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Cultures News -- ScienceDaily
Cultures of the World. News and findings about early human cultures. Learn about trading, colonization, early language development and the showoff hypothesis.

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Research \'final nail in the coffin\' of Paranthropus as hard object feeders
'); document.write('New research debunks a long-held belief about our ancestors\' eating habits.'); document.write('
Why weren\'t New World rabbits domesticated?
'); document.write('Rabbits were raised for over a thousand years in Mexico without becoming domesticated. A new study finds that their solitary lifestyle and greater species diversity made domestication unlikely.'); document.write('
Using archeology to better understand climate change
'); document.write('Anthropologists, geographers and earth scientists look to the past to assess how different cultures have - and will - adapt to global warming.'); document.write('
Ancient ostrich eggshell reveals new evidence of extreme climate change thousands of years ago
'); document.write('Evidence from an ancient eggshell has revealed important new information about the extreme climate change faced by human early ancestors.'); document.write('
Canine feces reveal more about 17th century working sled dogs
'); document.write('Proteins from frozen canine faeces have been successfully extracted for the first time to reveal more about the diets of Arctic sled dogs.'); document.write('
Neanderthal artists? Bones decorated over 50,000 years ago
'); document.write('Since the discovery of the first fossil remains, the image of the Neanderthal has been one of a primitive hominin. People have known for a long time that Neanderthals were able to fashion tools and weapons. But could they also make jewellery or even art? Researchers analyzed a new find from the Unicorn Cave in the Harz Mountains in Germany and conclude that Neanderthals had remarkable cognitive abilities.'); document.write('
Where are the Foreigners of the First International Age?
'); document.write('A new study reports genetic and oxygen and strontium isotopic data for individuals buried at Alalakh, finding little evidence for the foreigners mentioned in texts.'); document.write('
This 5,000-year-old man had the earliest known strain of plague
'); document.write('The oldest strain of Yersinia pestis -- the bacteria behind the plague that caused the Black Death, which may have killed as much as half of Europe\'s population in the 1300s -- has been found in the remains of a 5,000-year-old hunter-gatherer. A genetic analysis reveals that this ancient strain was likely less contagious and not as deadly as its medieval version.'); document.write('
A new type of Homo unknown to science
'); document.write('The bones of an early human, unknown to science, who lived in the Levant at least until 130,000 years ago, were discovered in excavations at the Nesher Ramla site, near the city of Ramla. Recognizing similarity to other archaic Homo specimens from 400,000 years ago, found in Israel and Eurasia, the researchers reached the conclusion that the Nesher Ramla fossils represent a unique Middle Pleistocene population, now identified for the first time.'); document.write('
Being Anglo-Saxon was a matter of language and culture, not genetics
'); document.write('Archaeologists have provided important new evidence to answer the question \'who exactly were the Anglo-Saxons?\' New findings based on studying skeletal remains clearly indicates the Anglo-Saxons were a melting pot of people from both migrant and local cultural groups and not one homogenous group from Western Europe.'); document.write('
Pleistocene sediment DNA from Denisova Cave
'); document.write('Researchers have analyzed DNA from 728 sediment samples from Denisova Cave. Their study provides unprecedented detail about the occupation of the site by both archaic and modern humans over 300,000 years. The researchers detected the DNA of Neandertals and Denisovans, the two forms of archaic hominins who inhabited the cave, and the DNA of modern humans who appeared around the time of the emergence of an archaeological culture called the Initial Upper Paleolithic around 45,000 years ago.'); document.write('
Did the ancient Maya have parks?
'); document.write('Researchers developed a novel system to analyze ancient plant DNA in the sediment of Tikal\'s temple and palace reservoirs to identify more than 30 species of trees, grasses, vines and flowering plants that lived along its banks more than 1,000 years ago. Their findings paint a picture of a lush, wild oasis in the ancient Maya city.'); document.write('
First evidence that medieval plague victims were buried individually with \'considerable care\'
'); document.write('DNA analysis has revealed the presence of \'Yersinia Pestis\' - the pathogen that causes plague - in skeletal remains from individual burials in medieval Cambridgeshire, confirming for the first time that not all plague victims were buried in mass graves. Compassion and care were shown to victims even during traumatic times during past pandemics.'); document.write('
Bronze Age Scandinavia\'s trading networks for copper
'); document.write('Five hundred years after the full implementation of copper technology in Scandinavia, the trade that brought the much needed copper to Denmark and southern Sweden also expanded across the Alps. At this time, Bronze Age Scandinavians already traded frequently in central Europe and across the North Sea.'); document.write('
Light in darkness: An experimental look at Paleolithic cave lighting
'); document.write('A recreation of three common types of Paleolithic lighting systems (torches, grease lamps, and fireplaces) illuminates how Paleolithic cave dwellers might have traveled, lived, and created in the depths of their caves, according to a new study.'); document.write('