(ORDO NEWS) — Rarely do scientists manage to find something truly amazing. But here are three archaeological finds that scientists have called among the most important.
First people in America
Footprints left in the mud at the edge of what is now the New Mexico swampland look like they were left yesterday.
But this is not entirely true: the archaeological discovery of fingerprints between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago has changed the history of mankind in the Americas, the last continent inhabited by humans.
Until now, it was believed that humans entered North America from Asia via Beringia, which once connected the two continents, at the end of the last ice age about 13,000 years ago.
The footprints that children may have left were made at a time when the ice shelf blocked people from entering North America.
At least that’s what scientists thought, but archaeological discoveries made in 2021 showed that people appeared there much earlier.
Dragon man
A skull that has lain at the bottom of a well in northeast China for over 80 years may be an entirely new species of human.
Geochemical analysis has shown that the age of the skull found in Harbin (China) ranges from 138,000 to 309,000 years.
The researchers named the new hominin from Heilongjiang Province, where the skull was found, Homo longi, which became popularly known as “Dragon Man” after the archaeological discovery was published in June 2021.
Cave mud
For centuries, archaeologists have explored caves looking for teeth, bones, and tools, hoping to learn how our ancestors lived and what they looked like.
Today, new methods of collecting DNA preserved in caves allow us to learn about our earliest relatives without resorting to searching for fossils.
Science magazine called it “one of the great archaeological discoveries of 2021.” DNA deposit screening is a breakthrough.
Katerina Duka, assistant professor of archeology at the Department of Human Evolution at the University of Vienna, says: “This system will get us to the right place and save us a lot of time and money.”
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.