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American cannibals

By Stephen Ornes / May 8, 2013

Artists and scientists worked together to create this sculpture that shows what Jane, a colonial American, might have looked like. A study of the teen’s remains indicates she was cannibalized after she died. Credit: StudioEIS, Don Hurlbert/Smithsonian

Skull fragment suggests starving colonists may have eaten one of their own

Posted in Ancient Times | Tagged anthropology, archaeology, bones, cannibal, cannibalism, colonial, Douglas Owsley, forensics, getinvolved, history, hunger, James Horn, Jamestown, Jamestown Rediscovery Archaeological Project, shin, skull, Smithsonian Institution, starvation, topstories, William Kelso, Williamsburg

Cool Jobs: Museum science

By Sharon Oosthoek / February 27, 2013

Royal Ontario Museum scientist Oliver Haddrath must wear protective clothing when working with ancient DNA. This ensures his DNA doesn’t get mixed up with the genetic material he is analyzing. Credit: Royal Ontario Museum

Samples collected long ago may hold answers to important questions in science and medicine today

Posted in Ancient Times, Animals, STEM Careers | Tagged Adaptation, ancient DNA, anthropology, antibody, arenavirus, British Museum, Charles Fulhorst, collections, computed tomography, cool jobs, crime scene, CSI, CT scan, Daniel Antoine, deer mouse, Egypt, evolution, feature, flightless birds, forensics, hantavirus, holdings, moa, mummy, Museums, Oliver Haddrath, outbreaks, pack rat, Robert Baker, Robert Bradley, rodents, Royal Ontario Museum, Texas Tech, tinamou, topstories, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, viral RNA, virus, X-ray

Shoulder bones fuel debate

By Stephen Ornes / November 16, 2012

This shoulder blade is from a 3-year-old humanlike female who lived more than 3 million years ago. Scientists are studying the fossil to learn whether the creature climbed trees. Credit: Courtesy of Zeresenay Alemseged/Dikika Research Project

Fossil shoulder blades suggest an ancient humanlike species may have been at home in the trees as well as on the ground

Posted in Ancient Times | Tagged adaption, Alemseged, anthropology, Australopithecus afarensis, Big Man, California Academy of Sciences, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, David Green, fossils, getinvolved, great apes, hominids, human origins, humanlike, Lucy, Midwestern University, paleontology, primate evolution, scapula, Selam, shoulder blade, topstories, trees, Yohannes Haile-Selassie

Building Stonehenge

By Stephen Ornes / September 27, 2012

Stonehenge may have been built by animal herders, not farmers, according to a new study. Credit: Matthew Brennan

A new study of ancient crops may identify the laborers behind Britain’s most famous stone monument

Posted in Ancient Times | Tagged Alasdair Whittle, ancient people, archaeology, Cardiff University, Chris Stevens, climate change, cultivators, Dorian Fuller, farmers, farming, getinvolved, Great Britain, herders, hunter-gatherers, livestock, pastoralist, prehistory, Stonehenge, University College London, Wessex Archaeology

The origins of mummies

By Stephen Ornes / August 27, 2012

South America’s Chinchorro people mummified their dead long before the ancient Egyptians. One of the Chinchorro methods used human-hair wigs and red dye made from ochre. Credit: Bernardo Arriaza

Scientists speculate on why ancient South Americans started preserving their dead

Posted in Ancient Times | Tagged ancient people, anthropology, Chile, culture, Daniel Sandweiss, desert, ecology, environment, getinvolved, mummification, mummy, Pablo Marquet, Peru, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, preservation, religion, South America, topstories, University of Maine in Orono

DNA hints at ancient cousins

By Roberta Kwok / August 17, 2012

By analyzing the DNA of some modern-day Africans, scientists have found that our ancestors may have mated with an unknown, humanlike species thousands of years ago. Credit: Courtesy of Sarah Tishkoff

Scientists find evidence of an extinct humanlike species within modern-day Africans

Posted in Ancient Times | Tagged Africans, Cameroon, DNA, getinvolved, Hadza, Harvard Medical School, hominids, Homo sapiens sapiens, Joseph Pickrell, modern humans, Neandertals, Pygmies, Sandawe, Sarah Tishkoff, University of Pennsylvania

World’s oldest pots

By Erin Wayman / July 6, 2012

One of many 20,000-year-old pottery fragments found in a Chinese cave. Credit: Science/AAAS

Ice age people made cookware long before the rise of farming

Posted in Ancient Times | Tagged alcohol, Anna Belfer-Cohen, archaeology, Asia, bone marrow, cave, China, clay, cooking, farming, getinvolved, humans, hunter-gatherers, ice age, pot, pottery, T. Douglas Price, Xianrendong Cave, Xiaohong Wu, Zhijun Zhao

Hobbits: Our tiny cousins

By Karl Gruber / April 25, 2012

Skeletal remains of ancient human relatives found in Indonesia are challenging some long-accepted “truths” about human evolution

Posted in Ancient Times | Tagged feature

Becoming human

By Stephen Ornes / April 4, 2012

Climate may have influenced the evolution of humans and other humanlike species

Posted in Ancient Times, Humans & Health | Tagged getinvolved

Genes tell old story

By Stephen Ornes / December 21, 2011

Ancient cells hold evidence of a massive die-off of Native Americans

Posted in Ancient Times | Tagged getinvolved

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