Anthropology and Sociology

Groote Eylandt's Indigenous communities celebrate the return of 174 artefacts from the Manchester Museum, saying the move has encouraged them to start making and using them again.

Urine samples collected from wild chimpanzees in Uganda over decades have revealed older female chimps undergo hormonal changes much like those in menopausal humans.

More than 57,000 years ago, a human traced their fingertips along the chalky wall of a French cave, leaving shallow, parallel furrows behind. But what species were they?

Scraps of ancient DNA coaxed out of a deer tooth pendant show it likely hung around the neck of a woman or girl around 20,000 years ago.

An anthropologist's search through newspaper records reveals a human bone found on a Central Coast beach could be linked to a tragic double drowning more than 80 years ago.

A stone scoreboard used in an ancient soccer-like ball game has been discovered at the famed Mayan Chichen Itza archaeological site, archaeologists said this week.

See how a prized and contentious early human fossil is stored — and meet the scientist who developed a deep bond with it.

The 1.60-metre tall Moai was found by a group of volunteers working to restore marshland in the crater of the Rano Raraku volcano. 

Police in Papua New Guinea say there is "unfinished business" in their pursuit of the criminal gang who took an Australian archaeologist and three local women hostage in the country's highlands.

An Australian archaeology professor and his two Papua New Guinean colleagues are released from captivity after more than a week of tense and traumatic negotiations, and a complex security operation involving police and defence personnel.

The discovery of fossils of 2.9-million-year-old butchered hippopotamus surrounded by crafted stone tools in Kenya suggests early humans may not have been the first species to use tools.

Boomerangs, bark paintings, and photographic slides returned by James Cook University in what it says is the start of many more repatriations.

Professor Richard Roberts spoke to the ABC and said, the research examined Neanderthal remains found in a Siberian cave and revealed a family unit.

A Neanderthal clan's family tree — the product of the largest single genetic study of Neanderthals to date —  reveals insights into their social behaviour.

Indigenous people and archaeologists have documented carvings on boab trees in northern Australia's Tanami Desert that support stories told by elders about how their land came to be.

The winners of the Ig Nobels, satirical prizes for scientific achievements that "make people laugh and then think", were awarded a fold-up paper prize and Zimbabwean $10 trillion note.

A prehistoric human skeleton is found in a cave system on Mexico's Caribbean coast that was flooded at the end of the last ice age 8,000 years ago.

The skeleton, found in a cave in Borneo, was missing the lower third of the left leg, which appeared to be chopped off  when they were a child.

Artists visit a Melbourne Museum vault to identify the "master" creators of bark paintings commissioned 110 years ago by Sir Baldwin Spencer in exchange for tobacco and cash.

How far back in time must we go for our ancestors to not be "human", but apes walking on two legs? And what's needed to qualify as "human" anyway?

Researchers say shame and stigma around menstruation exacerbate the burden of periods, with conversations the key to change.

Oyster fisheries in Australia and the US were managed for up to thousands of years before colonisation without widespread collapse, a new study indicates.

As the permafrost melts in Siberia, the rush is on to exploit ivory from ancient giants trapped in the ice for thousands of years.

A little-known reserve on Western Australia's south coast reveals how Indigenous people lived thousands of years ago.

Around 3.7 million years ago, a metre-high creature gingerly walked across the slippery ground in what is now Tanzania. But what species were they?