Researchers analysing skeletal remains in the city of Cambridge find a dramatic increase in 'hallux valgus' around the time that pointed shoes became de rigueur in the 1300s. They also uncover a link between this minor deformity and increased risk of fractures.

Researchers pinpoint substantial historical sea level changes in the Southern Levant - describing a 2.5m rise to present levels around 2,000 years ago - with archeological implications.

Ancient chickens lived significantly longer than their modern equivalents because they were seen as sacred -- not food -- archaeologists have found.

Analyzing charcoal and phytolith records of soil cores from nonflooded, nonriverine forests in northeastern Peru, researchers found that the forests were not significantly altered by anthropogenic activity in pre-Columbian history, and material remains of ancient cultures, such as ceramics and stone tools, were also absent from soil samples; the findings suggest that over the last 5,000 years indigenous societies in northeastern Peru helped maintain regional forest integrity and biodiversity, according to the authors.

In the Stone Age, some 8,000 years ago, people danced often and in a psychedelic way. This is a conclusion drawn from elk teeth discovered in the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov burial site in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, whose wear marks and location in the graves indicate that the objects were used as rattlers.