Building the human story based on a few artefacts is tricky – particularly for wooden tools that don’t preserve well, or cave ...

When a villager in northern Greece broke into a limestone wall and exposed a human skull, he did not just find a fossil, he ...

For decades, textbooks painted a dramatic picture of early humans as tool-using hunters who rose quickly to the top of the food chain. The tale was that Homo habilis, one of the earliest ...

We are getting a clearer sense of where and how often Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbred, and it turns out the behaviour ...

One spring, after a long winter, an aged elephant lay dying at the bank of a small stream near the coast of what is now northern Italy. Soon after, some scavengers arrived to dine on this huge ...

Our prehistoric human ancestors relied on deliberately modified and sharpened stone tools as early as 3.3 million years ago. The selection of rock type depended on how easily the material could be ...

A field in eastern England has revealed evidence of the earliest known instance of humans creating and controlling fire, a significant find that archaeologists say illuminates a dramatic turning point ...

Genetic data strengthens the case that humans first settled Sahul around 60,000 years ago, using multiple seafaring routes.

During the Ice Age, much of the planet was locked in extreme cold. Early humans faced freezing temperatures, scarce resources, and dangerous predators. Survival depended on fire, animal hides, ...