Archaeology Content

Researchers Identify Tooth Enamel Proteins That Offer Window into Human Health

Karen Michele Nikos — September 19, 2024 - 8:47am

Native Americans living in coastal Northern California during the Mission era were presumed to experience high rates of disease and stress.

Not until now, however, did scientists have hard evidence of their health issues, according to new research conducted in cooperation with Native descendants. A new way of looking at tooth enamel could give scientists a path to deeper understanding of the health of human populations — from the ancient to the modern. It is believed to be the first research of its kind.

Monkeys' Stone Tool Use Gives Insight into Archaeology

Andy Fell — April 19, 2024 - 12:58pm

��ϲ��Ͽ� Davis anthropologists are studying the stone age of capuchin monkeys living on tropical islands off Panama. This 'primate archaeology' is a new approach to archaeology which could give insight into how our own ancestors started using stone tools.

Did a Tough Environment Shape the Evolution of Human Creativity?

Andy Fell — February 28, 2022 - 8:30am

Between the time when early modern humans emerged in Africa and when they spread around the globe, they developed complex behaviors that enabled them — and us — to adapt and thrive in new environments.

How to Illustrate a 9,000-Year-Old Female Hunter?

Karen Michele Nikos — February 16, 2021 - 10:00am

In a remarkable pairing of science and art, Randall Haas, assistant professor of anthropology, and Matt Verdolivo, senior artist at Academic Technology Services, or ATS, collaborated to produce illustrations showcasing new archaeological discoveries.

Archaeologists Use Tooth Enamel Protein to Show Sex of Human Remains

Andy Fell — July 17, 2020 - 1:30pm

A new method for estimating the biological sex of human remains based on reading protein sequences rather than DNA has been used to study an archaeological site in Northern California. The protein-based technique gave superior results to DNA analysis in studying 55 sets of human remains between 300 and 2,300 years old. The work is published July 17 in Scientific Reports.

Neandertals Were Choosy About Making Bone Tools

Andy Fell — May 08, 2020 - 8:00am

Evidence continues to mount that the Neandertals, who lived in Europe and Asia until about 40,000 years ago, were more sophisticated people than once thought. A new study from ��ϲ��Ͽ� Davis shows that Neandertals chose to use bones from specific animals to make a tool for specific purpose: working hides into leather.

Humans Migrated to Mongolia Much Earlier Than Previously Believed

Karen Michele Nikos — August 16, 2019 - 11:53am

Stone tools uncovered in Mongolia by an international team of archaeologists indicate that modern humans traveled across the Eurasian steppe about 45,000 years ago, according to a new University of California, Davis, study. The date is about 10,000 years earlier than archaeologists previously believed.

The site also points to a new location for where modern humans may have first encountered their mysterious cousins, the now extinct Denisovans, said Nicolas Zwyns, an associate professor of anthropology and lead author of the study.

Can We Determine Biological Sex From a Single Tooth?

Karen Michele Nikos — December 20, 2018 - 3:41pm

A team led by ��ϲ��Ͽ� Davis researchers have come up with a new way to estimate the biological sex of human skeletal remains based on protein traces from teeth.

Tooth of a European-American buried in San Francisco in the 1850s.

A new technique developed at ��ϲ��Ͽ� Davis allows archaeologists to find a person’s biological sex based on a single tooth.

It’s Not How You Play the Game, but How the Dice Were Made

Karen Michele Nikos — January 30, 2018 - 9:56am

Playing dice have seen many changes through history, evolving to the symmetrical cube shape they are today. Today's even-shaped dice are more "fair" than their predecessors.

Moroccan Fossils Show Human Ancestors’ Diet of Game

Andy Fell — June 07, 2017 - 10:07am

New fossil finds from the Jebel Irhoud archaeological site in Morocco do more than push back the origins of our species by 100,000 years. They also reveal what was on the menu for our oldest-known Homo sapiens ancestors 300,000 years ago: Plenty of gazelle meat, with the occasional wildebeest, zebra and other game and perhaps the seasonal ostrich egg, says Teresa Steele, a paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Davis, who analyzed animal fossils at Jebel Irhoud.