Tag: ancient history

4.4-Million-Year-Old Ankle Bone Discovery Reveals New Clues to the Mystery of How Ancient Humans Moved and Evolved

Scientists from Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) studying a 4.4-million-year-old ankle bone fossil say the find represents “compelling evidence” to support the hypothesis that the earliest humans evolved from an ape-like creature in Africa.

According to a statement announcing the scientific team’s research, several aspects of the ancient bone have helped to “narrow the range of explanations for the origin of human lineage,” and move us closer to answering one of life’s greatest questions: where do we come from?

Researchers first discovered a nearly complete skeleton of Ardipithecus in 1994, and knew almost immediately it represented an early stage of human evolution. More analysis ultimately determined that the specimen, nicknamed Ardi, was one of the oldest skeletons ever found, dating to approximately 4.4 million years ago. For comparison, the WashU researchers note that Ardi is almost 2 million years older than the well-known Australopithecus skeleton ‘Lucy’ discovered in Africa in 1974.

Study leader Thomas (Cody) Prang, an assistant professor of biological anthropology in WashU’s school of Arts & Sciences, said the analysis of Ardi included several surprises, including the discovery that he walked upright, but still maintained a lot of Ape-like characteristics, such as a grasping foot.

“Apes, like chimpanzees and gorillas, have a big toe that’s divergent, which allows them to grip tree branches as part of a climbing lifestyle,” Prang explained. “Yet it also had features that align with our lineage. That makes Ardipithecus a true transitional species.”

During earlier analyses, scientists initially proposed that Arid probably did not move like African apes and was not a missing link between humans and an ancient ape-like ancestor. Instead, Prang’s team says those earlier works suggested Ardi demonstrated a “more generalized” form of locomotion that was not necessarily Ape-like. Prang’s team said this early conclusion led scientists to determine Ardi’s skeletal construction was “not similar to ape after all,” which came as a “big surprise” to the broader paleoanthropology community, who were still looking for an evolutionary missing link between humans and other primates.

“Based on their analysis, they concluded that living African apes—like chimpanzees and gorillas—are like dead ends or cul-de-sacs of evolution, rather than stages of human emergence,” Prang said. “Instead, they thought that Ardi provided evidence for a more generalized ancestor that wasn’t similar to chimps or gorillas.”

To conduct a new analysis that would either confirm the original determination that ARdi was not an evolutionary missing link, Prang teamed up with Matthew W. Tocheri at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Canada, Biren A. Patel at the University of Southern California, Scott A. Williams at New York University, and Caley M. Orr at the University of Colorado Anschutz.

The team’s initial analysis focused on comparing Ardi’s ankle bones to the ankle bones of chimpanzees and gorillas. This began with studying the large talus bone found in gorilla and chimpanzee ankles, which joins the foot with the tibia of the leg and the calcaneus (heel). This bone is critical, the team notes, because it offers insight into how early hominin species “transitioned” to bipedal (two-footed) locomotion.

When comparing the bone in Ardi with the same bone found in gorillas and chimpanzees, the research team found a surprising similarity. According to their statement, the comparison found that Ardi’s ankle bone “is the only one in the primate fossil record that shares similarities with African apes.”

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Lead poisoning has been a feature of our evolution

Our hominid ancestors faced a Pleistocene world full of dangers—and apparently one of those dangers was lead poisoning.

Lead exposure sounds like a modern problem, at least if you define “modern” the way a paleoanthropologist might: a time that started a few thousand years ago with ancient Roman silver smelting and lead pipes. According to a recent study, however, lead is a much more ancient nemesis, one that predates not just the Romans but the existence of our genus Homo. Paleoanthropologist Renaud Joannes-Boyau of Australia’s Southern Cross University and his colleagues found evidence of exposure to dangerous amounts of lead in the teeth of fossil apes and hominins dating back almost 2 million years. And somewhat controversially, they suggest that the toxic element’s pervasiveness may have helped shape our evolutionary history.

The Romans didn’t invent lead poisoning

Joannes-Boyau and his colleagues took tiny samples of preserved enamel and dentin from the teeth of 51 fossils. In most of those teeth, the paleoanthropologists found evidence that these apes and hominins had been exposed to lead—sometimes in dangerous quantities—fairly often during their early years.

