When a research team from Eurac Research entered the warehouses of the National Archaeological Museum in La Paz a couple of years ago, they were stunned to find more than 50 mummified individuals and over 500 pre-Columbian skulls, preserved with good intentions but in conditions that put them at risk of contamination by fungi and bacteria. This is a situation that often occurs in countries that cannot devote large sums of money to the conservation of cultural heritage, but also in countries such as Italy, where the heritage is so vast that it is difficult to take care of everything. The problem of protecting organic cultural heritage also arises when it needs to be transported or studied. Environmental conditions can have a significant impact on the most sensitive items, such as mummified human remains, textiles, paper, and wood. A research team coordinated by Eurac Research has been experimenting with conservation techniques and materials for years and has now developed an innovative, versatile, and inexpensive system called the Conservation Soft Box. It was recently presented in an article in the Journal of Cultural Heritage and at the 11th World Congress of Mummy Studies in Cuzco, Peru.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by an interdisciplinary team of researchers challenges long-held assumptions about the origins of agriculture

Lund University archaeologists have revealed details of late medieval artillery from the wreck of the royal Danish-Norwegian flagship, Gribshunden. The shipwreck is the only known example of its kind from the medieval period – as both ship and weapons are nearly identical to those of the early Spanish and Portuguese explorers. The new study tells the story of how early modern maritime adventurers were equipped to start the process of dominance and colonisation across the world.

New research from the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford has revealed what may be the earliest evidence of victory celebrations in European prehistory, offering a striking new perspective on Neolithic violence not simply as conflict, but as a form of ritualised political performance. 

An international study led by researchers from Tel Aviv University and the French National Centre for Scientific Research provides the first scientific evidence that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had biological and social relations, and even interbred for the first time, in the Land of Israel. The research team found a combination of Neanderthal and Homo sapiens traits in the skeleton of a five-year-old child discovered about 90 years ago in the Skhul Cave on Mount Carmel.

In southwestern Kenya more than 2.6 million years ago, ancient humans wielded an array of stone tools—known collectively as the Oldowan toolkit—to pound plant material and carve up large prey such as hippopotamuses. These durable and versatile tools were crafted from special stone materials collected up to eight miles away, according to new research led by scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Queens College. Their findings, published Aug. 15 in the journal Science Advances, push back the earliest known evidence of ancient humans transporting resources over long distances by some 600,000 years.