Humans in 2019—From Discoveries to Disasters
SAPIENS’ editorial team presents a roundup of this year’s top news and other important insights as seen through the lens of anthropology.
Humans in 2019—From Discoveries to Disasters
Paleolithic
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Should the Story of Homo’s Dispersal Out of Africa Be Rewritten?
A new finding suggests hominins left the African continent at least 500,000 years earlier than previously thought.
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The Knotty Question of When Humans Made the Americas Home
A deluge of new findings are challenging long-held scientific narratives of how humans came to North and South America.
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Stone Age Myths We’ve Made Up
Commonly held views of ancient history are often colored by what survives in the archaeological record—and by cultural biases.
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The Neanderthal Arm—Hints About Handedness
Stone tools and skeletons suggest that Neanderthals were mostly right-handed.
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Scientists Find First Evidence of Humans Cooking Starches
More than 100 millennia ago, people were roasting tubers over the fire, a culinary practice that fueled their bodies and may have aided their migrations.