Tag: lost civilizations

2.6 million-year-old jaw from extinct ‘Nutcracker Man’ is found where we didn’t expect it

Fragments of a 2.6 million-year-old fossil jaw discovered in northeastern Ethiopia are transforming the picture of early human evolution in Africa. The jaw, from a bipedal hominin — an extinct relative of humans — shows that its kind journeyed far north, to a region where other hominins were already living.

The ancient jaw belongs to the genus Paranthropus and was found more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) farther north than any other fossil of its kind.

“Until now, not a single fossil of Paranthropus had been identified” in the Afar region of Ethiopia, researchers wrote in a study published Wednesday (Jan. 21) in the journal Nature. “Hundreds of fossils representing over a dozen species” of hominins had been found in the Afar, study lead author Zeresenay Alemseged, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Chicago, said in a statement, “so the apparent absence of Paranthropus was conspicuous and puzzling to paleoanthropologists, many of whom had concluded the genus simply never ventured that far north.”

The genus Paranthropus contains three species distantly related to humans: P. robustus, P. boisei and P. aethiopicus, collectively known as the “robusts.” These species walked upright beginning around 2.7 million years ago, but they are unique in having massive teeth and jaws, which earned one fossil skull the nickname “Nutcracker Man.” Paranthropus fossils were previously found in locations from southern Ethiopia to southern Africa and have been dated to between 2.8 million and 1.4 million years ago.

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Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi

The Indonesian archipelago is host to some of the earliest known rock art in the world1,2,3,4,5. Previously, secure Pleistocene dates were reported for figurative cave art and stencils of human hands in two areas in Indonesia—the Maros-Pangkep karsts in the southwestern peninsula of the island of Sulawesi1,3,4,5 and the Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat region of eastern Kalimantan, Borneo2. Here we describe a series of early dated rock art motifs from the southeastern portion of Sulawesi. Among this assemblage of Pleistocene (and possibly more recent) motifs, laser-ablation U-series (LA-U-series) dating of calcite overlying a hand stencil from Liang Metanduno on Muna Island yielded a U-series date of 71.6 ± 3.8 thousand years ago (ka), providing a minimum-age constraint of 67.8 ka for the underlying motif. The Muna minimum (67.8 ± 3.8 ka) exceeds the published minimum for rock art in Maros-Pangkep by 16.6 thousand years (kyr) (ref. 5) and is 1.1 kyr greater than the published minimum for a hand stencil from Spain attributed to Neanderthals6, which until now represented the oldest demonstrated minimum-age constraint for cave art worldwide. Moreover, the presence of this extremely old art in Sulawesi suggests that the initial peopling of Sahul about 65 ka7 involved maritime journeys between Borneo and Papua, a region that remains poorly explored from an archaeological perspective.

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The earliest elephant-bone tool from Europe: An unexpected raw material for precision knapping of Acheulean handaxes

Organic knapping tools made from bone, antler, and wood were essential to early human toolkits but are rarely preserved in the archeological record. The earliest known soft hammers, dating to ~480,000 years ago, come from Boxgrove (UK), where modified antlers and large mammal bones were used alongside flint hard hammers. These tools facilitated complex knapping techniques, such as platform preparation and tranchet flake removal, contributing to the production of finely worked ovate handaxes typical of the Boxgrove Acheulean industry. This study presents a cortical bone fragment from an elephant, deliberately shaped into a percussor for resharpening flint tools. It represents the earliest known use of elephant bone in Europe and the first documented case of its use as a knapping hammer. Reconstructing its life history offers further insights into Middle Pleistocene hominin technological adaptations, resourcefulness, and survival strategies that enabled humans to endure harsh northern environments.

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50,000-Year-Old Artifacts Unearthed at Controversial Archaeological Site Could Rewrite the Early Prehistory of the Americas

American archaeology is a discipline in constant flux. Over the last half-century, conventional attitudes about the arrival of humans in North America have undergone repeated shifts, with estimates of the earliest human activity continually pushed back to more distant times.

