news 2023

Scientists have developed a new computational tool to detect up to second to third degree cousins using ancient genomes If two persons are biologically related, they share long stretches of DNA that they co-inherited from their recent common ancestor. These almost identically shared stretches of genomes are called IBD ("Identity by Descent") segments.

Team of international researchers analyzed the remains of over 1,500 individuals who lived roughly 6,000 to 8,000 years ago Body size differences between females and males in northern Europe during the early Neolithic period (6,000 to 8,000 years ago) may reflect cultural factors in play. The findings of an international research project led by the University of Pennsylvania (USA) suggest that differences in stature during that period cannot be explained solely by genetics and diet.

International research team studied more than 1,500 individuals who lived around 6,000 to 8,000 years ago The difference in body size between male and female individuals in Northern Europe during the early Neolithic period (8,000 to 6,000 years ago) could have been influenced by cultural factors. The results of an international research team led by the University of Pennsylvania (USA) suggest that the differences in body size during this period cannot be explained by genetic and dietary factors alone.

Archaeologists from Freie Universität Berlin together with an international team confirm ancient prehistoric fortifications in Siberia. Research results published in the scientific journal "Antiquity." In a groundbreaking archaeological discovery, an international team led by archaeologists from Freie Universität Berlin has uncovered fortified prehistoric settlements in a remote region of Siberia.

Over 2,000 seal impressions discovered provide vivid insights into city administration in Roman Antiquity Archaeologists from the Asia Minor Research Centre have uncovered the city archives in the ancient city of Doliche in south-eastern Türkiye and recovered more than 2,000 seal impressions used to seal documents.

Scientists also recover more than 2,000 seal impressions in the ancient city of Doliche Archaeologists from the Asia Minor Research Center have uncovered the city archives in the ancient city of Doliche in south-eastern Turkey and recovered more than 2,000 seal impressions used to seal documents. The team led by Michael Blömer and Engelbert Winter from the University of Münster thus made a significant discovery: although there were archives for storing contracts in every city, for example, only a handful of archive buildings from the Roman Empire have been identified to date.

Heidelberg Earth scientists lead research ship METEOR's voyage to the eastern Mediterranean How did climatic and environmental change impact early eastern Mediterranean cultures, and what were the consequences of human settlement on land and marine ecosystems? In order to collect research data to answer these questions, the German research ship METEOR - under the guidance of Earth scientists from Heidelberg University - is embarking on a multi-week expedition to the Aegean and Ionian seas.

Experts from Egypt and Germany have completed the restoration of the ceiling of the Temple of Esna.

A remarkable archaeological breakthrough has been made with the excavation and restoration of rooms in the pyramid of Sahura. The discovered chambers are probably storage rooms intended to hold the royal burial objects. An Egyptian-German mission led by Egyptologist Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled of the Department of Egyptology at Julius-Maximilians-Universität of Würzburg (JMU) has made a significant discovery within Sahura's Pyramid.

An excavation in Turkey has brought to light an unknown Indo-European language. Professor Daniel Schwemer, an expert for the ancient near east from Würzburg, is involved in investigating the discovery.

Research team used advanced sequencing technology to analyze Ötzi's genome to obtain a more accurate picture of the Iceman's appearance and genetic origins Ötzi's genome was decoded for the first time more than ten years ago. This was also the first time the genome of a mummy had been sequenced. The results provided important insights into the genetic makeup of prehistoric Europeans.

Human history in one click: For the first time, numerous sites relating to the early history of mankind from 3 million to 20,000 years ago can be accessed in a large-scale database. Scientists from the research center ROCEEH ("The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans") have compiled information on 2,400 prehistoric sites and 24,000 assemblages from more than 100 ancient cultures.

Freiburg physicist provided evidence for interdisciplinary project by the Natural History Museum Bern In an interdisciplinary study by the Natural History Museum Bern, led by geologist Beda Hofmann , researchers have proven that a Bronze Age arrowhead found in Mörigen on Lake Biel, Switzerland, was definitely made of meteoritic iron.

Researchers from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen and the Brazilian University of São Paulo, together with an international research team led by first author Dr. Tiago Ferraz, compiled the largest genomic dataset from Brazil to demonstrate that sambaqui communities on the southern and southeastern coasts did not represent a genetically homogeneous population.

An international team of linguists and geneticists led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig has achieved a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the origins of Indo-European, a family of languages spoken by nearly half of the world's population.

Linguistics and genetics combine to suggest a new hybrid hypothesis for the origin of the Indo-European languages An international team of linguists and geneticists led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig has achieved a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the origins of Indo-European, a family of languages spoken by nearly half of the world's population.

A new study indicates that one of the largest of the indigenous language families in Latin America originated in the sixth century BCE in the basin of the Rio Tapajós and Rio Xingu, near the present-day city of Santarém in the Brazilian state of Pará. There are around fifty languages in the Tupí-Guaraní language family, which gave us words like -jaguar- and -piranha.

Archaeologists from the University of Göttingen have discovered the earliest Iron Age house in Athens in Thorikos (Greece), south of Athens. This is an important, unexpected and unique finding for early Greek history: building structures from this early period, from the 10th to the 9th century BC, have never been excavated anywhere in Attica before.

Research team at Göttingen University analyse data from burial sites spanning nearly 4,000 years People tend to think that the idea that biological sex is linked with one-s role in society belongs in the past. But was it even the case in prehistory? Archaeologists at the University of Göttingen have investigated the representation of gender in Neolithic and Bronze Age graves (around 5500 BC to 1200 BC), in order to understand if the idea of gender in prehistoric Europe was really as -binary- as might be expected.

An international team of researchers including the University of Freiburg identifies engravings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia as the oldest known scaled building plans in human history. Although human constructions have modified natural spaces for millennia, few plans or maps predate the period of the literate civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt.