A snapshot of our mysterious ancestor Homo erectus

Homo erectus had many features in common with Homo sapiens – but we still don’t have a genetic profile for this species. from www.shutterstock.com Ian Moffat, Flinders University If you bumped into a Homo erectus in the street you might not recognise them as being...

Was agriculture the greatest blunder in human history?

Rice famers near Siem Reap, Cambodia. Darren Curnoe, Author provided Darren Curnoe, UNSW Sydney Twelve thousand years ago everybody lived as hunters and gatherers. But by 5,000 years ago most people lived as farmers. This brief period marked the biggest shift ever in...

How our African ancestors made sound in the Stone Age

One of the Klasies River spinning discs and the replica built for the recording studio. Kumbani et al (2019), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports Sarah Wurz, University of the Witwatersrand; Joshua Kumbani, University of the Witwatersrand; Justin Bradfield,...