A trove of 24 bronze statues preserved for 2,300 years by mud and boiling water have been discovered in a network of baths built by the Etruscans in a now spa town, San Casciano dei Bagni, province of Siena, Tuscany, Italy. Photo: Jacopo Tabolli/University for Foreigners of Siena (Università per Stranieri di Siena)/EPA. |
In a new study published on the journal Science Advances, Vol. 7, Issue 39, September 2, 2021, an international team of archaeologists and anthropologists announced the recoveries of early Middle Stone Age personal ornaments such as beads and jewellery from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco — more precisely a set of 33 shell beads dating back between 142,000 and 150,000 years ago. Photo: Abdeljalil Bouzouggar/National Institute of Archaeological Sciences and Heritage (INSAP, Morocco). |
Acting on a tip from spelunkers two years ago, scientists in South Africa discovered what the cavers had only dimly glimpsed through a crack in a limestone wall deep in the Rising Star cave: lots and lots of old bones.
The remains covered the earthen floor beyond the narrow opening. This was, the scientists concluded, a large, dark chamber for the dead of a previously unidentified species of the early human lineage – Homo naledi. The new hominin species was announced on Thursday by an international team of more than 60 scientists led by Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist who is a professor of human evolution studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The species name, H. naledi, refers to the cave where the bones lay undisturbed for so long; “naledi” means “star” in the local Sesotho language. [Read more]. |
Pieces of a skeleton of Homo naledi, a newly discovered human species. Photo Credit: John Hawks/University of Wisconsin-Madison, via European Pressphoto Agency.
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