Kristina Killgrove

Kristina Killgrove

Live Science contributor

Kristina Killgrove is an archaeologist with specialties in ancient human skeletons and science communication. Her academic research has appeared in numerous scientific journals, while her news stories and essays have been published in venues such as Forbes, Mental Floss and Smithsonian. Kristina earned a doctorate in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and also holds bachelor's and master's degrees in classical archaeology.


Articles by: Kristina Killgrove

Large boulder, known as the Jelling Stone, covered in runes.

Jelling Stone analysis reveals runestone carver's name and identifies a powerful Viking queen

By Kristina Killgrove published

New 3D scans have revealed new information about Denmark's famous Jelling Stone, including the identity of a powerful Viking queen.

Pantaneiro cowboy herding horses at sunset in North Pantanal, Brazil.

The 1st American cowboys may have been enslaved Africans, DNA evidence suggests

By Kristina Killgrove published

DNA from cattle suggests some of the first cowboys in the Americas were enslaved Africans, who herded cows that were brought with them on slave ships.

The wooden structure, showing where Stone Age Humans have cut into the wood.

Archaeologists in Zambia discover oldest wooden structure in the world, dating to 476,000 years ago

By Kristina Killgrove published

A new finding in Zambia reveals the oldest known wooden construction shaped by the hands of a human ancestor and demonstrates the ingenuity and technical prowess of our ancient relatives.

We see a man holding a black tube.

'I am horrified': Archaeologists are fuming over ancient human relative remains sent to edge of space

By Kristina Killgrove published

Scientists are calling the Virgin Galactic mission that carried the bones of Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi to the edge of space a major ethical breach.

We see four images of a horse painted on a cave wall. The bottom two images are brighter.

Centuries-old technique reveals hidden '3D' animals in Paleolithic cave art

By Kristina Killgrove published

The hidden animals were revealed on cave walls in Spain with 'Magic Eye'-style techniques.

We see an illustration of neanderthals at the entrance of a cave holding flowers for a burial.

Famous Neanderthal 'flower burial' debunked because pollen was left by burrowing bees

By Kristina Killgrove published

A new study debunks the idea that Neanderthals buried a man on a bed of flowers about 75,000 years ago.

Archaeological remains at Praia Melão.

Plantation slavery was invented on this tiny African island, according to archaeologists

By Kristina Killgrove published

A 16th-century sugar estate on the tiny African island of São Tomé is the earliest known example of plantation slavery.

Computer generated hualongdong Middle Pleistocene human skull

Strange, 300,000-year-old jawbone unearthed in China may come from vanished human lineage

By Kristina Killgrove published

Fragments of a jaw bone unearthed in China have a mosaic of features that are present in both modern and archaic humans, making it difficult to place on the human evolutionary tree.

A silver coin against a white background. The coin has two daggers and a hat between them. It says EID MAR for the ides of march.

Rare 'Ides of March' dagger coin minted by Brutus after Julius Caesar's murder goes to auction

By Kristina Killgrove published

Brutus minted the silver denarius as a way to pay his troops in the aftermath of Julius Caesar's assassination.

A view of Machu Picchu's rocky ruins from a mountaintop.

Machu Picchu's servants hailed from distant lands conquered by the Incas, genetic study finds

By Kristina Killgrove published

A new DNA analysis of human remains buried at Machu Picchu yields information about servants to the Incas.

We see scrubland in Oregon. A clear-out archaeological site has sandbags around it and netting on one side.

Stone tools and camel tooth suggest people were in the Pacific Northwest more than 18,000 years ago

By Kristina Killgrove published

One of the earliest North American human occupation sites, dating to more than 18,000 years ago, was discovered in Oregon.

We see many stones lining the burial of a face-down skeleton.

Elite Roman man buried with sword may have been 'restrained' in death

By Kristina Killgrove published

A skeleton found facedown in Wales with a sword, silver brooch and restraints may be that of an elite Roman soldier.

We see a stone church in a desert setting.

Zapotec 'entrance to underworld' discovered under Catholic church in Mexico

By Kristina Killgrove published

A hidden "underworld" linked to the Zapotec "cult of the dead" has been discovered beneath a church in Mexico.

A drawing showing a dead giant ground sloth with cut marks. We see two human hands crafting the sloth's bone.

Humans were in South America at least 25,000 years ago, giant sloth bone pendants reveal

By Kristina Killgrove published

Humans were living in Brazil earlier than previously thought, prehistoric sloth-bone pendants suggest.

We see hundreds of gold and silver coins against a black background.

Kentucky man finds over 700 Civil War-era coins buried in his cornfield

By Kristina Killgrove published

A man unearthed a huge hoard of Civil War-era gold and silver coins on his Kentucky farm.

We see a painted fresco on a wall with berries, a goblet of wine, dates, pomegranates and a flat focaccia.

2,000-year-old 'not a pizza' fresco discovered in Pompeii

By Kristina Killgrove published

A 2,000-year-old Pompeian fresco offers a mouthwatering taste of the Roman diet.

We see the backs of two people in a dark cave. There is a light illuminating the wall, where there are faint engravings.

Neanderthals created Europe's oldest 'intentional' engravings up to 75,000 years ago, study suggests

By Kristina Killgrove published

Neanderthals likely made Europe's oldest engravings in a French cave as long as 75,000 years ago, a study suggests.

We see the inside of a dark cave filled with ropes and lights for an excavation.

86,000-year-old human bone found in Laos cave hints at 'failed population' from prehistory

By Kristina Killgrove published

The discovery of a skull and shin bone fragment in a cave in Laos pushes back the earliest known date of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia.

An array of stone tools against a black background.

Oldest evidence of humans in Greece is 700,000 years old, a quarter of a million years older than previous record

By Kristina Killgrove published

A prehistoric site in Greece pushes back the earliest known hominin presence in the region by up to 250,000 years.

Here we see a reconstruction of our human relative Homo naledi, which has a wider nose and larger brow than humans.

Extinct human relative buried their dead 100,000 years before modern humans did, study claims

By Kristina Killgrove published

Homo naledi, an extinct human relative with one-third the brain size of ours, buried and may have memorialized their dead, controversial research suggests.

We see the raised imprint of a human footprint in brownish stone.

153,000-year-old footprints from South Africa are the oldest Homo sapiens tracks on record

By Kristina Killgrove published

A modern dating method has revealed the oldest Homo sapiens' footprints yet, placing bipedal humans in South Africa around 153,000 years ago.

We see a stone block with a hole in the middle. It is surrounded by other stone blocks.

2,500-year-old poop from Jerusalem toilets contain oldest evidence of dysentery parasite

By Kristina Killgrove published

A fecal analysis from two toilets dating to biblical times in Jerusalem has revealed the oldest evidence yet of the parasite that causes dysentery.

Here we see a rectangular stone standing upright with carving on it in the middle of a desert.

8,000-year-old rock carvings in Arabia may be world's oldest megastructure blueprints

By Kristina Killgrove published

Around 8,000 years ago, Middle Eastern hunters carved to-scale plans of their 'desert kite' traps onto rocks.

A preserved Neanderthal tooth partly wrapped in foil against a blue background.

'Lost' bacteria found on Neanderthal teeth could be used to develop new antibiotics

By Kristina Killgrove published

Fossilized dental plaque from archaic humans is revealing extinct bacteria that could lead to the development of new medicine.

A 3D digital view of underground tunnels and burials, with the new finds shown as green spheres.

Cosmic rays reveal 2,500-year-old subterranean burial in ancient Greek necropolis

By Kristina Killgrove published

Cosmic rays have revealed an underground Greek tomb in Naples, Italy.

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