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Categories: Anthropology: Cultures, Archaeology: General

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In 2004, construction workers in Norwich, UK, unearthed human skeletal remains that led to a historical mystery -- at least 17 bodies at the bottom of a medieval well. Using archeological records, historical documents, and ancient DNA, British researchers have now identified the individuals to be a group of Ashkenazi Jews who may have fallen victim to antisemitic violence during the 12th century. Their findings shed new light on Jewish medical history in Europe.

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A vast paleogenetic study reveals insights on migration patterns, the expansion of farming and language development from the Caucasus over western Asia and Southern Europe from the early Copper Age until the late middle ages.

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Using new scientific tools, archaeologists discovered that an ancient Greek leader known today as the Griffin Warrior likely grew up around the seaside city he would one day rule. The findings are part of three new studies that examined the ancient DNA of the Griffin Warrior and 726 other people who lived before and during the Bronze Age to learn more about their origins and movements across three continents surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

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Scientists investigating the remains of an old wooden ship off the cold, windy coast of far southern Argentina say it almost certainly is the Dolphin, a globe-trotting whaling ship from Warren, R.I., lost in 1859. Archaeologists have spent years researching the ship's origin without making a definitive identification, but a new analysis of tree rings in its timbers has provided perhaps the most compelling evidence yet.

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By analyzing DNA with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), an international research team has developed a method that can accurately date up to ten-thousand year-old human remains.

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A modern scientific analysis of ancient stone tools is challenging long-held beliefs about what caused radical change on the island of Crete, where the first European state flourished during the Bronze Age: the 'Minoan civilization.'

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Research has established that there are traces of Neandertal DNA in the genome of modern humans. Now an exploratory study that assessed the facial structure of prehistoric skulls is offering new insights, and supports the hypothesis that much of this interbreeding took place in the Near East -- the region ranging from North Africa to Iraq.

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Research examining traces of parasites in medieval Cambridge residents suggests that monks were almost twice as likely as ordinary townspeople to have intestinal worms -- despite monasteries of the period typically having far more sanitary facilities.

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A new study into the multipurpose uses of boomerangs has highlighted the hardwood objects were used to shape the edges of stone tools used by Australian Indigenous communities.  The research demonstrated how boomerangs could function as lithic (or stone) tool retouchers by investigating the use-wear generated on the boomerangs' surfaces during retouching activities. It was found that these use-wear impacts on boomerangs comparable to those observed on Paleolithic bone retouching tools, which date back to more than 200,000 years ago.

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New research has provided the strongest evidence yet that Earth's continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts that were particularly prevalent during the first billion years or so of our planet's four-and-a-half-billion year history.

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Researchers find that stem cells in the developing brain of modern humans take longer to divide and make fewer errors when distributing their chromosomes to their daughter cells, compared to those of Neanderthals.

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An archaeological study has determined that cowrie-shell artifacts found throughout the Mariana Islands were lures used for hunting octopuses and that the devices, similar versions of which have been found on islands across the Pacific, are the oldest known artifacts of their kind in the world.

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Feral horses have roamed freely across the island of Assateague off the coast of Maryland and Virginia for hundreds of years, but exactly how they got there has remained a mystery. In a new study, ancient DNA extracted from a 16th century cow tooth from one of Spain's first Caribbean colonies turns out to be from a horse. Analysis of the DNA suggest that old folk tales claiming that horses were marooned on Assateague following the shipwreck of a Spanish galleon are likely more fact than fiction.

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A newly identified 16th century horse specimen is among the oldest domestic horses from the Americas known to date, and its DNA helps clarify the history of horses in the Western Hemisphere, according to a new study.

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Beaver fur was a symbol of wealth and an important trade item in 10th Century Denmark, according to a new study.

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Several 1700 years old decorative mosaic floors have been excavated in a luxury villa located in present-day Turkey, once overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. New chemical analyzes reveal that recycled glass was used in laying the mosaic floors.

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The mountain fortress of Rabana-Merquly in modern Iraqi Kurdistan was one of the major regional centers of the Parthian Empire, which extended over parts of Iran and Mesopotamia approximately 2,000 years ago. The researchers studied the remains of the fortress.

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For the first time, researchers successfully sequenced the genome of ancient human fossils from the Late Pleistocene in southern China. The data suggests that the mysterious hominin belonged to an extinct maternal branch of modern humans that might have contributed to the origin of Native Americans.

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Researchers recently discovered rare deep-sea brine pools in the Gulf of Aqaba, a northern extension to the Red Sea. These salty underwater lakes hold secrets into the way oceans on Earth formed millions of years ago, and offer clues to life on other planets.

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After more than a decade of research, scientists share what they have learned about the people who lived on a stretch of coastline in Quintana Roo Mexico over a span of 3,000 years.