Somewhere in PNAS' list of upcoming publications will be a study on the jade trade, specifically an analysis of nephrite jade pieces dating back to 3000 B.C. from Asia. The study was lead by Hsiao-Chun Hung of the Australian National University. These guys sampled ear pendants spanning around 1,000 years. These earrings were from around... Continue Reading →
A Single Main Migration Across Bering Strait?
The web is abuzz over a new publication in PLoS Genetics about a single main migration across Bering Strait. From what I can tell, this new paper, "Genetic Variation and Population Structure," coincides with a recent publication in PLoS One that sampled mtDNA and figured out people moved in waves, but first they spent some... Continue Reading →
New York Times Profiles Ralph Holloway
The New York Times is running a profile of Ralph Holloway, a paleoanthropologist that specializes in brain evolution, one of my favorite subtopics in anthropology. The piece is written by Michael Balter, and it overviews his current project research with Homo floresiensis. In a nutshell, Holloway is on the fence about whether or not Homo... Continue Reading →
Andrew Galvan’s Control
Since I just posted on the topic of repatriation issues in the Bay Area, I got a tip to a current column running in a local news source, SF Weekly on this issue. Ron Russell, the author of the piece, published it under a week ago and it documents the almost incestuous situation caused by... Continue Reading →
NAGPRA & Bay Area Shellmounds
Afarensis shared a link to a Nature News piece on a new twist in the NAGPRA issue, which I didn't catch. So kudos to him for picking that up. The piece, by Rex Dalton, got me to think about another thing I just recently read on the web, a blog post by a person who... Continue Reading →
Call for help, “Middle Miocene Dispersals of Apes”
Several of my colleagues and I need your help in downloading a digital copy of the following paper. Neither of our university libraries have access to this journal and we really need the paper. I wanted to ask if you can try downloading the paper for us and sending me a copy. Thanks, here's the... Continue Reading →
Four Stone Hearth XXVIII @ Hot Cup of Joe
Apologies to all for my tardiness in posting this, but the latest and 28th edition of Four Stone Hearth is up and running, courtesy of Carl Feagans at Hot Cup of Joe, and on that note here's a word from Carl... If you're new to blogging, a carnival is an event much like a magazine... Continue Reading →
Teuku Jacob, in memoriam
I've just read that Teuku Jacob has died a little over a month ago. Both John Hawks and Tim Jones have covered the news in their blogs. I find some conflicting reports on how old he was, Hawks says he was 76 and Jones says he was 77. When I do the math he was... Continue Reading →
A Comparative Genomics approach to finding new Human genes
Adam Siepel, Brona Brejova and colleagues at several other institutions will report in an upcoming issue of the the journal Genome Research on their discoveries. They've found about 300 previously unidentified human genes, and found extensions of several hundred genes already known using computers to compare portions of the human genome with those of other... Continue Reading →
Are the 2.04 Million Year Old Wushan Fossils the Oldest Hominin from China?
Tim Jones, of Remote Central, is on top of the ball. He's been nailing down some awesome anthropology news lately. This is one of the ones that caught my eye recently. You know of Wushan Man? Wushan Man is the name given to a lower jawbone fragment and an incisor as well as more than 230 pieces of... Continue Reading →