Africa

This month's picks include Caste, Veritas and The Organ Thieves.

The Forged Gospel of Jesus’s Wife, Hidden Castes and Other New Books to Read

These five August releases may have been lost in the news cycle

An 18th-century engraving depicting cross sections of a ship used to transport enslaved people from Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean

New Research Reveals the Transatlantic Slave Trade's Genetic Legacy

Scientists investigated whether genetic data collected from 50,000 volunteers lined up with historical shipping manifests

Roughly 1.4 million years ago, Homo erectus made this hand ax out of a hippopotamus' thigh bone.

1.4-Million-Year-Old Ax Made of Hippo Bone Found in Ethiopia

Thought to have been made by Homo erectus, the implement adds range and sophistication to the bipedal hominin's toolkit

An elephant in the southeast Okavango Delta, Botswana in 2019

Experts Aren’t Sure Why Botswana's Elephants Are Dying by the Hundreds

After being slowed by the global pandemic, tests are now underway

Time lapse of photographs captured by the GOES-East satellite from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on June 16, 2020. The plume is set to reach the southwest United States this week.

Huge Saharan Dust Cloud Could Bring Hazy Skies, Spectacular Sunsets to the United States

The large dust cloud has already obscured skies in the Caribbean and will likely reach Gulf Coast states by the middle of this week

A display in Paris' Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, which houses hundreds of thousands of artifacts from non-European cultures

Activists Try to Remove African Artifact From Paris Museum

Protesters demanding the repatriation of looted objects seized a funeral pole on view at the Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac

An adult male Hippocampus nalu will grow to a maximum of just 2 centimeters long.

Newly Discovered Pygmy Seahorse Species Is the Size of a Fingernail

This tiny creature is the first of its kind discovered near the continent of Africa

Moshe Nahon Synagogue in Tangier, Morocco. This is a flattened view of a 360-degree photograph from Diarna’s archives.

Inside the Incredible Effort to Recreate Historic Jewish Sites Destroyed Years Ago

The digital venture, called Diarna, takes you back to painstakingly revived synagogues and destinations once lost to history

“Footprints give us information about anatomy and group dynamics that you just can’t get from bones,” says the Smithsonian's Briana Pobiner.

Ancient Toes and Soles of Fossilized Footprints Now 3-D Digitized for the Ages

New research suggests that for the prehistoric foragers that walked this path, labor was divided between men and women

The men's remains, found in a 16th-century mass grave in Mexico City, bear signs of trauma and disease.

New Analysis Suggests These Three Men Were Among the First Africans Enslaved in the Americas

Buried in a mass grave in Mexico City, the trio may have been part of the first generation abducted from their homeland and brought to the New World

A virtual view of the Red Monastery, one of five Egyptian heritage sites newly detailed in 3-D

Take a Free Virtual Tour of Five Egyptian Heritage Sites

The sites include the 5,000-year-old tomb of Meresankh III, the Red Monastery and the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Barquq

This illustration is an artist's interpretation of what a toothed pterosaur may have looked like 100 million years ago.

Four New Species of Prehistoric Flying Reptiles Unearthed in Morocco

These flying reptiles patrolled the African skies some 100 million years ago

Ostrich eggshell beads were exchanged between ancient hunter-gatherers living in distant, ecologically diverse regions of southern Africa, including deserts and high mountains.

Humans Have Been Taking Out Insurance Policies for at Least 30,000 Years

A study of beads made from ostrich eggshells suggests the humans of the Kalahari Desert region formed social networks to help each other

Desert locusts cover branches in Katitika village, Kitui county, in Kenya on Friday, January 24. Kenya hasn't seen locust swarms of this size in 70 years.

Billions of Locusts Are Swarming East Africa

The swarms were sparked by the unusually high number of cyclones in 2019

The arrest and the subsequent landing of U.S. troops could happen in Tangier, yet it was completely unthinkable just 12 miles away in Gibraltar or 60 miles away in Cadiz.

The Diplomatic Intrigue That Gave Morocco a Cameo Appearance in the U.S. Civil War

Confederate agents seeking European support were imprisoned by the U.S. consul, which ignited international protest

AMA #WCW by Dada Khanyisa, 2018

How the Heroes of Africa Triumphed Against All Odds

At the African Art Museum the inspiring stories of 50 individuals from the continent are honored in classical and contemporary works of art

Nearly a century ago, archaeologists started to shift the focus of human origins research from Europe to Africa’s ‘cradles of humankind’ like Oldupai (Olduvai) Gorge in Tanzania.

Archaeologists Are Unearthing the Stories of the Past Faster Than Ever Before

Recent research helps reveal the origins of humans, determine what ancient people ate and monitor historical sites from the sky

The Blue Mountains of Niger. Arable land in the fast-growing country shrank nearly 50 percent per capita from 1996 to 2016.

Photographs From One of the World's Most Troubled, and Least Understood, Regions

A photojournalist journeys to the Sahara-Sahel desert of remote northern Africa to catalogue the state of emergency on the ground

Pablo Picasso, Nature Morte (1921)

This Picasso Could Be Yours for Just Over $100

A charity raffle is selling the 1921 painting “Nature Morte” for a bonafide bargain

At an archaeological site in Ethiopia, researchers are uncovering the oldest Christian basilica in sub-Saharan Africa.

Church Unearthed in Ethiopia Rewrites the History of Christianity in Africa

Archaeologists now can more closely date when the religion spread to the Aksumite Empire

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