An international team of researchers led by Knut Bretzke of Friedrich Schiller University Jena uncovered 80,000-year-old stone blades at the rock shelter site of Jebel Faya in the Emirate of Sharjah.

The discovery of the oldest evidence to date of the systematic production of stone blades on the Arabian Peninsula marks a significant advancement in the understanding of prehistoric human technology in the region. This discovery provides new insights into the history of human habitation in Arabia and the possible routes used by Homo sapiens in their expansion out of Africa, highlighting the cultural practices associated with tool-making and the migration patterns of early humans.

Published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Science, the study emphasizes the crucial role of southern Arabia in the cultural evolution and diversification of early human populations in Southwest Asia, with the artifacts being dated to approximately 80,000 years using luminescence techniques.

Dr. Bretzke notes that the region's climatic history has been marked by dramatic changes, transitioning from a period of favorable conditions — characterized by permanent rivers and lakes — beginning around 130,000 years ago, to an extreme arid phase that significantly influenced human settlement and cultural practices.

The findings suggest that while northern and southern Arabia experienced distinct cultural developments during this transition, the shared traditions in stone tool production indicate a complex interplay of human activity across the peninsula. This differentiation is crucial for understanding the timeline and pathways of early human migrations from Africa to Asia.

Let's briefly retrace one of the fundamental steps in reaching the current status quo: the dissolution of the order that reigned in Europe.

First rule, conquer

The choice to promote a global order dominated by the collective hegemony of the West after the Cold War had profound consequences for European security. It was clear that NATO enlargement would compromise efforts towards an inclusive pan-European security architecture, leading to a new division of the continent, the isolation of Russia and the reignition of latent conflicts. Many political leaders had warned of the risks of a new cold war resulting from the expansion of the Alliance; however, it was pursued by taking advantage of Russian weakness, with the conviction that any crises could be managed by the West. The expansion of NATO was conceived as a guarantee against future clashes with Russia, which, paradoxically, would have been triggered precisely by this expansion. This contradiction, which led the West into direct confrontation with Moscow, became a central element of the new world order.

Egyptian officials have announced a groundbreaking discovery: the long-lost tomb of King Thutmose II, marking the last of the royal tombs from ancient Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty. This significant find comes over a century after the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, and it sheds new light on a period that reigned from approximately 1550 BC to 1292 BC.

A joint archaeological mission comprising British and Egyptian teams uncovered the tomb, designated as No. C4, located a few miles west of Luxor in the area known as the mount of Thebes. The entrance and main passage were initially discovered in 2022, and while the team initially speculated that the tomb might belong to one of the wives of the kings due to its proximity to the tombs of Queen Hatshepsut and the wives of King Thutmose III, further excavations revealed compelling evidence linking it directly to King Thutmose II.

Among the artifacts found were several fragments of alabaster vases inscribed with the name of King Thutmose II, referring to him as the "deceased king." Additionally, sections of a religious text associated with ancient Egyptian royal burials and plaster fragments adorned with blue paint and yellow stars were discovered. These findings have led archaeologists to conclude that Tomb No. C4 was indeed the final resting place of King Thutmose II.

Swat: Two-thousand-year-old artifacts have been discovered in Swat, dating back to the first century BC and believed to be from the Saka-Parthian period. The artifacts, which include coins, pottery, and inscriptions in the Kharosthi script, were found in the Buddhist ruins of Mingora, the main city of Swat.

Since 1956, the Italian Archaeological Mission has been working on excavations in Swat. According to Alisa Lori, the Deputy Director of the mission based in Swat, this is their third season at the Butkara site. Excavations are being conducted here and at other locations with support from the mission and the KP government.

"These findings are especially exciting because we have successfully reached the early stages of this site. Butkara holds great significance in Buddhist heritage as it is a sacred site for Buddhist followers," said Alisa Lori.

Alisa Lori further explained that during the new excavations, they have discovered a residential unit, as well as a workshop or production area, along with a major road that once connected the ancient capital of Swat, Massagana (Mingora), to this site.

