John Hawks

Wisconsin

Statewide Reporter at Gannett

I'm a paleoanthropologist. I explore human fossils and genomes to understand where we came from and what we share with our ancestors.

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Articles

How Homo naledi got into the Dinaledi Chamber

1 week ago | johnhawks.net | John Hawks

One of the most enduring questions about the discoveries of Homo naledi fossils in the Rising Star cave system: How did these ancient hominins find their way into the remote Dinaledi Subsystem of the cave? This area today is 30 meters below the surface and more than 100 meters from the closest surface entrance, via a series of vertical descents, tight turns, and squeezes of less than 30 cm. The most extreme part of this route is the final descent.
Tinshemet Cave and modern-Neandertal cultural interactions

2 weeks ago | johnhawks.net | John Hawks

Last month, Yossi Zaidner and coworkers released a fascinating analysis of the cultural materials from Tinshemet Cave, Israel. This was the first major release of information from the new excavations that began at the site in 2017. Tinshemet is today a small cave, located in the Nahal Beit Arif around 5 km east of Ben Gurion Airport. The cave was surveyed in the 1940s by the archaeologist Moshe Stekelis, who identified Middle Paleolithic artifacts there.
An initial report of c241,000 to 335,000 Year old Rock Engravings and their relation to Homo naledi in the Rising Star cave system, South Africa

3 weeks ago | biorxiv.org | Lee Berger |John Hawks |Agustín Fuentes |Dirk van Rooyen

AbstractThe production of painted, etched or engraved designs on cave walls or other surfaces is recognized as a major cognitive step in human evolution. Such intentional designs, which are widely interpreted as signifying, recording, and transmitting information in a durable manner were once considered exclusive to Late Pleistocene Homo sapiens.
Research highlight: Burials by Homo naledi

3 weeks ago | johnhawks.net | John Hawks

Citation: Berger, L. R., Makhubela, T., Molopyane, K., Krüger, A., Randolph-Quinney, P., Elliott, M., Peixotto, B., Fuentes, A., Tafforeau, P., Beyrand, V., Dollman, K., Jinnah, Z., Gillham, A. B., Broad, K., Brophy, J., Chinamatira, G., Dirks, P. H., Feuerriegel, E., Gurtov, A., … Hawks, J. (2025). Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi.
Lactase and the Neandertals

1 month ago | johnhawks.net | John Hawks

Occasionally a new study finds something very counterintuitive. Those make for the most interesting results, the ones that make you think. Last week one came across my desk: Around 25% of people in China inherited a haplotype from Neandertals that may help them to digest milk when they are adults. Lactase persistence—the continued production of the lactase enzyme into adulthood—is one of the best-known examples of human genetic evolution. The trait is known to be most common in northern Europe.
A look at the Sima del Elefante face

1 month ago | johnhawks.net | John Hawks

When the global timeline passed one million years ago, more than half the span of hominin presence in Eurasia had already passed by. The earliest archaeological evidence in Eurasia is more than two million years old—found in places like Shangchen, China, and the Dawqara Formation of Jordan. Just this year Grăunceanu, Romania, joined the list of early archaeological traces of hominins in Europe, dating to an estimated 1.97 million years ago.
Plant-eating and meat-eating in Australopithecus

1 month ago | johnhawks.net | John Hawks

Scientists have many ways to squeeze evidence about ancient diets from the teeth of ancient human relatives. Some look at the mechanical damage on teeth from chewing food. Others examine microscopic fossils of plant parts embedded within dental calculus. Some researchers measure different aspects of the chemical makeup of bone or enamel. Integrating such different sources of information into a picture of an ancient species' diet can be a challenge.
Gathering the Ancestors

1 month ago | johnhawks.net | John Hawks

In 1984, forty of the most significant fossils of human relatives from thirteen different countries all came together in one place. This special exhibit, titled “Ancestors: Four Million Years of Humanity”, was the largest public exhibition of fossil hominins in history. The American Museum of Natural History hosted these fossils from twenty institutions for a five-month public showing.
Pounding starches on Jordan's ancient banks

1 month ago | johnhawks.net | John Hawks

One of the most exciting and informative Acheulean archaeological sites is Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. On a bank of the Jordan River upstream of the Sea of Galilee, the site preserves a patch of landscape upon which ancient hominins lived some 780,000 years ago. With waterlogged sediments near to the river, the site has preserved abundant evidence of plant remains—including some that were roasted or cooked by ancient people and lost within the coals of the fires they tended.
Ancient travois use by some of the earliest Americans

1 month ago | johnhawks.net | John Hawks

I am really excited by a new paper describing evidence of distinctive linear trackways at White Sands National Park that show ancient people were using something like a travois up to 22,000 years ago. The work is by Matthew Bennett and collaborators, published in Quaternary Science Advances, and it includes remarkable images and scans of the tracks. The alkali flats of White Sands National Park, in New Mexico, preserve some of the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas.