For Those Interested in Archaeology

"The first people to step foot in the Americas were harboring a sliver of DNA from two extinct Eurasian human groups: the Neanderthals and the Denisovans, a new study finds. This genetic relic could have helped the earliest Americans fight diseases they encountered in their new environment, the researchers proposed.
Everyone alive today is "a result of like three different species coming together," study co-author Fernando Villanea, a population geneticist at the University of Colorado Boulder, told Live Science.
"What we think has happened is that humans had this archaic variation," study co-author Emilia Huerta-Sanchez, a population geneticist at Brown University, told Live Science. As people expanded into the Americas, they did not have to wait to develop new mutations to fight off new pathogens and could instead draw from the arsenal of genetic variants they gained from other human groups, she said.
In the new study, published Thursday (Aug. 21) in the journal Science, the researchers detailed their analysis of MUC19, a protein-coding gene with various functions, including coding for the consistency of mucus. They found that 1 in 3 Mexicans alive today has an MUC19 gene similar to that of Denisovans, a mysterious group of ancient humans who lived throughout Asia from about 200,000 to 30,000 years ago."
The first Americans had Denisovan DNA. And it may have helped them survive.

 

27 August 2025
Scottish Field Encapsulates 10,000 Years of Local History
Early Harvesting Technology in Uzbek Cave Complicates Narrative About Spread of Agriculture
3,000-Year-Old Conical Axe Believed to Have Fallen from the Sky: Possibly Made from Meteorite
Significant Early Christian Discovery: 1,500-Year-Old Cathedral and Baptistery Unearthed Beneath Marketplace

 

29 August 2025
Newly uncovered medieval document adds evidence that Shroud of Turin is fake
8,800-Year-Old Settlement on Aegean Island Imbros Reveals Early Architecture Before the Minoans
Deciphered Herculaneum Papyrus Reveals Location of Plato’s Grave, Archaeologist Claims

 

1 September 2025
Those paintings belong to us': How an indigenous-led project is harnessing technology to protect Kakadu's rock art
3,800-year-old sculpture found in Peru reveals ancient civilization's desperate plea for survival
Iraq's water crisis reveals ancient secrets buried for 2,300 years
Archaeologists uncover site that could be older than Göbeklitepe

 

400,000 years is a massive jump - I predicted at least 500,000 years quite a while ago as this made more sense to me...We are not far off that mark. Interesting that they say there is evidence of trade...Who are they trading with 400k years ago??

 

400,000 years is a massive jump - I predicted at least 500,000 years quite a while ago as this made more sense to me...We are not far off that mark. Interesting that they say there is evidence of trade...Who are they trading with 400k years ago??

 

I would think any trade routes would be pretty long distance.

 

11 September 2025
The newly discovered desert city that's rewriting the history of the Americas
2,400-Year-Old Greek-Era Tomb Discovered in Manduria, Southern Italy
6,500-Year-Old Mysterious Earthwork Circles Unearthed in Austria
Metals reveal trade in Bronze Age more connected than previously thought
A Late Bronze Age foreign elite? German burial mounds reveal long-distance travelers
Britain's economy did not collapse after the Romans left, sediment core analysis finds
Under La Rambla's makeover, a 50-meter stretch of Barcelona's 14th-century defenses is revealed
New reconstructions show piercing eyes of men who lived 2,500 years ago in mysterious Indian civilization
Ancient inscriptions found on summit of Phu Khat Mountain

 

"A million-year-old human skull found in China suggests that our species, Homo sapiens, began to emerge at least half a million years earlier than we thought, researchers are claiming in a new study.
It also shows that we co-existed with other sister species, including Neanderthals, for much longer than we've come to believe, they say.
The scientists claim their analysis "totally changes" our understanding of human evolution and, if correct, it would certainly rewrite a key early chapter in our history.
But other experts in a field where disagreement over our emergence on the planet is rife, say that the new study's conclusions are plausible but far from certain.
The discovery, published in the leading scientific journal Science, shocked the research team, which included scientists from a university in China and the UK's Natural History Museum.
"From the very beginning, when we got the result, we thought it was unbelievable. How could that be so deep into the past?" said Prof Xijun Ni of Fudan University, who co-led the analysis.
"But we tested it again and again to test all the models, use all the methods, and we are now confident about the result, and we're actually very excited."
When scientists found the skull, named Yunxian 2, they assumed it belonged to an earlier ancestor of ours, Homo erectus, the first large-brained humans. That's because it dated back about a million years, long before more advanced humans were thought to have emerged.
Homo erectus eventually evolved and began to diverge 600,000 years ago into Neanderthals and our species – Homo sapiens.
But the new analysis of Yunxian 2, which has been reviewed by experts independent of the research team, suggests that it is not Homo erectus.
It is now thought to be an early version of Homo longi, a sister species at similar levels of development to Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
Genetic evidence suggests it existed alongside them, so if Yunxian 2 walked the Earth a million years ago, say the scientists, early versions of Neanderthal and our own species probably did too.
This startling analysis has dramatically shifted the timeline of the evolution of large-brained humans back by at least half a million years, according to Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, a co-lead on the research.
He said there are likely to be million year-old fossils of Homo sapiens somewhere on our planet - we just haven't found them yet."
Million-year-old skull rewrites human evolution, say scientists - BBC News

 

29 September 2025
Lost Kingdom of Purušhanda? Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Ovens and Hearths in Üçhöyük, Türkiye
Vietnam’s Nguom Rock Roof: A 124,000-Year-Old Paleolithic Site of Global Significance
Roman Harbor Structures in the Maas: Underwater Excavation Yields Rare Finds – Live Streamed
Forget Barter: Ancient Tally Sticks Rewrite the True Story of Money

 

Good stuff! Thanks Gordon

 

Cheers!

 

10 October 2025
Ancient Fortress Found in the Heart of Greece’s Pindus Mountains
Development of new grouting material offers solution to ancient grotto erosion
Rare disease possibly identified in 12th century child's skeletal remains
Archaeologists uncover ancient Greek graffiti in Crimea

 

23 October 2025
First-Ever Assyrian Inscription From First Temple Period Unearthed in Jerusalem
Tracing Royal Highways: How the Persians Moved an Empire
Alabaster Vase Inscribed in Four Ancient Languages Reveals the Use of Opiates in Egypt
Neanderthals and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers shaped European landscapes long before agriculture, study reveals
Discovery reveals arsenical bronze production on Egypt's Elephantine Island during the Middle Kingdom
Stone tools trace Paleolithic Pacific migration into North America
3D models preserve threatened Buddhist temples in Western Himalayas -
Ancient skeletons yield the first hormonal evidence of reproductive life
Mursa's mass grave reveals diverse origins of Roman soldiers
Three Shipwrecks Discovered Off the Coast of Israel Shed New Light on the History of Iron Age Maritime Trade
Traces of prehistoric tombs and settlements excavated on Northern Herm
Rare silver-tipped stylus among new discoveries at the “Gates of Heaven”