hunter-gatherers

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Alaskan Site Revives Land Bridge Theory


Alaskan Site Revives
Land Bridge Theory
NEW STUDY
Feb 3, 2026 7:18 AM CST

Alaskan Site Revives Land Bridge Theory

Study argues descendants of Siberian hunters carried tool-making techniques south from Alaska

(Newser) - A quiet stretch of Alaska's interior may hold new clues to how people pushed into the Americas roughly 14,000 years ago. In a study in Quaternary International , researchers say stone and ivory tools uncovered at the Holzman archaeological site in the Tanana Valley appear to bridge an important...

This African Poison Has Been Used for 60K Years
This African Poison Has
Been Used for 60K Years
NEW STUDY
Jan 8, 2026 7:51 AM CST

This African Poison Has Been Used for 60K Years

Chemical analysis of arrow tips reveals plant-based toxins used by hunter-gatherers

(Newser) - The oldest known poisoned weapon was 7,000 years old—until a recent analysis on arrow tips in South Africa pushed the date back more than 50,000 years. The analysis of the stone tips previously excavated from the Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter in KwaZulu-Natal has turned up chemical traces of...

It's the Oldest Evidence Yet of Human Mummification

Researchers trace smoke-drying burials in Asia back 14K years

(Newser) - Ten thousand years before ancient Egyptians began mummifying their dead, hunter-gatherers in Asia were smoke-drying the bodies of loved ones, a discovery that is rewriting the history of human mummification. Scientists have uncovered what they believe to be the oldest evidence of human mummification—specifically, smoke-dried mummies—in parts...

They May Have Been First in South America, Disappeared

Remains in Colombia reveal isolated group with no known descendants

(Newser) - Colombian researchers have identified a previously unknown human lineage after sequencing ancient DNA from remains unearthed near Bogota. The group, dubbed the Checua after the excavation site in Nemocon, is estimated to have lived about 6,000 years ago. While most other remains from the region share ancestry with...

It Could Be Europe's 'Oldest Man-Made Megastructure'
Beneath the Sea, an Ancient
'Man-Made Megastructure'
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Feb 17, 2024 12:10 PM CST

Beneath the Sea, an Ancient 'Man-Made Megastructure'

Stone Age wall found in sea off Germany thought to have been used to hunt reindeer

(Newser) - More than 10,000 years ago, humans constructed a long, low wall, using rocks weighing a combined 150 tons. Discovered by accident in 2021, the Blinkerwall—submerged 70 feet deep in the Baltic Sea, 6 miles off the coast of Rerik, Germany—is now a candidate for the oldest known...

Move Over Helicopter Parents. Meet the Hunter-Gatherers

New research looks at the benefits of more communal parenting styles

(Newser) - Move over helicopter parents , tiger moms , and bulldozer dads—a new parenting style (that's quite ancient, actually), would like to take the floor. According to the Hill , a new paper in Developmental Psychology takes a look at the merits of hunter-gatherer childrearing through observations of modern societies like the...

Earliest Human Writing Allegedly Found in Ice Age Cave Art
'Person Off the Street'
Discovers Earliest
Human Writing
in case you missed it
Jan 8, 2023 11:20 AM CST

'Person Off the Street' Discovers Earliest Human Writing

Furniture conservator Ben Bacon helps identify what's touted as ice age proto-writing

(Newser) - Recording the reproductive cycles of animals in cave art likely helped hunter-gatherers in Europe survive during the last ice age some 20,000 years ago, according to researchers—a discovery made in part by "effectively a person off the street." Londoner Ben Bacon was intrigued by small dots,...

Young Woman Made Mark as Early Big-Game Hunter
New Find Upends Thinking
on Early Big-Game Hunters
NEW STUDY
Nov 5, 2020 11:43 AM CST

New Find Upends Thinking on Early Big-Game Hunters

Researchers think up to 50% of such hunters in the Americas were female

(Newser) - Think the women of the ancient Americas were stuck crushing grain into flour while the men went hunting for big game? Researchers say you're wrong. "Early big-game hunting was likely gender neutral," reads a new study in Science Advances . The conclusion stems from a 9,000-year-old burial...

Florida Divers Bring Up Signs of People 14K Years Ago

'Bering Strait theory' takes another knock

(Newser) - What divers found in a Florida sinkhole may help overturn a long-held theory—that people first colonized the Americas thousands of years ago by crossing the Bering Strait, the Guardian reports. Scientists say that fossilized dung, mastodon bones, and a stone knife discovered at the site near Tallahassee suggest people...

This May Be First Evidence of Hunter-Gatherer War
This May Be First Evidence
of Hunter-Gatherer War
NEW STUDY
Jan 21, 2016 12:49 PM CST

This May Be First Evidence of Hunter-Gatherer War

27 people killed in 10,000-year-old massacre in what is now Kenya

(Newser) - Scientists working on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya have uncovered a grisly scene : the bodies of 27 people, killed around 8,000BC. Experts say the spot, called Nataruk, may be the first to reveal evidence of a massacre—or perhaps even war—between two nomadic hunter-gatherer groups, one...

Maybe You Don't Need 8 Hours of Sleep After All
Maybe You Don't Need 8 Hours of Sleep After All
in case you missed it
Oct 18, 2015 7:04 AM CDT

Maybe You Don't Need 8 Hours of Sleep After All

New research sheds light on sleeping patterns of our ancient ancestors

(Newser) - You've heard of the Paleo diet, but the next big thing in health may well be the Paleo sleep schedule. A UCLA researcher studied three hunter-gatherer and hunter-farmer groups—the Hadza in Tanzania, San in Namibia, and Tsimane in Bolivia, "who live roughly the same lifestyle humans did...

4K-Year-Old Home Turns Up in Ohio

Hunter-gatherers apparently lived there during colder months

(Newser) - One tribe lived in Ohio so long ago we don't even have a name for them. Archaeologists recently uncovered one of their 4,000-year-old homes in Lorain County and say it belonged to hunter-gatherers who visited periodically during the fall and winter, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. "There'...

How 'Pygmy' People's Rampant Pot Use Protects Them

May lower rates of infection by parasitic intestinal worms: study

(Newser) - Marijuana was a painkiller in ancient Egypt and an anesthetic in ancient China and Taiwan, Medical Daily reports. Now, an anthropologist says the Aka foragers of the Central African Republic may be unconsciously using the plant to ward off parasitic intestinal worms. Ed Hagen of Washington State University Vancouver surveyed...

Elephant Ancestor's Bones Alter Our Continent's History

Gomphotheres appear to have roamed North America as recently as 13,400 years ago

(Newser) - North America's prehistoric Clovis people were known hunters of large mammoths and mastodons. But another elephant ancestor, the smaller gomphothere, may also have fallen prey to the ambitious hunter-gatherers. An archaeological dig begun in 2007 in northwestern Mexico now carbon dates that site—which has given up Clovis spear...

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