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Domestication

The adaptation of an animal or plant through breeding in captivity to a life intimately associated with and advantageous to humans. Domesticated plants and animals differ genetically and morphologically from their wild counterparts, often in ways…

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Archeological chemistry

The application of chemical techniques to the study of archeological materials in order to elucidate aspects of the human past. The materials used in archeological chemistry might be anthropogenic (for example, pottery or metal) or natural (from…

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Bioarcheology

The study of skeletal remains from archeological sites by biological (or physical) anthropologists. Bioarcheology differs in several ways from traditional skeletal research (see illustration). Previous work focused on individual case studies (for…

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Dog domestication may have occurred first in Siberia Published in 2021

Genealogists and anthropologists have long disputed the provenance of domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris). Although genetic analyses and fossil evidence indicate that the domestic dog descended from the gray wolf (Canis lupus), the exact location…

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Paleoindian

The oldest archeological cultures of the New World, the ancestors of modern Native Americans. The Paleoindian colonizing populations of the Americas were Homo sapiens sapiens who arrived during the late Pleistocene (Ice Age) from Asia, though…

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Paleopathology

The study of disease in the ancient past. Paleopathology is the investigation of ancient diseases and their origins. The term applies to any evidence of disease in any form of life, including both plants and animals. However, the research emphasis…

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Prehistoric technology

The set of ideas that prescribe the manufacture and use of implements before written history. Technology is the principal means through which the human species has succeeded in occupying most of the world. The prehistoric record documents that for…

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Archeology

The scientific study of past material culture. The initial objective of archeology (often spelled archaeology) is to construct cultural chronologies that order past material culture into meaningful temporal segments. The intermediate objective is to…

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Connection between Neandertal DNA and COVID-19 Published in 2020

Scientists have suggested a possible connection between ancient Neandertals (Homo neanderthalensis) and the severity of disease in patients affected by COVID-19. In short, certain genes acquired from Neandertals during instances of interbreeding…

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Early modern humans

The earliest representatives of people anatomically similar to living humans that evolved from more archaic humans approximately 150,000–300,000 years ago. The general process by which early modern humans (Homo sapiens) emerged from late archaic…

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Fission track dating

A method of dating geological and archeological specimens by counting the radiation-damage tracks produced by spontaneous fission of uranium impurities in minerals and glasses. During fission two fragments of the uranium nucleus fly apart with high…

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Fossil apes

Fossil members of the group of primates constituting the apes. Apes and humans are closely related primates in the superfamily Hominoidea. The living hominoids are subdivided into the families Hylobatidae and Hominidae. The hylobatids, or lesser…

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Fossil evidence of the oldest Homo sapiens in Europe Published in 2020

The earliest representatives of modern humans—those belonging to Homo sapiens—evolved from more archaic humans approximately 150,000–300,000 years ago in eastern Africa. During succeeding years, the geographical range of anatomically modern humans…

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Fossil primates

Extinct members of the order of mammals to which humans belong. All current classifications divide the living primates (order Primates) into two major groups (suborders) [Fig. 1]: the Strepsirhini (Strepsirrhini) or "lower" primates (lemurs,…

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Homo erectus

A species of fossil human from the Pleistocene representing a specialized side branch in human evolution in Africa and Eurasia. Homo erectus (Fig. 1) was a common, widespread, and long-surviving ancestor of modern humans (H. sapiens). Fossil remains…

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Human biological variation

The diversity of biological and genetic differences observed in the human population. Anthropologists study human biology to better understand the extent of human biological variability, to explain the mechanisms that create and pattern this…

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Molecular anthropology

The study of primate phylogeny and human evolution through the genetic information in the DNA of genomes and in the proteins that genes encode. The first studies in molecular anthropology used immunological and biochemical methods to obtain…

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Neandertals

A group of late archaic humans (Homo neanderthalensis) from Europe, southwest Asia, and central Asia that immediately preceded the first modern humans in those regions. The closest evolutionary relatives of modern humans are the Neandertals (also…

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Neolithic

The period of prehistoric culture whose basic defining attributes are the emergence of agriculture, animal domestication, and sedentary farmsteads or villages. This definition has evolved over the last century from the original characterization of…

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Smallpox found in skeletons of Vikings Published in 2020

Over the course of history, smallpox has been among the most feared diseases of humankind. Caused by the variola virus (a DNA-containing member of the Poxviridae family) and spread by transfer through respiratory droplets during face-to-face…

