Lomo Kooto

Carved idol from the Urals shatters expert views on birth of ritual art

On 24 January 1894, gold prospectors were digging in the Shigir peat bog, north of the town of Yekaterinburg in the Ural mountains, when they uncovered a strange collection of carved pieces of wood.<p>A total of 10 fragments were found beside each other. When put together, a wooden idol more than five …

How to make the perfect hasselback potatoes

Hasselback potatoes, named after the Stockholm restaurant said to have created them, are one of those dishes that tend to look better than they taste: painstakingly chiselled fans of gloriously golden carbohydrate perfect for the Instagram age, yet sadly soggy on the fork. As Ed Smith writes in On …

Earliest Version of Our Alphabet Possibly Discovered

The earliest example of our alphabet — a possible mnemonic phrase that helped someone remember "ABCD" — has been discovered on a 3,400-year-old …

Serge Knives Bringing out Back-to-Back Releases this Summer

Serge Panchenko is preparing back-to-back slipjoint releases for next month. Both the Slipjoint Cleaver and the Antic play into his strengths in …

10 Slow Cooker Recipes for Two People (Who Like Leftovers)

While slow cookers are a boon for big-batch meals, I take mine out at least once a week when cooking dinner for my small family of two (twice if you …

These 90,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools Weren’t Even Made by Humans

Archaeological excavations in Northern Spain have turned up something incredible. Two wooden tools that, at 90,000 years old, are the oldest of their …

Slaughtered Rhino Suggests Ancient Humans Traveled in the Pleistocene Age

We were off by 600,000 years.<p>Early humans may have lived in the Philippines as early as 709,000 years ago, according to new research published in the …

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for green pea, black-eyed bean and chickpea usal

India is a country of 1.3bn people who live across 29 states from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean. But, despite that huge regional diversity, it often feels as if the same boilerplate menu is served in Indian restaurants. Today’s recipe for usal, from Maharastra, a mixture of pulses and peas in a …

Warning signs: how early humans first began to paint animals

Visual culture – and the associated forms of symbolic communication, are regarded by palaeo-anthropologists as perhaps the defining characteristic of …

How a backyard pendulum saw sliced into a Bronze Age mystery

A saw no one has seen may have built Bronze Age Greek palaces.

1,500-year-old onion found at Sweden's Pompeii

Archaeologists in Sweden have uncovered gold and jewelry at the site of a fort called Sandby Borg, but one of their most exciting recent discoveries …

Identifying the use of tinder fungi among neolithic communities at la Draga: The use of fungi to light or transport fire at la Draga some 7,300 years ago is one of the oldest examples documented until now of the technological use of these organisms

The use of fungi to light or transport fire at la Draga some 7,300 years ago is one of the oldest examples documented until now of the technological …

9 Blades that Forged History

For millennia, edged weapons such as swords, knives and daggers were the arms of choice for warriors around the globe. These razor-sharp blades …

A massacre frozen in time: Skeletons in Sweden reveal ancient attack

Archaeologists in Sweden have uncovered a 5th Century massacre.

In fossilized footprints, evidence of humans, a giant sloth, and ‘the killer blow’

Scientists have uncovered evidence of ancient humans engaged in a deadly face-off with a giant sloth, showing for the first time how our ancestors might have tackled such a formidable prey.<p>Standing over two meters tall, with forelegs tipped with claws, giant sloths lived until around 11,000 years …

Ancient Mass Child Sacrifice May Be World's Largest

More than 140 children were ritually killed in a single event in Peru more than 500 years ago. What could possibly have been the reason?<p><i>Leer en español.</i><p>Evidence for the largest single incident of mass child sacrifice in the Americas— and likely in world history—has been discovered on Peru's …

Neanderthals may have crossed seas THOUSANDS of years before humans

Neanderthals may have crossed the seas THOUSANDS of years before modern humans, researchers say<p><b>Discoveries of tools dating back 130,000 years are</b> …

Destination: The Americas

<b>On a Tuesday morning</b> in fall 2013, Mike Collins loaded up his RV and started the 11-hour drive from his home in Austin, Texas, to Santa Fe, New …

This Eerie, Human-Like Figure Is Twice As Old As Egypt's Pyramids

A towering, human-like figure carved from wood and discovered in a Russian peat bog is more than twice as old as the Egyptian pyramids, scientists …

Swedish archaeologists uncover brutal 5th century massacre

Archaeologists in Sweden have uncovered startling evidence of a massacre more than 1500 years ago, when the inhabitants of a small village were struck down in their houses or as they fled along the street, and their bodies left to rot where they fell – with their treasures including beautiful …

Did a Prehistoric Surgeon Practice on This Cow?

One of the more astonishing facts about prehistoric humans is how early they went under the knife—or rather, the sharpened stone.<p>Starting at least …

Alternative Deathstyles

<b>About 34,000 years</b> ago the hunter-gatherers living on what are now the plains of Russia east of Moscow are known to have had a complex society with …

The best method for cooking asparagus is 2,000 years old

I used to think I didn’t like asparagus, but it turned out to be—as these aversions often are—a textural problem. Their stalks would remain fibrous …

Gluten-Free Breakfast

Gluten-Free Cookies 'n' Cream Waffles<p>The flour-blend recipe makes more than you'll need to cook up these waffles. Just transfer the remaining flour …

Archaeology Dig In Spain Yields Prehistoric 'Crystal Weapons'

Even in modern times we are fascinated by crystals – from the diamonds we use as a sacred symbol of partnership, to the plethora of ‘healing’ gems …

Massive new line drawings revealed in Peru

Using drone cameras, scientists have documented spectacular line drawings newly discovered in southern Peru. They are likely much older than the …

The earliest unequivocally modern humans in southern China | Nature

Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago | Nature

Finger bone points to early human exodus

<b>New research suggests that modern humans were living in Saudi Arabia about 85,000 years ago.</b><p>A recently discovered finger bone believed to be <i>Homo sapiens</i> was dated using radio isotope techniques.<p>This adds to mounting evidence from Israel, China and Australia, of a widespread dispersal beyond Africa …

Slow-Cooker Baked Beans So Good You’ll Eat Them Straight Up

We set out to recreate the Boston-baked beans of our youth with a homemade touch. If you’re not about to sit over the stove stirring a pot for hours until your elbows start to flare up (yay, adulthood), then utilize your trusty slow cooker to make the time-honored dish. Once you get a taste of …