Location, location, location—it’s the first rule of real estate. For a long time, it’s been widely assumed that being close to resources drives settlement patterns, with cities generally founded near water and fertile land for growing crops. But a new paper by a husband-and-wife archaeological team questions that idea, using the example of an ancient...
World
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At Cartel Extermination Site; Mexico Nears 100k Missing
For the investigators, the human foot — burned, but with some fabric still attached — was the tipoff: Until recently, this squat, ruined house was a place where bodies were ripped apart and incinerated, where the remains of some of Mexico’s missing multitudes were obliterated. How many disappeared in this cartel “extermination site” on the...
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Sustainable Groundwater Use Could Be Answer to Africa’s Water Issues
Tapping into groundwater can help communities in Africa diversify their water supply and strengthen their drought defenses, according to a study led by The University of Texas at Austin. The research, which was published in Environmental Research Letters, tracked long term water storage gains and losses across Africa’s 13 major aquifers and found opportunities for sustainably withdrawing...
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How Mexico’s Lucrative Avocado Industry Found Itself Smack in the Middle of Gangland
To the relief of avocado lovers from coast to coast, the recent drama between the United States and Mexico was fleeting. The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned imports of the fleshy fruit from Mexico on Feb. 11, 2022, after an employee of its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, who was working in Mexico, received...
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PERSPECTIVE: Putin’s Push to ‘Keep Peace’ in Ukraine Is an Act of Naked Aggression
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is not a peacekeeping operation as described by Russian-language media, but an act of naked aggression, according to Heather D. DeHaan, associate professor of history at Binghamton University, State University of New York. On the surface of things, this is a conflict over NATO expansion, something to which Russia has objected for...
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From Banking to Sports to Vodka, Russia’s Isolation Grows
It’s a globalized world — a planet stitched together by intricate supply chains, banking, sports and countless other threads of deep connection. Until it isn’t. Exhibit A: Russia this week, abruptly cut off from the larger world on multiple fronts. Its ability to bank internationally has been curtailed. Its participation in major international sports is...
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Centuries-Old Capture Documents Now Online
Centuries-old documents related to the capture of ships by the British are accessible online from today, for the use of international researchers. The “Prize Papers” Project of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities Göttingen is, as a first stage, making available online via the website www.prizepapers.de documents from court processes linked to approximately 1,500 ship...
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Properly Managed Fire Enhances Functional Diversity and Carbon Fixation in Savannas
The grasses that grow in tropical savannas evolved some 8 million years ago, in the presence of fire, long before humans emerged on the planet. Fire continues to play a key evolutionary role in this type of biome. The role of fire in savannas has been the subject of articles published by Agência FAPESP since 2017, and is further...
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Poorest People Bear Growing Burden of Heat Waves as Temperatures Rise
People with lower incomes are exposed to heat waves for longer periods of time compared to their higher income counterparts due to a combination of location and access to heat adaptations like air conditioning. This inequality is expected to rise as temperatures increase, according to new research. Lower income populations currently face a 40% higher...
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Identifying the Portable Toilets of the Ancient Roman World
New research published in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports reveals how archaeologists can determine when a pot was used by Romans as a portable toilet, known as a chamber pot. “Conical pots of this type have been recognized quite widely in the Roman Empire and in the absence of other evidence they have often been...
