Graham Hancock

Ancient genomes trace first settlement of the remote Pacific to Asian farmers. By Ann Gibbons.

Analyzing how stories change in the retelling down through the generations sheds light on the history of human migration going as far back as the Paleolithic period. By Julien d’Huy.

The first Andean empire conquered modern-day Peru—then broke up 1,000 years ago. By Lizzie Wade.

The ambitious Snake kings used force and diplomacy to create the most powerful alliance in their culture’s history. By Erik Vance.

Excavations at Xunantunich have uncovered the remains of a body and hieroglyphics that tell the story of the snake-head dynasty. By Jason Daley.

A deluge on the Yellow River 4,000 years ago led to a feat of Bronze Age hydro-engineering. By Annalee Newitz.

When Nikolai Kardashev looked into the question of where to find advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, he argued that the obvious starting point would be in the vicinity of extreme astrophysics.... By Paul Gilster.

Eunus and the First Servile War against Rome. By Mike Dash.

All gardeners, and all readers, have reason to thank them. By Simon Barnes.

Scott McLemee reports on a book that takes us all the way back.

The ancient tribes of the Eurasian steppes that helped lay the foundations of Europe might have initiated a cross-continental trade in cannabis. By Colin Barras. (July 7, 2016)

The Trojan War depicted in Homer's Iliad may have been part of a larger clash of civilisations – one of which has so far gone unrecognised by modern historians. By Colin Barras. (May 12, 2016)  

Killing people is hard and horrible. No wonder that warriors, from berserkers to jihadis, need drugs to get in the mood. By Peter Frankopan.

Mary Beard on direct democracy and the EU referendum

Recent research provides a better understanding of urban populations throughout history, digitising almost 6,000 years of data for the first time. By Kanishk Tharoor. (June 27, 2016)

Kumari Kandam is the legendary lost continent of Lemuria, the center of Tamil Civilization, which existed in the Indian Ocean. By R.S. Pandey.

Beloved World Heritage sites all over the world might disappear forever, thanks to climate change. By Sarah Emerson. (May 26)

The researchers said they found evidence to suggest the civilisation flourished around 8,000 BC, not 5,500 as was believed. By Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey. (May 29)

The ancient Etruscan civilization, whose great cities dotted the west coast of Italy between 2800 and 2400 years ago, was in many ways the model for ancient Greece and Rome. Etruscans lived in city states with sumptuous palaces, beautiful art, and a complicated social structure. But we know almost nothing about their daily lives, in part because most of their writing was recorded on perishable objects like cloth or wax tablets.