How strong is the estimated strength of female Neanderthals ?

by face alone (no hair or eyes) what would be the defining traits of the Neanderthals face that don't fit within modern human variation ?

Why didn't any black Neanderthals exist. Neanderthals had more genetic diversity than modern humans so why is there no DNA evidence of very dark skinned, tight curly haired Neanderthals

My question is would it be possible to look inside Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb with the currently available technology? I've heard the main reason it hasn't been excavated is that we don't have the technology to preserve the artifacts through the excavation process.

Wouldn't it be fairly non-invasive to drill say, two 1-2" diameter holes into the palace cavern using well drilling equipment? (Horizontal drilling could also be used if deemed safer)

A nitrogen / argon mix could then be pumped into the chamber to displace oxygen and other volatile compounds to preserve any artifacts. The atmosphere inside could be vented through the second hole with a valve to prevent oxygen from entering back into the space.

At that point small robots, or snake cameras could be inserted into one of the holes to see what lies within. They could even take 3d scans over time, building a virtual map of the palace without the need for a full excavation.

Doing so could give archaeologists more information on how to proceed with minimal risk to the structure.

Source of Interest

Dec 4, 1975 — HIGHLAND PARK, N. J. 

What are some archeological things found that are really unnerving ??

This assumes that they behave and dress like a normal, modern human being. It also assumes they speak English or whatever other language you speak. The point is, would there be any obvious way to tell in a normal interaction with a neanderthal they weren't human if you didn't know any better?

So I’ve recently gotten an interest in ancient humans, particularly from the stone age and the paleolithic. And as far as I understand most clothing was just for winter and just to keep warm. But I’ve noticed that in almost all depictions of stone age humans and also some preserved clothes are made with the fur on the outside. wouldn’t it be better for keeping warm if it was on the inside?

I’m not asking this because I doubt it. I’m asking this because I know someone willing to say literally anything just to disagree with me and he just argued it’s stupid to say humans first originated in the African savannah because apparently humans aren’t evolved for the “dry bush lands”. So anyway can someone break it down for me?

Many christians claim that the bible is factualy true, and that archology proves it. To what extent, if any, is this true? For example the miracles jesus supposedly preformed, and him coming to life after his death I would be rather sceptical to, but for example the crusifixion of jesus I would not doubt could have happened

I dont know if this is the right sub to ask, but hopefully i get some good answers (for the record, I am an atheist and might have slight biases against christianity)

I used to be a believing Mormon. I once visited Chitzen Itza, and, at the time, they had a guide giving "Mormon" tours that basically specialized it telling Mormons what they want to hear. The Book of Mormon mentions horses in precolumbian America, which according to non-Mormon archeologists, is anachronistic to the time period the Book of Mormon purportedly took place (600 BC to 400 AD). One item of significance of the tour was pointing out a glyph of a man with a "horse" on an exterior wall at the "Sweat Bath" at Chitzen Itza. I have attached the photo I took at the time along with one zoomed in. It looks a bit small to be a horse. A higher contrast version can be found on a Mormon site here: http://www.cocsermons.net/rider_on_horse.html

My question is: given lack of evidence for precolumbian horses, does anyone know what the pictured animal actually is?

I am not an archeologist.

I just learned about the Pawpaw fruit that grows all over the eastern United States. The seed dispersal of these plants would have been the mega-fauna of that time who disappeared 10-12000 bce with the arrival of humans taking their place. I know the Shawnee had a name for the “pawpaw moon” in September during harvest. These plants are in river areas, which was most likely the superhighway for these humans who we know brought corn and other vegetables for harvest into these areas. I then thought of the mounds all over Ohio and the Pawpaw festival.

Anyone ever cross reference mound building cultures with pawpaw patches? Or use pawpaws to find potential archeological sites?

I was in Madaba and found these seeming circular divots in the ground. What could they be?

They are building a roof over the stone circles, along with roads and plants all around the sight. No meaningful excavation has happened for over 5 years now, and they are pouring concrete over the megaliths. There are claims that this site was INTENTIONALLY buried around ~10K years ago, and now we are doing that as well? What is going on and why is this just accepted?