Tooth enamel forms in thin layers, a little like tree rings, during the first six or so years of a person’s life. The teeth in your mouth right now (and of which you are now uncomfortably aware; you’re welcome) are a chemical and physical record of your childhood health—including, perhaps, whether you liked to snack on lead paint chips. Bands of lead-tainted tooth enamel suggest that a person had a lot of lead in their bloodstream during the year that layer of enamel was forming (in this case, “a lot” means an amount measurable in parts per million).

In 71 percent of the hominin teeth that Joannes-Boyau and his colleagues sampled, dark bands of lead in the tooth enamel showed “clear signs of episodic lead exposure” during the crucial early childhood years. Those included teeth from 100,000-year-old members of our own species found in China and 250,000-year-old French Neanderthals. They also included much earlier hominins who lived between 1 and 2 million years ago in South Africa: early members of our genus Homo, along with our relatives Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus. Lead exposure, it turns out, is a very ancient problem.

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Subsurface Structures Detected at Göbekli Tepe

Archaeological investigations at Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Türkiye have revealed rectangular architectural features, possibly used as dwellings. These were found beside the site’s well-known circular enclosures. The discovery offers fresh insight into how ritual and daily life coexisted in one of the world’s earliest Neolithic settlements.

Survey Methods and Discovery

Under the umbrella of the Heritage for the Future and Stone Mounds (Taş Tepeler) initiatives, researchers from Istanbul University, the German Archaeological Institute, and Freie Universität Berlin carried out integrated geophysical surveys, including geomagnetic mapping, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), and lidar scanning.
These subsurface investigations have identified not only the well-known circular pillars and enclosures but also rectangular structural traces that could represent early dwellings.

From Monumental to Domestic: Interpreting the New Structures

Project director Prof. Necmi Karul explained that the rectangular formations are concentrated primarily on the eastern and southern slopes of the mound. He described this phase as a shift toward documenting previously undisturbed zones.

Earlier this year, the removal of olive trees allowed full-scale measurements for the first time. This helped clarify the site’s boundaries and guide future excavations.

Geoarchaeology Reveals New Insights

Led by Prof. Barbara Horejs of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, geoarchaeological studies used high-resolution scans to identify a large building and several smaller house-like structures. Her team emphasized the importance of ongoing analysis in guiding future excavation strategies.

Highlights of the 2025 Excavation Season

  • Life-size human statue: Discovered between Enclosures B and D, the sculpture features a clearly defined head and torso. It complements earlier finds such as the wild boar statue.
  • Restoration of Enclosure C: Conservation teams stabilized the walls, repaired erosion damage, and re-erected columns to protect the monumental complex.

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Psychedelic beer may have helped pre-Inca empire in Peru schmooze elite outsiders and consolidate power

The growth of a pre-Inca civilization known as the Wari may have been aided by psychedelic-laced beer, researchers propose in a new study.

The Wari flourished from roughly A.D. 600 to 1000 and are known for their mummified burials, human sacrifices, and elaborate objects created out of gold, silver and bronze. They also built cities such as Huari and Pikillaqta, which contained temples and dwellings for elite inhabitants, and controlled much of Peru as well as parts of Argentina and Chile.

In the new study, published Monday (Oct. 6) in the journal La Revista de Arqueología Americana (The Journal of American Archaeology), the researchers suggest that Wari rulers used psychedelics mixed in beer to help grow their empire. They explain that the “afterglow” — the long-term effect of drinking the mix — would have lasted weeks and that communal feasts where it was drunk would have brought people together. While the body may excrete psychedelics quickly, the aftereffects can last for days or weeks.

The study authors noted that the remains of seeds from a plant named Anadenanthera colubrina (also known as vilca) have been found at Wari sites, including near the remains of beer made from a plant called Schinus molle. Mixing the vilca, which is known to produce a psychedelic effect, with the beer would have “lessened but extended the high,” Justin Jennings, a curator of South American Archaeology at the Royal Ontario Museum and co-author of the paper, told Live Science in an email.

In the paper, the authors noted that scientific studies of similarly acting psychedelics found that people who took them tended to display “greater openness and empathy.”

