Topic description and stories

Left: A view across a valley in the Messak landscape. Right: A Levallois core, a distinctive type of Middle Stone Age stone tool, recovered on the surface of the Messak

Saharan 'carpet of tools' is the earliest known man-made landscape

11 Mar 2015

Researchers used the new survey of the Messak Settafet to estimate that enough stone tools were discarded over the course of human evolution in...

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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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Prehistoric ‘book keeping’ continued long after invention of writing

14 Jul 2014

An ancient token-based recording system from before the dawn of history was rendered obsolete by the birth of writing, according to popular wisdom...

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The “wonderful rubbish” of the Gilf Kebir desert

17 Jun 2014

A chance find in a site known as the Cave of Swimmers adds a colourful twist to an exhibition in Paris celebrating the work of ethnographer Leo...

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The roman port of Ostia

Roman dig ‘transforms understanding’ of ancient port

16 Apr 2014

Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Southampton have discovered a new section of the boundary wall of the ancient Roman port of Ostia...

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From athletes to couch potatoes: humans through 6,000 years of farming

08 Apr 2014

Research into lower limb bones shows that our early farming ancestors in Central Europe became less active as their tasks diversified and technology...

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Examples of Clovis tools

Out of Asia: ancient genome lays to rest origins of Americas’ first humans

12 Feb 2014

The genome of a child who died some 12,600 years ago in Montana – the oldest known human remains from North America – has been sequenced for the...

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Drawer of ammonoids from the Woodwardian collection, the founding collection of the Sedgwick Museum, dating to the late 17th and early 18th century

We ask the experts: why do we put things into museums?

26 Nov 2013

Our lives are bound up with objects. Museums are evidence of our deep preoccupation with the things that surround us, whether natural or the product...

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Plastic hair comb, 21st century, bought in Nigeria

Origins of the Afro Comb: 6,000 years of culture, politics and identity

02 Jul 2013

The 6,000-year history of the Afro Comb, its extraordinary impact on cultures worldwide, and community stories relating to hair today are being...

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Cambridge galleries, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology shortlisted for Art Fund Prize

04 Apr 2013

The Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology (MAA) has been announced as one of the ten finalists for the prestigious Art Fund Prize for Museum of...

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Dig into archaeology with actor and presenter Tony Robinson

15 Feb 2013

Don’t miss the chance to hear actor and presenter Tony Robinson talking about his work with Channel 4’s Time Team in a public lecture on Monday 11...

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Panel of glazed bricks from the capital city of Assur, showing the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser (1114-1076 BC)

A new chapter opens in the study of the Assyrian empire

30 Jan 2013

The first ever conference to focus on the provincial archaeology of the Assyrian empire took place at Cambridge University last month. A key theme...

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