanna Nichols, a historical linguist at the University of California Berkeley, analyzed structural features of 60 languages from across the U.S. and Canada, which revealed they come from two main language groups that entered North America in at least four distinct waves.Nichols surveyed...

...In addition to the amphorae, archaeologists found ropes, shoes, a wooden drill and organic "dunnage" or matting, made from vine shoots and grass, that was used to protect the ship's hull from the cargo, Cau said...Many of the amphorae contained the remnants of fish sauce, while others held oil from plants — likely olives, wine, and perhaps olives preserved in vinegar. The distinctive amphorae for different products were labeled with painted inscriptions known as "tituli picti" in Latin, he said...Previous studies found that many of the oil amphorae had seals stamped with a "Chrismon," or Christian monogram — similar to...

The British Empire and other major European powers did not significantly enrich themselves through slavery and colonialism but rather may have taken a net loss as a result, a report has asserted. Contrary to narratives pushed by ‘anti-colonialism’ academics and promoted by leftist talking heads, Western capitalism was not built off the backs of colonialism and slavery, fresh research from Kristian Niemietz of the Institute of Economic Affairs claims. The head of Political Economy at the IEA argues that while some select elite families within Britain and other colonial powers profited immensely during the time, such gains were not felt...

Greece will ban bottom trawling in all of its marine protected areas by 2030, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Tuesday making the the country the first in Europe to announce such a ban. Speaking at the Our Ocean Conference in Athens, he said the country would become the first to bring an end to the damaging fishing practice in these protected areas. It will be banned in Greece’s three national marine parks – one of which is the largest in the East Mediterranean Sea – by 2026 with the rest following before the end of the decade. Bottom...

A Roman ship found with a lead pipe piercing its hull has mystified archaeologists. Italian researchers now suggest that the pipe was part of an ingenious pumping system, designed to feed on-board fish tanks with a continuous supply of oxygenated water. Their analysis has been published online in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. Historians have assumed that in ancient times fresh fish were eaten close to where they were caught, because without refrigeration they would have rotted during transportation. But if the latest theory is correct, Roman ships could have carried live fish to buyers across the Mediterranean Sea....