Friday, October 1, 2010

Prehistoric highlanders uncovered

[University of Queensland]  The world's earliest known high-altitude human settlement, dating back 49,000 years, has been found buried under volcanic ash in the mountains of Papua New Guinea.  More...

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Did Australian Aborigines reach America first?

[Cosmos]  SYDNEY: Cranial features distinctive to Australian Aborigines are present in hundreds of skulls that have been uncovered in Central and South America, some dating back to over 11,000 years ago.?  More...

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Heard for the first time in 2,000 years: Scientists post readings of ancient Babylonian poems online

[UK Daily Mail]  The ancient language of Babylonian can be heard for the first time in almost 2,000 years after Cambridge University scholars posted readings and poems online.  More...

Was Stonehenge an Ancient Tourist Destination?

[AOL News]  New research indicates that Stonehenge may have been an ancient tourist destination, attracting visitors from across Europe. More...

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

'Haunted' Llantwit Major castle back on the market

[BBC]  The building has been unoccupied since the 18th Century and local legend has it that it is inhabited by the ghost of a Dutch sailor.  More...

Archaeologists on Crete find skeleton covered with gold foil in 2,700-year-old grave

[Canadian Press]  The woman, who presumably had a high social or religious status, was buried with a second skeleton in a large jar sealed with a stone slab weighing more than half a ton. It was hidden behind a false wall, to confuse grave robbers.  More...

The war is over! World War I officially ends Sunday

[Washington Post Blog]   Ninety-six years after Kaiser Wilhelm II led his nation into war, the end is finally in sight. The German Federal Budget for 2010 shows that the final outstanding reparations for World War I owed to the Alliance will be paid by Sunday.  More...

Monday, September 27, 2010

Canadian ornithopter achieves Da Vinci's dream

[Science Daily]  Centuries after the Renaissance inventor sketched a human-powered flying machine, Canadian engineering students say they have flown an engineless aircraft that stays aloft by flapping its wings like a bird.  More...

Genocide Wiped Out Native American Population

[Discovery News]  Physical traces of ethnic cleansing that took place in the early 800s suggest the massacre was an inside job.  More...

China Summons Past to Advance Into Africa

[IPS News]  Chinese archaeologists have been sent to hunt for a long-lost shipwreck off the Kenya coast to support claims that China beat white explorers in discovering Africa.  More...

British Library posts Greek manuscripts to Web

[Google]  The British Library said Monday that it was making more than a quarter of its 1,000 volume-strong collection of handwritten Greek texts available online free of charge, something curators there hope will be a boon to historians, biblical scholars and students of classical Greece alike.  More...

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Steering Error Sank The Titanic, Says Author

[Discovery]  A steering error, followed by the deliberate decision to continue sailing, sank the Titanic in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, according to the granddaughter of the ocean liner's second officer. Louise Patten, a British novelist and granddaughter of Charles Lightoller, the most senior Titanic officer to have survived the disaster, claims in her new book, "Good as Gold," that the truth behind the sinking of the liner was intentionally buried.  More...