However, discoveries stemming from one controversial archaeological site in the American Southeast, if confirmed, could extend present timelines for human arrival in the New World by several tens of thousands of years, adding to a growing number of findings in recent years that are reshaping our understanding of the early Americas.

The First Americans

For many decades, the long-established chronological marker for America’s first arrivals centered on discoveries made near Clovis, New Mexico, including expertly crafted “fluted” spear points and other artifacts, which served as the type site for America’s earliest definitive cultural manifestation. The resulting “Clovis First” theory reigned for most of the 20th century, arguing that America’s first inhabitants made their way across an ice-free Beringian land corridor somewhere around 13,000 years ago.

However, by the 1970s, a new phenomenon in American archaeology had begun to emerge: sites suggesting that even earlier arrivals may have occurred. With time, locations like Meadowcroft Rock Shelter in Washington County, Pennsylvania, the Monte Verde site in Chile, and several others in North and South America would carry the idea of a “pre-Clovis” presence in the Americas from being an anachronistic gadfly for archaeologists, to eventually becoming an accepted reality.

Today, more recent discoveries, including ancient human fossil footprints at sites like White Sands in New Mexico, have extended the now well-accepted earlier-than-Clovis timeline even further back, with confirmed dates revealing a human presence there by as early as 21,000 to 23,000 years ago. This, along with growing genetic evidence, new models of possible coastal migration routes, and other data, continues to help archaeologists assemble a broader picture of America’s first inhabitants and a far deeper timeline for their arrival than most would have ever expected.

Yet while discoveries like those at White Sands unequivocally demonstrate a human presence in the Americas by around 23,000 years ago, there are still other sites that challenge even those remarkably early dates for human arrivals in the New World—dates which, if ever confirmed, would introduce even greater challenges to our existing knowledge of the ancient Americas.

The Topper Site

Few other proposed pre-Clovis archaeological sites have aroused as much controversy as the Topper Site in Allendale County, South Carolina.

An ancient chert quarry, the site was initially identified by Albert Goodyear, Ph.D., now a semi-retired professor of archaeology at the University of South Carolina, more than four decades ago. During the late Pleistocene American Paleoindian period, some of America’s earliest inhabitants relied on the abundant Allendale Coastal Plain chert rock nodules at the location for crafting ancient stone tools, which included the distinctive fluted projectiles now associated with the Clovis cultural manifestation.

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773,000-Year-Old Fossils Discovered in Morocco Shed Light on the Last Common Ancestor of Humans and Neanderthals

An international team of researchers has identified an African hominin population that existed very early in the Homo sapiens lineage, providing new insight into the shared ancestry of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans.

The discovery was made at the Thomas Quarry I site in Casablanca, Morocco, where researchers identified 773,000-year-old hominin fossils dated to Earth’s last magnetic polarity reversal. A recent paper published in Nature reported the discovery of this ancient human ancestor.

Grotte à Hominidés

The Moroccan-French collaboration “Préhistoire de Casablanca” has been conducting excavations, geoarchaeological analyses, and stratigraphic studies in the region for more than three decades. Careful work has revealed not only hominin remains, but also important information about their geological context.

“Thomas Quarry I lies within the raised coastal formations of the Rabat–Casablanca littoral, a region internationally renowned for its exceptional succession of Plio-Pleistocene palaeoshorelines, coastal dunes and cave systems,” said co-author Jean-Paul Raynal, co-director of the program. “These geological formations, resulting from repeated sea-level oscillations, aeolian phases, and rapid early cementation of coastal sands, offer ideal conditions for fossil and archaeological preservation.”

Casablanca is home to some of the most important Pleistocene paleontological and archaeological sites in Africa, illuminating the region’s evolving hominin occupation. Thomas Quarry I has already produced significant finds dating back 1.3 million years and is in close proximity to other important Pleistocene sites, such as Sidi Abderrahmane.

Together, these sites form the “Grotte à Hominidés,” a cave system formed by a marine highstand and later filled with sediment, providing a combination of high-grade preservation and stratigraphic context for the finds.

