Reconstruction of an early (between 37,000 and 42,000 years old) European Homo sapiens based on bones found in the cave Peştera cu Oase (Romania). Source: Daniela Hitzemann (photograph) / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Study of Ancient Genes Reveals a Dark Skinned Europe Until 3,000 Years Ago

A new study of ancient DNA has completely changed our understanding of the peoples who lived in Stone Age and Bronze Age Europe. It was only about 1000 BC, well into the Iron Age, that we first saw light skinned individuals emerge on the continent. The study, published in BiorXiv, concludes that lighter skin and

The Neolithic Funnel Beaker people at this Danish site were using grindstones and harvesting wheat, but they were making porridge, not bread. Source: Nationalmuseet / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Porridge but No Bread: What was on the Menu in Neolithic Denmark?

One of the most profound shifts in human prehistory occurred around 10,000 years ago. Our ancestors figured out that the plants they were eating did not need to grow where they were found: with the right approach they could grow anywhere you chose to grow them. And then everything began to change. This is known

The site at Oued Beht where traces of an entirely unknown Neolithic culture has been found. Source: Antiquity; Cambridge University Press / CC BY 4.0.

Entirely Unknown Neolithic Culture Found in Morocco

Archaeologists excavating a site in the Maghreb desert in north western African known as Oued Beht have uncovered evidence of a farming society from the Neolithic that was completely unknown, according to a paper in the journal Antiquity, published by Cambridge University Press. The culture appears to have been complex and is, at this time,