Early Humans
The Juicy History of Humans Eating Meat
The mouth-watering smokiness of a rack of pork ribs. The juicy gluttony of a medium-rare bacon cheeseburger. The simple pleasure of a salami sandwich on rye. One thing is clear—humans love meat. But why do we eat so much more meat than our primate cousins and why are we wired to ...read more
Why Did the Clovis People Mysteriously Vanish?
Ancient people of North America’s Clovis culture migrated to South America roughly 11,000 years ago, then mysteriously vanished, researchers have discovered. In a new study, researchers analyzed DNA from 49 people living over a span of 10,000 years in Belize, Brazil, the Central ...read more
Early Americans Buried Their Dogs Like Family
We lived alongside mammoths, had not yet discovered bronze or writing and spent our lives moving constantly from place to place. But even 10,000 years ago, human beings loved their pet dogs. This fact is borne out in an ancient gravesite in Illinois, where a trio of dogs were ...read more
Early Humans Slept Around with More than Just Neanderthals
It’s been known for some time that our modern human ancestors interbred with other early hominin groups like the Neanderthals. But it turns out they were even more promiscuous than we thought. New DNA research has unexpectedly revealed that modern humans (Homo sapiens) mixed, ...read more
Stone Age
The Stone Age marks a period of prehistory in which humans used primitive stone tools. Lasting roughly 2.5 million years, the Stone Age ended around 5,000 years ago when humans in the Near East began working with metal and making tools and weapons from bronze. During the Stone ...read more
Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution, also called the Agricultural Revolution, marked the transition in human history from small, nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers to larger, agricultural settlements and early civilization. The Neolithic Revolution started around 10,000 B.C. in the Fertile ...read more
Hunter-Gatherers
Hunter-gatherers were prehistoric nomadic groups that harnessed the use of fire, developed intricate knowledge of plant life and refined technology for hunting and domestic purposes as they spread from Africa to Asia, Europe and beyond. From African hominins of 2 million years ...read more
DNA Study Finds Aboriginal Australians World’s Oldest Civilization
The newly published paper is the first extensive DNA study of Aboriginal Australians, according to the University of Cambridge. Working in close collaboration with indigenous Australian elders and leaders, an international team of researchers obtained permission to extract DNA ...read more
Did Lucy, Famed Human Ancestor, Die After Falling From a Tree?
The discovery of Lucy’s partial skeleton represented a major breakthrough in the study of ancient human ancestors, enabling scientists to establish that early hominids like Australopithecus afarensis learned to walk upright before their brains grew larger. Though Lucy’s feet, ...read more
New Study Refutes Theory of How Humans Populated North America
Archaeological studies have found that human colonization of North America by the so-called Clovis culture dates back more than 13,000 years ago, and recent archaeological evidence suggests that people could have been on the continent 14,700 years ago—and possibly even several ...read more
Going Paleo: What Prehistoric Man Actually Ate
Newly popular in health circles, the Paleo diet was created back in the 1970s by gastroenterologist Walter Voegtlin. He was the first to suggest that eating like our Paleolithic ancestors could make modern humans healthier. A return to the diet of our forebears, according to ...read more
Europe’s Oldest Natural Mummy Has Living Relatives
The study, published in the journal Science, linked Ötzi with his living relatives by tracing a rare genetic mutation on the Y-chromosome. The mutation, known as G-L91, is passed down along the male line, and scientists at Austria’s Institute for Forensic Medicine have been using ...read more
When Early Humans Left Africa, Tuberculosis Traveled With Them
During the 18th and 19th centuries, in the swiftly industrializing countries of Europe and North America, tuberculosis–or the dreaded “consumption”–reached epic proportions. It was the leading cause of death among all age groups in the Western world until the early 20th century, ...read more
Eating Meat Allowed Humans to Conquer Globe, Scientists Say
In human “natural fertility societies,” meaning groups that don’t use birth control, women breastfeed their children for an average of 27 months—until toddlers reach 2 years and a few months in age. While this may seem like a decent amount of time, it’s only a tiny fraction of ...read more
Human Ancestors Tamed Fire Earlier Than Thought
Fire control changed the course of human evolution, allowing our ancestors to stay warm, cook food, ward off predators and venture into harsh climates. It also had important social and behavioral implications, encouraging groups of people to gather together and stay up late. ...read more
Prehistoric Children Finger-Painted on Cave Walls
[slideshow exclude=”4153″]Located in the Dordogne region of France, the massive Rouffignac cave complex has captivated tourists and scholars with its vivid drawings of mammoths, rhinoceroses and horses for centuries. In 1956, a decade after its deep caverns harbored Resistance ...read more
Human Ancestors Crafted Advanced Tools Earlier Than Thought
Taller and more robust than modern humans but with a smaller cranial capacity, Homo erectus appeared roughly 2 million years ago and spread across Africa, Asia and parts of southern Europe before vanishing from the fossil record some 70,000 years ago. Thought to be our direct ...read more
Scopes Monkey Trial begins
In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial begins with John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law. The law, which had been passed in March, made it a misdemeanor punishable by fine to ...read more
Lascaux cave paintings discovered
Near Montignac, France, a collection of prehistoric cave paintings are discovered by four teenagers who stumbled upon the ancient artwork after following their dog down a narrow entrance into a cavern. The 15,000- to 17,000-year-old paintings, consisting mostly of animal ...read more
The “Trial of the Century” draws national attention
Schoolteacher John T. Scopes is convicted of violating Tennessee’s law against teaching evolution in public schools. The case debated in the so-called “Trial of the Century” was never really in doubt; the jury only conferred for a few moments in the hallway before returning to ...read more