According to the study, the 364-day calendar, a crux of the dispute between the Qumran sect and Jerusalem, was actually used for a time by the Qumran community, but was abandoned when it began to drift away from the seasons, and relations with Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus improved.

Kyoto, Japan -- Tens of thousands of years ago, our own species, Homo sapiens, coexisted with Neanderthals, Homo neanderthalensis. Many of us living today carry a small amount of Neanderthal DNA, indicating that the two species may have shared much more than just the same land. Now, a breakthrough archaeological discovery has revealed that the two species did not merely cross paths: they possibly shared a common culture that spanned over 20,000 years.

Humans migrated from our original home in Africa to other parts of the world in the Out of Africa event, but human fossils around this time have been scarce in the Levant, a primary corridor between Africa and Eurasia. In search of more evidence of both modern humans and Neanderthals, an international team of researchers -- including scientists from Türkiye, France, and Japan, including Kyoto University -- headed to Üçağızlı II Cave in southern Türkiye for excavations.

At this site, five years of meticulous millimeter-by-millimeter excavation revealed evidence of both species living in the same space, utilizing identical stone tool technologies and survival strategies. Remarkably, the evidence also suggests this shared behavior extended beyond practical aspects and included the use of non-utilitarian materials.

A new ancient DNA study published in Science Advances provides evidence that political power among Scythian elites may have been inherited through family lineages that extended across multiple burial sites. By combining archaeology, anthropology and genetics, the new study offers fresh insight into how social inequality and political authority developed among ancient nomadic societies.