The first definitive evidence of when post-Roman lead production began in one of Europe’s largest medieval lead-producing regions, the Derbyshire Peak District in central England, has been uncovered by archaeologists, after centuries of mining had erased much of the archaeological evidence.

Researchers have reconstructed a 700,000-year-old woodland-wetland ecosystem in northern Israel using a remarkably preserved elephant tooth recovered from the prehistoric site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov. Published in Quaternary Science Reviews, the study combines CT scanning, isotope geochemistry, microscopic wear analysis, and pollen research to reveal a landscape of rivers, marshes, grasslands, and woodlands that supported Palaeoloxodon antiquus (the straight-tusked elephant) and some of the region's earliest human toolmakers. The findings provide new insights into the environmental conditions that sustained wildlife and human populations along the Levantine Corridor, a key land bridge connecting Africa and Eurasia. The research was led by Hannah Farrell of the University of Haifa and builds on excavations conducted by Prof. Gonen Sharon of Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee.

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, a team led by Academician Fahu Chen from Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reconstructed Holocene precipitation changes across the East Asian monsoon region of eastern China. The study shows that precipitation varied between northern and southern China in an alternating pattern, which may have supported the parallel development of early agricultural societies and later contributed to the rise of the Central Plains and the formation of the pluralistic and integrated Chinese civilization.

Aurochs, the ancient ancestors of modern cattle, once roamed large parts of Europe, Asia and northern Africa. New research by an international team led by Lund University indicates that multiple factors contributed to their demise in northern Europe - one of the areas where they became extinct the earliest.