Free Republic

When metal detectorists searching a field on northern Norway's Senja Island discovered two ancient metal brooches and human rib bones, they notified the authorities. Science Norway reports that an archaeological team from the Arctic University Museum of Norway was sent to investigate the site and learned that the two small pieces of jewelry belonged to an elaborate Viking Age burial dating to between a.d. 900 and 950. Given the presence of the oval brooches and other items such as spindle whorls and weaving tools that are typically only associated with women, experts believe the grave belongs to a high-ranking Viking...

A recent study published last year in the journal Cell has identified the ancient origins of a genetic mutation that confers resistance to HIV, and how it first appeared in an individual who lived near the Black Sea between 6,700 and 9,000 years ago. Named CCR5 delta 32, the uncommon genetic variant disables a key immune protein used by a large majority of strains of the HIV virus to enter human cells and therefore "locks out" the virus in individuals who carry two copies of the mutation.HIV is a relatively new disease. It was only identified in the last century,...

Homo erectus, modern humans' archaic hominin relative, was the first human species to migrate out of Africa. One of the places they eventually settled was in Southeast Asia, as H. erectus fossils found on the island of Java date back 1.6 million years. Archaeologists working there recently gained new insight into the way these early humans lived, according to a statement released by Leiden University.Dredging operations in the Madura Strait recovered two fragments of 140,000-year-old H. erectus skull among the fossilized remains of 36 vertebrate species. This now-submerged region was once part of a landmass called Sundaland, which connected the...

Evidence of human violence towards other humans during the Paleolithic period is rarely seen in the archaeological record. According to a Live Science report, however, one such case occurred around 17,000 years ago in what is today northern Italy. In 1973, archaeologists uncovered in the Riparo Tagliente rock shelter the partial skeletal remains of a man, known as Tagliente 1, who they determined had died in his 20s.Although the reasons were not readily apparent at the time, recent reanalysis of his bones suggests he may have been the victim of a bloody ambush. Electron microscope scanning and 3D imaging revealed...

Buried for hundreds of years, ancient brains are finally speaking. What they’re saying could change everything we thought we knew. A pioneering scientific breakthrough has made it possible to extract proteins from preserved soft tissues, including human brains, revealing a vast archive of biological information that has long remained inaccessible. This new method promises to reshape our understanding of evolution, diet, microbiomes, and even the development of brain cells over millennia. Tapping Into Hidden Biological Archives Every organism is built from proteins—molecules that drive vital processes such as heartbeats and neural communication. When an organism dies, these proteins usually degrade...

On the Presence of Non-Chinese at Anyang by Kim Hayes It has now become clear that finds of chariot remains, metal knives and axes of northern provenance, and bronze mirrors of western provenance in the tombs of Anyang indicate that the Shang had at least indirect contact with people who were familiar with these things. Who were these people? Where did they live? When did they arrive? Following the discovery of the Tarim Mummies, we now know that the population of the earliest attested cultures of what is present-day Xinjiang were of northwestern or western derivation. According to the craniometric...

According to an Associated Press report, construction workers renovating a soccer field in the Simmering neighborhood of Vienna uncovered an ancient mass grave containing as many as 150 bodies, probably those of soldiers killed during a violent clash between the Roman army and Germanic tribes. It is the earliest evidence of fighting between the two groups along the Roman Empire's northern frontier. At least one skeleton was confirmed to belong to a Roman soldier and further testing is slated to determine the identities of the other combatants. All of the individuals, who were male and between the ages of 20...

In a discovery that pushes back the timeline of domestic cats in North America, archaeologists have uncovered the earliest known feline remains in the modern-day United States.The find comes from the Emanuel Point II shipwreck, one of the vessels in the doomed 1559 expedition led by Spanish conquistador Tristán de Luna y Arellano. Published in American Antiquity on April 14, the study sheds light not only on the fate of these cats but also on their role in early colonial ventures...In September 1559, a powerful hurricane devastated the Spanish fleet anchored off the nascent settlement of Santa María de Ochuse.Several...

Archaeologists working on a site near Stonehenge say they have found an untouched 6,000-year-old encampment which "could rewrite British history". David Jacques, from the University of Buckingham, made the discovery at Blick Mead in October, and said the carbon dating results had just been confirmed. But he also raised concerns about possible damage to the site over plans to build a road tunnel past Stonehenge. The Department of Transport said it would "consult before any building". The Blick Mead site is about 1.5 miles (2.4km) from Stonehenge and archaeologists said "scientifically tested charcoal" dug up from the site had "revealed...

Archaeologists at the University of Sheffield have revealed new radiocarbon dates of human cremation burials at Stonehenge, which indicate that the monument was used as a cemetery from its inception just after 3000 B.C. until well after the large stones went up around 2500 B.C. The Sheffield archaeologists, Professor Mike Parker-Pearson and Professor Andrew Chamberlain, believe that the cremation burials could represent the natural deaths of a single elite family and its descendants, perhaps a ruling dynasty. One clue to this is the small number of burials in Stonehenge´s earliest phase, a number that grows larger in subsequent centuries, as...