These traits “would have been highly desirable for a Wari political system that depended on friendly, routine face-to-face interactions between people who had once been strangers or even enemies,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

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Former Air Force Insider: Intelligence Personnel Were Shown Images of an Ancient ‘Tic Tac’ UFO

An advanced, exotic vehicle of unknown origin was unearthed during an archaeological dig, according to Dylan Borland, a former U.S. Air Force member and intelligence-community whistleblower.

Borland, who testified publicly last month on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) before the Congressional Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, expanded on his claims in an interview with investigative journalists Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp on their WEAPONIZED podcast.

Referencing UAP described as ‘propane tank’ or ‘Tic Tac’ shaped – similar to objects publicly reported by U.S. Navy personnel off the West Coast in 2004 and again in 2023 – Borland stated:

“They [members of a UAP legacy program] had photographic evidence of archaeological digs of some of these, and they had photographic evidence of ones that were complete.

“They did not disclose where they came from, which goes back to AARO [All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office] and the word games that are played with AARO on this subject.”

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12,000-year-old Rock Art Found in Desert Thought Uninhabitable

About 12,000 years ago, high up on a cliff in the desert of northern Arabia, an artist (or perhaps artists) was hard at work. Standing on a narrow ledge and with primitive tools, they engraved into the rock an image of a life-sized camel. This wasn’t the first artwork of its kind: in fact, there was already an entire row of fresh camel engravings on the  128 foot high (39 meter) cliff face, below which a shallow lake sparkled in the sunshine.

Over thousands of years, these engravings weathered the elements. They gradually eroded until they were almost invisible and had been forgotten. That is, until our international team discovered them and more than 170 others while on a field trip to the region, which sits near the southern edge of the Nefud Desert in Saudi Arabia, roughly two years ago.

As we explain in a new study, published today in Nature Communications, the engravings would have marked important desert water sources – and demonstrate the resilience and innovation of people who lived in such a harsh, arid environment.

Our earlier research had shown that between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago Arabia was much wetter than it is today. Grasslands had spread into areas that are now desert, and cattle herders used these pastures for their herds. The rock art they left behind is well known from two UNESCO World Heritage sites.

We could see there was also older rock art at these UNESCO sites. It was much larger and more detailed, showing life-sized and naturalistic camels and wild donkeys. But it was not clear how old it was. So in May 2023 we set out to find more of this ancient rock art in the hope of finding clues about its age.

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Satellites Uncover Ancient Civilization in Sahara

The ancient Garamantes civilization, a sophisticated society that thrived in the Sahara Desert, was revealed through groundbreaking satellite imagery studies in southwestern Libya’s Fezzan region. This remarkable discovery, made by researchers from the University of Leicester, has unveiled over 100 fortified farms, villages, and towns with castle-like structures, reshaping our understanding of this once-mischaracterized culture. Dating primarily between AD 1 and 500, these settlements demonstrate the Garamantes’ advanced urban planning, irrigation systems, and role in trans-Saharan trade. This article explores the discovery, the civilization’s achievements, and the methods that brought this hidden history to light.

Discovery Through Satellite Imagery

In 2011, a team led by Professor David Mattingly from the University of Leicester utilized high-resolution satellite imagery and aerial photographs to identify over 100 fortified settlements in the Fezzan region. The project, funded by the European Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the Society for Libyan Studies, and the GeoEye Foundation, capitalized on technological advancements to uncover sites previously obscured by the desert’s harsh terrain. The fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011 lifted restrictions on archaeological exploration of Libya’s pre-Islamic heritage, enabling this research.

The team analyzed images from commercial satellites and oil industry surveys, supplemented by aerial photographs from the 1950s and 1960s. These tools revealed a dense network of settlements, including the Garamantes’ capital, Garama (modern-day Jarma), and other sites like Al Awaynat (oasis). Fieldwork confirmed the findings, with Garamantian pottery and mudbrick structures providing tangible evidence of the civilization’s existence. The settlements, some featuring walls up to four meters high, included farms, villages, towns, cairn cemeteries, wells, and agricultural fields, indicating a highly organized society.

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Million-Year-Old Skull Discovery Rewrites Human Evolution Timeline

A remarkable million-year-old skull discovered in China has shattered long-held beliefs about human evolution, suggesting that modern humans and their closest relatives diverged from common ancestors at least half a million years earlier than previously thought. The discovery challenges the fundamental narrative of human origins and raises the tantalizing possibility that  Homo sapiens may have first emerged not in Africa, but in Asia. This bold research, published in the prestigious journal  Science, represents one of the most significant advances in understanding human evolution in decades, forcing scientists to completely reconsider the timeline and geography of our species’ emergence on Earth.

