Dog Burials Go Back Almost as Long as Modern Human History
Will Fido go to Heaven? Maybe, if you do: A survey of British pet cemeteries over a century finds wistfulness firming into faith that Bowser will be joining the family in the afterlife
Ruth Schuster
Ruth Schuster is Senior Editor for archaeology and science at the Haaretz English Edition.
Schuster has worked in writing, editing and translation for English and Hebrew-language publications for more than two decades. She holds a BSc in biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
She lives in Tel Aviv with her daughter and multiple pets and in her spare time, promotes animal rights.
Were There Neanderthals in Denmark? If So, They Could Sail or Swim
No evidence of early hominin occupation has been found in Denmark, but stones from a layer dating to about 120,000 years ago do resemble stone tools, say Danish archaeologists
Name of Israeli Army Base Goes Back 1,700 Years
Boundary stone in Greek naming the village of Nafah was found pursuant to infrastructure works, in this case laying a pipeline to the army base in the Golan Heights
How Hominins Predating Humankind Doomed the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin
Prehistoric Israel was thronged with hominins who made stone tools and left behind heaps of knapping waste. Enter the Romans and then Saladin
Medieval Black Death May Have Sped Up Because of Droplets in the Air
The acceleration of bubonic plague infection in London over 300 years, to the 17th century, may indicate that the source of infection shifted from rats to ourselves
The Brouhaha Over the 'Bald Pterosaur'
Whether or not pterosaurs had feathers has enormous implications for our understanding of dinosaur evolution
Kill Krill: A Base of the Food Chain May Be at Risk
Thawing permafrost onland raises tsunami risk, of all things. And: why hominin evolution has a sobering insight for us. All this and more in this week’s Haaretz climate change briefs
Prehistoric Scandinavian Hunter-gatherer Culture Wasn't One. It Was Two
Maglemose culture of prehistoric Denmark and southern Sweden wasn’t a continuum, but consisted of different peoples with different technologies, archaeologists suggest
‘Galilean Man’ Invented Pyrotechnology Over 300,000 Years Ago, Team Suggests
Early modern humans living in Qesem Cave 420,000 to 200,000 years ago heated flints by the fire before shaping them into specific tools, Israeli researchers conclude
Study Finds What Sounds Propel Virus Droplets Longer Distances
COVID positive? Do not recite ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Dead Fish: Beware ‘The Blob’
But on the upside: Snails and sea slugs may be more resilient than we thought, brought to you by the Haaretz climate change briefs
What May Be World’s First Furnace From 6,500 Years Ago Found in Israel
Ore for the large-scale copper production in Be’er Sheva Valley came from Jordan, likely attesting to trade – and jealously guarded manufacturing secrets
Kibbutz Rescues Second Temple-period Mikveh From Builders
During groundworks to build an intersection a rare Galilean ritual bath was found, sawed out of the bedrock and moved in an extraordinary collaboration
Archaeologists May Have Deduced Exactly How Big a Biblical ‘Handbreadth’ Is
Based on over 300 biblical-era pottery jars with a surprising thing in common and U.S. Army orders for gloves, Israeli archaeologists solve ancient mystery
Humans Reached Portugal 5,000 Years Earlier Than Thought
We may have overlapped with Neanderthals for thousands of years in the coastal caves of Western Europe, though that isn’t where our Neanderthal genes came from
The Science of Yom Kippur Fasting
Our bodies can handle 24 hours without food perfectly well, though our minds may find it taxing. There are ways to make it all easier.
14 Tips to Make the Yom Kippur Fast Easier
And if you can’t follow these simple suggestions, see Tip No. 11 - before you start the fast.
The Meaning of Life on Venus, and Other Climate Change Briefs
How you can do your part to save the oceans, and how humanity put volcanoes to shame
Footprints Show Humans Reached Saudi Arabia Almost 120,000 Years Ago – or Did They?
The fossil evidence doesn't show any other Homo species around at the time but there's very little of that fossil evidence and Neanderthals were in Israel then
Archaic Humans May Have Cooked 1.7 Million Years Ago – in Hot Springs
More than a million years before we discovered ‘fire,’ meat-eating archaic humans living in Olduvai Gorge were in proximity of hot springs and may have discovered the wonders of boiling their prey
The Metamorphosis of the Sun God in Ancient Synagogues in Israel
What are the zodiac and other images doing in those bastions of monotheism? The answer lies in a Judaism we don’t know anymore
Canaanite Palace Built 3,700 Years Ago Over a Fault Was Destroyed by Quake
Archaeological evidence of ancient earthquakes is shaky but here a ‘trench’ running though the palace at Tel Kabri turned out to be ground zero
Scientists Find New Way Climate Change Can Ruin Life as We Know It
T-Rex would have liked having the heat return to dinosaur territory, and other ironies of global warming in this week’s Haaretz climate change briefs!
Israeli Reforms Were Meant to Stop Overfishing in the Mediterranean – but There’s a Catch
The sea is the most overfished on Earth, but new regulations could give the ecosystem a real shot at rehabilitation - if they’re fully enforced, says the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel
Now the Israeli Village Excavating Itself Found a Byzantine Church
After discovering a Crusader winery beneath their homes, residents of the Galilean town of Mi’ilya have now found mosaics and ruins of a Byzantine church, maybe even a monastery – whose stones the Crusaders raided centuries later to build a castle
Ruins From First Temple-period Palace Found in Southern Jerusalem
The palace was likely built in the early seventh century B.C.E. in King Hezekiah's time, after Jerusalem had survived a siege by the Assyrians – capitals uncovered show palm tree motif typical of Kingdom of Judah
Hot in the Holy City: Jerusalem Breaks 120-year Record
As glacial lakes grow and the Amazon burns, the good news is that replacing steak with tofu won’t give you moobs
When Earth Warmed Between Ice Ages, Mastodons Migrated North
Dramatic environmental changes led American mastodons to migrate: Their reaction to the interglacial periods could help predict what we may expect in this time of climate change
Israel Struck by Yet Another Heat Wave
Plus, what might Neanderthal extinction have to teach us as methane mounts, not that the White House wants to know, in the latest climate change briefs
Count Bacula Three New Bat Species Identified by Their Penis Bones
Think all bats are gray in the dark? You need to look a little closer