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Over the centuries, our understanding of the human species has changed countless times through the discovery of archaeological sites like the Altamira cave paintings in Spain, and through the use of new technologies like LiDAR that help scientists rediscover entire cities
A piece of stone can unlock a lost language, while a peculiar fossil can launch an entire new field of science. Here are nine of some of the most significant archaeological discoveries in history that changed what humans know about our origins and culture through time.
In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius unleashed a torrent of ash and magma, killing thousands of people and preserving the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum for over a millennia. Excavators rediscovered them in the early 1700s.
The cities were so well-preserved that they've given archeologists a unique look back in time at what life was like in ancient Rome for the wide range of people who lived there, from the very wealthy to those who were enslaved.
For example, excavators found a bakery's prison in Pompeii where barred windows locked in enslaved people.
And everyday objects like lime and bricks demonstrate how some buildings were constructed, possibly through a technique for making cement created by the Romans.
Other discoveries of graffiti and shrines have also advanced our understanding of ancient Romans. Back then, kids liked to express themselves by drawing on walls, too.
One of Mexico's most iconic artifacts — the Aztec Calendar Stone — is depicted on the country's coins. The giant stone was lost shortly after the Spanish colonized Central Mexico. But it was rediscovered in 1790.
Back then, Europeans had the common misconception that Mexico was home to "savage hordes." But when German explorer Alexander von Humboldt saw the stone in 1803, he realized his contemporaries were mistaken.
Then, in 1892, anthropologist Zelia Nuttall offered the first decoding of the stone's images. She used pre-Columbian writings to decipher them, finding clues about the complexities of Aztec culture , astronomy, and agriculture.
Scholars continue to debate the purpose of the centuries-old stone. Interpretations range from a sundial to a sacrificial altar to a calendar depicting an eclipse. Many experts believe the face in the center represents the sun god Tonatiuh.
Whatever its purpose, the stone revealed a culture steeped in ritual, creativity, and sophistication dismissed by Europeans.
In 1856, scientists began studying a skeleton found in Germany's Neander Valley. The bones resembled a human's but differed in several key ways: the skull was longer and the limbs were thicker.
The discovery fundamentally changed our understanding of human history because it was the first proof of the existence of some of our closest relatives .
The discovery sparked an entirely new field of science: paleoanthropology, aka the study of early humans through fossils.
Since this groundbreaking discovery, our understanding of Neanderthals has evolved from seeing them as distant, less intelligent relatives to a group that fundamentally changed our own DNA.
In 2022, Svante Pääbo won a Nobel Prize for sequencing the Neanderthal genome, which showed their DNA is 99.7% identical to our own. Some Neanderthal genes remain in humans today, too.
Recent studies suggest that humans and Neanderthals interbred enough that the extinct species left traces in our genome that impact our metabolism and risk for diseases like diabetes.
Moreover, many archaeological discoveries concerning their culture, including cave art and toolmaking, have illuminated the many ways our long-lost human relatives were more intelligent and refined than we've given them credit for in the past.
The Altamira cave paintings, located in northern Spain, were the first to show that prehistoric people were capable of creating sophisticated art and had a much richer culture of storytelling and ritual than previously thought.
The Paleolithic cave art was first discovered in 1868 and depicts bison, deer, and other animals. Scientists have dated the paintings to be between 13,000 to 14,000 years old.
In the decades since the Altamira cave's discovery, researchers have found many more examples of prehistoric cave art. The imagery changes from abstract to more realistic over thousands of years, showing the development of communication and the use of symbols in modern humans and their relatives.
Photography techniques and virtual reality also bring ancient art to life in new ways.
Experts think dogs were the first animals we domesticated , around 15,000 years ago, though some suggest it was even earlier.
These early versions of dogs were likely useful, acting as guards , helping with transportation, and sometimes serving as food.
But a 2018 study of a dog burial from 14,000 years ago showed that some humans didn't just view the animals as helpful assistants.
They formed emotional attachments and cared for their dogs when the animals were sick. Not so different from how we treat dogs today .
"We suggest that at least some Paleolithic humans regarded some of their dogs not merely materialistically, in terms of their utilitarian value, but already had a strong emotional bond with these animals," archaeologist Liane Giemsch told National Geographic in 2018.
The Rosetta stone was perhaps the most groundbreaking discovery that revolutionized our understanding of ancient Egyptian history and culture.
French scholar Jean-François Champollion translated the stone's text in 1822, which turned out to be a key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs . For centuries, archeologists had stared at these pictograms and characters without many clues to their meaning.
"We knew there were big civilizations, like Egypt, but they'd fallen silent," Egyptologist John Ray told Smithsonian Magazine in 2007. "With the cracking of the Rosetta Stone, they could speak with their own voice and suddenly whole areas of history were revealed."
