Human origins

History & Archaeology

Why the first cities rose where the rain didn't fall

Early farmers walked past lands with regular rain and settled where it never came. A historian on why Sumer's dry south may have pushed people to invent.

Read more →

History & Archaeology

40,000 Years Ago, Someone Sewed Dinosaur-Era Fossils Onto a Coat

Over 40,000 years ago, people at Kostenki drilled and painted fossils from the age of dinosaurs. The wear marks show they sewed them onto their clothes.

Read more →

Mind & Society

The Stoned Ape Theory Has a Problem: Aztec Priests on Mushrooms

Terence McKenna said mushrooms made early humans gentle. A mycologist says psilocybin only amplifies what you already believe, and that may be how religion began.

Read more →