Culture, Language & History

Gender-balance

2021.10.21

Companies recruit more female board members through family ties

The introduction of a gender quota in Denmark has increased the number of women on company boards, but it also led to more family driven hiring, a new study finds.

archaeology

2021.10.20

Origin of domestic horses finally established

Horses were first domesticated in the Pontic-Caspian steppes, northern Caucasus, before conquering the rest of Eurasia within a few centuries. These are the results of a study led by paleogeneticist Ludovic Orlando. The…

9/11

2021.09.03

No strategy behind Danish war effort in Afghanistan – we followed USA

When Denmark decided to participate in the war in Afghanistan just three months after the terrorist attacks 11 September 2001, it was an act of solidarity with the United States. The efforts were not part of a long-term…

climate

2021.06.09

Ancient air bubbles speak to a much warmer Antarctica during the ice-age than once believed

Twenty thousand-year-old air bubbles have revealed that Antarctic temperatures during the last ice age were markedly different than what the leading science once suggested. This is according to new research in which the…

archaeology

2021.06.07

10,000-year-old bones reveal earliest goat herders’ practices

To trace the domestication of the goat, an international team of researchers have analysed 10,000 year-old goat bones from two sites in the Zagros Mountains in present-day western Iran. Using ancient DNA and…

Archeology

2021.05.25

Flint stone sounds suggest a Stone Age settlement in Copenhagen’s Svanemøllen Harbour

A new method has made it possible for University of Copenhagen researchers to register mysterious sounds from the sea at Svanemøllen Harbour, most likely originating from chipped-away flint tools of an unknown Stone Age…

archaeology

2021.04.14

Ancient DNA hints at diverse Stone Age traditions of kinship

An international team of researchers have used ancient genomes, 22 new genomes from Aşıklı Höyük and Çatalhöyük, a UNESCO site, as well as published ones from Boncuklu Höyük and Barcın to study people whose burials are…

egyptology

2021.02.26

Ancient Egyptian manual reveals new details about mummification

Based on a manual recently discovered in a 3,500-year-old medical papyrus, University of Copenhagen Egyptologist Sofie Schiødt has been able to help reconstruct the embalming process used to prepare ancient Egyptians fo…

education

2021.02.09

The wars in Former Yugoslavia continue in the classroom

According to the Education Act, schools in the ethnically divided Bosnia and Herzegovina must teach students “democratic ideals in a multicultural society." But according to new research from the University of…

climate

2021.02.02

Misguided sense of balance exacerbates climate scepticism

Many of us may have inadvertently contributed to the growing climate scepticism of recent years, a widespread phenomenon fuelled by “system errors” built into journalism, social media and parliamentary debates. A new…

DEMOCRACY

2021.01.29

The struggle for recognition: The liberal world order is eroded from both within and without

New research conludes that replacing Donald Trump with Joe Biden does not take us back to the liberal international order that represented ideas and rules of democracy, equality, trade and economic prosperity.

Mesopotamian medicine

2020.11.30

New book provides rare insights into a Mesopotamian medical practitioner’s education

2,700 years ago, a man called Kisir-Ashur practiced medicine and magic in the Assyrian city of Assur in present-day Northern Iraq. In a new book, Assyriologist Troels Pank Arbøll traces the healer’s career from early…

SAPERE AUDE

2020.11.20

Sapere Aude Grant for research into the connection between religiosity and wealth

Associate Professor Jeanet Sinding Bentzen from the Department of Economics has received the Independent Research Fund Denmark’s Sapere Aude grant for talented research leaders.

IMPACT

2020.11.18

Behavioural research impacted corona-stricken Rome

Two researchers from the Department of Economics have received a letter of thanks from the Mayor of Rome for their effort saving human lives.

egyptology

2020.10.26

Inks containing lead were likely used as drier on ancient Egyptian papyri

Analysing 12 ancient Egyptian papyri fragments with X-ray microscopy, University of Copenhagen researchers were surprised to find previously unknown lead compounds in both red and black inks and suggest they were used…

Geology

2020.10.14

Volcanic eruptions may explain Denmark’s giant mystery crystals

Researchers have long been stumped for an explanation of how tens of millions of years-old giant crystals known as glendonites came to be on the Danish islands of Fur and Mors. A recent study from the University of…

Norms & Behavior

2020.09.14

Uncertain expectations beget stinginess and selfishness

The less we know about what is expected of us in a given situation, the more likely we are to act upon self-interest alone. According to the UCPH researcher behind the new study, this applies both to our degree of…

Study

2020.06.25

The Covid-19 lockdown caused young people to strengthen close relationships

Young students have not only learned to live with the lockdown during the corona epidemic. A new study shows that they have strengthened close relationships and found new, creative ways to be together online.

archaeology

2020.03.23

Paper on early agriculture’s impact on human lifestyle awarded prestigious prize

Together with an international team of researchers, University of Copenhagen archaeologist Scott Haddow receives this year’s PNAS Cozzarelli Prize for co-authoring the best paper in the field of Social and Behavioral…

geology

2020.03.11

Terrestrial riddle solved: We now know where our oceans came from

One of planet Earth’s great riddles has been clarified. We now have proof of the origin of our oceans. The evidence is found in billions of years old rocks that were collected in Greenland by a Danish researcher from th…

global development

2020.01.29

Historical inequalities and uncertain land tenure systems create problems in protected areas of Patagonia

Systematic repression through harassment, violence and bureaucracy. This is how families experience everyday life in the hands of a powerful national park in the Argentine region of Patagonia. One hundred years ago, the…

assyriology

2019.12.20

Researcher discovers terrifying epilepsy demon on 2,700-year-old clay tablet

A 2,700-year-old cuneiform tablet from ancient Iraq describing medical treatments has suddenly revealed a secret – a hitherto overlooked drawing of the demon that the ancient Assyrians thought caused epilepsy. It is the…

Ancient DNA

2019.12.17

Ancient “Chewing Gum” Yields Insights into People and Bacteria of the Past

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have succeeded in extracting a complete human genome from a thousands-of-years old “chewing gum”.

archaeology

2019.12.13

Rare find: human teeth used as jewellery in Turkey 8,500 years ago

At a prehistoric archaeological site in Turkey, researchers have discovered two 8,500-year-old human teeth, which had been used as pendants in a necklace or bracelet. Researchers have never documented this practice…

ERC grant

2019.12.10

New research project will tell the entangled history of the Lesser Antilles

In history books, the islands of the eastern Caribbean, the Lesser Antilles, are described as small isolated societies controlled by European colonial powers. But the many small islands were in fact deeply dependent on…