Topic description and stories

Right: Exterior of Devil’s Gate, the cave in the Primorye region near the far eastern coast of Russia. Left: One of the skulls found in the Devil’s Gate cave from which ancient DNA used in the study was extracted.

Ancient DNA reveals 'genetic continuity’ between Stone Age and modern populations in East Asia

01 Feb 2017

In contrast to Western Europeans, new research finds contemporary East Asians are genetically much closer to the ancient hunter-gatherers that lived...

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Kosenki fossil skull, and and illustration of the Kosteni find

Ancient DNA shows earliest European genomes weathered the ice age, and shines new light on Neanderthal interbreeding and a mystery human lineage

06 Nov 2014

A genome taken from a 36,000 year old skeleton reveals an early divergence of Eurasians once they had left Africa, and allows scientists to better...

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Palimpsest of the Jerusalem Talmud (copy from c.10th century) over the top of a 6th-century Christian work in Aramaic

1,000 years of history to be digitised following unique appeal

09 Dec 2013

A campaign to save ancient documents chronicling 1,000 years of history has succeeded after £1.2m was raised by the universities of Cambridge and...

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Detail from the tablet found at Ziyaret Tepe. Inscribed with Cuneiform characters, the tablet consists of a list of women's names, many of which appear to be from a previously unknown language.

Archaeologists discover lost language

10 May 2012

Evidence for a forgotten ancient language which dates back more than 2,500 years, to the time of the Assyrian Empire, has been found by...

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Herodotus

Hay gears up for Greek marathon

23 Apr 2012

Following a successful talk at Hay in 2010, Professor Paul Cartledge will be playing a major part in a series of 10 discussions on Ancient Greece at...

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Pompeii.

“Classics Question Time” to reveal enduring lessons from the ancient world

08 Jul 2011

Latin-lovers, Greek fanatics and anyone with a passing interest in the ancient world will have a unique opportunity to put their questions to the...

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Michael Scott.

How luxury became a four-letter word

27 Jun 2011

A new series presented by Michael Scott examines the history of luxury and the origins of our ambivalent attitude to the finer things in life.

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Leonardo Da Vinci's depiction of the Last Supper

The Penultimate Supper?

17 Apr 2011

The Last Supper of Jesus Christ was on the Wednesday, and not the Thursday, before his death, according to a new study which claims to have solved “...

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Dying Gaul from behind

How ancient Roman teens had it tough too

19 Apr 2010

Professor Kathleen Coleman, Professor of Latin at Harvard University and renowned author on Latin literature and history will give Newnham's biennial...

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Frowned Upon

Greeks uncorked French passion for wine

23 Oct 2009

Professor Paul Cartledge finds that the Greeks, a people rarely known for their wine-making skills, nevertheless laid the foundations for the...

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Athens acropolis

The Athenians: Another warning from history?

02 Oct 2009

The collapse of Greek democracy 2,400 years ago occurred in circumstances so similar to our own it could be read as a dark and often ignored lesson...

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