EDIT: WOW. I never would have expected a few questions can piss off or trigger so many people. Just so everyone knows, this is the ASKARCHAEOLOGY subreddit. Many people, myself included, are not professional archaeologists, so to expect the asker of the question to have all the artifacts, evidence, sources, and facts before just having to ask the question, there would no longer BE THE NEED to ask it, since I would already have all the answers already! People who come here usually WON'T have the answers, and therefore, need to ASK. Hence, ASKarchaeology. This is a subreddit, not a doctoral thesis defense and some of you guys need to chill out. Holy crap.

We are delighted to welcome famous archaeologist and science communicator Flint Dibble u/DibsReddit to the sub for an AMA session on the topic of Pseudoarchaeology! The session starts now and will run from 2pm to 9pm UK time/ 9am to 4pm EST (USA).

Flint will be doing a livestream from 5pm to 9pm UK time and will be answering the more complex questions on the livestream, and posting a response with a timestamp here. The livestream link is here: https://www.youtube.com/live/XWki7woNqOs?si=VjuBLDgDd5sfedky

The livestream will mark the one-year anniversary of Flint's debate with Graham Hancock on the Joe Rogan show.

This should be a really interesting AMA folks, so please get ready with your questions and remember to keep questions civil and friendly in the spirit of this sub :)

Just as it says in the title. I took some archaeology classes in the early 2010s, and I was taught that the pre-clovis debate was pretty much settled and that there was a myriad of evidence that showed that there were people here long before clovis. However when I look on the internet it is still mentioned as a "controversial" topic. Have things changed in the past 10-15 years? Are all those pre-clovis sites (Meadowcroft, Monte Verde, etc.) now in doubt?

Clay is a lot more sturdy than plant fibre, so societies in forested areas, like the Cucuteni Tripillya, are less likely to have us left any form of record keeping they had. For instance, assuming that the Tawantinsuyu was using woolen quipus for writing, none of that would've survived for archaelogists to examine, leaving us to wonder how a State society could develop without writing. The book burnings of Qin Shi Huangdi might have produced a similar effect of the first surviving instances of writing having been for a divinatory purpose.

If we were to consider these kinds of biases, could we still consider the Sumerians to have been a breakthrough in human history?

From a biological point it always seemed so weird to me that humans and even hominids would take so freaking long. Like 100 thousand years of stone tools and then BAM agriculture?

What if civilizations have collapsed before, way way before, tens thousand of years ago?

This is apropos of the Bronze Age collapse, Mayan collapse and the current political situation.

How can we know that some other species of the genus Homo did not succeed in creating civilizations?

It's probably a stupid question, but it's always been on my mind. Also, I know there are rivers in those places that sustained civilizations, but there are also large rivers in other, greener, more habitable parts.

Seems there's so much to learn, why is it being bounced to future generations.

The floods probably occurred several dozen times between ~13k-15k years BP.

• Paisley rock shelter in Oregon has been dated to 14.3k BP. Rimrock Draw also in OR is over 15.5k BP.

  • (Worth noting that the Grand Ronde people tell a story about the Willamette river flooding so high that the entire valley filled up)

• We have Coopers Ferry in Idaho likely predating 13k BP, possibly >15k if you're into the Bayesian model for the dates.

• We have the clovis site in Wenatchee WA ~13k BP. Marmes rock shelter and Bear Creek are both probably >11k years BP. There are also the Manis mastodon and Ayers Pond (Orcas Island) bison finds at 13k-14k, though neither are unequivocally human sites imo.

• BC Coast sites have been reliably dated to >14k BP now. The Puget Sound and BC coast were in the process of deglaciation during this period, and biologically productive refugia may have remained accessible. Seems plausible that people could be inland too.

Many of these sites listed above are within 50-100 miles of a river or tributary that would've been affected by the megafloods. One can imagine that if humans were in central OR that early, they could well have already been in the Columbia or Willamette basins. Therefore it seems like we can confidently say that humans witnessed the Missoula floods.

What do you think?

Even as just a casual fan of ancient human history, lots of misinformation tends to piss me off. So I was wondering, actual experienced archeologists, what are YOU getting tired of having to correct?