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Extinct 'Denisovan' people may have lived on Earth's highest plateau

29 November 2018

The Tibetan Plateau is a tough environment so we thought humans arrived only about 12,000 years ago, but it seems someone was there 40,000 to 30,000 years ago

Stone tools hint that our first human ancestors lived all over Africa

29 November 2018

We thought the first Homo species evolved in East Africa 2.8 million years ago, but stone tools from Algeria suggest our origins may have spanned the continent

Anna Machin: Is technology changing how humans behave?

18 October 2018

Technology is increasingly cutting out the social interactions we humans crave. What are the consequences, asks anthropologist Anna Machin

We thought the Incas couldn't write. These knots change everything

26 September 2018

A lost language encoded in intricate cords is finally revealing its secrets – and it could upend what we know about Incan history and culture

Edge of Memory: Distrusting oral tradition may make us more ignorant

29 August 2018

Aboriginal stories about startlingly rapid rises in sea level describe real events at the end of the ice age, says a new book. Are we stupid to distrust oral traditions?

Asia’s mysterious role in the early origins of humanity

4 July 2018

Bizarre fossils from China are revealing our species' Asian origins and rewriting the story of human evolution

London's Horniman Museum has squeezed a world into a room

26 June 2018

Objective truths about human culture are hard to come by, but this beautiful new gallery asks all the right questions

Stem cells may reveal how Neanderthal DNA works in modern humans

11 May 2018

Many of us carry DNA inherited from Neanderthals, but we can’t be sure how it affects us. Stem cells with Neanderthal DNA could tell us

Ancient humans in Philippines may have given rise to ‘hobbits’

2 May 2018

A butchered rhino found on the island of Luzon shows early humans were living in the Philippines 709,000 years ago, which may explain the origins of the diminutive Homo floresiensis