Archaeology News 3d ago

Ancient DNA reveals male lineage and family ties in Neolithic Scotland tombs

New research from northern Scotland brings fresh detail to how early farming groups organized family ties and burial practices. Scientists studied ancient DNA from people buried in chambered tombs in Caithness and the Orkney Islands, dating from about 3800 to 3200 BCE...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2026/04/male-lineage-in-neolithic-scotland-tombs/

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Archaeology News 6d ago

Male Neanderthals and female humans shaped modern DNA through ancient interbreeding, study finds

Most people living outside Africa carry small traces of Neanderthal DNA. These inherited fragments appear across many human chromosomes. One part of the genome stands apart. The human X chromosome contains long regions where Neanderthal ancestry almost never appears...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2026/02/male-neanderthals-and-female-homo-sapiens/

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Archaeology News 6d ago

How ancient communities adapted their diets and farming strategies in prehistoric Poland

Archaeologists and bioarchaeologists have reconstructed three thousand years of diet and economy in Kuyavia, north-central Poland, tracing how communities adapted between about 4100 and 1230 BCE. The project examined 84 individuals from the Middle Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2026/02/farming-strategies-in-prehistoric-poland/

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Archaeology News May 21

40,000-year-old European engravings reveal structured sign systems, study finds

More than 40,000 years ago, people in Europe carved repeated lines, dots, notches, and crosses into tools and small sculptures. A new study argues these sequences were not random decoration. They formed structured sign systems with a measurable capacity to encode information...

More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2026/02/40000-year-old-engravings-structured-sign-systems/

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Anthropology.netMay 20
At a Svalbard burial site called Corpse Point, 17th-century whalers are melting out of the permafrost. Their bones document scurvy, spinal degeneration, and a brutal working life — but the textiles that dressed them are almost gone. #Bioarchaeology #ArcticHeritage #ClimateAndCulture https://www.anthropology.net/p/the-whalers-of-corpse-point-what
The Whalers of Corpse Point: What Melting Permafrost Is Erasing, and What Bones Remember

A burial ground in the High Arctic is disappearing — and the skeletons it holds tell a story of an industry that wore young men to nothing

Anthropology.net
Scientific FrontlineMay 18
A novel, nondestructive methodology utilizing dry cytology brushes to extract cellular and genetic material from ancient animal-skin parchments without compromising the physical integrity of the historical artifacts.
#MolecularGenetics #Bioarchaeology #VeterinaryGenetics #ForensicScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/05/gen05182601.html
Nondestructive Testing Paves Way for Genetic Analysis of Historical Parchments

Discover how non-invasive cytology swabbing and next-gen DNA sequencing extract historical genetic data from ancient parchments without damage.

Steven Saus [he/him]May 14

Neanderthals drilled cavities to treat a toothache 59,000 years ago

“Every time I go to the dentist, I think about that guy,” researcher says.

Archive: ia: https://s.faithcollapsing.com/ijqzs

#anthropology #archaeology #bioarchaeology #neanderthals #osteoarchaeology #paleoanthropology #science #teeth
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/05/neanderthals-drilled-cavities-to-treat-a-toothache-59000-years-ago/

Anthropology.netMay 12
Scurvy in the San Francisco Bay Area, in infants buried millennia ago. New bioarchaeology shows that in Late Holocene California, available food ≠ consumed food, especially for pregnant women. #Bioarchaeology #Paleopathology #IndigenousCalifornia https://www.anthropology.net/p/scurvy-in-the-land-of-plenty-pregnancy
Scurvy in the Land of Plenty: Pregnancy, Invisible Deficiency, and the Bones of Late Holocene California

Radiographic study reveals vitamin C deficiency in ancestral SF Bay Area mothers and infants, uncovering a nutritional crisis within a resource-rich landscape.

Anthropology.net
Archaeology News May 4

Earliest known burial in Northern Britain identified as young girl through DNA analysis

Archaeologists have identified the oldest human remains yet found in northern Britain as those of a young girl who lived more than 11,000 years ago. Her bones came from Heaning Wood Bone Cave near Great Urswick in Cumbria. Radiocarbon dates place her burial between 9290 and 8925 BCE...

More info: https://archaeologymag.com/2026/02/earliest-known-burial-in-northern-britain/

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Anthropology.netApr 18
A teenager buried in Qing dynasty China had an untreated cleft lip and palate. No malnutrition. A family tomb. Standard grave goods. The first case of its kind identified archaeologically in China. #Bioarchaeology #QingDynasty #Paleoanthropology https://www.anthropology.net/p/a-face-that-didnt-heal
A Face That Didn't Heal

A young man buried in Qing dynasty China challenges what we assume about disability, care, and belonging in premodern societies

Anthropology.net