Dating the Remote Past

That stratigraphic context makes the sites unique globally, as Early and Middle Pleistocene fossils are typically difficult to accurately date. In the Grotte à Hominidés, the infill and continuous deposition create a clear magnetic signal, enhancing the reliability of dating techniques.

Roughly 773,000 years ago, the most recent of Earth’s past magnetic field reversals, the Matuyama-Bruhes transition, occurred, creating a powerful magnetic marker for modern scientists to date ancient materials against.

“Seeing the Matuyama–Brunhes transition recorded with such resolution in the ThI-GH deposits allows us to anchor the presence of these hominins within an exceptionally precise chronological framework for the African Pleistocene,” said co-author Serena Perini.

The stratigraphic sequence at Grotte à Hominidés begins during the Matuyama Chron reverse-polarity interval, continues into the transition, and then extends into the Brunhes Chron normal-polarity interval.

With an unprecedented 180 magnetostratigraphic samples, the team identified the exact stratigraphic position of the switch. The team was able to establish sediment dating to a precise enough resolution to capture even the relatively brief 8,000 to 11,000-year transition period. Faunal evidence supported the team’s conclusions, confirming what they say is the highest-resolution stratigraphic dating ever produced at a Pleistocene site.

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Cremation Before Civilization? Evidence Suggests Ancient Hunter Gatherers Cremated a Woman Nearly 10,000 Years Ago

Analysis of 9,500-year-old human remains discovered in Central Africa, led by University of Oklahoma scientists, has revealed evidence suggesting these ancient hunter-gatherers cremated their dead millennia before the first organized African civilizations existed.

If confirmed, the discovery of a small, cremated woman on a funeral pyre at the base of Mount Hora, a prominent natural landmark in northern Malawi, would represent the oldest known example of ancient African hunter-gatherers intentionally burning the remains of a deceased individual.

The research team behind the discovery said the cremation site also hints at potentially spiritually complex ritual practices surrounding fire and death that had not previously been identified during this ancient period.

“Not only is this the earliest cremation in Africa, it was such a spectacle that we have to rethink how we view group labor and ritual in these ancient hunter-gatherer communities,” explained Jessica Thompson, an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University, and leader of a long-term research project at the site of the discovery.

Date of Discovery Rivals Oldest Known Human Cremation Site

According to a statement announcing the unexpected discovery of ancient, cremated human remains, evidence of intentionally burned human remains appears as early as 40,000 years ago in Australia. However, “intentionally built” structures made of combustible materials don’t appear until about 10,000 years before present.

According to researchers, the previously discovered ancient pyre at the Xaasaa Na’ Upward Sun River archaeological site in Alaska, which contained the remains of a small child, was dated to sometime around 11,500 years ago. Conversely, the oldest known funerary cremation site in Africa, dated to a comparatively recent 3,500, was likely built by Pastoral Neolithic herders who were much more organized than the ancient hunter-gatherers associated with the discovery.

“Cremation is more common among ancient food-producing societies, who generally possess more complex technology and engage in more elaborate mortuary rituals than earlier hunter-gatherers,” the researchers explain.

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Archaeologists Have Discovered a Massive Ancient Structure in Ireland—It Could Be the Largest Prehistoric Site of Its Kind

Compelling evidence of a massive ancient structure has surfaced in Ireland, where archaeologists working in the country’s Baltinglass hillfort landscape have discovered one of the largest settlements ever identified in the region.

The discovery of a massive enclosure at Brusselstown Ring may represent the most extensive prehistoric nucleated settlement ever identified in Ireland or Britain, according to new research that appeared in the journal Antiquity.

Drawing on data from several recent surveys and test excavations, archaeologists report the discovery of hundreds of roundhouse platforms clustered within the remains of a monumental hillfort. The findings, they say, point to an unprecedented level of population density and social organization among the site’s builders during the late Bronze Age.

A Prehistoric Settlement of an Unprecedented Scale

Located in County Wicklow, Brusselstown Ring comprises a large area spanning more than 40 hectares, with portions that extend outward toward a larger contour fort that extends to nearly three times this size.

