Topic description and stories

Right: Exterior of Devil’s Gate, the cave in the Primorye region near the far eastern coast of Russia. Left: One of the skulls found in the Devil’s Gate cave from which ancient DNA used in the study was extracted.

Ancient DNA reveals 'genetic continuity’ between Stone Age and modern populations in East Asia

01 Feb 2017

In contrast to Western Europeans, new research finds contemporary East Asians are genetically much closer to the ancient hunter-gatherers that lived...

Read more
Kosenki fossil skull, and and illustration of the Kosteni find

Ancient DNA shows earliest European genomes weathered the ice age, and shines new light on Neanderthal interbreeding and a mystery human lineage

06 Nov 2014

A genome taken from a 36,000 year old skeleton reveals an early divergence of Eurasians once they had left Africa, and allows scientists to better...

Read more
Detail from the tablet found at Ziyaret Tepe. Inscribed with Cuneiform characters, the tablet consists of a list of women's names, many of which appear to be from a previously unknown language.

Archaeologists discover lost language

10 May 2012

Evidence for a forgotten ancient language which dates back more than 2,500 years, to the time of the Assyrian Empire, has been found by...

Read more
Herodotus

Hay gears up for Greek marathon

23 Apr 2012

Following a successful talk at Hay in 2010, Professor Paul Cartledge will be playing a major part in a series of 10 discussions on Ancient Greece at...

Read more
Michael Scott.

How luxury became a four-letter word

27 Jun 2011

A new series presented by Michael Scott examines the history of luxury and the origins of our ambivalent attitude to the finer things in life.

Read more
Leonardo Da Vinci's depiction of the Last Supper

̽»¨Ö±²¥Penultimate Supper?

17 Apr 2011

̽»¨Ö±²¥Last Supper of Jesus Christ was on the Wednesday, and not the Thursday, before his death, according to a new study which claims to have solved “...

Read more
Athens acropolis

̽»¨Ö±²¥Athenians: Another warning from history?

02 Oct 2009

̽»¨Ö±²¥collapse of Greek democracy 2,400 years ago occurred in circumstances so similar to our own it could be read as a dark and often ignored lesson...

Read more