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Anthropology

New Research

Scientists Just Identified a Pinkie That’s Almost 2 Million Years Old

And it could be a major evolutionary breakthrough

Brazil's Surui people, like the man pictured above, share ancestry with indigenous Australians, new evidence suggests.

New Research

A DNA Search for the First Americans Links Amazon Groups to Indigenous Australians

The new genetic analysis takes aim at the theory that just one founding group settled the Americas

New Research

In Some Ways, Human Hands Are More Primitive Than Chimp Hands

Study suggests our common ancestor had humanlike hands

Previous analysis of the Kennewick Man's skull suggested that he might be closely related to Asian populations and Polynesians. But new genetic analysis indicates his ancestral roots are in the Americas.

New Research

Genome Analysis Links Kennewick Man to Native Americans

Ancient DNA sequenced from the skeleton adds to the controversy over the individual’s ancestry

Surprise, surprise. The best campfires are as tall as they are wide.

New Research

How to Build the Perfect Campfire

Science confirms that the best way to build a campfire really is the best way to build a campfire

The Egtved girl was a high-born female from the Bronze Age. In her grave in Denmark, she wears a wool dress. Wool textiles and a bronze belt plate that resembles the sun surround her remains.

Cool Finds

What Was Life Like for a Girl in the Bronze Age?

Analysis of a 3,400-year-old burial traces the life story of a Bronze Age female

Unearthed at the Cova Negra site in Spain, skull fragments from a Neanderthal child have telltale punctures in the right parietal region.

New Research

Ancient Carnivores Had a Taste for Neanderthal Meat

Researchers link bite marks on a Neanderthal skull to the fangs of an ancient big cat

Evidence from reindeer combs, like the one above, hints that the Vikings may have traded with Denmark before they started raiding England.

Vikings Didn’t Just Raid, They Traded Too

Reindeer artifacts found at Medieval market sites suggest the famed raiders tried the merchant thing first

At 3.3 million years old, tools unearthed at the Lomekwi 3 excavation site in Kenya, like the one pictured above, represent the oldest known evidence of stone tools, researchers suggest.

The Oldest Stone Tools Yet Discovered Are Unearthed in Kenya

3.3 million-year-old artifacts predate the human genus

A 2013 satellite view of a settlement of uncontacted people in Acre, Brazil.

Protecting the World’s Last Isolated Communities From Above

Advances in satellite technology mean that untouched villages can remain that way

New Research

People Ate Pork in the Middle East Until 1,000 B.C.—What Changed?

A new study investigates the historical factors leading up to the emergence of pork prohibition

New Research

Neanderthals Divvied Up Chores by Sex

New research on Neanderthal teeth shows differing gender roles

The results of agriculture changed our mouths, but not completely for the better.

New Research

Before Agriculture, Human Jaws Were a Perfect Fit for Human Teeth

The emergence of agricultural practices initiated major changes to the jaw structure of ancient humans, leading to dental problems we still experience

A skull shows evidence of trepanation, an early form of neurosurgery that called for a hole cut into the skull.

New Research

Scientists Try Out 2,300-Year-Old Brain Surgery Techniques

Experiments conducted by a Siberian research team shed light on the neurosurgical methods evident in three Iron Age skulls

The chart is less a literal representation of the sea, but more an abstract illustration of the ways that ocean swells interact with land.

The Innovative Spirit - OLD

How Sticks and Shell Charts Became a Sophisticated System for Navigation

Sailors navigating with sextant, compass and maps found in the Marshall Islands that curved sticks and cowry shells were far more sophisticated

Researchers exhumed the mummy of Cangrande della Scala in 2004 to perform a modern autopsy on the famous Italian autocrat.

Poison Hath Been This Italian Mummy’s Untimely End

A lethal helping of foxglove seems to have triggered the downfall of a warlord of Verona

Small town travel, the Monuments Men, Chernobyl and Stonehenge were all among reader favorites in 2014

Our Top Stories of 2014

From weird red waterfalls to the pleasures of small-town America, these were the most read articles on Smithsonian.com this year

Researchers found that human joint-bone density remained pretty high until recently in our evolutionary history, around the same time that humans began switching from hunting and gathering to farming.

Switching to Farming Made Human Joint Bones Lighter

A more fragile skeleton evolved about 12,000 years ago, probably driven by a shift from hunting to agriculture

Prelorán left Argentina and eventually settled in Los Angeles. He's shown here during the filming of Casabindo in 1977.

Rescuing Jorge Prelorán’s Films From Storage And Time

The Smithsonian’s Film Archives is reintroducing the world to the influential work of the Argentine-American filmmaker

Scientists found deliberate scratching on a fossil Pseudodon, likely an engraving made by Homo erectus at Trinil in Indonesia.

New Research

Zigzags on a Shell From Java Are the Oldest Human Engravings

The early human Homo erectus also made the oldest known shell tools half a million years ago

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