"We have uncovered a significant amount of material from the rooms, including coins linked to the first century BC. Additionally, an amulet was discovered with inscriptions in the Kharosthi script," said Alisa Lori.

The structure consists of three concentric walls up to five meters high and 25 towers. Inside, the tomb of a possible Roman legionary has been discovered.

Some 4,900 years ago, during the Copper Age, a group of humans constructed a formidable fortress on a hill in what is now the Spanish city of Almendralejo in Badajoz province. This stronghold was protected by three concentric walls, 25 bastions or semicircular towers, and three deep ditches measuring up to four meters wide and two meters deep. Spanning 13,000 square meters, the complex featured robust stone and adobe walls, with a single entrance just 70 centimeters wide — designed to make it virtually impregnable.

Yet, despite its formidable defenses, the fortress was ultimately destroyed, burned, and razed by enemies, then abandoned 400 years after its construction.

The archaeological research team at Tera S.L. uncovered this site in 2021 and continues to excavate it. Its characteristics closely resemble those of Los Millares in Almería province, the reference model for Chalcolithic settlements in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula.

Who attacked and destroyed this fortification, how they did it, and what exactly it was built to protect remain unanswered questions. "But we are getting closer," says César M. Pérez, director of the excavations.

In addition to the structure itself, archaeologists have uncovered numerous artifacts within the site, including arrowheads, idols, axes, grinding stones, plates, bowls, and loom components. These findings, along with other materials, provide valuable insight into the activities that once took place inside the fortification.

According to the archaeological research team, the pentagonal fortress — the first to be built atop a hill 314 meters above sea level — offered a commanding view of the surrounding landscape. Its original structure featured an adobe wall between 1.3 and 1.5 meters thick, five bastions, and a single entrance described as being "shaped like crab claws."

ASTANA - The archaeologists discovered ancient Sarmatian burial sites in the Atyrau Region, dating back to the fifth century B.C. Excavations at the Karabau-2 mound, located 10 kilometers north of Karabau village, Kyzylkoga district, uncovered nine graves, seven of which remained preserved, reported the regional administration on Jan 27.
The graves contained human remains, gold jewelry, weapons, and ceramic vessels. Some were collective burials, leading archaeologists to classify them as "royal tombs."

Marat Kasenov, the head of the excavation team, noted that around 1,000 artifacts were found, including 100 gold ornaments decorated with images of leopards, bears, tigers and antelopes. Two rare wooden bowls, never seen before in similar excavations, were also discovered and are now being restored.

The discovery of an 11,000-year-old village in Saskatchewan could rewrite Indigenous history in central Canada.
An 11,000-year-old settlement in Canada is challenging the idea that early Indigenous people were nomadic. The newly uncovered village site of Âsowanânihk, which means "a place to cross" in the Cree language, is one of the oldest archaeological sites found on the continent and suggests that an organized society existed in central Canada far earlier than experts previously thought.

"This site is shaking up everything we thought we knew and could change the narrative of early Indigenous civilizations in North America," amateur archaeologist Dave Rondeau, who first identified the site in 2023, said in a Feb. 4 statement.

Evidence already recovered from Âsowanânihk, located in the Sturgeon Lake First Nation (SLFN) in central Saskatchewan, includes stone tools, firepits and bison bones, according to the statement. A very large firepit suggests that the site was used for a long period, or repeatedly for shorter periods, according to Glenn Stuart, an archaeologist at the University of Saskatchewan who is involved in the project. Such use indicates that the settlement was likely a long-term one, rather than a temporary hunting camp, where Indigenous hunters strategically harvested the extinct Bison antiquus.

New insights into our linguistic roots via ancient DNA analysis.
Where lies the origin of the Indo-European language family? Ron Pinhasi and his team in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Vienna contribute a new piece to this puzzle in collaboration with David Reich's ancient DNA laboratory at Harvard University. They analyzed ancient DNA from 435 individuals from archaeological sites across Eurasia between 6.400-2.000 BCE. They found out that a newly recognized Caucasus-Lower Volga population can be connected to all Indo-European-speaking populations. The new study is published in Nature.

