Archaeology

Archaeologists report the discovery of a 300,000-year-old hearth, the most ancient one known, for making and using fire. Cynthia Graber reports

 

Research in the past 26 years, although not definitive, points to a match with the "Father of Europe"

The 2,000-year-old wreck, off the coast of Sri Lanka, may hold clues about trade between Roman and Asian societies

The chemistry and mineralogy of the rock around extremely well preserved fossils of dinosaurs and other animals suggests that they were indeed entombed by volcanic ash

The pyramid, which predates the Great Pyramid of Giza, is one of seven for which its function remains a mystery

Long unnoticed, the skull may represent a new species of extinct sperm whale

Researchers may have found the remains of King Alfred the Great in museum storage

In 1967 the fossilized remains of a strange new shark species were discovered in Will County, Ill., an area known for its marine fossils dating back more than 300 million years.

Cavities are associated with the carbohydrate-rich diet made possible by farming. But an archaeological site shows that hunter–gatherers were also plagued by cavities. Cynthia Graber reports

The editors of Nature picked these feature stories as the best among the magazine's longer journalistic reports of the year

See which science blog posts were most-read on Nature's Web site this year

A carbon threshold breached, commitments to brain science made, mystery neutrinos found and human evolution revised—these and other events highlight the year in science and technology as picked by the editors of Scientific American