An international team of archaeologist has uncovered the earliest known clay ornaments in Southwest Asia, revealing a forgotten chapter in the story of how humans began to express identity, belonging, and meaning through material culture. The findings, published this week in Science Advances, push back the symbolic use of clay in the region by thousands of years.

A new interdisciplinary study published in Nature reconstructs over 2,000 years of population history in Argentina’s Uspallata Valley (UV), a southern frontier of Andean farming spread in ancient times, with broader lessons on how agriculture shaped societies and how communities endured crises. By combining ancient human and pathogen genomics with isotopic analyses, archaeology and paleoclimate records–and working in close collaboration with Huarpe Indigenous communities–, the research reveals how local hunter-gatherers adopted agriculture, how more recent intensive maize farmers experienced prolonged stress, and how kinship-based mobility may have helped communities persist through instability. 

A study clarifies the date of an important technological milestone: the adoption of the bow and arrow in western North America. The authors find that the bow and arrow debuted around 1,400 years ago across all of western North America. North of the 55th parallel, which runs through northern British Columbia and Alberta, the bow and arrow was used alongside the atlatl for more than 1,000 years, whereas south of that line and into what is now Mexico, the atlatl was instantly and completely replaced.

Researchers from the University of Seville are participating in an international study that sheds new light on the genetic diversity of Andalusian society between the 8th and 11th centuries AD and reinforces the historical significance of the dolmen as a sacred space used throughout the ages

Ancient DNA study provides best evidence yet that Doggerland, Britain's lost land bridge to Europe, could have supported humans in the latter stages of the last Ice Age.

Statistical modeling revealed that mentions of needles and awls increase significantly in colder environments, confirming the role of sewing technology in thermoregulation and survival of ancient people.

Thousands of years ago, European communities used a variety of plant and animal products to create elaborate meals, according to a study published March 4, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Lara González Carretero of the University of York, U.K. and colleagues.