News
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Neanderthals ran ‘fat factories’ 125,000 years ago02 July 2025Fat is a very valuable food component, packed with calories, especially important when other resources might be scarce. Our earliest ancestors in Afri...
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Millions in grant funding for research on traumascapes: sites of pain and lossInterdisciplinary research 02 July 2025A consortium led by Leiden University has been awarded 6.75 million euros to research traumascapes: physical places associated with collective trauma ...
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What does ‘human’ really mean? When Philosophy and archaeology join forces30 June 2025Archaeology is the only science that allows us to study the material traces left by most of human evolution. But what happens when we bring philosophy...
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Bleda Düring investigates social inequality in Cyprus with ERC Advanced Grant17 June 2025Archaeologist Prof Bleda Düring has been awarded a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for his research on the emergence of social inequalities in the tran...
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Four Leiden researchers receive ERC Advanced Grant17 June 2025From social inequalities in prehistory to placebo effects in medical treatments. Four researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a prestigio...
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Alex Geurds new Professor in Central American archaeology: 'A professorship as a unifying force'16 June 2025The appointment of Alex Geurds as Professor in Central American Archaeology reinvigorates an existing focus within the faculty. 'The research chair of...
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Leiden researchers receive KIEM grant to explore materiality in ancient religions13 June 2025A KIEM grant was recently awarded to a diverse group of Leiden researchers, aiming to organise an interdisciplinary conference with the title ‘Ancient...
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High diversity in lifeways among early Caribbean inhabitants26 May 2025The first settlers of the Caribbean have long been regarded as bands of highly mobile groups who subsisted exclusively by hunting, gathering, and fish...
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Slice of 'Zeeuws' life: the complex stories behind human burials in Koudekerke21 May 2025A team of three students affiliated with Leiden University is shedding new light on the lives, diets, health, and mobility of individuals buried at th...
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Millet isotopes reveal advanced agriculture in early imperial China20 May 2025A new study reveals how ancient Chinese farmers managed soil fertility and water resources over thousands of years. By analyzing carbon and nitrogen s...
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Homo erectus from the seabed, new archaeological discoveries in IndonesiaUnique insight 16 May 2025Archaeological finds off the coast of Java, Indonesia provide insight into the world of Homo erectus, 140,000 years ago. Skull fragments and other fos...
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Mediterranean hunter gatherers navigated long-distance sea journeys well before the first farmers24 April 2025Small, remote islands were long thought to have been the last frontiers of pristine natural systems. Humans are not thought to have been able to reach...
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Strategies of ancient matriarchs challenge technological disparities in the digital age01 April 2025At the transition of the Neolithic to Bronze Age, a societal clash took place between a male dominated oligarchy (also known as the patriarchy) and th...
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Archaeologists discover worrying signs of axe addiction in Dutch prehistory: 'It set the Netherlands back for at least two millennia'01 April 2025Are you worried about your smartphone addiction? Trust us, it could have been far worse… A shocking discovery, by an interdisciplinary team of special...
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The paleo diet: Is it what our ancestors really ate?Video 31 March 2025The paleo diet: eating like people in the Stone Age did, because it is supposed to be healthier. But how accurate are the recipes in this diet? Archae...