Topic description and stories

Stone tools from Oued Beht

Previously unknown Neolithic society in Morocco discovered

26 Sep 2024

Multi-disciplinary archaeological survey at the site of Oued Beht, Morocco, reveals a previously unknown 3400–2900 BC farming society, shedding new...

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Image from the Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments project.

Arcadia awards over £10 million for 2 major archaeology projects

20 Aug 2024

The charitable foundation awards £10.3 million for the continuation of 2 Cambridge projects mapping endangered archaeological heritage in South Asia...

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Revealed: face of 75,000-year-old female Neanderthal from cave where species buried their dead

02 May 2024

A new documentary has recreated the face of a 75,000-year-old female Neanderthal whose flattened skull was discovered and rebuilt from hundreds of...

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A cast of the skull of Homo Heidelbergensis, one of the hominin species analysed in the latest study.

Interspecies competition led to even more forms of ancient human – defying evolutionary trends in vertebrates

17 Apr 2024

Competition between species played a major role in the rise and fall of hominins, and produced a “bizarre” evolutionary pattern for the Homo lineage.

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Photographs of the four awardees

Four Cambridge researchers awarded prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grants

11 Apr 2024

The funding provides leading senior researchers with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major...

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‘Cosy domesticity’ of prehistoric Fenland stilt-house dwellers

20 Mar 2024

Detailed reports on thousands of artefacts pulled from “Britain’s Pompeii” reveals the surprisingly sophisticated domestic lives of Bronze Age Fen...

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Remains of the theatre at Interamna Lirenas, Italy

Roman ‘backwater’ bucked Empire’s decline, archaeologists reveal

12 Dec 2023

A rare roofed theatre, markets, warehouses, a river port and other startling discoveries made by a Cambridge-led team of archaeologists challenge...

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‘Bone biographies’ reveal life and times of medieval England’s common people

01 Dec 2023

Researchers have given medieval Cambridge residents the ‘Richard III treatment’ to reveal the hard-knock lives of those who lived in the city during...

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A cross-section of the polygonal muscle modelling approach, guided by muscle scarring and MRI data.

First hominin muscle reconstruction shows 3.2 million-year-old ‘Lucy’ could stand as erect as we can

14 Jun 2023

Digital modelling of legendary fossil’s soft tissue suggests Australopithecus afarensis had powerful leg and pelvic muscles suited to tree dwelling...

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The toilet seat from the estate at Armon ha-Natziv. The site, excavated in 2019, probably dates from the days of King Manasseh, a client king for the Assyrians who ruled for fifty years in the mid-7th century.

Early toilets reveal dysentery in Old Testament Jerusalem

26 May 2023

Study of 2,500-year-old latrines from the biblical Kingdom of Judah shows the ancient faeces within contain Giardia – a parasite that can cause...

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A section through the Dharamjali stalagmite that the authors studied.

Prolonged droughts likely spelled the end for Indus megacities

26 Apr 2023

New research involving Cambridge University has found evidence — locked into an ancient stalagmite from a cave in the Himalayas — of a series of...

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Kourion, Cyprus. Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

Fitzwilliam Museum prepares to launch Islanders exhibition

15 Feb 2023

The Fitzwilliam's major new exhibition, the culmination of a three-year research project, explores the evolution of island identity on Cyprus, Crete...

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