Indo-European languages (IE), which number over 400 and include major groups such as Germanic, Romance, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, and Celtic, are spoken by nearly half the world's population today. Originating from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language, historians and linguists since the 19th century have been investigating its origins and spread as there is still a knowledge gap.

The new study published in Nature, also involving Tom Higham and Olivia Cheronet from the University of Vienna, analyzes ancient DNA from 435 individuals from archaeological sites across Eurasia between 6400-2000 BCE. Earlier genetic studies had shown that the Yamnaya culture (3.300-2.600 BCE) of the Pontic-Caspian steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas expanded into both Europe and Central Asia beginning about 3.100 BCE, accounting for the appearance of "steppe ancestry" in human populations across Eurasia 3.100-1.500 BCE. These migrations out of the steppes had the largest effect on European human genomes of any demographic event in the last 5.000 years and are widely regarded as the probable vector for the spread of Indo-European languages.

The only branch of Indo-European language (IE) that had not exhibited any steppe ancestry previously was Anatolian, including Hittite, probably the oldest branch to split away, uniquely preserving linguistic archaisms that were lost in all other IE branches. Previous studies had not found steppe ancestry among the Hittites because, the new paper argues, the Anatolian languages were descended from a language spoken by a group that had not been adequately described before, an Eneolithic population dated 4.500-3.500 BCE in the steppes between the North Caucasus Mountains and the lower Volga. When the genetics of this newly recognized Caucasus-Lower Volga (CLV) population are used as a source, at least five individuals in Anatolia dated before or during the Hittite era show CLV ancestry.

The newfound species belongs to the genus Paranthropus, whose nickname is "nutcracker man."
A 1.4 million-year-old fossil jaw belongs to a previously unknown human relative from southern Africa, a new study finds.

The extinct human relative is from the genus Paranthropus, whose nickname is "nutcracker man" because of its massive jaws and huge molars. However, the newfound Paranthropus species has a more diminutive jawbone and teeth, indicating that the nutcracker moniker might not be so apt after all.

At the time Paranthropus was alive, the world had several hominins, or species on the evolutionary branch more closely related to humans than to chimps. Our genus, Homo, emerged at least 2.8 million years ago, while our species, Homo sapiens, dates back to at least 300,000 years ago. So early Homo species overlapped with Paranthropus. Until now, scientists knew of three Paranthropus species — P. aethiopicus, P. boisei and P. robustus — which lived between about 1 million and 2.7 million years ago.

In the new study, researchers examined a 1.4 million-year-old jaw dubbed SK 15. The bone was originally unearthed in 1949 in a cave at a South African site known as Swartkrans, alongside other Paranthropus fossils and a few early Homo specimens.

"Swartkrans is thus a key site to uncover the extent of hominin diversity and understand the potential interactions among various hominin species," study lead author Clément Zanolli, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Bordeaux in France, told Live Science.

Initially, scientists thought SK 15 belonged to a never-before-seen species they called Telanthropus capensis. However, since the 1960s, researchers suggested it actually belonged to the relatively slender early human species known as Homo ergaster.

Boris Cederholm was a Finnish diplomat who travelled frequently in Soviet Russia. Cederholm was later arrested and interrogated by the CHEKA and detained in the gulag system. He wrote about these experiences in a 1929 book. Here, Cederholm reflects on the orphans, street children and young criminals he observed in Soviet cities in 1923-25:

"Petrograd, and still more Moscow, astonish the newly arrived foreigner by their swarms of hooligans and uncared-for children. In many public places in Soviet Russia, placards are hung up bearing the words: 'Children are the flowers of our life'. From time to time a sentimental, moving article is published in the Soviet papers, inviting people to subscribe [donate] to children's colonies and refuges. All this is humbug, pretty fancy, theory. As if people could possibly be expected to subscribe when the whole population has been impoverished! There are many children who are uncared-for because they have no parents.