Found in a cave in Indonesia, we can now show the world’s oldest figurative art is 51,200 years old
Researchers find the world's oldest figurative art in a cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Using a novel dating technique, they dated the painting to 51,200 years old.
Discarded ostrich shells provide timeline for our early African ancestors
Archaeologists have learned a lot about our ancestors by rummaging through their garbage piles. One common kitchen scrap in Africa– shells of ostrich eggs–is now helping unscramble the mystery of when these changes took place, providing a timeline for some of the earliest Homo sapiens who settled down to utilize marine food resources along the South African coast more than 100,000 years ago.
Fresh Clues to the Life and Times of the Denisovans
We know that some modern human genomes contain fragments of DNA from an ancient population of humans called Denisovans, the remains of which have been found at only one site, a cave in what is now Siberia. Two recent papers published in Nature give us a firmer understanding of when these little-known archaic hominins lived.
New Studies Reveal the History of Denisova Cave
An extinct branch of hominins called the Denisovans is one of the most elusive members of our extended family tree: So far there have been only four individuals found in a single Siberian cave. Now researchers have done the painstaking work of dating the fossils, sediments, and artifacts found in that famous cave, including what might be the first evidence for crafts made by our long-lost cousins.