Near a lake in present-day Germany, a group of Neanderthals set up a clever system to get fat from animal bones. They smashed bones with stone tools and boiled them to get the fat. This was not a one-time thing. It happened over 300 years. They did this to avoid a dangerous condition called protein poisoning. Neanderthals were not dumb. They planned ahead. They hunt...
The discovery of human and animal footprints in New Mexico's White Sands National Park has stirred up a lot of questions. These prints, found in layers of clay and silt, have sparked a big debate about when the first people arrived in North America. For a long time, it was believed that the first Americans were part of the Clovis culture. These people were known for ...
Griots, the storytellers of West Africa, are experiencing a resurgence in popularity. These individuals are responsible for preserving and passing down history through stories, poems, and songs. The term "griot" itself has an interesting origin, possibly derived from the Portuguese word "criado, " which means creator. This connection highlights the colonial influence...
In a twist of fate, a young girl's curiosity led to a remarkable discovery in southern Israel. The girl, Ziv Nitzan, was just three years old when she stumbled upon a 3, 800-year-old treasure during a family trip to Tel Azekah. This site, located about 50 miles southeast of Tel Aviv, is a mound of ruins from various settlements built over centuries. It is a place ric...
In a remarkable discovery in Spain, scientists have found the earliest known human face fossil in Western Europe. This fossil, affectionately named Pink, was unearthed at the Atapuerca archaeological site in northern Spain. The discovery is significant because it pushes back the timeline of human settlement in Europe by hundreds of thousands of years. The fossilized...
The day was like any other for Mark Sell, a retired firefighter from Norfolk, England. He was out in a field with a friend, metal detector in hand, hoping to find something interesting. Little did he know, his day would take an extraordinary turn. The metal detector beeped faintly, signaling something hidden beneath the surface. Sell dug up a clod of mud and...
Imagine a city, Herculaneum, in 79 CE. A young man, unaware of the impending doom, lies in a grand building. Suddenly, Mount Vesuvius erupts. A superheated cloud of gas, ash, and debris, known as a pyroclastic surge, sweeps through the city. Temperatures soar to over 950 degrees Fahrenheit (510 degrees Celsius). Most organic matter would be instantly incinerated. But...
Imagine this: humans thriving in lush rainforests way back when. The conventional wisdom was that humans started living in rainforests around 70, 000 years ago. But hold onto your hats, folks, because new findings suggest that humans were living in rainforests as early as 150, 000 years ago. This revelation comes from a team of researchers who took a fresh look at a ...
For years, experts have been digging up secrets about the ancient Maya empire, which stretched from Mexico down to Central America. But even with all that exploring, there’s still so much we don’t know. A new study just unveiled a fascinating discovery: an entire Maya city hidden in Mexico’s Campeche region. This city, named Valeriana, was found using a tech tool cal...