Latest and Breaking Archaeology News

Geneticist receives EU funding to build DNA data matrix of ancient domestic animals
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(Trinity College Dublin) The project will use state-of-the-art genetic tools to build up a DNA data matrix of domestic animals over the last 10,000 years.

First plants caused ice ages
1 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Exeter) New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. The research reveals the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the Ordovician Period, which ended 444 million years ago. During this period the climate gradually cooled, leading to a series of 'ice ages'. This global cooling was caused by a dramatic reduction in atmospheric carbon, which this research now suggests was triggered by the arrival of plants.

Construction starts on new marine research vessel
30 January 2012, 5:00 am
(CSIRO Australia) Construction of Australia's new $120 million Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator has started in Singapore.

Warming in the Tasman Sea a global warming hot spot
29 January 2012, 5:00 am
(CSIRO Australia) Oceanographers have identified a series of ocean hotspots around the world generated by strengthening wind systems that have driven oceanic currents, including the East Australian Current, polewards beyond their known boundaries.

What really happened prior to 'Snowball Earth'?
27 January 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) In a study published in the journal Geology, Dr. Peter Swart if the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science suggests that the large changes in the carbon isotopic composition of carbonates which occurred prior to the major climatic event more than 500 million years ago, known as "Snowball Earth," are unrelated to worldwide glacial events.

ASU center ensures access to archaeological data that otherwise may be lost
26 January 2012, 5:00 am
(Arizona State University) The ASU Center for Digital Antiquity contains the world's largest repository of worldwide archaeology data. A new grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation enables the center to expand content, thereby preserving archaeological records, some of which have been lost because of degradation, software obsolescence and inadequate documentation. It is an especially tragic loss with archaeological data, representing a loss of irreplaceable information about our heritage. "You can't dig a site twice," says professor Keith Kintigh.

Following the first steps out of Africa
26 January 2012, 5:00 am
(Cell Press) A new study uses genetic analysis to look for clues about the migration of the first modern humans who moved out of Africa more than 60,000 years ago. The research, published Jan. 26 by Cell Press in the American Journal of Human Genetics provides intriguing insight into the earliest stages of human migration and suggests that modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world.

Following genetic footprints out of Africa
26 January 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Leeds) A new study, using genetic analysis to look for clues about human migration over sixty thousand years ago, suggests that the first modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world.

More than 7,500-year-old fish traps found in Russia
25 January 2012, 5:00 am
(CSIC, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) A team of international archeologists, led by the Spanish National Research Council, has documented a series of more than 7,500-year-old fish seines and traps near Moscow. The equipment found, among the oldest in Europe, displays a great technical complexity. The survey will allow us to understand the role of fishing among the European settlements by early Holocene (10,000 years ago), especially in those areas where inhabitants did not practice agriculture until nearly the Iron Age.

With a little help from our ancient friends
25 January 2012, 5:00 am
(Harvard Medical School) The social networks of the Hadza, a group of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, show evidence that many elements of social network structure may have been present at an early point in human history; that early humans may have formed ties with both kin and non-kin, based in part on their tendency to cooperate; and that social networks may have contributed to the emergence of cooperation.