Did prehistoric humans know that smoking meat could preserve it and extend its shelf life? Researchers from the Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Culturesat Tel Aviv University believe they did. Their new study presents a fresh perspective on a question that has long preoccupied prehistory scholars: What prompted early humans to begin using fire? According to the researchers, early humans, who primarily consumed large game, required fire not for cooking, but in order to smoke and dry meat so that it would not rot, thereby preserving it for extended periods and keeping it safe from predators and scavengers.

The Fanthorp Inn is a historic stagecoach stop dating back to the 1800s, located in Anderson, Texas. Students and faculty from Texas A&M University are quite literally digging into the past at this historic site to uncover details about life in early Texas. Students are using tools like ground-penetrating radar and careful excavation techniques to explore areas around the inn.

New archaeological findings along a little-known medieval wall in eastern Mongolia reveal that frontier life was more complex than previously believed. Excavations show evidence of permanent habitation, agriculture, and cultural exchange, suggesting that these walls were not solely defensive structures but part of a broader system of regional control and interaction during the Jin dynasty.

A new method developed by researchers at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, could soon unlock the vast repository of biological information held in the proteins of ancient soft tissues. The findings, which could open up a new era for palaeobiological discovery, have been published today (28 May) in PLOS ONE.

New research brings together 7,000 years of history in South Arabia to show how ancient pastoralists changed placement and construction of monuments over time in the face of environmental and cultural forces.

Llamas may have been domesticated in the semi-arid North of Chile prior to the Incas, according to multi-proxy analysis of early camelid remains

Humans were making tools from whale bones as far back as 20,000 years ago, according to a study conducted by scientists from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and the University of British Columbia. This discovery broadens our understanding of early human use of whale remains and offers valuable insight into the marine ecology of the time.