Nature Hub

       From -  Independent Magazine      By - David Keys      Edited  by - Amal Udawatta New research has pinpointed the likely time in  prehistory  when humans first began to speak. Analysis by British archaeologist Steven Mithen suggests that early humans first developed rudimentary  language  around 1.6 million years ago – somewhere in eastern or southern Africa. “Humanity’s development of the ability to speak was without doubt the key which made much of subsequent human physical and cultural  evolution  possible. That’s why dating the emergence of the earliest forms of language is so important,” said Dr Mithen, professor of early prehistory at the University of Reading. Until recently, most human evolution experts thought that humans only started speaking around 200,000 years ago. Professor Mithen’s new research, published this month, suggests that rudimentary human language is at least eight times older. His analysis is based on a detailed study of all the available archaeological

 From -  Sky & Telescope  By - Fred Espenak  Edited by - Amal Udawatta This clay cuneiform tablet records lunar eclipses between 609 and 447 BC. The Babylonians also recorded solar eclipses. © The Trustees of the British Museum Before the advent of computers or even a working theory of the solar system, the ancients predicted solar eclipses. How did they do it? Today's astronomers use electronic computers and mathematical models to calculate the motions of the Sun and the Moon. This information can then be used to predict when solar (and lunar) eclipses take place. But the ability to predict eclipses goes back more than 25 centuries ago. This is long before the advent of computers or even Copernicus's heliocentric theory needed to understand the motions of the Sun and the Moon. So how could ancient civilizations foresee the occurrence of eclipses? They used a clever idea called the Saros cycle. In a previous post “ How Rare is a Total Solar Eclipse? ”, I described the two c

From  Archaeology Magazine, Edited by - Amal Udawatta, CORVALLIS, OREGON—According to a statement released by  Oregon State University,  researchers led by Loren Davis have discovered projectile points thought to have been made by the earliest peoples in the Americas at the Cooper’s Ferry site, which is located near Idaho’s Salmon River on traditional Nez Perce land. The deadly, razor-sharp points, which range in size from approximately one-half to two inches long, have been radiocarbon dated to around 15,700 years ago. Davis said that the points are sharpened on one end, and have a stem on the other end that was likely attached to a dart. They are similar to projectile points of a similar age found in Hokkaido, Japan, he added, and could support the idea of cultural and genetic connections between the Ice Age peoples of northeastern Asia and North America. Read the original scholarly article about this research in  Science Advances . For more on the Cooper's Ferry site, go to &quo

  From  BBC News , Edited  by  - Vinuri Randhula Silva, A little-known Mesopotamian poet and priestess, Enheduanna, is the subject of a new exhibition in New York. Diane Cole explores her influence – and looks at how she helped create a common system of beliefs throughout the ancient empire. S She was the first author to be named in all recorded history: the Mesopotamian poet, princess, and priestess Enheduanna. Surprised? "When people ask who is the first author, they never guess anyone in Mesopotamia, and it's never a woman," says Sidney Babcock, curator of the recently opened exhibition at New York City's Morgan Library,  She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, ca 3400-2000 BC . Usually, he says, they suggest a figure from ancient Greece; if they do mention a female author at all, it's Sappho, who lived a millennium later, and less of whose work survives than that of Enheduanna. More like this: -  The ancient place where history began -  The mystica

  By James Gallagher Health and science correspondent  BBC, Edited by -Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, MUSEUM OF LONDON Image caption, Human remains from the plague pits in London were used in the genetic analysis. The devastation of the plague pandemic left such an incredible genetic mark on humanity that it's still affecting our health nearly 700 years later. Up to half of people died when the Black Death swept through Europe in the mid-1300s. A pioneering study analysing the DNA of centuries-old skeletons found mutations that helped people survive the plague. But those same mutations are linked to auto-immune diseases afflicting people today. The Black Death is one of the most significant, deadliest and bleakest moments in human history. It is estimated that up to 200 million people died. Researchers suspected an event of such enormity must have shaped human evolution. They analysed DNA taken from the teeth of 206 ancient skeletons and were able to precisely date the human remains