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Metal-detecting mistake uncovers rare 900-year-old Magnus Barefoot coin in Norway
1 day ago•Source: Live Science
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Ancient Neanderthals and Modern Humans Learned Together in Turkey 59,000 Years Ago
Archaeologists analyzing Üçağızlı II Cave on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast found Neanderthals (roughly 77,000–59,000 years ago) and later Homo sapiens (roughly 59,000–47,000 years ago) left strikingly similar hunting strategies, stone-tool technologies, and even shell ornaments, suggesting long-term cultural continuity and likely information exchange between the two groups in the Levant corridor. The findings, published in PNAS, imply that Neanderthals and early modern humans shared cultural practices in the region, rather than undergoing a clear cultural turnover despite biological turnover.
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Ancient DNA traces found on cave walls, hinting at forgotten visitors
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Proteomic clues hint Rising Star Homo naledi fossils were all female
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European Neanderthals Revealed as Diverse, Interconnected Communities
A Leiden-led study analyzed 27 Neanderthal genomes from France and Belgium, including a Les Cottés individual, revealing diverse, interconnected communities with distinct ancestral lineages and no evidence of recent contact with modern humans.
Western Europe’s late Neanderthals were diverse and interconnected, study finds
A Nature study analyzing genomes from 27 Neanderthals in Belgium and France—including a high-quality GN1 genome from Goyet—finds these late groups were genetically diverse and broadly connected across western Europe. The results challenge views of isolated, inbred populations and suggest regular long‑distance contact, with no evidence of recent interbreeding with modern humans in northwestern Europe. The data indicate a network of interconnected communities persisting until near the Neanderthals’ extinction around 52,500 years ago, while some older lineages persisted alongside newer ones.
Hidden Charcoal Sets New Ages for Font-de-Gaume Ice Age Paintings
A CNRS-led team used noninvasive Raman microspectrometry and hyperspectral imaging to detect charcoal in the black pigments of Font-de-Gaume’s Paleolithic cave paintings, proving carbon was present and enabling direct radiocarbon dating for the first time. They dated the bison panel to about 13,461–13,162 calBP and parts of a mask to roughly 9,000–15,000 calBP, suggesting Dordogne cave art is older than previously thought and paving the way to date other sites like Lascaux. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 9, 2026.
Ancient Siberian plague outbreaks traced to Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers via ancient DNA
A Nature study of ancient DNA from 46 individuals buried near Lake Baikal reveals two previously unknown Yersinia pestis strains, indicating two plague outbreaks about 5,600–5,300 and 5,100–4,900 years ago among hunter-gatherers. About 40% of the individuals carried plague DNA, suggesting significant mortality in small communities likely caused by pneumonic plague transmitted person-to-person; marmots may have been the reservoir. This pushes plague's emergence far earlier than previously thought and shows epidemics affected hunter-gatherer groups before farming communities appeared.
Neanderthal Baby Growth Parallels Modern Humans, with Early Metabolic Clues
High‑resolution micro-CT analysis of three juvenile Neanderthal remains from Sesselfelsgrotte (about 90,000–50,000 years old) shows bone growth patterns akin to modern human fetuses, including prenatal development around eight to nine months of gestation, with long bones developing faster than the jaw. The teeth reveal interglobular dentine defects indicating metabolic stress during late pregnancy to early childhood, potentially vitamin/metabolism-related deficiencies, representing the oldest evidence of metabolic bone disease in a non-modern human lineage.
Ancient Lakeshore Driftwood Fueled 780,000-Year-Old Campfires
Analysis of 266 charcoal fragments from the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov site shows early humans relied on driftwood along a lakeshore to keep fires burning, enabling repeated occupation and cooking fish, revealing advanced environmental knowledge and resource management during the Middle Pleistocene.
Pyrenees cave reveals 4,000 years of copper work at extreme altitude
In a high-altitude Pyrenees cave (2,235 m) called Cova 338, archaeologists found 23 fire pits, malachite fragments, pottery, bones, and ornaments—plus remains of a child—showing repeated, organized visits over more than 4,000 years (from the late Neolithic to the Bronze Age). The site appears to have been used to heat and process copper-bearing rock, not necessarily smelted there, indicating sophisticated resource extraction and knowledge transfer in an otherwise remote location. Future work aims to confirm ore sources and the full metallurgical sequence.
Ancient Scottish Burial Reveals Brain Removal and Bone Tools in Iron Age Rituals
A 2,000-year-old burial at Loch Borralie in northern Scotland shows an older woman’s skull with brain-removal markings and arm bones whittled into tools placed back in the grave, alongside a nearby adolescent whose remains were unmodified. The researchers say the motivation is unclear, with brain removal possibly tied to cannibalism or skull display. Ancient DNA links Individual 1 and a ~15-year-old Individual 2 as second cousins and connects them to other prehistoric Scottish sites, suggesting Iron Age maritime networks and long-distance social ties across the north coast of Britain.
Ancient Slovakia ditch hides 7,000-year-old headless skeletons, hinting at Neolithic burial rites
In a Neolithic LBK settlement at Vráble, Slovakia, archaeologists uncovered a ditch containing dozens of headless skeletons, including a mass burial of at least 77 decapitated bodies and a skull from a child. Analyses suggest the skulls were removed with sharp tools and that beheadings occurred postmortem as part of a ritual rather than a mass killing. The find, dating to about 5250–4950 BCE, hints at head-focused ancestor worship or other social practices within three neighboring LBK neighborhoods; researchers caution that more excavation is needed to understand whether violence played a role.
Ancient Ashes in South Africa Push Fire Use Back Nearly 2 Million Years
A study of Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa has found charred mammal bones dating to about 1.07–1.79 million years ago, potentially the oldest evidence of human fire use and pushing the timeline back by hundreds of thousands of years. The bones were dated using magnetostratigraphy and cosmogenic burial dating, and burn evidence was confirmed via bone luminescence. While not proving cooking or a defined pyrotechnology breakthrough, the findings suggest repeated fire use that could have shaped hominin behavior, ecology, and evolution during the early Acheulean era.