Results tagged “archaeology” from 60 Second Science

Prehistoric man, you keep on rocking: In what Chinese state media hails as "the greatest discovery since Peking Man," Chinese archaeologists from the Henan Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute have found a nearly complete human skull fossil dating from 100,000 years ago.

Researchers found the skull last month in Xuchang in 16 fragments, resting with stone and bone artifacts and over 30,000 animal fossils. The skull features protruding eyebrows and a small forehead, but most intriguingly, it retains a fossilized membrane on the inside, so scientists can "track the nerves of the Paleolithic ancestors," said archaeologist Li Zhanyang.

After two years of excavation, the archaeologists discovered the skull just days before leaving to party down for Chinese New Year.

Continue reading 'Peking Man 2: Peking Harder' >

And you thought you were having a crap Friday: 13,000 years ago, a comet may have collided with earth in the Great Lakes region, creating a 1,000-year-long cold spell that wiped out the Clovis culture of humans in North America.

For years, the disappearance of North America's Clovis culture was attributed either to rapid climate change or a sudden uptick in Clovis hunting practices that wiped out the 35 genera of animals they subsisted on. But similar climate changes of the time hadn't resulted in mass extinctions, and the ethnographic record doesn't support such a rapid change in hunting habits among Clovis humans.

Instead, Douglas Kennett and 25 other researchers from the University of Oregon think that a major comet collision triggered the change. The new hypothesis is based on a thin black layer of soil retrieved at over 50 North American sites. This black soil possesses magnetic grains of iridium, thought to have extraterrestrial origins, along with metallic and carbon spherules, as well as melted charcoal, which remained after catastrophic, continent-wide fires swept the land in the comet's wake.

Continue reading 'Comet may have wiped out first Americans in what scientist describes as a 'bad day;' Related: Understatement Award for 2008 goes to scientist' >

In news sure to unite unhappy couples everywhere, a new archaeological discovery seems to indicate that chocolate was first enjoyed by prehistoric Mesoamericans as a "frothy, bitter brew of fermented roasted and ground cacao seeds." Do you hear that, disgruntled, Russell Stover-chomping wives and lethargic, Labatts-addicted husbands? You have a shared prehistory! You had each other at hello!

Continue reading 'Chocolate may have been first enjoyed as beer; alcoholics and chocoholics find common ground' >

Fashion divas have been around for ages. But who knew the miniskirt was ancient history?

Continue reading 'Happy 7,500th birthday, Miniskirt' >