yourlocalarchaeologist

Virtual reconstruction of AC12 V1 with landmarks and semilandmarks. (a,b) frontal and left lateral views of full reconstruction of AC12 V1; (c–e) anterior oblique and inferior views of AC12 V1 showing landmarks (red dots) and semilandmarks (small green dots).

Early European evidence of artificial cranial modification from the Italian Late Upper Palaeolithic Arene Candide Cave 🏺🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Signs of artificial cranial modification in a Late Upper Palaeolithic individual (AC12) from Arene Candide Cave, Italy (ca. 12,620–12,190 Cal BP)

The phylogenetic position of the Yunxian cranium elucidates the origin of Homo longi and the Denisovans Diverse forms of Homo coexisted during the Middle Pleistocene. Whether these fossil humans represent different species or clades is debated. The ~1-million-year-old Yunxian 2 fossil from China is impo...

The phylogenetic position of the Yunxian cranium elucidates the origin of Homo longi and the Denisovans | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Oldest-known hippopotamus ivory object found in Iberian Peninsula Copper Age site Researchers at the Prehistoric Studies and Research Seminar (SERP) of the University of Barcelona have identified the oldest-known piece made of hippopotamus ivory in the Iberian Peninsula. This findi...

Oldest-known hippopotamus ivory object found in Iberian Peninsula Copper Age site.
phys.org/news/2025-09...

Can video games help advance #archaeology? By inputting their 3D model of South Africa's Sterkfontein Caves into the Unreal video game engine, researchers made this key site in human evolution research more accessible than ever #NationalVideoGamesDay

Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺

Hunters of the Plateau: Rethinking Early Homo sapiens in Iberia New faunal evidence from Abrigo de la Malia suggests that early modern humans settled central Iberia far earlier, and with greater skill, than once believed.

New study from Abrigo de la Malia shows early Homo sapiens hunted deer, horses, and bison in Iberia’s interior 36k years ago—challenging the idea of an “empty” plateau. #Paleoarchaeology #HumanEvolution #Iberia #Zooarchaeology #anthropology

An empirically-based scenario for the evolution of cultural transmission in the human lineage during the last 3.3 million years Humans accumulate an ever-growing body of knowledge that far exceeds the capacity of any single individual or generation. Social learning and transmission are essential for this process. However, how…

An empirically-based scenario for the evolution of cultural transmission in the human lineage during the last 3.3 million years doi.org/10.1371/jour...

We decoded the oldest genetic data from an Egyptian, a man buried about 4,500 years ago A group of scientists has sequenced the genome of a man who was buried in Egypt around 4,500 years ago. The study offers rare insight into the genetic ancestry of early Egyptians and reveals links to ...

We decoded the oldest genetic data from an Egyptian, a man buried about 4,500 years ago
#Egypt #science
phys.org/news/2025-09...

This speleothem is covered by younger layers, the youngest of which is dated to 228 ± 1 ka (PE05a), contemporaneous with MIS 7. Credit: Journal of Human Evolution (2025)

Hominin skull from Petralona Cave dated to be at least 286,000 years old

New U-series dates on the Petralona cranium,
a key fossil in European human evolution 🏺🧪
Christophe Falguères, Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social, et al
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

2.6 million-year-old stone tools reveal ancient human relatives were 'forward planning' 600,000 years earlier than thought Hundreds of stone tools discovered in Kenya have revealed that human relatives traveled long distances to find raw material.

Today in stone tool news... 🏺🧪

Arrow heads at Obi-Rakhmat (Uzbekistan) 80 ka ago? Lithic weapon points occasionally found in Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthal sites are large and do not differ in size, shape or type from those used in other activities such as butchering or plant gath...

Have you seen that maybe Neanderthals made arrowheads 80kya? It's out in PLOS but I'm not covering until Monday (because wheeeew am I tired after writing all this stuff up this week!).

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

New discoveries of Australopithecus and Homo from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia - Nature Hominin fossils from the Ledi-Geraru Research Project area, Ethiopia, suggest that early Homo and Australopithecus species co-existed in the region more than 2.5 million years ago.

