Latest Holocene Stories

Pitt scientists also discover unexpected complexity to the US West's patterns of drought during the Middle Ages Through an exploration of tree rings and oxygen isotopes, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are now able to better pinpoint the history of droughts in the arid and semiarid areas of the American West. A paper published in the online July 2 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explores the Medieval Climate Anomaly, a particularly warm period...

Archaeological research carried out at the Neolithic site of La Draga, near the lake of Banyoles, has yielded the discovery of an item which is unique in the western Mediterranean and Europe. The item is a bow which appeared in a context dating from the period between 5400-5200 BCE, corresponding to the earliest period of settlement. It is a unique item given that it is the first bow to be found in tact at the site. According to its date, it can be considered chronologically the most ancient...

The Eemian interglacial period that began some 125,000 years ago is often used as a model for contemporary climate change. In the international journal “Geophysical Research Letters” scientists from Mainz, Kiel and Potsdam (Germany) now present evidence that the Eemian differed in essential details from modern climatic conditions. Joint press release of the Academy of the Sciences and the Literature Mainz and the GEOMAR | Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. To address the...

Michael Harper for RedOrbit.com The age-old struggle between classes may be even older than we thought, according to a new study carried out by archaeologists from the Universities of Bristol, Cardiff and Oxford. According to their research, hereditary inequality may have begun as early as 7,000 years ago in the Neolithic era. The archeologists found evidence showing farmers who were buried with tools were also buried in better land than those farmers without. The research was...

The NSF-funded research will be presented at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Memphis, Tenn. University of Cincinnati research is revealing early farming in a former wetlands region that was largely cut off from Western researchers until recently. The UC collaboration with the Southern Albania Neolithic Archaeological Project (SANAP) will be presented April 20 at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA). Susan Allen, a professor in the UC...

KIAMESHA LAKE, N.Y., Feb. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- (OTCmarkets - Pinksheets:BRWC) A Chinese Group represented by Hong Kong Blue Mineral Enterprise Group Co., Limited is proud to announce that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mrs. Francine Lavoie, CEO of Boreal Water Collection, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: BRWC), to distribute Boreal Water into China. President Mrs. Ya Ming Chen from Hong Kong Blue Mineral intends to leverage her contacts and her expertise of the...

A team of Spanish researchers have used different geological samples, extracted from the Enol lake in Asturias, to show that the Holocene, a period that started 11,600 years ago, did not have a climate as stable as was believed. The Holocene period, which includes the last 11,600 years of our history, has always been described as a stable period in terms of climatic conditions, especially when compared to the abrupt changes that occurred in the last ice age, which ended around 10,000 years...

An analysis of the remains of ancient midges – tiny non-biting insects closely related to mosquitoes – opens a new window on the past with a detailed view of the surprising regional variability that accompanied climate warming during the early Holocene epoch, 10,000 to 5,500 years ago. Researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of British Columbia looked at the abundance and variety of midge larvae buried in lake sediments in Alaska. Midges are highly sensitive to...

As the Sun enters a period of low solar activity over the next 50 years, new research has calculated the probability of unusually cold winter temperatures occurring in the UK.Last year, the same group of researchers, from the University of Reading, linked colder winters in Europe to low solar activity and predicted that the Sun is moving into a particularly low period of activity, meaning the UK will experience more cold winters in the future "“ potentially similar to those experienced in...

MILWAUKEE, June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Economist, a globally-recognized international affairs magazine, has reported that scientists and academics are increasingly reaching a consensus that the impact of human activity has so dramatically shaped the Earth as to herald a new geological age. The power of human potential was also identified by ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, earlier this year as being behind the dawn of the Human Age, where...