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Sociobiology

A scientific discipline that applies principles of evolutionary biology to the study of animal and human social behavior. Sociobiology is a synthesis of ethology (the study of animal behavior), ecology, and evolutionary theory in which social…

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Amino acid dating

Determination of the relative or absolute age of materials or objects by measurement of the degree of racemization of the amino acids present. With the exception of glycine, the amino acids found in proteins can exist in two isomeric forms called d-…

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Anthropology

The observation, measurement, and explanation of human variability in time and space. Anthropology is a science concerned with the interrelations of the biological, cultural, geographical, and historical aspects of humankind, including modern human…

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Anthropometry

The systematic quantitative representation of the human body. Anthropometric techniques are used to measure the absolute and relative variability in size and shape of the human body. Instrumentation Depending on the objective, anthropometric…

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Archeological chronology

The establishment of the temporal sequence of prehistoric events. An event can be defined as a duration of time during which certain features came together to form a set, for example, when certain materials were formed into an object (manufacturing…

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Australopith

Any member of an adaptively diverse group of extinct hominin species that inhabited Africa between approximately 4.2 million years ago (MYA) and 1.2 MYA. The term australopith is used in preference to the term australopithecine, which is sometimes…

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Dating methods

Relative and quantitative techniques used to arrange events in time and to determine the numerical age of events in history, geology, paleontology, archeology, paleoanthropology, and astronomy. Relative techniques allow the order of events to be…

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Dendrochronology

The science that dates annual tree rings to their exact year of formation for study of modern, historical, and prehistorical events and environmental conditions. Trees are intimately bound to the environment, with their growth influenced by natural…

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Dental anthropology

The scientific study of people, with their living and extinct primate relatives, using the evidence of teeth. Dental anthropologists include not only those trained in anthropology but also practicing dentists, anatomists, radiologists, forensic…

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Discovery of ancient Australopithecus anamensis skull Published in 2019

At the Woranso-Mille paleontological site in northern Ethiopia, researchers have discovered a 3.8 million-year-old cranium (skull) belonging to a primitive hominin known as Australopithecus anamensis. Initially unearthed in 2016, but not reported…

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Forensic anthropology

The application of physical anthropology theory and techniques to medicolegal questions. Forensic anthropology may also pertain to subdisciplines of anthropology, such as cultural anthropology, biological/physical anthropology, archaeology, and…

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Fossil humans

Ancient fossilized members of human beings and those species directly ancestral to modern humans. Fossil humans comprise all prehistoric skeletal remains of humans that are archeologically earlier than the Neolithic (necessarily an imprecise limit,…

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Neandertal DNA

The deoxyribonucleic acid of Homo neanderthalensis. Neandertals (also spelled Neanderthals) are the closest evolutionary relatives of modern humans. Based on fossil and archeological records, Neandertals are large-brained people with a distinct…

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Paleolithic

The prehistoric period when people made stone tools exclusively by chipping or flaking. John Lubbock proposed and defined the term Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age, in 1865 and also defined a subsequent stage, Neolithic or New Stone Age, during which…

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Physical anthropology

The subfield of anthropology that deals with human and nonhuman primate evolution, the biological bases of human behavior, and human biological variability and its significance. Physical anthropology is a branch of anthropology that investigates the…

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Ape cognition

The apes are a branch of Old World primates, distinguished from monkeys by their mode of locomotion (arm swinging, rather than quadrupedal walking). It has long been known that humans are more closely related to apes than to other primates. However,…

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Chimpanzee behavior

The behavior of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) [Fig. 1] is fascinating because of its similarity to human behavior. These behavioral similarities are due in part to the close evolutionary relationship between chimpanzees and humans. Behavioral…

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New orangutan species Published in 2017

A new species of orangutan has been identified in the Batang Toru forest ecosystem in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Genetic and morphological evidence, as well as behavioral data, have confirmed that the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) is…

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Discovery of Homo naledi Published in 2015

In the Rising Star cave system in South Africa, located about 48 kilometers (30 miles) north of Johannesburg, paleoanthropologists have unearthed an extensive collection of more than 1550 skeletal elements from at least 15 individuals that have…

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Fossil may push back age of genus Homo Published in 2015

In the Afar region of Ethiopia, paleoanthropologists unearthed a 2.8 million-year-old jawbone (mandible) that was provisionally assigned to the genus Homo [the genus of human beings, including modern humans (Homo sapiens) and other extinct species].…