Lets go??? New Australopith contemporaneous with Homo at Ledi-Geraru that IS NOT Au. afarensis or Au. garhi?? (Probably)

Vid soon!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hominins on Sulawesi during the Early Pleistocene - Nature Early Pleistocene artefacts at Calio suggest that Sulawesi was populated by hominins at around the same time as Flores, if not earlier.

Nature research paper: Hominins on Sulawesi during the Early Pleistocene

go.nature.com/3HptvtL

Open letter to EAA calling for a boycott of Israel Please fill out the form below and add your name to over 970 others on this open letter*, calling on the European Association of Archaeologists to respond to ICOMOS Palestine's appeal for cultural her...

forms.gle/epte8iukcfJx...

Europe’s oldest cranial modification found in Italian cave 'Oddly shaped head' left in Italian cave 12,500 years ago is Europe's oldest known case of cranial modification, study finds

📰 >12,000-year-old skull from north-west Italy confirmed as Europe's oldest cranial modification, indicating head shaping was practiced during the Upper Palaeolithic

#ArchaeologyNews via @archaeologynews.bsky.social

archaeologymag.com/2025/08/euro...

Very interesting article about possible origins of feasting and alcohol consumption, with a fun detour into medieval art.
Dominy et al. highlight the cooccurrence of the consumption of fallen (fermented) fruits with a mutation for enhanced ethanol metabolism in African apes.
doi.org/10.1093/bios...

A juvenile hip bone of 300,000 year old human cousin Homo naledi. Bony struts on the inside (right panel) are arranged to help withstand forces experienced during life, providing clues about how Homo naledi moved their bodies through their world #FossilFriday

Mapping nonhuman cultures with the Animal Culture Database - Scientific Data Scientific Data - Mapping nonhuman cultures with the Animal Culture Database

Happy to share our new paper introducing the Animal Culture Database in Scientific Data: We’re putting together a resource consolidating primary research on cultural behaviors in wild animal populations and how they’re affected by human activity (1/5) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Eighteen million years of diverse enamel proteomes from the East African Rift - Nature The isolation of dental proteins from fossils deposited 1.5 million to 18 million years ago in the Turkana Basin in Kenya, a tropical region, demonstrate the promise of dental enamel for palaeoproteom...

We published a new paper on enamel paleoproteomics from teeth up to 18 million years old from the Turkana Basin in Kenya. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Earliest evidence of Neanderthal multifunctional bone tool production from cave lion (Panthera spelaea) remains - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Earliest evidence of Neanderthal multifunctional bone tool production from cave lion (Panthera spelaea) remains

Earliest evidence of Neanderthal multifunctional bone tool production from cave lion (Panthera spelaea) remains www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Prehistoric 'Swiss army knife' made from cave lion bone discovered in Neanderthal cave Archaeologists have unearthed the earliest known multifunctional tool made from cave lion bone, shedding new light on Neanderthal ingenuity. The ancient utensil dates back to the end of the Saalian gl...

Prehistoric 'Swiss army knife' made from cave lion bone discovered in Neanderthal cave phys.org/news/2025-07...

First human genome from ancient Egypt sequenced from 4,800-year-old teeth Nature - Forty years after the first effort to extract mummy DNA, researchers have finally generated a full genome sequence from an ancient Egyptian.

Forty years after the first effort to extract mummy DNA, researchers have finally generated a full genome sequence from an ancient Egyptian

https://go.nature.com/44O0Sze

Neanderthals boiled bones in 'fat factories' to enrich their lean diet Nature - Germany digs reveal a large-scale operation 100,000 years earlier than oldest known fat rendering by modern humans.

Germany digs reveal a large-scale operation 100,000 years earlier than oldest known fat rendering by modern humans

https://go.nature.com/4nzjBGb

A schematic diagram of shaping of wooden tools.

New discoveries from the Pleistocene-age Gantangqing site in southwestern China reveal a diverse collection of wooden tools dated from ~361,000 to 250,000 years ago, marking the earliest known evidence of complex wooden tool technology in East Asia.

Learn more in Science: scim.ag/4krE5y3