Archaeological study

New identification technique pushes back timeline of fire use to over a million years ago - study

Researchers explained that when bones exposed to high levels of heat are illuminated with specific light wavelengths, they light up with a distinctive glow.

|ByMIRIAM SELA-EITAM
Stages of Burning on Bones – white (#5 on right) is the most burnt while yellow-beige (on left #1) is unburnt.
Rupert van Der Werff from Summers Place Auctions with a rare skeleton of a long-extinct woolly rhinoceros in Billingshurst, England, March 5, 2019; file photo.

Neanderthals' ancient toolkit included hammers, blades made from rhino teeth, study finds

Dental microwear analysis, which allows for the microscopic study of surface textures, confirmed that the marks were made after the animals' deaths, ruling out chewing or dietary wear and tear.

|ByMIRIAM SELA-EITAM
A partial view of a settlement from the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age), discovered during archaeological excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority near Motza Junction, about 5 km west of Jerusalem, July 16, 2019; file photo.

Plaster-making technique attributed to Romans used at Motza some 8,000 years earlier, study shows

"The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B residents of Motza were surprisingly able to differentiate calcite and dolomite stones and used both in their plaster making," the study said.

|ByMIRIAM SELA-EITAM
Views from five different angles of a molar of an adult Neanderthal individual, discovered at Chagyrskaya Cave in the Siberia region of Russia and dating to about 59,000 years ago, seen in this undated image released on May 13, 2026.

Neanderthal tooth from Siberian cave shows signs of earliest-known invasive dental surgery - study

The molar showed that the Neanderthal who underwent the dental procedure was an adult, though the researchers do not know the individual's gender.

|ByREUTERS

Hidden 4,000-year-old fortified town discovered in the Khaybar Oasis of Saudi Arabia

Al-Natah, occupied from 2400 to 1500 BCE, had about 500 residents and is the first of its kind for studying an ancient settlement in northwest Arabia.

OCTOBER 31, 2024ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
Wadi Disah, Al Shaq canyon of Saudi Arabia.