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Anthropology
A toxicological study shows that the victims of human sacrifice consumed coca leaves and ayahuasca before they were killed, but not for reasons we originally thought.
The underground burial tombs were used at least as far back as 2500 B.C.
Archaic humans ventured into Eurasia in waves, not always successfully. They may have started their journey in North Africa or West Asia.
Many atheists think of themselves as intellectually gifted individuals, guiding humanity on the path of reason. Scientific data shows otherwise.
John Templeton Foundation
The Assam stone jars were described as early as 1929. Almost a century later, archaeologists still puzzle over their placement and purpose.
Mutations that confer malaria resistance occur more frequently in people who live in regions where the disease is endemic.
Awe is a powerful force, a fact that is both exciting and terrifying.
John Templeton Foundation
Is there any good reason for assigning North and South the way we do, or could we have just as easily done the reverse?
Gigantic ranges called "supermountains" formed twice in Earth's history, and they may have had a profound influence on evolutionary history.
Researchers speculate the famous monument was one of the world’s first solar calendars, possibly inspired by trade with ancient Egyptians.
As always, aDNA research raises as many questions as answers.
Planet Earth has been around for over 4.5 billion years, but humans? For 99.998% of our planet's history, humans were nowhere to be found.
Online Shinto communities have existed since the birth of the internet as we know it.
Using the Book of Mormon as a sacred but ambiguous atlas, the Latter-day Saints have been looking for the lost city of Zarahemla for decades.
Was this a moment when humans interbred with Neanderthals?
After it became clear that the world wasn't 6,000 years old, some proposed that northern peoples had emerged independently from others.
A study proposes that an ancient trading network, called the Hopewell tradition, may have been wiped out by what is known as a cosmic airburst.
The quadratic formula isn't just something that teachers use to torture algebra students. The Babylonians once used it to calculate taxes.
A new analysis of an ancient hominin fossil sheds light on the "Out of Africa" dispersal events that occurred more than one million years ago.
According to Sigmund Freud, our revulsion at taboos is an attempt to suppress a part of us that actually wants to do them.
Dating of volcanic ash suggests the remains are at least 230,000 years old.
The most feared sexually transmitted disease (STD) of the last half-millennium was usually named after foreigners, often the French.
We are generally taught that there is an arc of history — an inevitable path of progress that leads to modern society. Maybe it isn't true.
Many key inventions were unique: one-offs.
Scientists used 3D scans to analyze the corpse of Amenhotep I. They discovered that his brain was never removed and that he was circumcised, among other curiosities.
From 1974 to 1978, the chimps of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania were at war with each other, the first time conservationists saw chimps engage in calculated, cold-blooded killing.
Haters and disrespect aside, fruitcake is still a robust American tradition.
For relatives who live far apart, holiday rituals may be the glue that holds the family together.
It's that time of year when the hours of meticulous wrapping of Christmas toys are viciously undone in seconds by tiny children.