Anthro and Archaeology
Using previously unavailable census data, a team of geographers has found that residents of one of America's largest metropolitan areas are far less racially and ethnically segregated at work than they are in their home neighborhoods, confirming what social scientists have long suspected but could not verify.
A new tribe is emerging from Mexico's scorched earth. A team of geoarchaeologists working on a programme investigating human evolution have found skeletal remains in the desert of the Baja California Peninsula that give rise to new theories on the colonisation of the Americas. The team analysed the DNA of skulls with markedly different morphologies to Native American Indians, commonly regarded as the first settlers of the Americas. The skulls are long and narrow, not in keeping with the Native Indians' broader, rounder features. ''They appear more similar to southern Asians, Australians and populations of the South Pacific Rim than they do to Northern Asians.''
The bands of ancient Neanderthals that struggled throughout Europe during the last Ice Age faced challenges no tougher than those confronted by the modern Inuit, or Eskimos. That's the conclusion of a new study intended to test a long-standing belief among anthropologists that the life of the Neanderthals was too tough for their line to coexist with Homo sapiens. And the evidence discounting that theory lies with tiny grooves that mar the teeth of these ancient people.
Northern European men living during the early Middle Ages were nearly as tall as their modern-day American descendants, a finding that defies conventional wisdom about progress in living standards during the last millennium. ''Men living during the early Middle Ages (the ninth to 11th centuries) were several centimeters taller than men who lived hundreds of years later, on the eve of the Industrial Revolution,'' said Richard Steckel, a professor of economics at Ohio State University and the author of a new study that looks at changes in average heights during the last millennium.
Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) was used for the first time to produce a detailed 3D model of the face of an Egyptian man who lived nearly 3,000 years ago--without having to unwrap his mummified corpse, say a multidisciplinary group of Italian researchers that included physicians, anthropologists and forensic scientists.
If he'd only had an office computer and online treasure maps, Indiana Jones might have avoided all those snakes, scrapes and sneaky rivals. Now, archaeologists exploring the southeastern Idaho desert have a new tool that Indy would really die for. Computer scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's INEEL have developed a geographic computer system that sifts through data from various sources to help find and map archaeological sites. The system will save archaeologists time, money -- and maybe some digging.
Archaeologists working in southern Peru found an ancient brewery more than 1,000 years old. Remains of the brewing facility were uncovered on Cerro Ba?l, a mountaintop city over 8,000 feet above sea level, which was home to elite members of the Wari Empire from AD 600-1000. Predating the Inca Empire by at least four centuries, this Wari brewery was used to make chicha, a fermented beverage similar to beer that played an important role in ritual feasting and drinking during Peru's first empire. Ancient Peruvians made chicha with local grains and fruit, which is quite different from today's commercial beers typically made with barley and hops.
During fieldwork conducted throughout the month of June, an international team of Canadian and Croatian paleontologists and geologists found 90 million year old dinosaur tracks and trackways on the island of Hvar, Croatia. The tracks belong to giant long-necked dinosaurs called sauropods, and more specifically, the last of the giant sauropods, the majestic titanosaurs.
A bonanza of artifacts that may prove to be from the Donner family's camp is on its way to the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Eugene. A team of archaeologists led by UO and University of Montana researchers hit pay dirt earlier this week at Alder Creek Camp in the Truckee Ranger District of the Tahoe National Forest.
A painting by Dutch artist Vermeer, long thought to be a forgery, will go under the hammer at Sotheby's today for an estimated ?3 million pounds thanks to the investigative talent of UCL researchers.
Using a series of techniques ranging from polarising light microscopy to infrared x-ray reflectography, a ten-year study led by Ms Libby Sheldon of the Department of the History of Art was able to verify that the 'Young Woman Seated at the Virginals' was painted by the artist.
Researchers have discovered a dramatic increase in human longevity that took place during the early Upper Paleolithic Period, around 30,000 B.C.
In their study of more than 750 fossils to be published July 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, anthropologists found a dramatic increase in longevity among modern humans during that time: the number of people surviving to an older age more than quadrupled.
Independence Day has taken on new layers of meaning for a team of archaeologists who've been digging in western Illinois this summer. In fact, nearly everything about the excavation in the rolling farmland near Barry speaks volumes about freedom and liberty, nearly everything adds a chapter to the American Dream.
