An early example of fake news has been found in the 3000-year-old Babylonian story of Noah and the Ark, which is widely believed to have inspired the Biblical tale. Nine lines etched on ancient clay tablets that tell the Gilgamesh Flood story can now be understood in very different ways – according to a Cambridge academic.
Coprolites from the Must Farm archaeological excavation in East Anglia shows the prehistoric inhabitants were infected by parasitic worms that can be spread by eating raw fish, frogs and shellfish.
Algorithms reveal “social tiers” in gorillas seen in only a few other species, such as dolphins and humans. Researchers suggest that some of these social bonds may be analogous to “old friendships” and “tribes” in humans.
Hunter-gatherers in the Philippines who convert to farming work around ten hours a week longer than their forager neighbours, a new study suggests, complicating the idea that agriculture represents progress. The research also shows that the adoption of agriculture impacts most on the lives of women.
As the UK marks Black History Month, researchers from across the University talk about their route to Cambridge, their inspiration and their motivation.
New findings suggest that the male body tries to “optimise” self-perceived improvements in social status through hormonal shifts that promote “short-term mating”.
New DNA analysis reveals that, before their mysterious disappearance, the Norse colonies of Greenland had a “near monopoly” on Europe’s walrus ivory supply. An overreliance on this trade may have contributed to Norse Greenland’s collapse when the medieval market declined.
New research using ancient DNA finds that a population split after people first arrived in North America was maintained for millennia before mixing again before or during the expansion of humans into the southern continent.
Artefacts revealed by melting ice patches in the high mountains of Oppland shed new light on ancient high-altitude hunting.
New excavations on the remote island of Keros reveal monumental architecture and technological sophistication at the dawn of the Cycladic Bronze Age.
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