After finding a list of pharaohs, Champollion translated the names of Cleopatra, Ramesses, and other important figures . The document showed just how far back Egypt's history stretched, thousands of years further into the past than was previously thought.
Today, the Rosetta Stone is in the British Museum, and Egypt has demanded its return .
How and when people first came to the Americas is a question archaeologists have long tried to answer.
One of the most significant initial discoveries on that front was found in 1929 at a site near Clovis, New Mexico.
Mammoth bones and stone tools at the site date back to 13,000 years ago. The dates matched with when glaciers started melting in northern North America, and experts believed that's when the first Americans arrived across the Bering land bridge .
However, numerous discoveries in recent decades have pushed the timeline back even further. For example, archaeologists found older artifacts at a 14,500-year-old site in Chile.
And a 2018 genetics study suggests ancient humans may have been living in Alaska around 25,000 years ago, millennia earlier than previously thought.
Experts in the archaeological community don't all agree on the exact dates, but general estimates for humans' arrival in the Americas are between 20,000 to 15,000 years ago.
The "Dark Ages" is an outdated term that once referred to the early Middle Ages in Europe. An archaeological site in Suffolk, England, known as Sutton Hoo , helped shed light on this era of British history and helped put the myth of the unsophisticated "Dark Ages" to rest.
In the 1930s, Edith Pretty wanted to know about the large mounds on her property and brought in Basil Brown, a local archaeologist . They turned out to be an ancient graveyard containing remains of a wooden ship belonging to an Anglo-Sazon warrior king who died around 625. The burial mound was full of jewelry, coins, and other artifacts.
Experts at the time didn't expect to find such well-made goods from an era that was supposed to be a decline from the days of the Roman Empire .
"The quality and quantity of the artifacts found inside the burial chamber were of such technical artistry that it changed our understanding of this period," curator Sue Brunning told Smithsonian Magazine in 2021.
Volunteers and experts continue to uncover finds at Sutton Hoo.
In recent decades, LiDAR technology has transformed some aspects of archaeology. Short for Light Detection and Ranging, LiDAR uses a laser, scanner, and GPS receiver typically mounted on aircraft to collect data and create three-dimensional maps of the landscape and archaeological features. It's especially useful in areas covered in vegetation.
LiDAR can reveal previously unknown sites. In Guatemala and Mexico, for example, archaeologists have found the remains of many Maya cities and structures. Until the new technology started uncovering tens of thousands of structures, researchers had no idea how complex and far-reaching these civilizations were.
"Everything is larger, more extensive, more deeply built and engineered than we had thought," Brown anthropologist Stephen Houston said in a 2018 statement about 64,000 dwellings found via LiDAR in Guatemala. "In some areas, there are denser populations than previously imagined; other regions seem absolutely desolate."
Archaeologist Chris Fisher wants to use LiDAR to make a 3D image of Earth to preserve images of glaciers, forests, and other natural features as well as these ancient settlements and monuments. Sea-level rise, melting ice, and other climate change threaten many archaeological sites, including those yet to be discovered.
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Title: dvrp-mhsi: dynamic visualization research platform for multimodal human-swarm interaction.
Abstract: In recent years, there has been a significant amount of research on algorithms and control methods for distributed collaborative robots. However, the emergence of collective behavior in a swarm is still difficult to predict and control. Nevertheless, human interaction with the swarm helps render the swarm more predictable and controllable, as human operators can utilize intuition or knowledge that is not always available to the swarm. Therefore, this paper designs the Dynamic Visualization Research Platform for Multimodal Human-Swarm Interaction (DVRP-MHSI), which is an innovative open system that can perform real-time dynamic visualization and is specifically designed to accommodate a multitude of interaction modalities (such as brain-computer, eye-tracking, electromyographic, and touch-based interfaces), thereby expediting progress in human-swarm interaction research. Specifically, the platform consists of custom-made low-cost omnidirectional wheeled mobile robots, multitouch screens and two workstations. In particular, the mutitouch screens can recognize human gestures and the shapes of objects placed on them, and they can also dynamically render diverse scenes. One of the workstations processes communication information within robots and the other one implements human-robot interaction methods. The development of DVRP-MHSI frees researchers from hardware or software details and allows them to focus on versatile swarm algorithms and human-swarm interaction methods without being limited to fixed scenarios, tasks, and interfaces. The effectiveness and potential of the platform for human-swarm interaction studies are validated by several demonstrative experiments.
Subjects: | Robotics (cs.RO); Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) |
Cite as: | [cs.RO] |
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Introduction Children with monogenic neurodevelopmental disorders often grow abnormally. Gene-specific growth charts would be useful but require large samples to construct them using the conventional LMS method.
