Archaeology
When we were prey
Bite marks on a 2-million-year-old human jaw suggest leopards once hunted people as prey. People likely survived by learning to team up.
Archaeology
More Stories in Archaeology
- Humans
Humans have used fire far longer than anyone realized
Cave dirt suggests one ancestral species was using fire around 1.8 million years ago. That pushes back the earliest known use by about 800,000 years.
- Microbes
Dormant microbes from Ötzi the Iceman’s body can grow in the lab
These cold-loving yeasts may be thousands of years old. They also suggest the mummy’s remains may not be completely frozen in time.
- Archaeology
The mystery of the ‘Plain of Jars’ in Laos may now be solved
The remains of at least 37 people sit in an ancient stone “jar.” They suggest thousands of such jars in Laos are burial vaults.
- Archaeology
Mystery solved: Why earthquakes haven’t wrecked Egypt’s Great Pyramid
Its materials, shape and internal design have helped this ancient wonder withstand strong shaking.
- Archaeology
These 12,000-year-old Native American dice are the oldest in the world
A study of ancient artifacts suggests Native American dice games began thousands of years earlier than previously documented.
- Tech
Scientists Say: Technofossil
Experts predict that the durability of modern, human-made materials will give rise to a radical new form of fossil.
- Archaeology
Ancient pottery shows the earliest evidence of humans doing math
The numbers of petals painted on 8,000-year-old pottery showed a distinct numerical pattern.
- Archaeology
60,000-year-old poison arrowheads show early humans’ hunting tactics
Traces of poison on the South African arrowheads hint that people used poisoned weapons 50,000 years earlier than previously thought.
- Archaeology
Neandertals used fire-making tools 400,000 years ago
Flint, iron pyrite and fire residues found at an ancient site in England offer the earliest clear evidence of people lighting fires.