An Early Bronze Age grave In the spring of 2002 what started as a routine excavation was undertaken in advance of the building of a new school at Amesbury in Wiltshire. By the end of the excavation the richest Bronze Age burial yet found in Britain had been discovered. The Bronze Age man discovered there had been buried not far from the great temple of Stonehenge. He was a man who owned and could work the new and magical metals of gold and copper. And he had come from what is now central Europe, perhaps around the Alps. Was he...

Researchers analyzed the ancient DNA of two mummies from what is now Libya to learn about people who lived in the "Green Sahara" 7,000 years ago. Naturally mummified human remains found in the Takarkori rock shelter in the Sahara desert point to a previously unknown human population. (Image credit: © Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome) Two 7,000-year-old mummies belong to a previously unknown human lineage that remained isolated in North Africa for thousands of years, a new study finds. The mummies are the remains of women who once lived in the "Green Sahara," also known as...

The Huns suddenly appeared in Europe in the 370s, establishing one of the most influential although short-lived empires in Europe. Scholars have long debated whether the Huns were descended from the Xiongnu. In fact, the Xiongnu Empire dissolved around 100... leaving a 300-year gap before the Huns appeared in Europe. Can DNA lineages that bridge these three centuries be found?...researchers analyzed the DNA of 370 individuals that lived in historical periods spanning around 800 years... encompassing sites in the Mongolian steppe, Central Asia, and the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe. In particular, they examined 35 newly sequenced genomes ranging from:...

A new study of the 37,000-year old remains of the "Deep Skull" - the oldest modern human discovered in island South-East Asia - has revealed this ancient person was not related to Indigenous Australians, as had been originally thought. The Deep Skull was also likely to have been an older woman, rather than a teenage boy. The research, led by UNSW Australia Associate Professor Darren Curnoe, represents the most detailed investigation of the ancient cranium specimen since it was found in Niah Cave in Sarawak in 1958. "Our analysis overturns long-held views about the early history of this region," says...

The brain was discovered inside a skull found at Heslington near York A human brain, believed to be the oldest ever discovered, may have been preserved for over 2,000 years by mud, archaeologists have said. The organ was found inside a decapitated skull at an Iron Age dig site near York in 2008. Tests on the remains suggested they were from the 6th Century BC, making them about 2,600 years old. York Archaeological Trust said the skull had been buried in wet, clay-rich ground providing an oxygen-free burial. They said the burial location could have helped conserve the brain,...

A brain in near-perfect condition is found in a skull of a person who was decapitated over 2,600 years ago. THE GIST • One of the world's best preserved prehistoric human brains was recently found in a waterlogged U.K. pit. • The brain belonged to an Iron Age man who was hanged and then decapitated, with his head falling in the pit shortly thereafter. • Scientists believe that submersion in liquid, anoxic environments helps to preserve human brain tissue. • One of the pieces of a 2,600-year-old brain after removal from the skull. 
York Archaeological Trust A human skull dated...

An Iron Age man whose skull and brain was unearthed during excavations at the University of York was the victim of a gruesome ritual killing, according to new research. Scientists say that fractures and marks on the bones suggest the man, who was aged between 26 and 45, died most probably from hanging, after which he was carefully decapitated and his head was then buried on its own. Archaeologists discovered the remains in 2008 in one of a series of Iron Age pits on the site of the University’s £750 million campus expansion at Heslington East. Brain material was still...

Archaeologists have found the remains of what could be Britain's oldest surviving human brain. The team, excavating a York University site, discovered a skull containing a yellow substance which scans showed to be shrunken, but brain-shaped. Brains consist of fatty tissue which microbes in the soil would absorb, so neurologists believe the find could be some kind of fossilised brain. The skull was found in an area first farmed more than 2,000 years ago. More tests will now be done to establish what it is actually made of. The team from York Archaeological Trust had been commissioned by the university...

...the only known case of natural organic glass preservation in history. The brain vitrified at temperatures above 510°C followed by extremely rapid cooling, revealing a new timeline of volcanic hazards during the disaster. This unique preservation was only possible because of a perfect sequence: superheated ash cloud exposure, rapid cooling as the cloud dissipated, then burial by cooler volcanic flows...The victim, believed to be approximately 20 years old, was discovered in the Collegium Augustalium, a public building dedicated to the worship of Emperor Augustus. He is believed to have been the guardian of this important structure, which was located on...

The practice of the nailed heads ritual varied among Iberian communities in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, rather than representing a uniform symbolic expression. In some settlements, the display of external individuals served as a symbol of power and intimidation, while others may have prioritized the veneration of their own community members.This conclusion comes from a study led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), which analyzed the mobility patterns of Iron Age human communities from the last millennium BCE. Researchers examined seven skulls with embedded nails, belonging to men from two archaeological sites: the ancient city of Ullastret...