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Human brain evolution

A much sought after challenge in anthropology is to understand better the evolution of the human brain and, in particular, to decode the nature of changes that provided for our unique form of language. The term language can be used quite broadly; it…

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Human migration and population analysis

Before Christopher Columbus's famous voyage in 1492 and the beginning of modern transoceanic journeys, humans had established themselves on all habitable continents. This initial settlement of the continents by Homo sapiens originated approximately…

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Ancient Egyptians Published in 2014

The ancient Egyptian civilization flourished along the banks of the Nile River, which supplied the waters that ensured a prosperous and lengthy agricultural vitality over the course of thousands of years. On the strength provided by this rich…

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Archeoastronomy

The interdisciplinary study that attempts to determine how much astronomy prehistoric people knew and how it influenced their lives. It involves multiple disciplines: astronomy to chart the heavens, archeology to probe the cultural context,…

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Aztecs Published in 2014

The Aztecs were an indigenous group of Mesoamerican tribal peoples whose influence dominated that region between the fourteenth and early sixteenth centuries. They predominantly spoke a native language called Nahuatl, and they lived a nomadic…

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Babylonians Published in 2014

The Babylonian civilization flourished from approximately 1900 to 539 BC in the central and southern regions of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), predominantly between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Before the rise of the Babylonians, the area was…

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Bonobo genome

Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are among the closest living relatives of the human species. Along with chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos shared a common ancestor with human beings approximately 6 million years ago (MYA). The two species of Pan shared a…

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Discovery of Denisovans expands the human family tree Published in 2014

The evolutionary ancestry of the modern human race became even more complicated in 2012 with the results of studies on DNA extracted from bits of 50,000-year-old bone from Siberia. The analysis confirmed that an archaic species of people called…

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Earliest hominins

A major issue in paleoanthropology concerns the ability to identify the first members of our evolutionary lineage, the earliest hominins (see illustration). Based on both genetic and morphological studies, it is well established that hominins are…

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Homo floresiensis: further insights

A tiny skeleton was revealed to an unsuspecting world in October 2004. The bones of this skeleton belonged to a new kind of human that was nicknamed “the hobbit” because it was so small. The bones were discovered during an archeological excavation…

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Incas Published in 2014

The Incas were a group of native South American people who created an empire that was the largest civilization in the New World prior to the arrival of Columbus. The early Incas predominantly inhabited the highlands of the central Peruvian Andes.…

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Late survival of the Neandertals questioned Published in 2014

The origin, evolutionary history, and extinction of the Neandertals (Homo neanderthalensis, a group of late archaic humans from Europe, southwest Asia, and central Asia that immediately preceded the first modern humans in those regions), as well as…

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Maya Published in 2014

The Maya were an indigenous people that predominantly inhabited an area encompassing present-day southeastern Mexico (including the Yucatán Peninsula), Belize, and Guatemala. Dating back to 2000–3000 BC, the Maya civilization reached its pinnacle…

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Maya civilization

The Maya civilization prospered in an area comprising the present-day locations of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador (Fig. 1). It encompassed a diversity of environmental zones, including the tropical lowlands of the…

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Olduvai Gorge

Olduvai Gorge (or Oldupai Gorge) is an important paleoanthropological site located in northern Tanzania. It is a site of significant hominin remains and has provided notable evidence for the understanding of early human evolution. Description and…

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Origins of symbolic behavior

A central focus of the discussions surrounding the behavioral origins of Homo sapiens in Africa and Eurasia has been when and where our ancestors first behaved in ways similar to ourselves. A term commonly used in the literature to describe this…

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Phoenicians Published in 2014

The Phoenician civilization flourished along the eastern coastlines of the Mediterranean Sea (the present-day coasts of Syria, Lebanon, and northern Israel) from approximately 2000 BC to 500 BC. Organized as a loose confederation of independent…

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Primate visual signals

Primates are unusual mammals. Unlike the majority of mammals, which rely on a strong sense of smell for navigating the world, primates are characterized by a shift away from an ancestral reliance on olfaction toward an increasing use of the visual…

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Sumerians Published in 2014

The Sumerian civilization flourished from 4500 to 1750 BC in the southernmost region of Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers (located in present-day southern Iraq). It was the earliest society to establish urban centers and…

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Vasa: the state of deterioration

The seventeenth-century Swedish Royal warship Vasa (Fig. 1) is the largest preserved maritime-archeological wooden object in the world. The ship is fascinating in many ways, being an artifact of marine and shipbuilding history. In particular, the…

