Charcoal and burned bones offer intriguing — if controversial — clues that the species Homo naledi made hearths to light its way and cook in dark caves.

Recent research claimed that preserved footprints were from the last ice age. Now, a new study disputes the evidence of such an early age.

Zinc in their bones reveal that these early humans were top of the food chain.

Two scientists explain how analyses of oxygen isotopes from ancient ape teeth could lead to new insights on early human evolution.

Remnants from an ancient fire pit in Syria suggest that hunter-gatherers were burning dung as fuel by the end of the Old Stone Age.

An earlier report on one of the bones of a 7-million-year-old creature that may have walked upright has triggered scientific misconduct charges.

Unlike all other studied primates, humans lack vocal membranes. That lets humans produce the sounds that language is built on, a new study suggests.

An analysis of fossils suggests changes in the shape of the braincase during human evolution were linked to alterations in the face, rather than changes in the brain itself

The medieval bubonic plague was first recorded in the 14th century.

Researchers were successful in reconstructing the face of one of the richest residents of Bolivia's bronze age. Here's all you need to know.

Humans evolved to be interdependent, not self-sufficient

Scientists have found 200,000 year old remains of a close relative to the modern human known as the Denisovans.

Homo sapiens migrated to the continent in waves – but the reasons for their early failures to overcome Neanderthals are a mystery

Species was direct ancestor of early humans in Africa and discovery has led to reassessment of epoch

The long read: Archaeological discoveries are shattering scholars’ long-held beliefs about how the earliest humans organised their societies – and hint at possibilities for our own

DNA evidence has finally ended the debate about where the ancient Etruscans – an ancient civilization whose remains are found in Italy – came from.

Modern genetic evidence suggests that statue builders on islands such as Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, had a shared ancestry.

New research suggests that fire from the sky in the form of a small asteroid annihilated a city near the Dead Sea 3,600 years ago.

Paleoanthropologists have sketched a rough timeline of how human evolution played out, centering the early action in Africa.

The first ancient human DNA from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi — and the wider Wallacea islands group — sheds light on the early human history of the region.