Child’s Bones Buried 40,000 Years Ago Solve a Longstanding Neanderthal Mystery (Science Alert 12/10/20)
We don’t know whether it was a boy or a girl. But this ancient child, a Neanderthal, only made it to about two years of age.
The oldest place name sign in the world (Idw News 12/3/20)
Together with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, researchers from the University of Bonn have deciphered the oldest place name sign in the world. An inscription from the time of the emergence of the Egyptian state in the late fourth millennium B.C. from the Wadi el Malik east of Aswan, which is still barely explored archaeologically,…
Lunch Break Science #16| Isaiah Nengo
Lunch Break Science is a weekly online series featuring short lectures or interviews with Leakey Foundation scientists Lunch Break Science #16| Isaiah Nengo Meet Leakey Foundation grantee Isaiah Nengo and learn about his work uncovering fossil primates in Kenya.
‘Sistine Chapel of the ancients’ rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest (The Guardian 11/29/20)
Tens of thousands of ice age paintings across a cliff face shed light on people and animals from 12,500 years ago.
Neanderthal Thumbs Were Better Adapted to Holding Tools With Handles (Scitechdaily 11/30/20))
Neanderthal thumbs were better adapted to holding tools in the same way that we hold a hammer, according to a paper published in Scientific Reports.
First exhaustive review of fossils recovered from Iberian archaeological sites (EurekAlert 11/24/20)
An interdisciplinary team from several Spanish universities and research centres has analysed more than 600 fossils recovered from across the Iberian Peninsula.
Bodies of man and his slave unearthed from ashes at Pompeii (Phys.org 11/21/20)
Skeletal remains of what are believed to have been a rich man and his male slave attempting to escape death from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago have been discovered in Pompeii, officials at the archaeological park in Italy said Saturday.
Lunch Break Science #15| Jacinta Beehner
Lunch Break Science is a weekly online series featuring short lectures or interviews with Leakey Foundation scientists Lunch Break Science #15| Jacinta Beehner
Gynaecology of ancient Egypt REVEALED: Vaginal fumigation with roast meat or rancid milk was prescribed as a remedy for severe hip pain 3,800 years ago (DailyMail 11/18/20)
The woman, called Sattjeni, was found interred with a fire-damaged cup between her legs – evidence of an ancient treatment whereby the vagina was fumigated.
Researchers study the unique hydraulics in the Barbegal water mills, the world’s earliest known industrial plant (Phys.org 11/16/20)
The Barbegal watermills in southern France are a unique complex dating back to the second century AD. The construction and its 16 waterwheels represent the first attempt in Europe to build a machine complex on an industrial scale. The complex was created when the Roman Empire was at the height of its power.
Babies buried under a mammoth-bone lid are the oldest known identical twins (Nature 11/11/20)
Prehistoric grave contains the remains of a baby who died at birth and those of his twin, who survived for an additional six to seven weeks.
2-Million-Year-Old Skull of Paranthropus robustus Suggests Climate Change Drove Rapid Changes (Sci-News 11/11/20
Paranthropus robustus is a small-brained extinct hominin that lived between 2 million and 1.2 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Discovered in 1938, it was among the first early hominins described and the first discovered robust australopithecine.
