Oldies
Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi
Adhi Agus Oktaviana et al.
Nature, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Indonesian archipelago is host to some of the earliest known rock art in the world. Previously, secure Pleistocene dates were reported for figurative cave art and stencils of human hands in two areas in Indonesia -- the Maros-Pangkep karsts in the southwestern peninsula of the island of Sulawesi and the Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat region of eastern Kalimantan, Borneo. Here we describe a series of early dated rock art motifs from the southeastern portion of Sulawesi. Among this assemblage of Pleistocene (and possibly more recent) motifs, laser-ablation U-series (LA-U-series) dating of calcite overlying a hand stencil from Liang Metanduno on Muna Island yielded a U-series date of 71.6 ± 3.8 thousand years ago (ka), providing a minimum-age constraint of 67.8 ka for the underlying motif. The Muna minimum (67.8 ± 3.8 ka) exceeds the published minimum for rock art in Maros-Pangkep by 16.6 thousand years (kyr) and is 1.1 kyr greater than the published minimum for a hand stencil from Spain attributed to Neanderthals, which until now represented the oldest demonstrated minimum-age constraint for cave art worldwide. Moreover, the presence of this extremely old art in Sulawesi suggests that the initial peopling of Sahul about 65 ka involved maritime journeys between Borneo and Papua, a region that remains poorly explored from an archaeological perspective.
Direct evidence for poison use on microlithic arrowheads in Southern Africa at 60,000 years ago
Sven Isaksson, Anders Högberg & Marlize Lombard
Science Advances, January 2026
Abstract:
Poisoned weapons are a hallmark of advanced hunter-gatherer technology. Through targeted microchemical and biomolecular analyses, we identified traces of toxic plant alkaloids on backed microliths from Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, excavated from a level dated to 60,000 years ago. The alkaloids buphandrine and epibuphanisine only originate from Amaryllidaceae indigenous to southern Africa. The most likely source is Boophone disticha (L.f.) Herb. bulb exudate, also associated with historically documented arrow poisons. To our knowledge, we present the first direct evidence for the application of this plant-based poison on the tips of Pleistocene hunting weapons. The discovery highlights the complexity of subsistence strategies and cognition in southern Africa since the mid-Pleistocene.
Afar fossil shows broad distribution and versatility of Paranthropus
Zeresenay Alemseged et al.
Nature, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Afar depression in northeastern Ethiopia contains a rich palaeontological and archaeological record, which documents 6 million years of human evolution. Abundant faunal evidence links evolutionary patterns with palaeoenvironmental change as a principal underlying force. Many of the earlier hominin taxa recognized today are found in the Afar, but Paranthropus has been conspicuously absent from the region. Here we report on the discovery, in the Mille-Logya research area, of a partial mandible that we attribute to Paranthropus, dated to between 2.5 and 2.9 million years ago and found in a well-understood chronological and faunal context. The find is among the oldest fossils attributable to Paranthropus and indicates that this genus, from its earliest known appearance, had a greater geographic distribution than previously documented. Often seen as a dietary specialist feeding on tough food, the range of diverse habitats with which eastern African Paranthropus can now be associated shows that this suggested adaptive niche did not restrict its ability to disperse as widely as species of Australopithecus and early Homo. The discovery of Paranthropus in the Afar emphasizes how little is known about hominin evolution in eastern Africa during the crucial period between 3 and 2.5 million years ago, when this genus and the Homo lineage presumably emerged.
Seeing Roman life through water: Exploring Pompeii’s public baths via carbonate deposits
Gül Sürmelihindi et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 20 January 2026
Abstract:
The ancient city of Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79, shows technological improvements to its water supply after becoming a Roman colony. Its inhabitants relied on wells for their water supply prior to the installation of a Roman aqueduct. Carbonate incrustations deposited in various components of the city’s hydraulic infrastructure, including the aqueduct, its water towers, the well shafts, and pools of the public baths. The stable isotope and trace element composition of these carbonates differ markedly between structures supplied by wells and those fed by the aqueduct, reflecting the contrasting origins of their source waters. While the aqueduct was fed by karst springs, the wells tapped into highly mineralized groundwater from volcanic deposits. These geochemical distinctions allow for a detailed reconstruction of Pompeii’s water management system, particularly the transition from well- to aqueduct-based water supply. The periodicity of δ13C variations in carbonate crusts sampled from well, pools, and drainage channels of the Republican Baths offers insights into the operation and maintenance of the facility. δ13C values show a sharp drop from wells to bathing pools, suggesting contamination by human waste and implying that the bath water was not regularly replenished in the Republican Baths.
Early hominins from Morocco basal to the Homo sapiens lineage
Jean-Jacques Hublin et al.
Nature, 22 January 2026, Pages 902-908
Abstract:
Palaeogenetic evidence suggests that the last common ancestor of present-day humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans lived around 765–550 thousand years ago (ka). However, both the geographical distribution and the morphology of these ancestral humans remain uncertain. The Homo antecessor fossils from the TD6 layer of Gran Dolina at Atapuerca, Spain, dated between 950 ka and 770 ka, have been proposed as potential candidates for this ancestral population. However, all securely dated Homo sapiens fossils before 90 ka were found either in Africa or at the gateway to Asia, strongly suggesting an African rather than a Eurasian origin of our species. Here we describe new hominin fossils from the Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I (ThI-GH) in Casablanca, Morocco, dated to around 773 ka. These fossils are similar in age to H. antecessor, yet are morphologically distinct, displaying a combination of primitive traits and of derived features reminiscent of later H. sapiens and Eurasian archaic hominins. The ThI-GH hominins provide insights into African populations predating the earliest H. sapiens individuals discovered at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco4 and provide strong evidence for an African lineage ancestral to our species. These fossils offer clues about the last common ancestor shared with Neanderthals and Denisovans.