A new study published in Science Advances reveals how Bronze Age communities in Central Europe adapted to changing environmental and social conditions by adopting broomcorn millet, a fast-growing and climate-resilient crop. Using multiple lines of bioarchaeological evidence, researchers found that millet was already being consumed in southeastern Poland around 1590 BCE – more than a century earlier than previously estimated – and was initially adopted gradually by a small number of individuals. The findings suggest that millet cultivation enabled communities to expand agriculture into previously marginal areas with poorer soils and drier conditions, reshaping how people used the landscape and strengthening food security.

Researchers have shed new light on a series of prehistoric stones in Yorkshire, revealing the 25-tonne structures were hauled 11 miles across land by Neolithic builders.

A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals newly discovered aspects of melons’ ancient history. Based on an analysis of the ancient DNA of seeds from a Song imperial dynasty archaeological site in southeastern China (circa 960-1279), scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have determined those ancient melons belong to the East Asian ‘agrestis’ lineage likely arrived from South Asia originally, although an independent Chinese domestication event cannot be ruled out. Those ancient melons lacked the sweetness of modern dessert melons, indicating a distinct East Asian culinary tradition.

A new study suggests that a period of intense fires and landscape upheaval in the ancient southern Levant may have helped create the conditions that led Neolithic communities to discover how fire could transform clay.

As populations expanded in Medieval England, key changes occurred in the uses of cattle and sheep to produce food and materials, according to a study published September 2, 2026 in the open access journal PLOS One by Matilda Holmes of the University of Leicester, UK, David Orton of the University of York, UK, and colleagues.

Researchers and archeologists from Aarhus University and the Moesgaard museum have developed a low-cost multispectral LED imaging system that can reveal subtle differences between archaeological layers and materials that are difficult to see with the naked eye. Tested at the Iron Age site Sorte Muld on Bornholm, the system could help archaeologists document complex deposits and choose where to sample before excavation removes the evidence for good.

A recent study published in the National Science Review reveals that the tradition of wrapping grains in leaves may date back as far as 2,200 years ago. Leaf-wrapped plant bundles unearthed at the Wuwangdun Site—believed to have served as funerary offerings—are now considered an early precursor to zongzi, the iconic traditional Chinese food enjoyed during the Dragon Boat Festival.