A team of European and African researchers used a method known as paleoproteomics to recover fragments of proteins from the tooth enamel of four fossilized teeth found in the Swartkrans cave in South Africa, which belonged to an early human called Paranthropus robustus. They used cutting-edge mass spectrometry techniques to partially reconstruct the sequences of […]
Africa
Posted inAntiquity
The Trilingual Stele That Tells the Story of the Aksumite Empire, the Second State to Adopt Christianity After Armenia
If we exclude the sources of the Blue Nile, ultimately a work of nature, the most important and striking monument in Ethiopia is the complex of rock-hewn churches located in the town of Lalibela, which are part of the World Heritage. But in the city of Aksum, there is a priceless artifact for Ethiopian Christians […]
Posted inScience
Chimpanzees in Guinea-Bissau Discover a Way to Communicate Over Long Distances
A team of researchers documented a previously unseen behavior in a group of wild chimpanzees in the forests of Guinea-Bissau, Africa: the deliberate use of stones to produce sounds, which they interpret as a sophisticated form of long-distance communication. The discovery is the result of five years of studies conducted by biologists from Wageningen University […]
Posted inAge of Exploration, Middle Ages
North African ancestry was already present in the Iberian Peninsula in the 4th century, long before the Islamic conquest of 711
A joint study by researchers from the University of Huddersfield (United Kingdom), the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at the University of Dublin, and several archaeological institutions from the Valencian Community analyzes one of the most significant and tragic episodes in the demographic history of the Iberian Peninsula: the near-total disappearance of North African genetic heritage […]
Posted inScience
Surprising Behavior Among Chimpanzees in Uganda: They Use Medicinal Plants and Heal Each Other
Researchers have documented surprising behavior among chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest in Uganda: not only do they treat their own wounds, but they also help other members of their group—even when there is no genetic relationship and despite the risk of being exposed to pathogens. The finding, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, could […]
Posted inScience
Emergence of a land bridge 20 million years ago allowed elephants and humans to cross into Asia, and turned the Sahara into a desert
What happens beneath the Earth’s surface may seem distant, but its effects shape continents, influence ocean circulation, climate patterns, and even the evolution of life. An international team of scientists has discovered that a plume of hot rock rising from the Earth’s mantle millions of years ago may have been a key factor in the […]
Posted inPrehistory, Science
A Human Lineage Lived Isolated in the Center of the Sahara When It Was a Green Area 7,000 Years Ago
Recent research has revealed surprising details about the prehistoric population of North Africa thanks to the genetic analysis of two individuals naturally mummified more than 7,000 years ago in the Takarkori rock shelter, in present-day southern Libya. During the African Humid Period, also known as the Green Sahara, this region was inhabited by a human […]
Posted inScience, Travel
The Enigmatic Origin of the Wild Horses of the Namib Desert, the Most Isolated in the World
Among Africa’s characteristic and diverse fauna, the genus Equus—which includes zebras, donkeys, and horses—stands out for its rarity. However, the latter is not truly native, at least not in sub-Saharan Africa; it was introduced by humans at different times depending on the location. In Ethiopia, where half of the continent’s equine population is concentrated, there […]
Posted inGeography
The Forgotten Plan to Flood the Sahara and Create an Inland Sea
On July 1, 1905, and for a month, the Magasin d’Education et de Récréation serialized a novel by Jules Verne titled L’invasion de la mer (The Invasion of the Sea), the last work the French author published in his lifetime, as he passed away that same year. The novel tells the story of a French […]
Posted inArt, Modern Era
Duwisib, an Unusual Medieval Castle in the Namibian Desert
The Schutztruppe (the colonial army of the German Empire) did not leave a good memory in German South West Africa, what is now Namibia, as it was responsible for the first genocide of the 20th century, against the native Herero and Namaqua people. However, Germany officially apologized in 2004, and today, one hundred and twenty […]
