A new study reports on genomic data from a 23,000-year-old individual who lived in what was probably the warmest place of Europe at the peak of the last Ice Age. The oldest human genome recovered from the southern tip of Spain adds an important piece of the puzzle to the genetic history of Europe.
An international team of researchers has analysed ancient human DNA from several archaeological sites in Andalucía in southern Spain. The study reports on the oldest genome to date from Cueva del Malalmuerzo in southern Spain, as well as the 7,000 to 5,000-year-old genomes of early farmers from other well-known sites, such as Cueva de Ardales.

The Iberian Peninsula plays an important role in the reconstruction of human population history. As a geographic cul-de-sac in the southwest of Europe, it is on one hand considered a refuge during the last Ice Age with its drastic temperature fluctuations. On the other hand, it may have been one of the starting points for the recolonisation of Europe after the glacial maximum. Indeed, previous studies had reported on the genomic profiles of 13,000 to 8,000-year-old hunter-gatherers from the Iberian Peninsula and provided evidence for the survival and continuation of a much older Palaeolithic lineage that has been replaced in other parts of Europe and is no longer detectable.

After an organism's death, its DNA is only preserved for a certain period of time and under favourable climatic conditions. Extracting DNA from ancient remains from hot and dry climates is a huge challenge for researchers. In Andalucía, in the south of present-day Spain, climatic conditions are similar to those in North Africa - however, DNA has successfully been recovered of 14,000-year-old human individuals from a cave site in Morocco. The new study fills crucial temporal and spatial gaps. Researchers can now directly investigate the role of the southern Iberian Peninsula as a refuge for Ice Age populations and potential population contacts across the Strait of Gibraltar during the last Ice Age, when sea-levels were much lower than today.

BAGHDAD — An international archeological mission has uncovered the remnants of what is believed to be a 5,000-year-old restaurant or tavern in the ancient city of Lagash in southern Iraq.

The discovery of the ancient dining hall — complete with a rudimentary refrigeration system, hundreds of roughly made clay bowls and the fossilized remains of an overcooked fish — announced in late January by a University of Pennsylvania-led team, generated some buzz beyond Iraq's borders.

It came against the backdrop of a resurgence of archeology in a country often referred to as the "cradle of civilization," but where archeological exploration has been stunted by decades of conflict before and after the U.S. invasion of 2003. Those events exposed the country's rich sites and collections to the looting of tens of thousands of artifacts.

"The impacts of looting on the field of archeology were very severe," Laith Majid Hussein, director of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq, told The Associated Press. "Unfortunately, the wars and periods of instability have greatly affected the situation in the country in general."

With relative calm prevailing over the past few years, the digs have returned. At the same time, thousands of stolen artifacts have been repatriated, offering hope of an archeological renaissance.

"'Improving' is a good term to describe it, or 'healing' or 'recovering,'" said Jaafar Jotheri, a professor of archeology at University of Al-Qadisiyah, describing the current state of the field in his country.

Iraq is home to six UNESCO-listed World Heritage Sites, among them the ancient city of Babylon, the site of several ancient empires under rulers like Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar.

The largest study yet to look at the genetics of ice age hunter-gatherers in Europe has uncovered a previously unknown lineage dubbed the Fournol.

A previously unknown lineage of Europeans survived the coldest parts of the last ice age, only to vanish when Europe went through a warm spell starting about 15,000 years ago.

The discovery comes from the largest study yet to look at the genetic makeup of ice age European hunter-gatherers.

Researchers have discovered that steel tools were being used on the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Bronze Age 2,900 years ago.

An international study has conducted a geochemical analysis on stone pillar stelae found in the Iberian Peninsula, revealing that engravings on the rock face were created using tempered steel.

This is supported by a metallographic analysis of an iron chisel from the same period found at Rocha do Vigio, which has the necessary carbon content to be classified as steel.

A newly discovered Moai statue on Easter Island has been found buried in a dried up lake bed.
A previously unknown moai statue, one of Easter Island's massive carved monoliths, has been found buried beneath a dried up lake bed, Good Morning America reports.

Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, sits about 2,200 miles (3,540 kilometers) off the western coast of Chile and is home to nearly 8,000 people and about 1,000 moai statues. Unlike the other statues, which were found across the island, including on the slopes around Lake Rano Raraku, a volcanic crater that supplied much of the volcanic stone used to craft the moai statues, this moai was found in an unexpected place: the bottom of Lake Rano Raraku. The crater held freshwater until climate change and other factors, such as human use, caused it to dry up in recent years; in 2018, the lake water had nearly disappeared, according to a 2021 study published in the journal PLOS One.

"We think we know all the moai, but then a new one turns up, a new discovery," Terry Hunt, a professor of archaeology at the university of Arizona who specializes in the environmental histories of the Pacific Islands, told Good Morning America.

A Bronze Age relic found on a Kent beach is believed to be the oldest shoe ever found in the UK.

The artefact, which has been dated at 3,000-years-old, was discovered on a foreshore in the north of the county by professional archaeologist Steve Tomlinson.

Mr Tomlinson, who lives in Ramsgate, found the child's shoe in September last year, and was "in deep shock" when he heard how old it was.

He recalled: "We had been out for three hours scouring the shoreline, when I came across what looked like a very old shoe like piece of leather washed up on the mud.

"I picked it up and I immediately thought it looks like the sole of an old little shoe."

The leather was sent to the SUERC carbon dating unit in East Kilbride, Scotland, to find out who wore the little shoe, and Mr Tomlinson was told he "may need to sit down for the news".

"The date they had given me was just astonishing," the 51-year-old explained.

A cave site in France holds hundreds of tiny stone points, alongside remains thought to belong to Homo sapiens.

A 54,000-year-old cave site in southern France holds hundreds of tiny stone points, which researchers say closely resemble other known arrowheads — including replicas that they tested on dead goats.

The discovery, reported on 22 February in Science Advances¹, suggests that the first Homo sapiens to reach Europe hunted with bows and arrows. But it also raises the question of why Neanderthals — which occupied the Grotte Mandrin rock shelter in the Rhône Valley before and after Homo sapiens — never adopted these superior weapons.

Archaeologists in France have found one of the first residential sites belonging to the prehistoric builders of some of Europe's first monumental stone structures.

During the Neolithic, people in west-central France built many impressive megalithic monuments such as barrows and dolmens. While these peoples' tombs stood the test of time, archaeologists have been searching for their homes for more than a century.

"It has been known for a long time that the oldest European megaliths appeared on the Atlantic coast, but the habitats of their builders remained unknown," said Dr. Vincent Ard from the French National Center for Scientific Research.

Neanderthals were a species of archaic humans that lived in Europe and Asia from around 400,000 to 40,000 years ago.

The remains of hunted animals at Combe-Grenal, France, showed that they were consistently sourced from open tundra-like habitats.

A study conducted by Emilie Berlioz of CNRS/Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès and colleagues, and published in the journal PLOS ONE, has found that Neanderthals in Combe-Grenal, France, favored hunting in open environments and maintained this strategy despite periods of climatic change. This research was part of the ANR DeerPal project and provides valuable insight into the hunting habits of Neanderthals in this region.

For many millennia during the Middle Palaeolithic, from around 150,000 to 45,000 years ago, the Neanderthals made Combe-Grenal in France their home. These ancient humans hunted the local animals, whose remains have been discovered at the site. The region underwent frequent fluctuations in climate and environmental conditions during the Neanderthals' occupancy, affecting the behavior of the local wildlife.

A Late Bronze Age grave in the archaeological site of Meggido, Israel, has presented researchers with a rare example of delicate cranial surgery that could be the earliest of its kind in the Middle East.

In 2016, archaeologists excavated a pair of tombs in the domestic section of a palace in the famous Biblical city, uncovering the remains of two individuals buried together nearly 3,500 years ago.

Now researchers from institutions in the US and Israel have published the results of an analysis of their skeletons, revealing a tragic tale of two brothers whose affluence wasn't enough to save them from an early death.