anthropology

Ancient Brits were carving reindeer art 15,000 years ago

This carving may not look like much, but it’s possibly the oldest art ever found in Britain. The rock art appears to depict a reindeer with a spear sticking out of it. Hunter-gathers did tend to carve what they knew. Although its precise location is currently being kept secret, we know that the carving was…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 31

The Lost City of Pompeii: Pictures of an Alien World, Frozen in Time

In the year 79 AD, Italy’s Mt. Vesuvius erupted with superheated ash that rained fiery death on several Roman cities nearby. But none was hit harder than vacation town Pompeii, which was buried in a thick layer of broiling ash in a matter of seconds. That ash killed over 1,000 people instantly and buried the…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 29

Zora Neale Hurston, Zombie Hunter

She’s best known as the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God and one of the luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. But in her capacity as a folklorist, Zora Neale Hurston also recorded an encounter with a real-life zombie. In Tell My Horse, her 1938 recounting of her fieldwork in Haiti, she talked about what…

Books & Comics Kelly Faircloth Jul 23

Our hominid ancestors were walking like us nearly 4 million years ago

One of the most basic differences separating us from other apes is our ability to walk fully upright, and that goes back to the emergence of the Homo genus 1.9 million years ago. At least…that’s what we used to think. The human gait is unique not just in the fact that we walk fully upright…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jul 19

Taiwan’s funeral strippers dance for a dead crowd

Should you meet your demise in Taiwan, a funerary option open to you is the Electric Flower Car (EFC), a wheeled, neon-lit platform upon which pulchritudinous women strip down to their skivvies for the benefit of audiences…both living and deceased. We spoke with University of South Carolina anthropologist Marc L. Moskowitz about this practice, which…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jul 9

Fierce, fashionable Vikings filed their teeth and ironed their clothes

A mysterious cache of dozens of humans skulls discovered earlier this year in Dorset, England belonged to Viking raiders. Anthropologists figured this out when they examined the teeth, and found that elaborate patterns had been filed into them. That’s right — the Vikings filed their teeth, and probably put pigment into the designs to make…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 8

Ancient graves suggest that family didn’t really matter 9,000 years ago

Çatalhöyük is one of the world’s most ancient settlements, founded in what is now Turkey around 7,500 BCE. New analysis of the village’s dead reveals something strange about this ancient village: nobody cared very much about family ties. First discovered in the 1950s, Çatalhöyük was once home to about 10,000 people and covered roughly 100,000…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 29

Should we dig up Shakespeare’s body to find out if he smoked pot?

That’s the question currently before the Church of England, as an archaeologist has proposed examining William Shakespeare’s remains. If nothing else, this is our chance to find out whether Shakespeare wrote the greatest works in the English language…on weed. South African archaeologist Francis Thackeray says he recently submitted the relevant proposals to the Church of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 28

Our most ancient hominoid ancestors first left Africa 17 million years ago

When modern humans left Africa roughly 100 thousand years ago, it was only the last of several waves of hominoid migration that had previously included the likes of Neanderthals and Homo Erectus. Now a tooth in Germany reveals the original hominoid migration. A molar tooth was discovered in the Alpine region of southwestern Germany. 17…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 22

The oldest art in the Americas depicts a 13,000 year old mammoth

There are European cave paintings that are 30000 years old, but the art of the ancient Americas remains a mystery. This bone fragment features an engraving of either a mammoth or a mastodon, and is at least 13000 years old. This bone was discovered in Florida by fossil hunter James Kennedy, who discovered the inscription…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 21

Fossilized teeth reveal that ancient women had to leave home to find mates

Your teeth can reveal a lot about you – including where you grew up. They’re also the part of you that’s most likely to endure long after you’ve died. Now some ancient teeth are revealing dating habits that date back a million years. Oxford researchers examined various fossils from our ancestor species Australopithecus. The remains…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Jun 2

Take a look at the world’s oldest mathematical object

Archaeologists have dug up many ancient, notched bones all around the world, but the Ishango bone is different. On it, there are markings that suggest its owners were making the first attempts at actual mathematics. In what was once Zaire, on the shores of Edward lake, a bone was found during an archeological dig. At…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jun 1

