Researchers have uncovered the world’s oldest known cave art—a 67,800-year-old hand stencil in Indonesia. The unusual, claw-like design hints at early symbolic thinking and possibly spiritual beliefs.

A new study reveals that farming in Argentina’s Uspallata Valley was adopted by local hunter-gatherers rather than introduced by outside populations. Centuries later, a stressed group of maize-heavy ...

A group of early Homo sapiens crossed into Arabia more than 100,000 years ago, long before the migration that shaped modern populations. Their presence was brief. Archaeological evidence shows they ...

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with archaeologist Gary Feinman about new findings that show democracy existed throughout the ancient world and was not exclusive to Mediterranean Europe.

Researchers revisited the 1970s discovery of ancient stone tools at Monte Verde—an iconic site in Chile that transformed our understanding of how and when humans arrived in the Americas.

For modern residents of the Levant, the "Red Sea Trough" usually brings a brief, dusty transition between seasons. But ...

Two fossil skulls found in central China are prompting fresh debate over when they lived – and where they belong in the human ...

Glacier ice contains valuable information about the climates of the past. Researchers are scrambling to study it before it's too late.

Could ancient humans really have built the pyramids without extraterrestrial help? Or do such questions reveal more about modern anxieties than the past itself?

Debunking alien claims matters, but so does telling richer, more compelling stories about how humans shaped their own past.