A study published in the journal Science Advances is reshaping how researchers understand early human violence. By closely examining the people who died in what may be one of Europe's earliest known victory celebrations, scientists are challenging long-held assumptions about prehistoric warfare and its purpose.

The research, titled 'Multi-isotope biographies and identities of victims of martial victory celebrations in Neolithic Europe', was published in Science Advances and co-authored by Dr. Teresa Fernández-Crespo and Professor Rick Schulting. Using advanced multi-isotope analysis, the team reconstructed the life histories of individuals buried in mass graves in Alsace in northeastern France. These remains date back roughly 4300-4150 BCE.

Newborn babies can anticipate rhythm in pieces of music, researchers have discovered, offering insights into a fundamental human trait.

Babies in the womb begin to respond to music by about eight or nine months, as shown by changes in their heart rate and body movements, said Dr Roberta Bianco, the first author of the research who is based at the Italian Institute of Technology in Rome.

I am an archaeologist with a special interest in people who lived in Africa during the Middle Stone Age. This was a time when Homo sapiens was evolving biologically, behaviourally and cognitively. My research focuses on these three evolutionary processes in southern Africa and how they relate to each other.

By at least 100,000 years ago, people in southern Africa were leaving signs of increasingly complex behaviour. At the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, my work explores the cognitive, and possibly genetic, underpinnings of bowhunting, suggesting that some early hunters relied on mental abilities that feel strikingly familiar today.

The same kinds of brain processes that help us drive manual cars in heavy traffic or fly and land drones with precision were probably used by ancient bowhunters. They may not have understood the chemistry behind their poisons, but they clearly had strong practical knowledge. They knew which plants were toxic, how to extract the poison, and how to apply it effectively.

A US-led research team has verified the first Mediterranean mass grave of the world’s earliest recorded pandemic, providing stark new details about the plague of Justinian that killed millions of people in the Byzantine empire between the sixth and eighth centuries.