This study investigates how hunter-gatherer populations in the southern Caucasus survived and adapted between 57,000 and 27,000 years ago. Drawing on archaeological, geological, and environmental, evidence, the researchers reconstructed patterns of mobility, population density, and social interaction across a vast and environmentally diverse region. Uniquely, the study moves beyond the traditional focus on climate and stone tools to examine how social networks functioned as a survival strategy. The findings reveal that despite living in small prehistoric communities, dispersed populations, maintained long-distance connections through the exchange of knowledge, technology, and social ties—networks that may have been just as important as environmental adaptation in helping people endure periods of profound change.

A study from Kyushu University argues that early medieval images were never truly silent. Focusing on a 12th–13th century English scroll, the research draws on predictive processing and the concept of “sound milieu” to show how visual imagery could activate imagined soundscapes in viewers' minds. The findings show that sonic details in the imagery engaged audiences through the full range of sensory experience, inviting a broader reconsideration of how medieval people encountered their world.

A new archaeological study reveals how ancient hunter-gatherer groups lived—and survived—more than a thousand years ago in the transition zone between the Pampas and Patagonia in Argentina. The research, carried out by Martínez and colleagues (2025), focuses on the Zoko Andi 1 site (ZA1), located on the lower basin of the Colorado River, a key location for understanding the daily life of these early settlers in the south.

A team led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Maner at Koç University has identified the earliest evidence of indigo-dyed textiles and single-needle knitting (nålbinding) in Anatolia at Beycesultan Höyük. Dating to c. 1915–1595 BC, the fragments were analyzed using advanced scientific methods. Published in Antiquity, the findings reveal sophisticated knowledge of plant fibers and dye chemistry in Bronze Age Anatolia and suggest the production of high-status textiles.

For the ArchaeoSpain research team, it was a day just like any other on their dig at the castle of Zorita de los Canes (Guadalajara). They were working at the Corral de los Condes, where some knights from the Order of Calatrava are buried, when they came across some highly unusual human remains. Accompanying an apparently normal adult skeleton, was an extraordinarily narrow and elongated skull, 23 centimetres long and only 12 centimetres wide. Who was this individual and how did they survive to adulthood? What caused such a severe cranial deformity? What role did they play in the Order of Calatrava? To answer these questions, the team sent the skeleton to the laboratory of Carme Rissech, a researcher in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences at the URV.