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New research reveals that our extinct Neanderthal relatives were surprisingly savvy navigators who used river valleys to zip across continents in record time. Computer simulations show they could cross from western Russia to Siberia in as little as 1,600 years, a prehistoric speed record that shows the efficiency of their migration skills.A new study published in PLOS One reveals that Neanderthals could have traveled from the Caucasus Mountains to the Altai Mountains of Siberia in the blink of an eye in prehistoric terms. Using sophisticated computer simulations that model ancient migration patterns, researchers from New York University discovered that these...

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,...

Recent archaeological research at the El Cerrón site in Illescas, Toledo, is reshaping traditional views of ancient Carpetania, a central Iberian region long considered culturally marginal. A study led by Universidad Autónoma de Madrid researcher Pablo Sánchez de Oro, published in the journal Antiquity, introduces firm evidence to propose that Carpetania's local elite were actively involved in Mediterranean trade and cultural networks throughout the Late Iron Age (4th–1st centuries BCE).At the center of this find is a stunning terracotta relief discovered in Structure 2, which has been interpreted by archaeologists as a sanctuary. The artifact depicts a procession that includes...

Last year, Irish archaeologists working at a fort on the Drumanagh promontory north of Dublin uncovered a 2,000-year-old charred fig, the oldest evidence of the exotic Mediterranean fruit ever found on the island. RTE Ireland reports that they recently made another remarkable discovery -- an intact Roman pot. Although the Roman Empire's boundaries enveloped much of Europe, they never reached Ireland. That did not mean, however, that Roman influence and goods did not land on the Emerald Isle. Previous archaeological work at Drumanagh has demonstrated that although there was not a settlement located there, people with a Roman background or...

Whales, as the largest mammals on Earth, have long been an important resource for human societies, whether it be for food, oil, or other materials. According to a report by Popular Science, hunter-gatherers in present-day Spain and France have been crafting essential tools from whale bones for much longer than previously thought. A new study analyzed 83 bone tools found at sites along the Bay of Biscay and 90 additional bones from the Santa Catalina cave in Spain. The investigation relied on mass spectrometry and radiocarbon dating to determine that humans living in the region have been making whale-bone tools,...

A medieval port has been discovered in a 2,500m2 building site and archaeological dig surrounding a chateau in Vendée, western France.Among the discoveries are a large number of oak beams that are extremely well preserved thanks to the levels of underground humidity in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, where the dig has been taking place...Archaeologists have already been able to identify a river bank and a gutter on the site.As the Atlantic coastline is only a few kilometres away from the site, an initial hypothesis is that boats and ships could have transported merchandise and people to the chateau from England or even Spain,...

How did the Vikings rise from isolated Scandinavians to dominate the seas across Europe and beyond? Historian Dan Snow investigates the cutting edge shipbuilding technology that powered the Vikings' legendary longships and how their mastery of oak and ocean reshaped history. This clip is from The Vikings Uncovered (2016) The 'Cutting Edge' Viking Technology That Changed History | 5:34 BBC Timestamp | 835K subscribers | 27,385 views | May 29, 2025

According to the Greek Reporter, archaeologists have discovered the earliest known evidence of human occupation on the island of Sicily in San Teodoro cave near the town of Acquedolci -- finally proving a theory that was first posited over 75 years ago but unable to be confirmed then. Modern dating methods of sediment layers where stone tools, animal bones, and charred wood were found estimated that they were 16,500 years old, revealing that humans inhabited Sicily much earlier than previously thought. Groups of hunter-gatherers likely crossed the sea in small boats from mainland Europe as the last Ice Age was...

In the windswept reaches of northern Scotland, where jagged cliffs meet the crashing waves of the Atlantic, a discovery has emerged that challenges long-held assumptions about human history at the icy edge of Europe.Archaeologists have unearthed stone tools on the far northern coast of the Isle of Skye, suggesting that humans thrived at what was once considered the bleak and uninhabitable margin of the world during the final throes of the last Ice Age.The study, published in The Journal of Quaternary Science, details the finding of Late Upper Paleolithic (LUP) tools at South Cuidrach on the Isle of Skye. These...

Haaretz reports that archaeologists uncovered rare and somewhat perplexing figurines from two 1,500-year-old Christian burials at the site of Tel Malhata in the Negev Desert. The discovery was made during salvage excavations on the grounds of the Nevatim airbase, where previous archaeological work has revealed a rich history of human occupation from the Bronze Age through the Byzantine period. During the latest excavations, teams located some 155 tombs, but two burials contained objects different from anything else found at the site -- bone and wooden figurines with facial features resembling Africans. Two of them were carved from ebony, a rare...

The emergence of bronze and the onset of the Mediterranean Bronze Age is one of the most pivotal events in history, as it coincided with the rise of new advanced civilizations. Yet to make bronze, which is an amalgam of both tin and copper, one needed tin, which was not readily available in the region. Experts have long argued about who exactly supplied all the tin. According to a statement released by Durham University, it was the remote tin mines of southwest Britain that were instrumental in satisfying the Mediterranean demand for bronze 3,300 years ago. New research led by...

[Abstract] The maritime Phoenician civilization from the Levant transformed the entire Mediterranean during the first millennium bce. However, the extent of human movement between the Levantine Phoenician homeland and Phoenician–Punic settlements in the central and western Mediterranean has been unclear in the absence of comprehensive ancient DNA studies. Here, we generated genome-wide data for 210 individuals, including 196 from 14 sites traditionally identified as Phoenician and Punic in the Levant, North Africa, Iberia, Sicily, Sardinia and Ibiza, and an early Iron Age individual from Algeria. Levantine Phoenicians made little genetic contribution to Punic settlements in the central and western Mediterranean...

THAT VIKINGS crossed the Atlantic long before Christopher Columbus is well established. Their sagas told of expeditions to the coast of today’s Canada: to Helluland, which scholars have identified as Baffin Island or Labrador; Markland (Labrador or Newfoundland) and Vinland (Newfoundland or a territory farther south). In 1960 the remains of Norse buildings were found on Newfoundland.But there was no evidence to prove that anyone outside northern Europe had heard of America until Columbus’s voyage in 1492. Until now. A paper for the academic journal Terrae Incognitae by Paolo Chiesa, a professor of Medieval Latin Literature at Milan University, reveals...

Phys.org reports that a pair of rare copper-alloy Bronze Age cymbals were uncovered at a site in Oman. The instrument has highlighted a shared musical connection between ancient cultures on both sides of the Arabian Gulf. “These cymbals are the first of their kind to have been found in good archaeological contexts in Oman and are from a particularly early context that questions some of the assumptions on their origin and development," said archaeologist Khaled Douglas. When the objects were first recovered from a third-millennium b.c. Umm an-Nar culture site in Dahwa, experts recognized their similarity to examples that had...

Only around 5% of the world’s population have hazel eyes. Yet a 2009 study found that 55.2% of their Spanish cohort had hazel-green eyes. This eye color is also more common in Portugal than the global average. But why is there such a concentration of hazel eyes in the Iberian peninsula compared to most other parts of the world? And is the evolution of hazel eyes connected to the genetic history of Iberia? Now there are a two main types of hazel eyes. Iberian DNA and the Evolution of Hazel Eyes... | 15:00 Celtic History Decoded | 48.5K subscribers |...

Hundreds of years ago, Cistercian monks in France protected their treasured literary works with covers made from exotic animal skins, Science News reports. Clairvaux Abbey was founded in 1115 and its literary collection today contains over 1,000 medieval books. Most of these were wrapped with deer, sheep, or boar skin, but ancient DNA analysis of several perplexing furry volumes from the twelfth and thirteenth century revealed that they had been covered with seal hides. "I was like, 'that's not possible. There must be a mistake,'" said researcher Élodie Lévêque. "Seals didn't frequent France's northern coast at the time. I sent...

According to a statement released by the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, researchers have found evidence that hunter-gatherers from mainland Europe traveled to Malta around 1,000 years earlier than previously believed. Archaeologists recovered stone tools, hearths, and food waste at a cave site in Latnija that indicated humans have been living on the island for 8,500 years. This means that they arrived there even before the widespread adoption of agriculture, which contradicts long-held assumptions. Experts theorize that they made the journey in simple dugout canoes, making this new discovery the oldest evidence of long-distance seafaring in the Mediterranean prior to...

What if the Romans had potatoes? This video ponders the historical implications. Could Potatoes have Saved the Roman Empire? | 9:27 toldinstone | 558K subscribers | 34,106 views | April 1, 20250:00 Introduction0:34 The Columbian Exchange1:00 Potatoes in modern Europe2:24 What if...2:49 AG14:08 Potatoes in Rome4:50 Population growth5:34 Potato belt economics6:38 Potential pitfalls7:23 Spuds and duds

Vietnamnet Global reports that two ancient boats were unearthed at the bottom of a fishpond in the northern Vietnamese province of Bac Ninh. The find was investigated by a collaborative team from the Bac Ninh Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and the Institute of Archaeology. The remarkably preserved vessels are both around 50 feet long. Although they are positioned about six feet apart, the presence of a wooden beam connecting their bows suggests that the two boats once functioned as a single unit. Their findspot is located on the Dau River, a tributary of the Thien Duc-Dong River, which...

According to a Live Science report, European hunter-gatherers traversed the Mediterranean Sea in primitive boats and visited North Africa much earlier than previously thought. A new study sequenced the DNA from nine individuals who lived in modern-day Algeria and Tunisia between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. The surprising results revealed that some of them may have been descended from Mesolithic Europeans. The genome of one particular man buried at the site of Djebba in Tunisia indicated that at least six percent of his DNA could be traced back to European hunter-gatherers. These results suggest that the individual's local ancestors mixed...