A study on stone tools from an outpost of the Roman Empire has found that for ancient bakers and millers, having the right tools was a matter of geology.

Early Maya cities featured monumental complexes, which centered on a shared form of religion but these complexes transformed radically once kingship emerged in 400 B.C. To solidify their power, rulers throughout the Maya lowlands would change these complexes, installing their mark on the landscape and reshaping how people remember it, according to a Dartmouth study published in "Ancient Mesoamerica."

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have extracted Ancient DNA from human bones to re-write early Japanese history by underlining that modern day populations in Japan have a tripartite genetic origin – a finding that refines previously accepted views of a dual genomic ancestry.

Researchers from the Universities of Tübingen and Zaragoza have discovered a previously unknown species of otter from 11.4-million-year-old strata at the Hammerschmiede fossil site.