News archive for Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion

A new study published in Scientific Reports shows that hide glue made from calfskin was used as a binder in the paints used to produce Uvdal stave church’s decorations. Surprisingly, tests also uncovered traces of human saliva.

A recent study at SapienCE calls for a more nuanced approach to understanding the evolution of human cognition, arguing that research on the mental abilities of humans – in the present and the past – needs to incorporate cultural and cognitive diversity more explicitly.

A recent study demonstrates how dripstones can be crucial for reconstructing past climates. The new approach can provide a detailed picture of the climate around early human occupations in South Africa.

SapienCE’s Francesco d’Errico and his international team have published their analysis of the largest known collection of Middle Stone Age ochre, which reveals how ochre use evolved over a period of 4500 years. The new study is essential to understand how complex cultures arose and diversified in human history.

The Origins of Early Southern Sapiens Behaviour exhibition is launched at Cape Point, South Africa. The exhibition showcases remarkable discoveries from SapienCE main excavation sites augmented by Sea Change Project contribution.

The SapienCE Early Human Behaviour Exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore fascinating discoveries and insights into the behaviours of our early, shared, ancestors.

An international team of archaeologists, led by a UiB scientist, has identified the oldest bone tools from southern Africa. The tools are 60,000 to 80,000 years old and were likely used for debarking trees and to dig into the ground.

The SapienCE paper about a trapped artefact became the top ten most downloaded articles in the journal Geoarchaeology this year. The study demonstrates how the creative use of unconventional research methods turned an unfortunate archaeological sampling event into a scientific success story.