#animal-burials

#animal-burials

The bone was uncovered on Friday, March 20, during an independent search. Officers attended the scene assisted by forensic colleagues who have determined the bone does not belong to a human.

Similar to four others unearthed nearby earlier this month, it is sitting upright at the bottom of a one-metre-wide pit. The skeleton's hands are resting in its lap. Like the others, its back is against the eastern wall, its face directed westward.

Genomic data indicates that early dogs in Europe underwent significant genetic changes as they adapted to diverse environments and human lifestyles, reflecting a complex interplay of domestication and natural selection.

Five tombs of Gauls buried in a seated position have been discovered in central Dijon. Similar to four others unearthed nearby earlier this month, it is sitting upright at the bottom of a one-metre-wide pit. The skeleton's hands are resting in its lap. Like the others, its back is against the eastern wall, its gaze directed westward.

The significant number of ancestors held in UK museums is extremely distressing and symbolic of the colonial origins of these collections. We hope that the responses gathered by The Guardian will be shared with the relevant communities to support them in bringing their ancestors home.

This project demonstrates the combined power of science, the study of human remains and historical research to discover new information about the six mortuary chests and their occupants which would not have been available to us a generation ago.

The first study analyzes canid remains from two sites: Pnarbas, on the Central Anatolian Plateau, and Gough's Cave, in Somerset, UK. The fragments from Pnarbas are extraordinarily small, but the team still managed to extract enough nuclear DNA to confirm that they were domestic dogs and not wolves.

Possible human remains were found in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Thursday night. Police confirmed that the remains were found around 10:30 p.m. near Cross Bay Boulevard along a section of the refuge that connects Howard Beach and Broad Channel.

The excavation ultimately unearthed 34 burials, 15 of them belonging to children between two and ten years old when they died. The graves are clustered in groups, probably reflecting family nuclei. Most the grave types are earthen pits covered with roof tiles angled against each other.

The coffins are elaborately painted in vivid polychrome. They were stacked in layers and carefully arranged so the 22 coffins fit into the constricted space. They were placed in 10 horizontal rows and the lids separated from the body of the coffin to maximize the limited space. There are no personal names on most of the coffins, but there are titles. The most common title found in the coffin is Singer of Amun or Chantress of Amun.

We have little physical evidence of these interactions turning violent, however, because burials were rare and carnivores were more likely to finish off their prey. That's why the embellished burial site of a 15-year-old from 27,000 years ago is an important window into the past: the teenager's bones indicate he was mauled by a bear. The finding represents some of the first evidence of its kind.

Excavations carried out in 2025 by the Arctic University Museum of Norway revealed that the artefacts came from a boat burial. The grave contained the skeleton of a woman placed inside a boat measuring about 5.5 metres in length. She had been buried together with a dog, suggesting the animal may have been an important companion in life.

A passerby discovers it first - and lets out a piercing call. Within seconds, everyone in earshot rushes to the scene. It's mayhem... or so it seems. Crows are intelligent, and super chatty. They watch out for one another within tight-knit groups. As adults it's pretty rare for crows to be killed. So when one dies the others notice. Are they just scared? Or is something deeper going on.

Her team's analysis of the residue samples contained beeswax, plant oils, animal fats, bitumen, and resins from coniferous trees such as pines and larches, as well as vanilla-scented coumarin (found in cinnamon and pea plants) and benzoic acid (common in fragrant resins and gums derived from trees and shrubs). The resulting fragrance combined a "strong pine-like woody scent of the confers," per Huber, mixed in with "a sweeter undertone of the beeswax" and "the strong smoky scent of the bitumen."

At first glance, it looked like Wooller and his colleagues might have found evidence that mammoths lived in central Alaska just 2,000 years ago. But ancient DNA revealed that two "mammoth" bones actually belonged to a North Pacific right whale and a minke whale-which raised a whole new set of questions. The team's hunt for Alaska's last mammoth had turned into an epic case of mistaken identity, starring two whale species and a mid-century fossil hunter.

Both of the cyst graves feature funerary markers reused as building material. One of them contains the partially preserved tombstone of Legio I Italica centurion Gaius Valerius Verecundus was engraved with a wreath of which only traces remain and an inscription that describes him as having been heavily pressed by fate.

Ötzi, the 5,000-something-year-old man found frozen in the Alps, did not have an easy go of it. He was probably murdered, shot from behind with an arrow that missed his vital organs and led to heavy bleeding and a prolonged and painful death. Days before his death, he fought another person in hand-to-hand combat and gashed his right hand. The more scientists have been able to study his body, the more ailments they have unveiled.

"At Monte Albán alone, more than 200 tombs of varying size and decoration reflect social, political and economic differences among the ancient Zapotecs," Javier Urcid, an anthropology professor at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, tells The Art Newspaper. "Built beneath residences, tombs were reused over generations-with additional burials and occasional changes to offerings or decoration. The inscribed genealogies verified membership in family lineages."

His investigation began after identifying recurring giant T-shapes, three-level indents, and step pyramids carved into ancient stones worldwide. 'These specific symbols that are built in different size proportions, and the symbols are found in ancient stones around the world, are not supposed to exist; no cultures are supposed to have any cross-platform,' LaCroix explained. The symbols appear in locations ranging from Turkey's Van region to South America and Cambodia.