Prehistoric Europe

Italian archaeologists have uncovered the fossilized remains of nine Neanderthals in a cave near Rome, shedding new light on how the Italian peninsula was populated and under what environmental conditions.

After more than 17,000 years of silence and decades forgotten in a French museum, a shell fashioned into a horn by our prehistoric ancestors has been played again as a result of new research published Feb. 10.

Scientists believe the ancient conch, from a species of large sea snail still present in the Atlantic and North Sea, is the oldest wind instrument of its type yet found.

Bears do it. Bats do it. Even European hedgehogs do it. And now it turns out that early human beings may also have been at it. They hibernated, according to fossil experts.

Scientists have found bones in a Bulgarian cave that show modern humans may have arrived in Europe thousands of years earlier than previously thought, at a time when the region had long been home to Neanderthals.

The findings of excavations at the Bacho Kiro cave near Dryanovo in central Bulgaria suggest that the chronological overlap between humans and Neanderthals was longer than previously thought, said an article published in the science journal Nature on Monday.

Nearly 40 years after it was found by a monk in a Chinese cave, a fossilized chunk of jawbone has been revealed as coming from a mysterious relative of the Neanderthals.

A visitor walks past display cases at the press opening of the Museum of Cycladic Art's exhibition 'Crete - Emerging Cities: Aptera, Eleutherna, Knossos,' in Athens, on Wednesday. Showcasing some 500 artifacts dating from Neolithic times to the Byzantine era, this is the first time so many exhibits have left the island for a temporary show.

The Minoan palace of Zominthos was a complex with three-story buildings grounded in the rock at 1,200 meters above sea level. As early as 2000 BC, worshippers started placing offerings in clefts in the rock, such as "egg cups" - simple cup-shaped vases with a disc-like base - both painted and plain.

Archaeologists at the Bronze Age palace complex of Zominthos on the island of Crete said in their annual report for this year that excavations of the site have yielded new insights into religious practices during the Minoan era. More specifically, archaeologists said the natural rock upon which the complex was built had served as an outdoor area of worship from around 2000 BC.

AFP - All mines need regular reinforcement against collapse, and Hallstatt, the world's oldest salt mine perched in the Austrian Alps, is no exception.

But Hallstatt isn't like other mines.