Anthropology and Archaeology

US construction of a second southern border wall disturbs important archaeological sites

Fri, 08 May 2026 23:57:03 GMT

Ignoring protests from archaeologists and local Native Americans, a border wall construction crew knowingly cut a wide swath through a pre-Columbian geoglyph site. This is just one of many such impacts to archaeological sites by this project.

Genetic evidence suggests that human evolution accelerated with the development of agriculture

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 23:22:28 GMT

A study using ancient DNA has identified notable evolutionary adjustments to dietary, settlement, disease and other changes resulted from the adoption of agriculture in Western Eurasia.

US, Israel wreak further damage on Iran’s cultural heritage

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 02:19:42 GMT

The willful destruction of UNESCO World Heritage sites is a repudiation not only of international law but also of human civilization itself.

Bonobo demonstrates the cognitive ability to imagine “make believe” objects

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 01:39:00 GMT

Such capacity forms the evolutionary basis for abstract symbolic thought among humans.

New evidence for the earliest intentional human fire-making

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 03:07:52 GMT

The knowledge of how to make fire rather than relying on the exploitation of naturally occurring fire marked a key development in human cultural evolution.

Jane Goodall, the primatologist who revolutionized our understanding of chimpanzees and ourselves, dies at 91

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 03:55:53 GMT

Goodall demonstrated that the evolutionary origins of many basic human behaviors are shared with our closest biological relatives.

Manual dexterity and the human brain evolved together

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 01:51:19 GMT

A new study examines the evolutionary connection between the fine manipulation of objects and the associated development of mental control that are key to tool manufacturing and use by humans.

Trump administration attacks the preservation of archaeological resources

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 02:21:22 GMT

Funding and staff cuts will gut the protection of archaeological sites under the National Historic Preservation Act.

The origins of wealth inequality as reflected in the archaeological record

Wed, 07 May 2025 23:32:06 GMT

A major study using data from more than a thousand archaeological sites examines the transition from primitive egalitarianism to the first class societies around the world.

New discovery of ancient bone tools from East Africa reveals greater complexity in the evolution of early human technology

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 01:39:17 GMT

The manufacture and use of bone tools dates to a million years earlier than previously documented.

What makes human culture unique from culture of other animals?

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 01:14:29 GMT

New research identifies the distinguishing feature of human cultural behavior as its “open-endedness.”

Evolution of the human hand shows earlier use of tools than previously documented

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 01:59:31 GMT

New research provides strong evidence that the development of technology played a fundamental role in early human evolution.

Genetic makeup of modern Europeans derived through ancient migrations from Asia

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 01:57:39 GMT

The studies provide further confirmation that modern populations are the result of a complex mixing of migrants of varying origins and cultures that have nothing to do with the pseudo-concept of “race."

Earliest known example of a human-built wood structure, dating to nearly a half-million years ago, discovered in Africa

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 01:37:29 GMT

This discovery significantly pushes back the known evidence of wooden architecture and the investment by humans in permanent structures suggesting relatively more settled occupation at certain locations.

Contrasting inter-group behavior of our two closest evolutionary relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, provides possible insights to human evolution

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:23:37 GMT

Chimpanzees are aggressive toward chimps of other groups; bonobos of different groups engage in friendly and cooperative behavior toward each other.

Fossil discovery in China raises intriguing questions for human evolution

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 02:44:47 GMT

The fossil skull, including both jaw and cranium, appears to be from an intermediate form between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens.

A new interpretation regarding the origin of Homo sapiens

Mon, 29 May 2023 00:25:24 GMT

Our species, Homo sapiens, evolved not from a single, local population but from a broadly distributed, “stem” of genetically and culturally interacting populations.

An interview with Harvard anthropology Professor John Comaroff—Part two

Thu, 04 May 2023 21:38:20 GMT

We spoke recently to South African-born John Comaroff, the Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African-American Studies and of Anthropology, and Oppenheimer Research Fellow in African Studies, Harvard University. This is the second of two parts.

An interview with Harvard anthropology Professor John Comaroff—Part one

Wed, 03 May 2023 20:43:03 GMT

We spoke recently to South African-born John Comaroff, the Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African-American studies and of Anthropology, and Oppenheimer Research Fellow in African Studies, Harvard University.

New insight into the possible origin of chipped stone tool technology

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 01:45:07 GMT

The use of a hammer-and-anvil technique to crack nuts by monkeys and chimpanzees may represent the precursor of human stone tool technology.

Intriguing discovery of ancient tools, butchery, and hominin teeth in Kenya

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 02:48:09 GMT

The discoveries include evidence that Oldowan tools were used to cut and pound animal flesh far earlier than previously known.

