Oct 23 2009
There are over 50,000 people in North America who define themselves as Hutterites, though you probably have never met one. One of the main branches of the Anabaptists, Hutterites live in self-sustaining communities throughout the rural northwestern United States and Canada.
Like their sister branches, the Amish and the Mennonites, the history and culture of [...]
Sep 09 2009
About 10,000 years ago, the prehistoric hunter-gatherers of Europe began meeting some new neighbors.
These farmers spread gradually at first, expanding from the Near East through Anatolia and the Balkans. Then agriculture exploded, reaching present-day Britain within a few thousand years. The farmers settled into houses, which soon evolved into villages, towns and eventually cities.
The archaeological [...]
Jul 24 2009
In 1974, scientists digging in the dry lake bed of Lake Mungo in southeastern Australia uncovered the skeleton of a man preserved in the deep layers of sand and clay. Dating techniques eventually revealed that this individual died about 40,000 years ago.
Scientists and the popular press dubbed the individual “Mungo Man.” Why did he make [...]
Jul 22 2009
The Neanderthals have always held a special place in the field of anthropology. The skeletal remains of our short, stocky evolutionary relatives have been found everywhere from Spain to Iraq.
Their physical likeness to our own species, and the possibility that humans and Neanderthals may have interacted, has long fascinated experts and enthusiastic novices alike. But [...]
Jul 08 2009
Nicolaus Copernicus is probably the second most famous astronomer in history (after Galileo). He is best known for being the first to propose that the Earth circles the sun, and not the other way around.
His theory ran into one problem, however. It was contrary both to conventional wisdom and Roman Catholic Church doctrine. So even [...]
Jul 02 2009
Not many people could survive the harsh conditions of the Sahara Desert. Yet the Tuareg have lived in the the region for millennia.
The Tuareg call themselves the Imazghan, meaning “free people.” Today they are known for a distinctive dark blue turban worn by the men, and for their long history as gatekeepers of the Sahara [...]
Jun 19 2009
Only 250 miles separates the island of Madagascar from the southeast coast of Africa. The short distance between the two land masses traditionally led the outside world to assume that the native inhabitants of Madagascar – known as the Malagasy – originally came from the west, probably from the present day southeast African nation of [...]
Jun 09 2009
Just over 20 years ago, the first study using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to trace prehistoric human migrations was published. In this seminal study, scientists managed to determine that all humans alive today can trace their maternal ancestry back to one woman who lived about 200,000 years ago in Africa. The findings were revolutionary, and [...]
Feb 23 2009
There are many mysteries surrounding the final days of the last Emperor of Russia, Tsar Nicholas, and his family. The most perplexing of them all is the fate of one of the Tsar’s daughters, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Even after Bolsheviks murdered the family in the summer of 1918, rumors circulated throughout Europe that Anastasia [...]
Jan 13 2009
At the Spittoon we love to hear how scientists are using our DNA to unlock the mysteries of our ancestors. In fact, hardly a week goes by when we don’t report on the latest discovery in the field of genetic ancestry.
Occasionally, however, researchers manage to uncover some mystery of the human past using the DNA [...]
