Archaeology of Asia, Africa and The Americas

Archaeological research across Asia, Africa and the Americas reveals the myriad ways in which past societies transformed landscapes, managed resources and articulated identity. In Asia, the study of early farming, pastoralism and urbanism illuminates how communities adapted to diverse environments—from the rice terraces of East Asia to the camel‐and–horse economies of the Eurasian Steppe. In Africa, an expanding record of early hominin dispersals, Late Pleistocene cultural innovations and the origins of food production in the Nile Valley and the Sahel sheds light on the continent’s pivotal role in human prehistory. In the Americas, investigations of early irrigation networks, cave sites and monumental architecture track the rise of complex societies in arid and tropical zones—from the great houses of the Southwest to the terraced fields and waterworks of Mesoamerica and Andean highlands. Across each region, advances in remote sensing, biomolecular analysis and Bayesian chronologies have deepened our understanding of human–environment interaction, technological transmission and the social dimensions of subsistence change.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Global reconstructions of pre‐industrial anthropogenic impacts in East Asia demonstrate that wet‐rice cultivation and associated land clearance in the Japanese archipelago during the Late Holocene generated environmental signals on par with contemporaneous changes elsewhere. This challenges earlier models of regional exceptionalism and situates Northeast Asia within a broader “Palaeoanthropocene” narrative of early ecological modification.

Genomic analysis of nearly five hundred ancient horse specimens reveals that selective breeding and reproductive control of the domestic lineage began around 2200 BCE on the Pontic–Caspian steppe. This genetic bottleneck coincided with a rapid Eurasian equine expansion that underpinned widespread horse‐based mobility and the transformation of Bronze Age transport and communication networks across Asia and into Europe.

Proteomic examination of dental calculus from the North Caucasus uncovers early and exclusive sheep dairying by Eneolithic pastoralist groups. Specialisation in secondary animal products intensified through the Bronze Age, fostering demographic resilience and facilitating long‐distance migrations of steppe cultures—a pivotal economy that ultimately shaped Eurasian social landscapes.

Archaeology of Asia, Africa and The Americas publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in archaeology of asia, africa and the americas across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Palaeoanthropocene: An early phase of pronounced human impact on earth systems before the Industrial Revolution.

Proteomics: Molecular analysis of ancient proteins, often recovered from dental calculus, to identify dietary and domestic species.

Bayesian chronology: Statistical method combining radiocarbon dates and prior information to refine archaeological timelines.

Secondary animal products: Resources such as milk, wool or traction power obtained from livestock beyond meat.

Geomorphology: Study of landforms and sediments to reconstruct past landscape modifications and human engineering.

References

1. Millet agriculture dispersed from Northeast China to the Russian Far East: Integrating archaeology, genetics, and linguistics. Archaeological Research in Asia (2020).
2. The importance of wild resources as a reflection of the resilience and changing nature of early agricultural systems in East Asia and Europe. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2022).
3. Global processes of anthropogenesis characterise the early Anthropocene in the Japanese Islands. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2022).
4. Widespread horse-based mobility arose around 2200 bce in Eurasia. Nature (2024).
5. Emergence and intensification of dairying in the Caucasus and Eurasian steppes. Nature Ecology & Evolution (2022).
6. Early Canal Systems in the North American Southwest. American Antiquity (2023).