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Historic Hair Sample in Scotland Tested for Vitamin D Levels

A scientist examines a hair sample ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND—According to a statement released by the University of Aberdeen, a team of archaeologists and nutrition scientists employed a new technique to detect levels of vitamin D in a human hair sample from a 400-year-old burial uncovered in the coastal city of Aberdeen. …

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Genetic Study May Track Spread of Indo-European Languages

Grave of a woman buried with a spiral ring, which is an artifact typically associated with the Yamnaya culture. Her posture is a feature of Maikop culture burials, and researchers have determined that the deceased has 40% Maikop ancestry. VIENNA, AUSTRIA—According to a SciNews report, analysis of DNA samples taken …

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Copper Age Fortress Discovered in Spain

ALMENDRALEJO, SPAIN—According to an El País report, researchers from Tera S.L. discovered a 4,900-year-old fortress on a hill in southwestern Spain. The pentagon-shaped fortress was surrounded by three concentric walls, 25 bastions, and three ditches. Arrowheads, idols, axes, grinding stones, plates, bowls, and loom parts were found inside the structure. …

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High-Tech Tools Used to Examine Ancient Scroll From Herculaneum

The first text revealed on the scroll OXFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that a charred scroll of papyrus measuring more than 30 feet long from Herculaneum, a Roman city buried in ash during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, has been examined with a synchrotron at Diamond Light Source. …

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How Many People Lived in North America Before the Arrival of Europeans?

Archaeologist Robert Kelly excavates a site in Wyoming LARAMIE, WYOMING—Science Magazine reports that Robert Kelly of the University of Wyoming and his colleagues compiled more than 60,000 radiocarbon dates for artifacts from the United States and Canada. Then, assuming that the amount of radiocarbon data collected from a given region …

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New Dates for the Occupation of Western Canada

PRINCE ALBERT, CANADA—Radiocarbon dating of charcoal unearthed at an archaeological site in Saskatchewan pushes back the habitation of the region to about 10,700 years ago, some 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a CBC News Canada report. The charcoal sample was taken from a hearth found along the …

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Possible Early Medieval Cult Site Excavated in The Netherlands

Coins and other finds from the Hezingen cult site UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS—According to a Phys.org report, archaeologists uncovered traces of a large circular structure made of wooden posts surrounding an unusually shaped building in the eastern Netherlands. The Hezingen site has been dated to the sixth century A.D. and was …

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Did Paleolithic People Wear Cheek Piercings?

Photographs of cheek teeth (right) from three different Pavlovian individuals and drawings (left) showing hash-marked shapes indicating the areas of enamel that are worn flat COIMBRA, PORTUGAL—Live Science reports that biological anthropologist John Charles Willman of the University of Coimbra examined the teeth of hunter-gatherers of the Pavlovian culture who …

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Early Runestone Unearthed in Norway

Reconstruction of the stone fragments (top) and the runic inscription (above) inscribed on it OSLO, NORWAY—According to a Newsweek report, inscribed sandstone fragments recovered from several different burials in Norway’s Svingerud grave field were originally part of a single stone engraved with a mixture of runes and other markings. “Rune-stones …

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Paleolithic Artifacts Discovered in Iraq

Hand ax BRUSSELS, BELGIUM—More than 800 Paleolithic artifacts have been recovered from a dried lake bed in Iraq’s Western Desert by researchers from the Free University of Brussels, according to a Cosmos Magazine report. The artifacts include Early Paleolithic hand axes estimated to be 1.5 million years old, and flakes …

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