The reconstructed Yunxian 2 skull, originally excavated in 1990 from Hubei Province in central China, was initially classified as belonging to the primitive human species  Homo erectus. However, sophisticated digital reconstruction techniques have revealed that this ancient cranium possesses a unique combination of features that place it much closer to the mysterious Denisovans and the  Homo longi lineage, dramatically reshaping our understanding of human evolutionary history.

Revolutionary Digital Reconstruction Reveals Hidden Identity

For over three decades, the badly crushed and distorted Yunxian 2 skull remained an enigma, its true significance hidden beneath layers of geological damage. The breakthrough came when researchers led by Professor Xijun Ni of Fudan University and Professor Chris Stringer of London’s Natural History Museum applied cutting-edge CT imaging and sophisticated digital reconstruction techniques to virtually restore the cranium to its original form.

“From the very beginning, when we got the result, we thought it was unbelievable. How could that be so deep into the past?” Professor Ni told the BBC.

“But we tested it again and again to test all the models, use all the methods, and we are now confident about the result, and we’re actually very excited.”

The painstaking reconstruction process involved CT image segmentation to digitally separate fossil bones from surrounding rock matrix, followed by careful repositioning of displaced fragments. When the skull’s true shape was finally revealed, it displayed a remarkable mosaic of primitive and advanced features that clearly distinguished it from both  Homo erectus and modern humans.

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A Fingerprint Taken From Stonehenge Changes Everything We Know About Its Mystical Origins

Stonehenge offers mysteries aplenty. Just when we think we’ve solved one, we have to re-solve questions we thought were already answered. Such is the case with the origin story of the Altar Stone—one of the roughly 80-plus stones still on site in southern England.

The stones of Stonehenge feature a variety of compositions and originate from a number of potential source locations. Scholars previously believed that they knew most of what there was to be known about the Altar Stone—the largest of the non-sarsen stones on site, which is now partially buried beneath two fallen stones. But researchers led by a team from Curtin University may have upended that history, writing that a stone long believed to originate from Wales actually hails from Scotland.

By studying the age and chemistry of mineral grains within fragments of the six-ton Alter Stone—a thick sandstone block measuring 16 feet by 3 feet in the center of the iconic Wiltshire circle—the team crafted a chemical fingerprint of the stone. That chemical composition matched that of rocks from northeast Scotland, and clearly differentiated it from Welsh bedrock.

“Our analysis found specific mineral grains in the Altar Stone are mostly between 1,000 to 2,000 million years old, while other minerals are around 450 million years old,” Anthony Clarke, lead author and Ph.D. student from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group at Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said in a statement. “This provides a distinct chemical fingerprint suggesting the stone came from rocks in the Orcadian Basin, Scotland, at least 750 kilometers [466 miles] away from Stonehenge.”

According to English Heritage, the Altar Stone is a large slab of greenish Old Red Sandstone. Recent geological research had pinpointed the source of the stone to the Brecon Beacons area of southeast Wales. But the study, which was published in the journal Nature, discounts that reigning theory.

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The oldest mummies in the world may hail from southeastern Asia and date back 12,000 years

Scientists have discovered what’s thought to be the oldest known mummies in the world in southeastern Asia dating back up to 12,000 years.

Mummification prevents decay by preserving dead bodies. The process can happen naturally in places like the sands of Chile’s Atacama Desert or the bogs of Ireland where conditions can fend off decomposition. Humans across various cultures also mummified their ancestors through embalming to honor them or send their souls to the afterlife.

Egypt’s mummies may be the most well-known, but until now some of the oldest mummies were prepared by a fishing people called the Chinchorro about 7,000 years ago in what’s now Peru and Chile.

A new study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences pushes that timeline back.

Researchers found human remains that were buried in crouched or squatted positions with some cuts and burn marks in various archaeological sites across China and Vietnam and to a lesser extent, from the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Studying the bones further, scientists discovered the bodies were likely exposed to heat. That suggested the bodies had been smoke-dried over a fire and mummified by hunter-gatherer communities in the area.

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