Archaeology
New evidence gathered from the Karoo Basin in South Africa sheds light on a catastrophic extinction event that occurred more than 250 million years ago and wiped out more than 90 percent of life in Earth’s oceans and about 70 percent of animal species on land.
It is often held aloft by environmental campaign groups as an example of one of the last remaining regions of unspoiled habitat left in the world. But instead of being a pristine rainforest untouched by human hands, the Amazon appears to have been profoundly shaped by mankind. An international team of researchers have published evidence that suggests the Amazon was once home to millions of people who lived and farmed in the area now covered by trees. The scientists claim the Amazon basin was a major centre of crop domestication that saw at least 83 native species being cultivated to some degree.
A 1,500-year-old parchment could be one of the oldest known copies of the Quran, possibly dating back to a time that overlapped with the life of the Prophet Muhammad, according to researchers who recently dated the manuscript fragments. The text underwent radiocarbon dating, which measured the age of the find’s organic materials. Researchers at the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom, found that the leaves of parchment date back to A.D. 568 and A.D. 645.
It’s common knowledge that the first systematic use of written symbols as a means of communication emerged in Sumer around 3,000 BCE, but now a Canadian researcher is suggesting that as far back as 40,000 years ago our ancestors communicated in writing.
Douglas Preston | National Geographic In search for the legendary “City of the Monkey God,” explorers find the untouched ruins of a vanished culture. An expedition to Honduras has emerged from the jungle with dramatic news of the discovery of a mysterious culture’s lost city, never before explored. The team was led to the remote, uninhabited region […]
Prehistoric High Times: Opium, “magic” mushrooms and other psychoactive substances have been used since prehistoric times all over the world, according to a new review of archaeological findings. The evidence shows that people have been consuming psychoactive substances for centuries, or even millennia, in many regions of the world, said Elisa Guerra-Doce, an associate professor of prehistory at the University of Valladolid in Spain, who wrote the review.
When looking back at 2014’s biggest moments, don’t forget to take a look at the biggest innovations in science. From monumental gains in space exploration to DNA and ancient dinosaurs, intrepid intellectuals made great discoveries. RT’s Lindsay France has more.
Thanks to the careful work of archaeologists, we learned more in the past year about Stonehenge’s hidden monuments, Richard III’s gruesome death and King Tut’s mummified erection. From the discovery of an ancient tomb in Greece to the first evidence of Neanderthal art, here are 10 of Live Science’s favorite archaeology stories of 2014.
The remains of a child, laid to rest more than 1,500 years ago when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, was found in an ancient cemetery that contains more than 1 million mummies, according to a team of archaeologists from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
The Antikythera Mechanism has had scholars scratching their heads over how the Greeks managed to build a mechanical computer a hundred years before the birth of Christ and thousands of years before anything similar.
During the excavation of an ancient burial mound belonging to the Bronze Age were discovered the skeletal remains of about four people, two men and two women.
As explained by historian, men were about two meters tall and women over 1.7 meters. Matáyev noted previously in this place were found the bones of human beings even larger
Patricia Awyan (Co-Director of the Khemit School) and the Khemit team provide details of the team’s research methodology, a translation of the wall’s narrative, and an extensive 3-part interview and expert analysis of the Gosford ‘glyphs featuring Mohamed Ibrahim and Yousef Abd’el Hakim Awyan.
A lunar-crescent-shaped stone monument that dates back around 5,000 years has been identified in Israel. Located about 8 miles (13 kilometers) northwest of the Sea of Galilee, the structure is massive.
Beginnings of human civilization started after the last Ice Age, which ended around 9,600 BC. All human ancestors prior to this time were recognized as primitive, uncivilized hunter-gatherers who were incapable of communal organization and architectural design. It was only after the Ice Age, when huge 2-mile deep ice caps that covered much of Europe and North America melted, that our human ancestors started to develop and perfect agriculture, forming more-complex economic and social structures around 4000 BC.
Stonehenge stood at the heart of a sprawling landscape of chapels, burial mounds, massive pits and ritual shrines, according to an unprecedented survey of the ancient grounds.
