100,000-Year-Old Teeth from a Polish Cave Reveal Central Europe’s Oldest Neanderthal Genetic Group
A few ancient teeth from a cave in southern Poland have given researchers a rare genetic portrait of Neanderthals who lived north of the Carpathians…
ancient DNA
DNA Reveals Poland’s First Genetically Confirmed Same-Sex Medieval Burial
A rare same-sex medieval burial beside a cathedral wall in southern Poland is forcing archaeologists to rethink one of the oldest assumptions about people buried…
400,000-Year-Old Teeth in China Reveal the First Molecular Evidence from Homo erectus
Chinese scientists have recovered the first molecular data from Homo erectus, using proteins preserved inside 400,000-year-old teeth from China. The discovery, published in Nature, does…
16,000-Year-Old Dogs Identified in Turkey: Ancient DNA Pushes Back Origins of Dog Domestication
Early dogs identified in Turkey are now reshaping what scientists know about dog domestication. New ancient DNA evidence from the Pınarbaşı site reveals that dogs…
A 5,000-Year-Old Dolmen Reenters History: Medieval Islamic Burials Transform the Meaning of Menga
For most of its modern history, the Menga Dolmen has been treated as a closed chapter of European prehistory—a monumental relic frozen in the Neolithic…
DNA Evidence from Çayönü Tepesi Is Redrawing the Origins of Neolithic Communities
In southeastern Anatolia, at the prehistoric settlement of Çayönü Tepesi, human bones that have rested underground for millennia are beginning to tell a new story.…
DNA Study Reveals the True Origins and Ritual Secrets of Shimao, China’s Enigmatic Neolithic City
For decades, the stone walls of Shimao—one of the largest and most imposing Neolithic settlements in northern China—have guarded a silence that archaeology alone could…
From Cliff Faces to Karst Villages: Modern Bo Communities Carry the Genetic Echo of the Hanging Coffin Tradition
At the edge of mist-filled valleys in southwestern China, there are places where the dead once hovered above the living. Wooden coffins were fixed onto…
75,000-Year-Old Norwegian Cave Reveals 46 Types of Ice Age Animals and Lost Genetic Lineages
A Norwegian cave has preserved the remains of 46 types of animals that lived in the European Arctic around 75,000 years ago, providing an exceptionally…