“The Baltinglass hillfort cluster in County Wicklow stands out as one of the most complex prehistoric landscapes in Ireland, sometimes referred to as ‘Ireland’s Hillfort Capital’ due to its exceptional concentration and diversity of monuments,” the study’s authors write.

Spread out across more than a dozen hilltop enclosures along the southwestern Wicklow Mountains, archaeologists have already discovered seven major fortifications and other features in the area, which reveal ongoing use and construction efforts that ran from the early Neolithic up until the Bronze Age.

In the past, surveys conducted in the area had already identified as many as 300 possible sites that would have served as temporary shelters. Now, drawing on recent analysis of aerial imagery of the landscape, more than 600 minute topographical anomalies were revealed, which the archaeological team says is consistent with prehistoric roundhouse platform construction of the period.

Of these features, just under 100 appear within the inner enclosure, while the remaining 500 or so exist between the inner and outer ramparts.

Hillforts of this size—particularly those extending across multiple summits—are exceptionally rare not only in Ireland and Britain, but even among the great oppida of continental Europe. If the discovery is confirmed to be what archaeologists now believe it represents, it will mark the largest known prehistoric settlement ever found in the Atlantic Archipelago, vastly outsizing past roundhouse concentrations at sites that include Turlough Hill in County Clare, as well as the Mullaghfarna site in County Sligo, each of which contains as many as 150 dwellings but lacks enclosure features.

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DNA Evidence Proves “First Black Briton” Was Actually A White Girl

In 2021 the establishment media was electrified by a discovery involving the ancient remains of a woman found over a century ago near a village in East Sussex in Britain.  The reason leftist journalists were so hyped?  A supposedly comprehensive study by “experts” in facial reconstruction had determined that the nearly 2000 year old skeleton belonged to a Sub-Saharan African person.

The remains became known as the “Beachy Head Woman” and images of her reconstructed black face began circulating internationally.  This was proof, somehow, that progressives had always been right to support third world immigration.

The new data arrived conveniently in time to support a far-left campaign to defend the ideas of multiculturalism.  Part of this narrative asserts that Caucasian regions of the world have never actually been Caucasian and that western culture doesn’t really exist.  In fact, white Europeans have no claim to any lands anywhere, they have no home, and African/Asian migrants have “always” freely traveled throughout Europe.

The political left was enthralled, taking to social media and reposting the discovery millions of times over to “own the fascists”.  The BBC even paid to have a plaque constructed on the site where the bones were discovered proudly proclaiming that this is where the first Briton of “African origin” had been found.

School lessons were immediately developed in the UK, teaching students about the multicultural history of Britain.  This was scientific confirmation to back up the avalanche of European entertainment content depicting Sub-Saharan Africans as integral to the history of the continent, roaming the lands as tribesman or enjoying the finery of royal court.   

Leftists argue that their version of history justifies the expansion of open mass immigration, because “things have always been this way” and white people today who want to protect their histories and cultures from erasure are merely ignorant of the past.  

The problem is, Beachy Head Woman is not African or black.  Recently confirmed DNA evidence shows she was white with blonde hair and blue eyes.  She was not a migrant, but born in ancient Britain.

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The Earliest Winter Solstice Rituals Go All The Way Back To The Stone Age

It’s barely perceptible, but from the morning after December 21 (or June 21 if you’re below the equator), the Sun starts to hang around for just a little longer each day. For most of us, that means we can start dreaming about the day that our morning commute doesn’t begin in complete darkness, but for Neolithic folk, the winter solstice was far more significant.

Relatively new to this whole sedentary lifestyle thing, prehistoric villagers depended on the annual rebirth of the Sun in order to ensure the continuation of their agricultural cycles. It’s unsurprising, therefore, that the Neolithic period saw the emergence of the earliest structures designed to track the movements of the Sun, Moon and other celestial bodies, with the solstices often the central focus. 

