Archeology News

Neves has studied human occupation of the Amazon for 30 years and found evidence of rice, manioc and palm tree cultivation dating back thousands of years.

KALUMPANG, Indonesia — In January, as representatives of a hydropower company explained their plan to dam the river near his home, Kasman wondered if he was staring at annihilation. Kasman…

The dents and dings on the surfaces of rocks used by chimpanzees to crack open nuts preserve a history of how the animals used the tools and how those patterns…

A previously unknown genus of primitive giant kangaroo that once roamed the rainforests of New Guinea has been described by a team of paleontologists from Flinders University in Australia. The…

A two-and-a-half hour flight separates the Chilean capital of Santiago and the Archipiélago de Juan Fernández National Park. The archipelago is rich in marine and terrestrial biodiversity and comprises three…

Look around, and you’ll see examples of how we’ve modified our planet’s land surface: roads, buildings, farms, plantations. But is the widespread human impact on Earth a modern occurrence? No,…

A patrol of eleven men is hiking along a rough jungle trail spotted with the blackened foliage of several small brush fires. Nearby trees, smoke-stained at their bottoms but still…

For a long time, some of the fossil remains that had been excavated from a site in western Kenya in the late 1970s languished in a drawer at Nairobi National…

Over the past decade, archaeologists have dug out several pieces of bones and teeth from a cave on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. These fossil remains, all estimated…

Honduras has committed to protecting part of the tropical rainforests found in the Moskitia region, a move that conservation groups say will protect the region’s rich wildlife, carbon stocks and…

The greatest natural history repository in South America, Brazil’s National Museum was consumed by fire last Sunday — much was destroyed, but not all.

At 1,200 to 3,200 meters above sea level, the montane cloud forests on the eastern Andean flank in Ecuador lie between the Andes’ high-elevation grasslands (known as páramo) and the…

ncovering the history of human habitation in the Amazon rainforest is challenging. The humid, tropical climate and dynamic forest landscape, where organic materials decay rapidly, can be an enemy of…

Media coverage of ruins raises controversy among scientists, but leads to stepped-up protection efforts in long-neglected region Temple at Tikal, a Mayan city in Guatemala. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.…

Modern day signs of human activity in the Amazon rainforest. Courtesy of NASA. Click to enlarge. Researchers are planning to use drones equipped with vegetation-penetrating lasers to scan the Amazon…

Indigenous group hopes the monument will help them protect an embattled Amazon reserve A still from the film, The Reunion, showing the Rostro Harakbut. A new short film documents the…

All of the world's moas exterminated by just a few thousand people A Haast's eagle divebombing a pair of moas. A new study finds that it only took a few…

The Amazon rainforest in Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. The Amazon is the largest tropical forest on the planet, covering about 6.5 million square kilometers, although…

Scientists analyzed almost half a million fish bones to shed light on the population history of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) in the North Pacific Ocean. Their paper, published in the…

Kelumpang Sarawak (Sterculia megistophylla) in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Humans have been actively managing vast areas of Southeast Asia's forests for longer than previously believed, according to research…

Madagascar's first people may not have driven the island's largest animals to extinction, suggests new study. New research indicates that Madagascar was occupied some 2,500 years earlier than previously established.…

The Amazon forest along the Tambopata River in Peru. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A study last month in the journal Science argued that pre-Columbian peoples had little impact on…

The Congo rainforest today in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Three thousand years ago (around 1000 BCE) several large sections of the Congo rainforest in central Africa suddenly vanished…

Researchers have uncovered corncobs dating back at least 3,000 years ago in two ancient mound sites in Peru according to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of…

Cultural heritage sites could play a key role in efforts to alleviate poverty provided they are protected from a growing range of threats, says a new report published by the…

Primate archaeology: old science gets new members Archaeology, the study of ancient cultures and their artifacts, has always been confined to the technology of humans and direct human ancestors. However,…

Ancient Amazon tribes lived in sustainable "garden cities", argues new research Researchers have uncovered new evidence to support the controversial theory that parts of the Amazon were home to dense…

Ancient Amazon fires linked to human populations Ancient Amazon fires linked to human populations Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com February 20, 2008 European contact resulted in both a steep decline in…