Dunbar’s Number proves that you can’t realistically follow more than 150 friends on Twitter

Our maximum number of friends is actually determined by the size of our brains. Dunbar’s number says 150 friends is about the human limit, and that’s been true throughout history. Can human evolution withstand the insanity of social networking? In the 1990s, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar realized that the size of primate social groups increased…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 31

Mummies reveal that ancient irrigation created modern plague

About 200 million people today have schistosomiasis, a serious chronic illness caused by a parasitic infection. A big part of why the disease runs rampant today is how our ancestors practiced irrigation…and it’s a mistake 1500 years in the making. The schistosomiasis parasite is generally carried by a type of freshwater snail. Irrigation can cause…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 23

3500-year-old mummy of an Egyptian princess reveals the first known case of coronary artery disease

Meet Princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon, an Egyptian princess who lived between the years of 1580 and 1550 BCE, and is officially the oldest known case of coronary artery disease. A group of researchers from Egypt and the USA has come together and performed CT scans on a number of mummies, and shown that ancient royals had some…

io9 Tim Barribeau May 18

Grass-eating hominid was the primate equivalent of a cow

Although the ancient hominid Paranthropus boisei has earned the nickname “Nutcracker Man”, his actual diet was quite a bit softer. Unlike any other known human ancestor, this ancient hominid’s powerful jaw and huge molars were actually used to eat grass. Researchers had long known that Paranthropus boisei used his huge mouth to crush nuts, seeds,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 2

Neanderthals might have believed in the spiritual world before Homo sapiens did

A recently-uncovered Neanderthal burial site in Spain has provided intriguing evidence that these ancient hominids believed in an afterlife and were capable of complex symbolic thought, all possibly before early Homo sapiens demonstrated these abilities. The 50,000-year-old site appears to be a burial ground for three Neanderthals. There’s good evidence that their peers buried them…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Apr 20

Language may have developed for the first and only time 100,000 years ago

The origins of language are shrouded in mystery, with linguists unable to probe beyond about 10,000 years ago. But a radical new study reveals language sounds spread just like human genes, suggesting Africa was the sole birthplace of language. Historical linguistics has been able to pull off some absolutely incredible feats of language reconstruction –…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Apr 14

Mummies reveal Ancient Egyptian heart disease epidemic

Although Egyptian hieroglyphics depict a noble class that was forever beautiful and healthy, ancient records tell a far different story, of an aristocracy riddled with heart disease. And now preserved mummy hearts are revealing the full extent of the phenomenon. Egyptian doctors left papyrus records of the basic symptoms of angina, heart attacks, and congestive…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Apr 4

Humanity’s first beer is an archaeological mystery

For nearly as long as humans have walked the Earth, they’ve had beer waiting for them when they got home. Beer and brewing date back thousands of years, but it’s still anyone’s guess which ancient culture drank the first beer. UC Berkeley anthropologist Christine Harstorf discussed just this conundrum in a recent lecture at New…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Mar 28

Ancient Brits were carving reindeer art 15,000 years ago

The Lost City of Pompeii: Pictures of an Alien World, Frozen in Time

Zora Neale Hurston, Zombie Hunter

Our hominid ancestors were walking like us nearly 4 million years ago

Taiwan’s funeral strippers dance for a dead crowd

Fierce, fashionable Vikings filed their teeth and ironed their clothes

Ancient graves suggest that family didn’t really matter 9,000 years ago

Should we dig up Shakespeare’s body to find out if he smoked pot?

Our most ancient hominoid ancestors first left Africa 17 million years ago

The oldest art in the Americas depicts a 13,000 year old mammoth

Fossilized teeth reveal that ancient women had to leave home to find mates

Take a look at the world’s oldest mathematical object

Dunbar’s Number proves that you can’t realistically follow more than 150 friends on Twitter

Mummies reveal that ancient irrigation created modern plague

3500-year-old mummy of an Egyptian princess reveals the first known case of coronary artery disease

Grass-eating hominid was the primate equivalent of a cow

Neanderthals might have believed in the spiritual world before Homo sapiens did

Language may have developed for the first and only time 100,000 years ago

Mummies reveal Ancient Egyptian heart disease epidemic

Humanity’s first beer is an archaeological mystery

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