News Desk

Analysis of more than 3,000 lithic artifacts from the Cova Gran de Santa Linya site (Les Avellanes-Santa Linya, Lleida) shows that anatomically modern human communities occupying the southern Pyrenees during the Upper Paleolithic used flint (chert) exclusively for tool production. The findings, published in the journal Quaternary International, indicate that raw-material selection was closely linked to technological changes, mobility organization and the ways in which these groups interacted with the landscape.

A new revelation about the pyramid’s design could add another feather to Egyptian engineering caps. According to new research, several properties of the structure could make it surprisingly earthquake resistant – whether the builders intended it or not. The fortifying features include the empty “relieving chambers” directly above the burial chamber of Pharaoh Khufu. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports.

A new study at the University of York delves into the archaeology of the 4,000-year-old Mohenjo-daro, the Indus civilization’s largest city… By analyzing house sizes across the ancient city, researchers found that Mohenjo-daro was not only more equal than its neighbors in Mesopotamia and Greece, but it actually became more egalitarian over time. The findings were published in the journal Antiquity. 

Special Operations veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries and posttraumatic stress disorder experienced notable improvements in their symptoms after a single dose of the psychoactive drug ibogaine. Brain scans revealed that the therapy was associated with persistent increases in cerebral blood flow and the widespread reorganization of neural networks. The research was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.

The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that 115,000 years ago Neanderthal groups from Los Aviones Cave (Cartagena, Region of Murcia, Spain) were already consuming mollusks following a clearly seasonal pattern, particularly during the colder months of the year, from November to April.

Our new research, published in the journal African Archaeological Review, reveals how we found 260 previously unknown enclosure burials east of the Nile River, across almost 1,000km of desert…The carbon dates and pottery from the few excavated monuments tell us these people lived roughly 4000–3000 BCE, just before Egyptians formed a territorial kingdom we know of as Pharaonic Egypt.

A recent study mapping the human brain reveals that our perception of time does not happen all at once, but rather unfolds across a series of distinct physical processing stages. As visual information travels from the back of the brain to the front, different groups of neurons handle specific parts of the timing process, ultimately creating our subjective experience of how long an event lasts. These findings were published in the journal PLOS Biology.

A new study published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology reports how scientists compiled a database of over 700 ancient containers. They suggest these objects helped early humans carry and move things more easily, to support how they lived and adapted to new environments. “The container is perhaps humanity’s single most important and pervasive technological concept,” commented the study authors in their paper

Around 60,000 years ago in Siberia, a Neanderthal opened their mouth so that a rotten tooth could be drilled — and the case is the oldest evidence of an intentional dental treatment to date, a new study finds.

The hominin family tree is more like a complicated, tangled bramble…Now, new evidence has emerged of this complex history. From three sites across China, archaeologists have identified proteins in six H. erectus teeth that contain a genetic variant also seen in Denisovans, hinting at genetic mixing between the groups. The findings have been published in Nature.

A century ago, scientists began to study enigmatic Nasca geoglyphs in Peru. Thanks to AI, the known number has nearly doubled, and these discoveries are providing new insights into what their messages meant.

Dozens of scientists have banded together to pen scathing research letters to the journal Science about the publication of a study claiming the 14,500-year-old Monte Verde archaeological site in Chile is much younger than shown….a collection of three scientific letters published last week, 30 experts have critiqued the study’s “substantive errors and misrepresentations” and asserted that the study’s claims are “categorically false and found to be unsupported.”

Recent satellite remote sensing surveys have identified 280 stone structures spread across the Atbai desert in Sudan…Now, new research, published in the African Archaeological Review, takes a closer look at the purpose of these monuments and the unique, cattle-centered pastoralist culture behind them.

A new study published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies has found that people who have had a meaningful psychedelic experience report a significantly reduced fear of death, alongside heightened feelings of connection to themselves, others, and the world around them. Furthermore, the degree of connection closely tracks the degree of relief from death-related fear.