Anthropology
In Emotional Homecoming, Smithsonian Repatriates 24 Sets of Human Remains
Collected by an anthropologist in 1931, the National Museum of Natural History returned the bones to the village of Igiugig
Burials Unearthed in Poland Open the Casket on The Secret Lives of Vampires
What people actually did to prevent the dead from rising again was very different than what Hollywood would have you think
How Japan's Bear-Worshipping Indigenous Group Fought Its Way to Cultural Relevance
For a long time, Japanese anthropologists and officials tried to bury the Ainu. It didn't work
William R. Maples Popularized Forensic Anthropology Long Before CSI
Maples worked on a number of high-profile cases that helped to bring the field of forensic anthropology to prominence
Are Humans to Blame for the Disappearance of Earth’s Fantastic Beasts?
100,000 years ago, giant sloths, wombats and cave hyenas roamed the world. What drove them all extinct?
Smithsonian's Behind-the-Scenes 'Sidedoor' Podcast Returns for Second Season
New episodes explore a 150-year-old cold case, the history of beer, war photography and more
Telling the Story of 19th-Century Native American Treasures Through Bird Feathers
Famed explorer John Wesley Powell’s archive of his 19th century travels is newly examined
Oldest Cancer Case in Central America Discovered
A young teen, who died 700 years ago, likely suffered pain in the right arm as the tumor grew and expanded through the bone
This 3.3-Million-Year-Old Hominin Toddler Was Kind of Like Us
Analysis of the ancient spine reveals tantalizing similarities—and questions about human evolution
Europe's Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets
High-tech tools divulge new information about the mysterious and violent fates met by these corpses
Researchers Work to Take the Bias Out Of Facial Reconstruction
Instead of relying on European-centric data sets, researchers used a global database to help image a 13,600-year-old woman from Thailand
What Really Made Primate Brains So Big?
A new study suggests that fruit, not social relationships, could be the main driver of larger brains
How Humans Invented Numbers—And How Numbers Reshaped Our World
Anthropologist Caleb Everett explores the subject in his new book, <em>Numbers and the Making Of Us</em>
Prehistoric Pointillism? Long Before Seurat, Ancient Artists Chiseled Mammoths Out of Dots
Newly discovered 38,000-year-old cave art predates the French post-Impressionist art form
Mary Leakey’s Husband (Sort of) Took Credit For Her Groundbreaking Work On Humanity’s Origins
Leakey and her husband, Louis Leakey, were a paleoanthropology power couple
Dig This: Researchers Found a 38,000-Year-Old Engraving in France
Excavated from a rock shelter, the image of an aurochs covered in dots was made by the Aurignacians, the earliest group of modern humans in Europe
Humans May Have Arrived in North America 10,000 Years Earlier Than We Thought
A 24,000-year-old horse jawbone is helping rewrite our understanding of human habitation on the continent
Did Neanderthals Like Pretty Rocks?
An unusual rock in a cave inhabited by Neanderthals in Croatia suggests the hominids may have picked up interesting stones
Drilling Deep: How Ancient Chinese Surgeons Opened Skulls and Minds
A new review finds evidence that the Chinese performed trepanation more than 3,500 years ago
Does the Linguistic Theory at the Center of the Film ‘Arrival’ Have Any Merit?
We asked a Smithsonian linguist and an anthropologist to debate the matter
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