An anthropologist works in American Samoa, taking advantage of the island's longstanding tattoo culture to tease out the effects tattoos have on the body's immune function.
New technology means accessing new information from ancient human remains, some which have been in collections for decades.
Duckworth Laboratory
Ancient DNA allows scientists to learn directly from the remains of people from the past. As this new field takes off, researchers are figuring out how to ethically work with ancient samples and each other.
Teeth and bones can tell something about age – but not someone’s birthday.
Journal of Forensic Dental Sciences
If an undocumented migrant is a minor or an adult can have far-reaching implications. A forensic anthropologist explains why relying solely on dental X-rays to determine age doesn't work.
Who gets to decide for the dead, such as this Egyptian mummy?
AP Photo/Ric Feld
Are DNA samples today's version of the human skeletons that hung in 20th-century natural history museums? They can provide genetic revelations about our species' history – but at an ethical price.
Fossilized teeth from a modern human who lived in Israel close to 200,000 years ago.
Israel Hershkovitz, Tel Aviv University
Rolf Quam, Binghamton University, State University of New York
New discoveries are changing archaeologists' ideas about the origins of our own species and our migration out of Africa. This fossil pushes Homo sapiens' African exodus date back by 50,000 years.
Personal ‘hygiene sticks’ used in toilets on the Silk Road.
Hui-Yuan Yeh. Reproduced from the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.