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Zooarcheology

Zooarcheology or archeozoology is the study of animal remains from archeological sites. Most such remains derive from people's meals. In other words, zooarcheology is essentially the study of ancient garbage, mainly bones and teeth of mammals, as…

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Acheulean

The Acheulean (alternatively Acheulian) is an archeological culture defined by its characteristic stone tools, particularly the handaxe, found in Africa and Eurasia from approximately 1.76 million years ago (∼1.76 MYA) to approximately 150,000 years…

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Ancient DNA

Within the past decade, biochemical methods have advanced so much that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can be copied and sequenced from individuals representing extinct populations, or even from individuals representing entire species now extinct. Such…

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Anoiapithecus and Pierolapithecus

Hominoids constitute a natural group of primates that includes gibbons and siamangs (hylobatids or lesser apes), great apes (orangutans and African apes), and humans. Apes currently display a low biodiversity and limited geographic distribution…

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Atapuerca fossil hominins

Since the discovery of human fossils at the Sierra de Atapuerca in northern Spain in 1979, there has been an extensive series of finds at several sites within this complex of caves. Overall, these human fossils are important finds that have…

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Australopithecus sediba

The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Area is located northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. This world heritage locale encompasses 47,000 hectares (116,000 acres) and contains many hominin-bearing sites. The most recently discovered site,…

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Conservation of archeological wood: the Oseberg find

The Oseberg find is one of the most important archeological finds in Norway and represents the most comprehensive collection of Viking Age wooden objects in the world. The archeological artifacts are displayed at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.…

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Denisovans

Denisovans (named after the Denisova cave in the Altai Mountains, Siberia, Russia; Fig. 1) are hominins that may belong to a previously unknown archaic population or species likely to have originated in Asia during the Middle Pleistocene. If…

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DNA and animal domestication

Human civilization would not have been possible without the domestication of plants and animals. Domestication is responsible for our clothes, food, and pets, and was also a necessary prerequisite for the development of written language,…

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Earliest humans in the Americas

The Americas were the last continents (except for Antarctica) colonized by Homo sapiens (that is, anatomically modern humans) and they represented the “end of the road” or final stage of the global expansion process that started in sub-Saharan…

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Earliest seafaring

Despite the importance of human seafaring in the history of global colonization, archeologists are uncertain about how, why, and when humans first began to use boats. Physical evidence for boats in the archeological record is sparse and late in…

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Earliest tools

In the Late Pliocene (2.6 million years ago), during the transition of the apelike australopithecines to the earliest representatives of the genus Homo, one of the most significant elements in the human evolutionary process appeared: the use of…

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Ethnoarcheology

Since the 1970s, archeologists have carried out fieldwork in traditional societies to help answer questions regarding the interpretation of the archeological record and to develop analogies. This research strategy has been labeled ethnoarcheology…

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Fossil hominids from Dmanisi

Archeological excavations of the medieval town of Dmanisi, Georgia, starting in the early 1980s revealed the presence of fossilized fauna and stone tools of prehistoric antiquity (Fig. 1). These fossils, including the remains of at least five early…

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Geoarcheology

Geoarcheology entails the use of geologic concepts, methods, and knowledge for solving archeological problems. Geology and archeology are historical sciences based largely on the study of a complex stratigraphy that contains mineral, fossil, and…

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Homo heidelbergensis

Homo heidelbergensis is a species of extinct humans that lived in Europe and possibly also in Africa and Asia approximately 600–300 KYA (that is, thousand years before the present) in the time period known as the Middle Pleistocene. The species was…

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Howieson's Poort

The Howieson's Poort is a stone tool industry of southern Africa (Fig. 1). It is considered a horizon marker within the Middle Stone Age, which refers to the archeological phase in sub-Saharan Africa roughly equivalent in time to the Eurasian Middle…

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Human fossils from Omo Kibish

In 1967, paleontologists made a series of major fossil discoveries of early humans in the ancient sedimentary layers of the Kibish Formation along the banks of the Omo River in southwestern Ethiopia (Fig. 1). Omo I, the most complete specimen…

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Infant Australopithecus from Dikika

Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct species of the evolutionary lineage leading to modern humans. It is well known from numerous important fossil discoveries from sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, dating to between 2.9 and 3.8 million…

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Lithic use-wear

Lithic use-wear or microwear analysis is the examination of surfaces on experimental or archeological stone tools to determine tool use. Primarily used to determine the functions of chipped stone tools, in particular those produced on silicates such…

