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Why the ancient hominins of Asia are so mysterious

When it comes to ancient humans in Asia, we have so many fossils and no consensus on how to make sense of them

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2PEK6YC Professor Chris Stringer, Head of Human Origins at London's Natural History Museum, moves a cast taken from the a skull of what is said to be a new species in the evolution of man named 'Homo Floresiensis' during a news conference Wednesday Oct. 27, 2004. At left is a cast of Homo Sapiens skull. (AP Photo/Richard Lewis)

Humans

How artefacts are found tells its own story – if we want to hear it

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Homo floresiensis skull. Mould made from fragments of the skull of Homo floresiensis in Liang Bua cave, Flores, Indonesia. This newly discovered hominid species was found in Liang Bua cave in 2003. It was very small, measuring just over a metre tall, and is thought to be a descendant of Homo erectus that underwent island dwarfism - a process where isolated species that lack predators and are constrained by limited resources evolve to become smaller. It is thought to have become extinct around 12,000 years ago and therefore co-existed with modern humans (Homo sapiens).

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The untold story of the curiously controversial Homo floresiensis dig

Features

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Ancient humans may have worn shoes more than 100,000 years ago

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Researchers Michelle Bebber holding an atlatl weapon

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Women and men throw spears equally well using ancient atlatl tool

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Humans

These ancient sand drawings could be a fifth type of palaeoart

Regulars

Professor Lee Berger, palaeontologist, explorer and member of The National Geographic Society, gestures as he explains the scientific relevance of discovering Homo Naledi in the Rising Star caves system in The Cradle of Human Kind, on May 11, 2023. The news shakes the foundations of human evolution: world-renowned paleontologist Lee Berger announced on Monday that he had discovered the oldest graves ever found in South Africa, pushing back the first traces of mortuary practices by some 100,000 years . The oldest tombs discovered so far were found in Israel and Egypt at the beginning of the 20th century. They date from around 100,000 years before our era and house the remains of Homo sapiens, the direct ancestor of man. The burials unearthed in South Africa date from -200,000 to -300,000 years. (Photo by Luca Sola / AFP) (Photo by LUCA SOLA/AFP via Getty Images)

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Cave of Bones review: Lee Berger on the discovery of Homo naledi

Culture

BEAMBN Tibetan plateau scenery en route from Shegar to Tingri, Tibet

Humans

How prehistoric people settled one of Earth’s most extreme places

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Humans

We are hopeless at telling when we have goosebumps

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Humans

Ancient humans hunted animals by throwing a stick like a boomerang

Analysis of a wooden stick thought to be around 300,000 years old suggests it was designed to be thrown rotationally, rather than as a spear

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Humans

The societies proving that inequality and patriarchy aren't inevitable

Features

Humans

Artistic artefacts are rewriting the timeline of ancient South America

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Humans

Fossils in Laos cave imply modern humans were in Asia 86,000 years ago

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Humans

Ancient humans may have risked their lives making stone tools

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