Ancient Maya cities were dangerously contaminated with mercury

The cities of the ancient Maya in Mesoamerica never fail to impress. But beneath the soil surface, an unexpected danger lurks there: mercury pollution. In a review article in Frontiers in Environmental Science, researchers ...

Soil data reveals secrets in ancient Israel

Fresh insight gleaned from rocks and soil mapped across Israel will help reveal more information about ancient humans, animals and evolution in the Middle East region.

Island cores unravel mysteries of ancient Maltese civilisation

The mysteries of an ancient civilisation that survived for more than a millennium on the island of Malta—and then collapsed within two generations—have been unravelled by archaeologists who analysed pollen buried deep ...

Earthworms—integral ecosystem engineers

Global demands for food and energy are driving research on sustainably using our planet's fast-depleting natural resources. One creative initiative looked to ancient land-use systems that supported millions of people with ...

Ancient permafrost quickly transforms to carbon dioxide upon thaw

Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and key academic partners including the University of Colorado Boulder have quantified how rapidly ancient permafrost decomposes upon thawing and how much carbon dioxide is produced ...

Human and animal interaction identified in the viking age

Since 2001, ancient DNA has been used in paleoparasitological studies to identify eggs found in soil samples from prehistoric periods, because identification cannot be done by morphological study alone. The species of human ...

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