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Madagascan primates

The fauna and flora of Madagascar, Africa's Great Red Island, can be described as fitting what botanist Quentin C. B. Cronk recently called the “diversity and stability paradox” of island biogeography. The diversity paradox is that, despite the…

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Modern human origins

Genetic, paleontological, and archeological data indicate that modern humans evolved in Africa and then spread to other parts of the world. Genetic data, primarily from mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (mtDNA) and Y chromosomes, firmly place the…

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Morotopithecus

Morotopithecus bishopi is a fossil ape species from northeastern Uganda dated to be more than 20.6 million years old. The fossils of Morotopithecus suggest that it was capable of modern apelike behaviors, including use of vertical trunk postures…

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Movius Line

The earliest cultural traces currently date to ∼2.6 MYA (millions of years ago) and are found at the site of Gona in Ethiopia, East Africa. The earliest hominin behavioral evidence is in the form of worked stone, which is referred to as Oldowan…

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Neanderthal extinction

Neanderthals were humans that lived across Europe, the Middle East, and into central Asia and southern Siberia between 300,000 and 24,000 years ago. The prevalent view has been that these people were “archaic” and somehow brutish and apelike. With…

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Origins of agriculture

One of humankind's most significant accomplishments was the transition from hunting and gathering to food production and the establishment of permanent settlements, commonly known as the Neolithic Revolution. Occurring independently in several parts…

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Origins of cooking

How an animal obtains and consumes its food is a defining characteristic of a species. It also provides information that can be used to broadly categorize animals. Many primates, for example, are omnivorous and consume a variety of food types,…

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Primate communication

Primates are our closest biological relatives. Therefore, we expect to find many similarities between primate and human communication. Primates primarily use vocal and visual modalities, as do humans, and some primate communication demonstrates…

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Primate origins

By the midtwentieth century most scientists shared the view that the primate order consisted of the living and fossil tree shrews, lemurs, galagos, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, including humans. The fossils of three extinct radiations known…

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Stone tool origins

The human lineage is unique in the animal world for having an adaptation that is based upon the complex use of tools and technology. The archeological record bears testament to the origins and development of technology through time in tandem with…

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from article Prehistoric technology

Elements of stone flaking. (a) Relationship between the core and the flake. (b) Major feature of the ventral or release surface of the flake. (After I. Tattersall, E. Delson, and J. A. Van Couvering, eds., Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and…

Image

from article Prehistoric technology

Principal techniques of stone-tool manufacture. (a) Hard-hammer, with free-hand percussion. (b) Anvil technique. (c) Bipolar technique. (d) Soft-hammer percussion. (e) Indirect percussion or punch technique. (f) Pressure flaking. (After…

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from article Prehistoric technology

Potters from the village of Harappa, Pakistan, display their wares in front of a replica of a two-chambered kiln used by ancient potters in the Indus Valley civilization. (Photo courtesy of R. P. Wright)

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from article Paleopathology

The fused spine and ribs in a case of ankylosing spondylitis from an adult male human found at a burial site near the Kuskokwim River, Alaska. (Credit: Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Catalog…

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from article Paleopathology

Pottery figurine of an achondroplastic dwarf from an archeological site in Tachina, Esmeraldas, Ecuador, dated between 500 BCE and 500 CE. (Credit: Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Catalog No.…

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from article Paleopathology

Sword trauma that removed part of the left upper jaw and the right lower jaw so that no remaining teeth were in contact between the jaws. The adult male human survived this injury. The skull is from an archeological burial site near the Stewart…

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from article Paleopathology

Destruction of the lower portion of the fourth lumbar vertebra (arrow), probably caused by tuberculosis, from a young male human skeleton found at the archeological burial site of Bâb edh-Dhrâ in Jordan, dated to approximately 3300 BCE. (Credit:…

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from article Paleopathology

The effect of scurvy on the right side of the cranium of an 11-year-old human child from the archeological site of Pachacamac, Peru. (Credit: Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Catalog No. 266599)

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from article Neandertal DNA

The geographical range within which Neandertal remains have been found (dashed line). White dots show the sites of the discoveries used to estimate the almost-complete hypervariable segment I (HVS-I) sequence of the Neandertal mtDNA. The approximate…

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from article Neandertal DNA

The mtDNA hypervariable segment I (HVS-I) diversity found in eight Neandertals. The nucleotide substitutions and insertions relative to the Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS) are shaded. (Credit: Igor Ovchinnikov and William Goodwin)

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