Latest articles by Kristina Killgrove
2,000-year-old Phoenician coin was used as bus fare in England, but 'how it got there will always be a mystery'
The ancient coin was probably minted in what is now Spain in the first century B.C., but no one knows why it was used to pay a 1950s transport fare.
Asante spider: A rare African sword ornament from Ghana's Gold Coast that later helped a man in Texas barter for his life
Astonishing Artifacts The spider-shaped sword ornament was created in Ghana in the 19th century and was passed down in a Texas family for generations.
Ancient 'alien-like' skulls have been found on every continent but Antarctica. Anthropologists are starting to figure out why.
Humans have practiced head shaping for tens of thousands of years, and anthropologists are beginning to uncover clues as to why.
9 ways people have modified their bodies since the dawn of time, from foot binding to castration
Many types of body modification date back hundreds or thousands of years, revealing our ancient ancestors were not that different from us.
Climate disasters caused societal upheaval 3,000 years ago in China, study of 'oracle bones' hints
Some civilizations in inland China underwent dramatic changes and population drops 3,000 years ago. Now, researchers are using oracle bones, archaeological evidence and climate modeling to find out why.
Stone Age woman was buried like a man, revealing flexible gender roles 7,000 years ago in Hungary
A study of 125 skeletons from two Neolithic cemeteries in Hungary has revealed that men and women had clear gender roles — but sometimes those roles were fluid.
Lady of Elche: A 2,400-year-old bust of a mysterious 'highborn' woman from pre-Roman Spain
Astonishing artifacts The mysterious Lady of Elche was crafted from a large limestone block before the Romans ruled Spain.
Paleolithic humans invented an 'early predecessor to writing' at least 40,000 years ago, carved signs suggest
A statistical analysis of a series of signs carved into artifacts from around 40,000 years ago suggests humans developed proto-writing in the Stone Age.
Stone Age boy in Sweden was buried in deerskin and a woodpecker headdress, archaeologists discover
A new method of studying the contents of soil samples has revealed Stone Age people in Sweden were buried in decorated fur-and-feather clothing.
Humans and Neanderthals interbred — but it was mostly male Neanderthals and female humans who coupled up, study finds
A preference for pairings between male Neanderthals and female Homo sapiens may answer the question of why there are "Neanderthal deserts" in human chromosomes.
Babies weren't supposed to be mourned in the Roman Empire. These rare liquid-gypsum burials prove otherwise.
Despite historical records saying otherwise, Roman babies were mourned at death, research into unique plaster burials from York reveals.
Far fewer people are related to Genghis Khan than previously assumed, new genomic study suggests
Some experts have suggested as many as 1 in 200 men in the world are related to Genghis Khan. But a new genomic study reveals the number is significantly lower.
2,800-year-old mass grave of women and children discovered in Serbia reveals 'brutal, deliberate and efficient' violence
An analysis of a mass grave found in northern Serbia is revealing new information about violence in Early Iron Age Europe.
Lotus shoes: Tiny footwear for Chinese women whose feet were bound as children
Lotus shoes are tiny footwear associated with foot-binding, a beauty practice that lasted for at least a millennium in China.
2,000-year-old skulls reveal people in ancient Vietnam permanently blackened their teeth — a stylish practice that persists today
In a study of 2,000-year-old skulls from Vietnam, archaeologists discovered that iron was the primary component that dyed teeth black.
A coffin holding a dead 'princess' fell from an eroded cliff over 100 years ago — archaeologists just solved a major mystery about her
Dendrochronological analysis of a mysterious log coffin that tumbled from a cliff a century ago reveals clues to life in Roman-era Poland.
In a 'race against time,' archaeologists uncovered Roman-era footprints from a Scottish beach before the tide washed them away
Archaeologists raced against the tide to record a unique set of footprints made 2,000 years ago on a Scottish beach.
2,500-year-old 'primitive prosthetic' found on jaw of mummified Scythian woman who survived complex jaw surgery
Researchers used CT scans to peer inside a partially mummified skull and discovered the woman survived jaw surgery 2,500 years ago.
Research group claims preeclampsia doomed the Neanderthals, but experts say it's just a 'thought experiment'
Preeclampsia, a complication of pregnancy that involves high blood pressure, could have led to a decline in Neanderthals' fertility, a new study suggests.
5,500 years ago, a teenage girl was buried with her father's bones on her chest, new DNA study reveals
A novel DNA analysis of skeletons excavated from a Neolithic hunter-gatherer cemetery in Sweden has revealed surprising family relationships.
Tumaco-Tolita Seated Elder: This 2,000-year-old depiction of an aged man with wrinkles struck fear in people because it held 'the power'
Tumaco-Tolita artists were known for their intense realism in sculpting clay representations of humans.
Did modern humans wipe out the Neanderthals? New evidence may finally provide answers.
A complex picture of how Neanderthals died out, and the role that modern humans played in their disappearance, is emerging.
Subterranean tunnel, possibly used for medieval cult rituals, discovered in Stone Age tomb in Germany
A tunnel system discovered in a Stone Age tomb in Germany suggests medieval people created hiding places for their cultic rituals.