Intact hominid skull found in China offers insights into human evolution

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 22:19:31 GMT

The most complete skull of Homo Erectus found in the east Asian region could well shed light on the complex evolutionary history of human beings.

Molar of ancient human Denisovan species discovered in northern Laos

Sun, 29 May 2022 23:37:12 GMT

The tooth of a young Denisovan female was found after local children directed archaeologists to a cave in northern Laos.

Chinese paleontologists discover fossilized remains of largest land mammal to ever inhabit the Earth

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 03:44:28 GMT

The giant Paraceratherium’s skull alone was roughly the size of a human torso while the animal’s shoulders would have reached five meters above the ground.

An interview with Professor Umberto Albarella on the closure of the University of Sheffield’s Archaeology department

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 23:41:44 GMT

The WSWS interviewed Umberto Albarella, a Professor of Zooarchaeology from the University of Sheffield’s Archaeology department, which is threatened with closure.

Priceless artefacts vandalised in Berlin museums

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 23:30:43 GMT

While the police investigate “in all directions,” there is considerable evidence to indicate the involvement of far-right forces in the attacks.

Social inequality in Early Bronze Age Europe

Tue, 12 Nov 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Genetic and archaeological data indicate that social stratification in Europe during the third and second millennium BC was more complex than previously thought, and may indicate the origins of later, slave-based ancient societies.

Stunning discovery of pre-human fossil skull in Ethiopia

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 05:00:00 GMT

As a near complete skull 3.8 million years old, the find opens the road to future research that will allow scientists to look back to more primitive species, while being able to reassess the transition to true humans.

New human species discovered in the Philippines

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 05:00:00 GMT

The latest find adds to our knowledge of the complex evolutionary path of human-like species and fills an important gap in our understanding.

Evidence of early rice domestication found in southern China

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 05:00:00 GMT

The process of rice domestication by humans involved a range of social and technological adjustments associated with increasing reliance on a particular food source.

Evolutionary divergence between apes and humans may have occurred in Europe, not Africa

Thu, 08 Jun 2017 05:00:00 GMT

Fossil specimens from Greece and Bulgaria may represent very early members of the hominin lineage.

New dating of Homo naledi fossil alters its position in the human evolutionary tree

Fri, 19 May 2017 05:00:00 GMT

A South African fossil hominin raises many intriguing questions about how the dialectic of technology, environment, and physical and intellectual development played out in human evolution.

Researchers claim evidence that humans were in the Americas 130,000 years ago

Mon, 01 May 2017 05:00:00 GMT

This claim is receiving wide attention because it is 115,000 years earlier than any date previously suggested for the peopling of the western hemisphere, based on existing evidence.

New fossil discovery may date origin of life on Earth earlier than previously known

Tue, 27 Sep 2016 05:00:00 GMT

The discovery of what appear to be stromatolites dating to 3.7 billion years ago in southwestern Greenland suggests that life first evolved in the first 500 million years after Earth’s formation.

New technologies expand knowledge of early art in North America

Mon, 29 Feb 2016 05:00:00 GMT

Early art produced more than 8,000 years ago has been identified in several states and provinces in Canada, the United States and Mexico by using new photographic technology.

The use of archaeology in Jerusalem as a political weapon

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 05:00:00 GMT

The actions taken by some Israeli archaeologists operating in East Jerusalem have been heavily criticized for using a selective view of history in order to marginalize local Palestinian communities and drive them from their homes.

Stone tools and the evolution of modern human cognition

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 05:00:00 GMT

A newly reported microlithic technology from a site in South Africa helps close the apparent temporal gap between the biological evolution of modern humans and the archaeological evidence of fully modern cognitive abilities.

The uncertain future of Pompeii’s extraordinary ruins

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:00:00 GMT

The ancient Roman town is in great danger due to years of under-funding and over-exploitation, producing widespread degradation and the collapse of ruins.

New hominin fossil finds in South Africa may fill a gap in the record of human evolution

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 05:00:00 GMT

A newly reported fossil discovery from the Malapa, South Africa may provide greater insight into the evolution of the genus Homo from our australopithecine ancestors. The fossils consist of remains of two individuals, an adult female and juvenile male, possibly a mother and son.

Mass Viking grave identified in southern England

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Archaeologists have discovered a mass grave of decapitated Vikings on the southern coast of England dating from AD 910-AD1034. Scientists think they may have been caught and killed by locals.

Scientists find evidence of cannibalism in Palaeolithic Britain

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 05:00:00 GMT

The alternation of glacial and warmer periods conditioned the prehistory of what is now Britain.

US occupation caused “major damage” to historic site in Iraq

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:00:00 GMT

UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, has issued a report outlining the extensive damage caused by US occupation forces in Iraq to the archeological site of ancient Babylon.