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Humans have a seemingly primal need to understand how we came to be the way we are today. Pieces of our ancient forebears generally are hard to come by, however.

Humans have a seemingly primal need to understand how we came to be the way we are today. Pieces of our ancient forebears generally are hard to come by, however.

Humans have a seemingly primal need to understand how we came to be the way we are today. Pieces of our ancient forebears generally are hard to come by, however. Scientists working to interpret our evolution often have had to make do with studying a fossil toe bone here or a jaw there

By Virginia Gewin of Nature magazine Hidden in the landscape of the fertile crescent of the Middle East, scientists say, lurk overlooked networks of small settlements that hold vital clues to ancient civilizations.

By Ari Rabinovitch and Rinat Harash JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Completing the same journey they have made for the past 2,000 years, a flock of swifts has flown halfway around the world to nest among the ancient stones of Jerusalem's Western Wall. The scores of small black birds who spend the spring flying high above Jerusalem's Old City and laying eggs in the cracks in the wall, where it is common for visitors to place prayer notes, have become a focus in efforts to rehabilitate the species' diminishing population worldwide

The mere mention of mezcal—a distillate made from agaves roasted in rock-lined earthen pits—often conjures up images of smoky cantinas and even smokier liquids being poured into dusty glasses. Not so with Sombra ($35), which means “the shadow” in Spanish and signifies the closeted role this ancient spirit has played ...

New research suggests that one of the earliest horses started out small--then got even smaller. As temperatures rose 55 million years ago during the ancient Eocene epoch, a North American horse species shrank from the size of a small dog to that of a house cat.

About 300 million years ago, volcanic ash buried a tropical forest located in what is now Inner Mongolia, much like it did the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. [More]

A $3.8 million sculpture will be the standout piece among more than 80 important medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque objects at the exhibition Collecting Treasures of the Past VII, on view at the Blumka Gallery in New York City from January 26 to February 10. The sculpture depicts the ancient Roman ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- The problem exists on both a large and a small scale, and it even bothered the ancient Egyptians.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The problem exists on both a large and a small scale, and it even bothered the ancient Egyptians. However, although physicists have long had a good understanding of friction in things like stone blocks being pulled by workers into the shape of a pyramid, they have only now been able to explain friction in microscopic dimensions in any degree of detail.

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, neutron images in 3 dimensions have been taken of rare archaeological artifacts here at ORNL. Bronze and brass artifacts excavated at the ancient city of Petra, in Jordan were recently imaged in 3 dimensions using neutrons at HFIR's CG-1D Neutron Imaging instrument. The data that is now being analyzed will for the first time give eager archeologists and ancient historians significant, otherwise wholly inaccessible insight into the manufacturing and lives of cultures that once occupied settlements within the Roman Empire, Middle East, and Colonial-period New England.

There is much cheesy lore about the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse: that he popularized the word “eureka”; that he used mirrors to set Roman ships on fire; that a Roman soldier killed him in 212 B.C.

NAMCHE BAZAAR, Nepal -- By this time next month, Kancha Sherpa will, once again, become a busy man. At 79, he is the last man living among the 103 guides who accompanied the famous mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary on the first successful 1953 expedition to Everest. Come peak tourist season in this ancient village of Internet cafes, Nepali crafts and gear shops that serves as the gateway to Mount Everest Base Camp, Kancha Sherpa will be besieged by journalists and climbers alike eager to hear his memories of the ascent

At Al Shaqab in Doha, Qatar, science is bringing a new life to the ancient bloodlines of Arabian horses--the breed that carried historical figures such as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon and George Washington. [More]