Methods We transformed anthropometry to British 1990 reference z-scores for 328 UK and 264 international probands with ANKRD11, ARID1B, ASXL3, DDX3X, KMT2A or SATB2- related disorders, and modelled mean and standard deviation (SD) of the z-scores as gene-specific linear age trends adjusted for sex. Back-transforming the mean ±2 SD lines provided gene-specific median, 2 nd and 98 th centiles.
Results The resulting z-score charts look plausible on several counts. Only KMT2A shows a (rising) age trend in median height, while BMI and weight increase in several genes, possibly reflecting population trends. Apart from SATB2 and DDX3X, the gene-specific medians are all below the reference (range 0.1 th centile for height KMT2A to 36 th centile for BMI ANKRD11 ). Median OFC shows no age trend, with medians ranging from 10 th -30 th centile, and ASXL3 lowest, on the 3 rd centile. There are no sex differences in 19/24 cases.
Conclusions Our LMSz method produces gene-specific growth charts for rare diseases, an essential clinical tool for paediatric care. We plan to automate it within the DECIPHER platform, enabling availability for all relevant genes.
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding statement The DDD study presents independent research commissioned by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund [grant number HICF-1009-003], a parallel funding partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, and the Wellcome Sanger Institute [grant number WT098051]. This study was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Exeter Biomedical Research Centre. The research team acknowledges the support of the National Institute for Health Research, through the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network. JF is funded by the Wellcome Trust [grant number WT223718/Z/21/Z]. This research was funded in whole or in part by the Wellcome Trust. MB is funded by the MRC (MR/V037307/1). For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC-BY public copyright licence to any author accepted manuscript version arising from this submission. KL is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Doctoral Research Fellowship 302303. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.
The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:
The DDD study has UK Research Ethics Committee approval (10/H0305/83, granted by the Cambridge South REC, and GEN/284/12 granted by the Republic of Ireland REC). All participants gave informed consent, as required by the REC. All published data were de-identified. Specific ethical approval for the growth charts development was given via a DDD Complementary Analysis Proposal Approval (CAP#371). The GenROC study received East Midlands - Nottingham Research Ethics Committee (REC) approval on 15 December 2022 and Health Research Authority approval on 9 February 2023. The ASXL3 Natural History Study, sponsored by Sheffield Children's Hospital and The University of Sheffield (UK) received REC (23/SC/0151) and HRA approval on 2 June 2023. All participants enrolled in the study gave informed consent for anonymised data sharing to allow this collaboration.
I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.
I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).
I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.
Sequence and variant-level data and phenotypic data for the DDD study data are available from the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA; https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ega/ ) with study ID EGAS00001000775. Clinically interpreted variants and associated phenotypes from the DDD study and GenROC study are available through DECIPHER ( https://www.deciphergenomics.org/ ).
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Historical research is the process of investigating and studying past events, people, and societies using a variety of sources and methods. This type of research aims to reconstruct and interpret the past based on the available evidence. Types of Historical Research. There are several types of historical research, including: Descriptive Research
Research Methods for History. Lucy Faire. Edinburgh University Press, Jul 8, 2016 - History - 256 pages. Historians have become increasingly sensitive to social and cultural theory since the 1980s, yet the actual methods by which research is carried out in History have been largely taken for granted. Research Methods for History encourages ...
A wide-ranging critical survey of methods for historical research at all levels Historians have become increasingly sensitive to social and cultural theory since the 1980s, yet the actual methods by which research is carried out in History have been largely taken for granted. Research Methods for History encourages those researching the past to think creatively about the wide range of methods ...
Offers practical step-by-step guidance on how to do historical research, taking readers from initial questions to final publication. Connects new digital technologies to the traditional skills of the historian. Draws on hundreds of examples from a broad range of historical topics and approaches. Shares tips for researchers at every skill level.
For almost all historical topics, however, libraries filled with printed books and journals will remain the principal tools for research, just as museums will continue to be essential to any work dealing with the material culture of past science. The reason for this is simple: what is on the internet is the result of decisions by people in the ...
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The first guide to the sources, techniques and concepts needed for effective historical research. While historians have become increasingly sensitive to social and cultural theory since the 1980s, the actual methods by which research is carried out in History have been largely taken for granted. Research Methods for History encourages those researching the past to think creatively about the ...
This guide is an introduction to selected resources available for historical research. It covers both primary sources (such as diaries, letters, newspaper articles, photographs, government documents and first-hand accounts) and secondary materials (such as books and articles written by historians and devoted to the analysis and interpretation of historical events and evidence).
This guide is intended as a point of departure for research in history. We also have a more selective guide with major resources only: Introductory Library Research Guide for History. Finding Primary Sources Online offers methods for finding digital libraries and digital collections on the open Web and for finding Digital Libraries/Collections ...
