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Archaeology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 6-Jun-2025 23:09 ET (7-Jun-2025 03:09 GMT/UTC)

Digging up local history to update the culture of disaster preparedness

Kobe University

“The Kansai area will never experience a major earthquake.” That was how many people felt before the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. But if we examine history, most areas in Japan have records chronicling the devastation caused by earthquakes, and Kobe is no exception. Project Associate Professor MATSUSHITA Masakazu leads the division promoting regional cooperation in education at the Office for Promoting Regional Partnership, and his activities are focused on making it easier for residents to be aware of past disasters, based on information provided by memorial stones and historical documents that remain in local areas. We asked him about the importance of learning from local records and passing on the culture of disaster preparedness to future generations.

In-depth chemical analysis of three key 12th century medieval bronze doors by Barisanus of Trani uncovers which is the oldest and reveals how they were made

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In-depth chemical analysis of three key 12th century medieval bronze doors by Barisanus of Trani uncovers which is the oldest and reveals how they were made

Journal: PLOS One

When did human language emerge?

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Humans’ unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago, according to a survey of genomic evidence. As such, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ago.

Journal: Frontiers in Psychology

The "frontiers" of Southeast Iberian Bronze Age communities identified

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology have identified the economic and political borders separating El Argar, considered to be the first state-society in the Iberian Peninsula, from its La Mancha and Valencia Bronze Age neighbours some 4,000 years ago. These communities, with less centralised social structures, maintained complex relations with the Argaric culture. The study, based on an innovative analysis of pottery production and circulation, opens the door to identifying similar border dynamics in other European societies contemporary to El Argar, and understand how the first states were formed in prehistory.

Journal: Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory

Investigating the psychedelic blue lotus of Egypt, where ancient magic meets modern science

University of California - Berkeley

Not only are the plants from ancient Egypt an entirely different species from those sold online, according to UC Berkeley student researcher Liam McEvoy, but Egyptologists for decades may have misunderstood how the psychoactive blue lotus that grew on the Nile River banks was consumed thousands of years ago.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History researchers propose new hypothesis for the origin of stone tools

Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Sharp stone technology chipped over three million years allowed early humans to exploit animal and plant food resources, which in turn played a large role in increasing human brain size and kick-starting a technological trajectory that continues to this day. But how did the production of stone tools – called ‘knapping’ – start? Three Cleveland Museum of Natural History researchers have proposed a new hypothesis for the origin of stone technology in human evolution. Associate Curator and the Robert J. and Linnet E. Fritz Endowed Chair of Human Origins Dr. Emma Finestone and Museum research associates Drs. Michelle R. Bebber and Metin I. Eren (both also professors at Kent State University) led a team of 24 scientists to publish the new hypothesis in the journal Archaeometry.

Journal: Archaeometry
Funder: Kent State University

First burials: Neanderthal and Homo sapiens interactions in the Mid-Middle Palaeolithic Levant

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The first-ever published research on Tinshemet Cave reveals that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in the mid-Middle Paleolithic Levant not only coexisted but actively interacted, sharing technology, lifestyles, and burial customs. These interactions fostered cultural exchange, social complexity, and behavioral innovations, such as formal burial practices and the symbolic use of ochre for decoration. The findings suggest that human connections, rather than isolation, were key drivers of technological and cultural advancements, highlighting the Levant as a crucial crossroads in early human history.

Journal: Nature Human Behaviour

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