Here Be Dragons: The Oldest Globe To Show The Americas

A Bold New Theory Proposes That Humans Tamed Themselves

A leading anthropologist suggests that protohumans' decrease in reactive aggression, alongside developing greater intelligence, cooperation, and social learning abilities, were key to homo sapiens becoming what we are today. These just happen to be the characteristics that increase when humans domesticate animals. In an article reviewing the new theory is is suggested that, perhaps, we domesticated ourselves too.

Lapis lazuli enjoyed great popularity in the late Roman and Early Byzantine periods; its rich purple-blue color was associated with royalty. From the 200s on, coins and medallions often showed the emperor carrying a scepter topped with an eagle, emblem of victory and authority. This particular lapis lazuli eagle was found in Italy and dates to the 300s or 400s CE, meaning it may very well have once perched on a Roman emperor’s scepter.

The Ability to Adapt Gave Homo Sapiens an Edge

Humans are pretty adaptable compared to other hominin species, and other apes, which may have been key to the survival of our species. Most animals stick to particular habitats, or are wide-ranging, and based on that scientists classify species on a continuum between generalist and specialist.

But homo sapiens are unique in that they can specialize, and they can generalize. We are specialist-generalists. Some humans have adapted intensively to one ecological niche, most famously high-altitude zones, while other wander across ecological zones. Yet we are still all one species, able to intermarry, or switch regions and adapt. That makes homo sapiens unique across species.

Looking at this map, you would never know that potatoes were domesticated in the Andean highlands. History takes some strange turns.

New Study Pinpoints The Ancestral Homeland of All Humans Alive Today

A group of researchers say they have pinpointed the ancestral homeland of all humans alive today: modern-day Botswana. Based on analyses of mitochondrial DNA, the researchers concluded that every person alive today descended from a woman who lived in modern-day Botswana about 200,000 years ago.

Giraffe populations declined by 40% between 1985 and 2016, as the animals were killed in high numbers for their skins, tails, and meat. Today there are just 97,500 giraffes living in the wild.

Proof Positive: Inside the Interdisciplinary Effort to Recreate Ancient Bread Using Ancient Yeast

[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="16236"] Nothing lives forever—except maybe yeast, which can go dormant and hibernate, perhaps indefinitely. An archaeologist, a biologist, and a baking enthusiast have recently embarked on a collaborative project to revive and reuse millennia-old yeast. Specifically, they have attempted to extract and cultivate yeast strains from ceramics dating to Egypt's Middle Kingdom. Read about their technique and their initial bread results (above) in the full article by archaeology.org.

The Oldest Ruler In The World

This is the cubit rod (aka ruler) of Maya, "treasurer of king Tutankhamun." He also served under Tutankamun's two successors, Ay and Horemheb. The cubit rod was an important part of being a treasurer because the Egyptian government was built on land management, and taxes were mainly agricultural products. To know how much to tax, you had to know how to measure the field, and the unit of measurement was the cubit. This rod measures the royal cubit of seven palm-lengths (52.3 cm) and the common cubit of 6 palm-lengths. There are also a number of gradations shown including "digits," palm-lengths, and fractions of digits from halves to sixteenths. Just in case Maya needed to measure really small distances.

All the Roman Expeditions into Subsaharan Africa