Here’s a look at the oldest and most impressive solstice traditions from around the world.

Newgrange (Ireland)

Built around 3200 BCE, Newgrange is the most famous monument in County Meath’s Brú na Bóinne archaeological complex. Consisting of an earthen mound housing several burial chambers, this so-called passage tomb was constructed in perfect alignment with the winter solstice.

At sunset on the shortest day of the year, the Sun’s rays hit Newgrange at the exact angle needed to illuminate the central chamber and its impressive array of engraved artworks. Recent analyses of these designs have determined that the spiralling figures probably represent the shortening and lengthening of the Sun’s path across the sky as the year swings between the summer and winter solstices, underscoring the tomb’s connection with solar cycles.

It’s worth noting that the same effect has been observed at numerous other passage tombs across the British Isles, indicating that Newgrange was probably part of a wider, interconnected Neolithic tradition focused on the observation of the solstices. One particularly noteworthy example is Maeshowe in Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, which is also aligned to allow the setting sun to illuminate its central chamber on the winter solstice.

El Castillo, Chichén Itzá (Mexico)

In the Americas, there was no official Neolithic period, and given that humans only reached the continent about 20,000 years ago, it’s understandable that things happened a lot later there than they did in Eurasia. Probably the most impressive winter solstice event can be seen at the famous Maya city of Chichén Itzá, where the central pyramid – known as El Castillo – is eerily lit up by the rising Sun on the shortest day of the year.

By late afternoon, the angle of the Sun’s rays is such that two sides of the pyramid are illuminated while the other two are plunged into darkness, creating a striking visual demonstration of the ancient Maya’s extraordinary astronomical precision.

Built around 550 CE, El Castillo is considerably younger than the likes of Newgrange and Stonehenge, and in fact it’s not even the oldest solstice-aligned structure in the Americas. Woodhenge, for instance, is located at the ancient site of Cahokia in Illinois, and was built around 1,000 years ago. Thought to have served as a type of astronomical observatory, Woodhenge probably held gatherings on the solstices, although the nature of these ceremonies remains the subject of speculation.

Stonehenge (England)

When it comes to solstices, you can’t not mention Stonehenge. Built in multiple stages beginning around 3000 BCE, the famous stone circle is aligned with the summer solstice sunrise to the east and the winter solstice sunset to the west. 

It’s unclear exactly how these events were celebrated during Neolithic times, although the prehistoric residents of the nearby village of Durrington Walls – which housed the workers who built Stonehenge – are known to have slaughtered large numbers of animals around midwinter, all of which hints at massive solstice feasts.

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The moment the earliest known man-made fire was uncovered

A stunning discovery at an archaeological dig in the UK is rewriting the timeline of when humans first made fire.

Researchers have discovered the earliest known instance of human-created fire, which took place in the east of England 400,000 years ago.

The new discovery, in the village of Barnham, pushes the origin of human fire-making back by more than 350,000 years, far earlier than previously thought.

The ability to create fire was the moment that changed everything for humans. It provided warmth at will and enabled our ancestors to cook and eat meat, which made our brains grow. It meant we were no longer a group of animals struggling to survive – it gave us time to think and invent and become the advanced species we are today.

The team say they found baked earth together with the earliest Stone Age lighter – consisting of a flint that was bashed against a rock called pyrite, also known as fool’s gold, to create a spark.

BBC News has been given world exclusive access to the prehistoric site.

Under the treetops of Barnham Forest lies an archaeological treasure, buried a few metres beneath the Earth, that dates back to the furthest depths of human pre-history.

Around the edges of a clearing, tangled green branches frame the scene like a curtain, as if the forest itself were slowly revealing a long-buried chapter of its past. Prof Nick Ashton of the British Museum leads me through the trees and we both step into his astonishing story.

“This is where it happened,” he tells me in a reverent tone.

We walk down onto a dirt floor carved into deep, stepped hollows of raw earth and pale sand.

This was an ancient fireplace at the heart of a prehistoric “town hall”, around which early Stone Age people came together hundreds of thousands of years ago.

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