This weekly feature is a place to discuss new developments in fields of history and archaeology. This can be newly discovered documents and archaeological sites, recent publications, documents that have just become publicly available through digitization or the opening of archives, and new theories and interpretations.
A new genetic study indicates more frequent admixture between modern Homo sapiens and Neanderthals than previously thought. The study found several interbreeding events with other hominins occurred during the history of our species; the first ~100,000 years ago and the latest ~50,000 years ago. Also, the investigators uncovered evidence of multiple interbreeding events between non-sapiens hominins, specifically admixing between Denisovans and Neanderthals as well as Denisovans and a "super archaic" hominin, likely H. erectus, ~400,000 years ago.
All together, this muddies the paleoanthropology waters in the most delightful ways and raises a ton of questions about the interactions between hominin species.
Not sure if this is the place for it but Tim Whitmarsh, Professor of Greek Culture at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, has a new book out arguing that atheism "thrived in the polytheistic societies of the ancient world – raising considerable doubts about whether humans really are 'wired' for religion".