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Draws on hundreds of examples from a broad range of historical topics and approaches. Shares tips for researchers at every skill level. 978--691-21548-8. Sociology, History, Library Science. The essential handbook for doing historical research inthe twenty-first century The Princeton Guide toHistorical Research provides students, scholars ...
Examines the distinctive ways in which historians in different parts of the world have approached the task of writing history. Explores methodologies used, such as political, social, economic, cultural, and popular histories through the reading and discussion of relevant and innovative texts. Introduces a variety of sources (archival documents ...
Bringing together practical methods from both history and composition, Writing History, Fourth Edition, provides a wealth of tips and advice to help students research and write essays for history classes. The book covers all aspects of writing about history, including finding and researching topics, interpreting source materials, drawing ...
Research Methods for History encourages those researching the past to think creatively about the wide range of methods currently in use, to understand how these methods are used and what historical insights they can provide. This updated new edition has been expanded to cover not only sources and methods that are well-established in History ...
The Shapiro Library subscribes to the SAGE Research Methods This link opens in a new window database, a resource designed for those who are doing research or who are learning how to do research. Methods and practices covered include writing research questions and literature reviews, choosing research methods, conducting oral histories, and more.
Research Methods for History. Simon Gunn, Lucy Faire. Edinburgh University Press, 2012 - History - 246 pages. This book provides a lively critical survey of methods for historical research at all levels. While historians have become increasingly sensitive to social and cultural theory since the 1980s, the actual methods by which research is ...
History also is the story of the collective identity of people and regions. Historical research can help promote a sense of community and highlight the vibrancy of different cultures, creating opportunities for people to become more culturally aware and empowered. The Tools and Techniques of Historical Research Methods
Research Methods. HS 303b Research Methods and Practices in the History of Science; HOLLIS (and other) Catalogs; Finding Primary Sources Online; Outline of Primary Sources for History; Background/Context; Bibliographies; Biography; Secondary Sources; Digital Libraries/Collections; Periodicals/Articles. Public Health Reports ; League of Nations/WHO
HIS-287 Research Methods in History. Course Overview. An introduction to the principles of historical research, with an emphasis on the use of research tools and source materials. Several supervised written assignments will be required; most will be based on American source materials.
How to Do Historical Research: 5 Tips for Studying History. Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Jun 7, 2021 • 3 min read. A popular aphorism declares that "those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it." Humans study history in part because social behaviors and global trends repeat themselves over time.
You will find here innovative approaches to oral history, some of which utilize various art forms. Columbia Center for Oral History Research: Resources A helpful selection of resources for conducting oral history research. Oral History guide from Coates Library, Trinity University Useful tips and resources compiled by Abna Schnur.
History 4301-001 (10274) Methods of Historical Research Fall 2024 Mondays and Wednesdays 11:00 am-12:15 pm Madla 207 Dr. Amy M. Porter Office phone: 210-784-2208 Office: Room 313H in Central Academic Building Email: [email protected] (this is the best way to contact me)
Research Methods for History edited by Simon Gunn and Lucy Faire, ebook A Short Guide to Writing about History by Richard Marius, Main Stacks D13.M294 2002 Historian's Guide to Statistics: Quantitative Analysis and Historical Research by Charles M. Dollar and Richard J. Jensen, Main Stacks HA29.D645
Books. Research Methods for History. Simon Gunn. Edinburgh University Press, Nov 30, 2011 - Reference - 256 pages. Providing a lively critical survey of methods for historical research at all levels, this textbook covers well-established sources and methods together with those that are less widely known. It reflects current theoretical and ...
Historians have become increasingly sensitive to social and cultural theory since the 1980s, yet the actual methods by which research is carried out in History have been largely taken for granted. Research Methods for History encourages those researching the past to think creatively about the wide range of methods currently in use, to understand how these methods are used and what historical ...
Archaeologists study artifacts, monuments, and other remains to get a better sense of human history. ... Discovering Neanderthals sparked an entirely new field of scientific research.
The epoxy curing temperature and curing time are the main factors affecting the physical and chemical properties of cured structures, and determining suitable curing parameters for epoxy composites remains a challenging task. In this work, the curing temperature suitable for an epoxy composite system with reinforcing fibers was obtained based on the curing kinetics. A method for obtaining the ...
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In recent years, there has been a significant amount of research on algorithms and control methods for distributed collaborative robots. However, the emergence of collective behavior in a swarm is still difficult to predict and control. Nevertheless, human interaction with the swarm helps render the swarm more predictable and controllable, as human operators can utilize intuition or knowledge ...
The research team acknowledges the support of the National Institute for Health Research, through the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network. ... The ASXL3 Natural History Study, sponsored by Sheffield Children's Hospital and The University of Sheffield (UK) received REC (23/SC/0151) and HRA approval on 2 June 2023. ... Methods We transformed ...