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Categories: Anthropology: Cultures, Geoscience: Geomagnetic Storms
Published Mesopotamian bricks unveil the strength of Earth's ancient magnetic field



Ancient bricks inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings have yielded important insights into a mysterious anomaly in Earth's magnetic field 3,000 years ago, according to a new study.
Published 'A ticking clock': First ground-based survey of damage to Ukrainian cultural sites reveals severity, need for urgency



And after nearly two years of fighting, war is destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage on a scale not seen since World War II, according to new research.
Published Archaeologists unearth one of earliest known frame saddles



Recovered from looters, a new archaeological discovery from a cave in western Mongolia could change the story of the evolving relationship between humans and horses around the world.
Published Rail industry urged to consider safety risks of space weather



Train accidents could be caused by solar storms switching signalling from red to green according to new research examining the impact of space weather. Solar storms can trigger powerful magnetic disturbances on Earth, creating geomagnetically induced currents which could potentially interfere with electricity transmission and distribution grids. A study of two rail lines showed that more serious 'wrong side' failures (red to green) could occur with a weaker solar storm than for 'right side' failures, posing a serious risk which the industry needs to take on board.
Published When is an aurora not an aurora?



While auroras occur at high latitude, the associated phenomena Steve and the picket fence occur farther south and at lower altitude. Their emissions also differ from aurora. A physics graduate student has proposed a physical mechanism behind these emissions, and a rocket launch to test the theory. She argues that an electric field in the upper atmosphere parallel to Earth's magnetic field could explain the green picket fence spectrum and perhaps Steve and the enhanced aurora.
Published One of the largest magnetic storms in history quantified: Aurorae covered much of the night sky from the Tropics to the Polar Regions



An international multidisciplinary team consisting of solar physicists, geophysicists, and historians from nine countries analysed observations of an extreme solar-terrestrial storm reported in historical records from February 1872. Their findings confirm that a moderate sunspot group triggered one of the largest magnetic storms ever recorded, almost covering the entire night sky with colourful aurorae in both hemispheres. If such an extreme storm occurred today, it would severely disrupt modern technological infrastructure. Their study emphasizes the importance of looking at historical records in light of modern scientific knowledge.
Published Paleolithic humans may have understood the properties of rocks for making stone tools



Research suggests that Paleolithic humans in the Middle East selected flint for their cutting tools based on differences in the mechanical properties of the rock. They seem to have purposefully selected the most suitable rocks for fashioning into tools, even being able to distinguish rocks that were unsuitable.
Published Study of ancient British oral microbiomes reveals shift following Black Death



The Second Plague Pandemic of the mid-14th century, also known as the Black Death, killed 30-60 percent of the European population and profoundly changed the course of European history. New research suggests that this plague, potentially through resulting changes in diet and hygiene, may also be associated with a shift in the composition of the human oral microbiome toward one that contributes to chronic diseases in modern-day humans.
Published Solar activity likely to peak next year



Researchers have discovered a new relationship between the Sun's magnetic field and its sunspot cycle, that can help predict when the peak in solar activity will occur. Their work indicates that the maximum intensity of solar cycle 25, the ongoing sunspot cycle, is imminent and likely to occur within a year.
Published Neanderthals were the world's first artists, research reveals



Recent research has shown that engravings in a cave in La Roche-Cotard (France), which has been sealed for thousands of years, were actually made by Neanderthals. The findings reveal that the Neanderthals were the first humans with an appreciation of art.
Published 'Woman the hunter': Studies aim to correct history



New research combined both physiological and archaeological evidence to argue that not only did prehistoric women engage in the practice of hunting, but their female anatomy and biology would have made them intrinsically better suited for it.
Published Radiocarbon dating meets Egyptology and Biblical accounts in the city of Gezer



New dates provide detailed insights into the timing of events in the ancient city of Gezer, according to a new study.
Published Long-distance weaponry identified at the 31,000-year-old archaeological site of Maisières-Canal



The hunter-gatherers who settled on the banks of the Haine, a river in southern Belgium, 31,000 years ago were already using spearthrowers to hunt their game. The material found at the archaeological site of Maisières-Canal permits establishing the use of this hunting technique 10,000 years earlier than the oldest currently known preserved spearthrowers. This discovery is prompting archaeologists to reconsider the age of this important technological innovation.
Published The importance of the Earth's atmosphere in creating the large storms that affect satellite communications



Large geomagnetic storms disrupt radio signals and GPS. Now, researchers have identified the previous underestimated role of the ionosphere, a region of Earth's upper atmosphere that contains a high concentration of ions and free electrons, in determining how such storms develop. Understanding the interactions that cause large geomagnetic storms is important because they can disrupt radio signals and GPS. Their findings may help predict storms with the greatest potential consequences.
Published In Prehispanic Cancun, immigrants were treated just like Maya locals



Ancient people immigrated to Cancun Island and were treated just like locals, according to a new study.
Published Climate change likely impacted human populations in the Neolithic and Bronze Age



Human populations in Neolithic Europe fluctuated with changing climates, according to a new study.
Published Solar farms in space are possible



It's viable to produce low-cost, lightweight solar panels that can generate energy in space, according to new research.
Published Challenging prehistoric gender roles: Research finds that women were hunters, too



Anthropologists challenge the traditional view of men as hunters and women as gatherers in prehistoric times. Their research reveals evidence of gender equality in roles and suggests that women were physically capable of hunting. The study sheds light on the gender bias in past research and calls for a more nuanced understanding of prehistoric gender roles.
Published Researchers identify the oldest pieces of Baltic amber found on the Iberian Peninsula: imports began over 5,000 years ago



Baltic amber is a luxury material used in jewellery and handicrafts all over the world. Researchers have shown that Baltic amber arrived on the Iberian Peninsula at least in the 4th millennium BC, more than a millennium earlier than previously thought.
Published The encounter between Neanderthals and Sapiens as told by their genomes



About 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals, who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years in the western part of the Eurasian continent, gave way to Homo sapiens, who had arrived from Africa. This replacement was not sudden, and the two species coexisted for a few millennia, resulting in the integration of Neanderthal DNA into the genome of Sapiens. Researchers have analyzed the distribution of the portion of DNA inherited from Neanderthals in the genomes of humans (Homo sapiens) over the last 40,000 years. These statistical analyses revealed subtle variations in time and geographical space.