Ancient crashes blasted metals into Earth, moon and Mars

[MSNBC]  Gigantic collisions on Earth, the moon and Mars 4.5 billion years ago injected precious elements such as gold and platinum into the developing worlds, a new study suggests.

In the last days of planet formation, a body as big as Pluto likely slammed into Earth after the planet had been clobbered by a Mars-size object, researchers said. Mars and the moon absorbed smaller but still devastating blows, they added.  More...

Jesus' Great-Grandmother Identified

[Discovery]   The great-grandmother of Jesus was a woman named Ismeria, according to Florentine The legend of St. Ismeria, presented in the current Journal of Medieval History, sheds light on both the Biblical Virgin Mary's family and also on religious and cultural values of 14th-century Florence.  More...

WWII Japanese-American draft resister dies at 94

[AP]  A Japanese-American who helped lead draft resistance at a World War II internment camp has died in Southern California.  When the government decided to draft Japanese-Americans in 1944, Emi and six others formed the Fair Play Committee, which argued that Japanese-Americans shouldn't have to fight for freedom abroad when they were denied it at home. Three hundred men from the camps were imprisoned for draft evasion.  More...

Ancient Greek Computer Gets Rebuilt Using Lego

[PC World]  2000 years ago the Greeks built a device designed to calculate the motion of celestial bodies, a computer now called the Antikythera mechanism. Lost for centuries at the bottom of the ocean, it was pulled up in 1901 and has baffled scientists until recently. This year, designer Andrew Carol built the first working copy of the computer out of Lego bricks, the New Scientist reports.  More...

Massive Canadian melt may have triggered flood of biblical proportions

[Canada.com]   A British researcher has published a startling new theory that the remains of untold ancient settlements from a 100,000-year stretch of human history were submerged by the rapidly rising waters of the Persian Gulf around 6,000 BC — the result, in all likelihood, of a catastrophic, planetwide flood triggered in Canada.  More...

'Vandals have hacked at the heart of Christianity': 2,000-year-old Holy Thorn Tree of Glastonbury is cut down

[Mail Online]   Standing proudly on the side of an English hill, its religious roots go back 2,000 years. But a single night of vandalism has left an ancient site of pilgrimage in splinters.The Holy Thorn Tree of Glastonbury has been chopped down in what is being seen by some as a deliberately anti-Christian act. A feature of the skyline surrounding the Somerset town, the tree has been visited by thousands retracing the steps said to have been taken by Joseph of Arimathea, who some say was Jesus’ great uncle.  More...

Is There A Lost Civilization Under Persian Gulf?

[Arch News]  A once fertile landmass now submerged beneath the Persian Gulf may have been home to some of the earliest human populations outside Africa, according to an article published in Current Anthropology.  More...

Oldest mine in Americas found in Chile

[Sydney Morning Herald]  Archaeologists have discovered an iron oxide mine from 12,000 years ago in northern Chile, making it the oldest mine yet discovered in all the Americas.  More...

"Horse Dragon," Colossus Dinosaurs Found in Utah

[National Geographic]  A shield-toothed horse-dragon may sound like a mythical creature, but the newly described dinosaur once roamed the U.S. West, a new study says.  More...

Titanic Being Eaten by Destructive Bacteria

[Discovery]  A rust stain may be all that will remain of the RMS Titanic in 15 to 20 years, according to new research into the submerged ocean liner wreck.  More...

100,000-yr-old fossilized teeth of cavemen found in Central China

[One India News]  Archaeologists have unearthed fossilized teeth of cavemen dating back 100,000 years, the first such discoveries in central China.  More...

Anne Boleyn death and burial secrets revealed

[Sify News]  A new investigation has shed some light on one of the most bloody episodes of English history-the death and burial of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England and second wife of Henry VIII.  More...

Archaeologist says ancient Americans practiced cannibalism

[Digital Journal]  A report in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology shows ancient Puebloan Indians, also called Anasazi, practiced cannibalism, a claim seen as taboo by many. The original findings were made in 2005, but were only publicised recently, due partially to the sensitivities involved. Archaeologists first noted possible evidence of the practice in 1969. More...

Ancient Nile Floods Created 'Mega Lakes'

[Our Amazing Planet]  New evidence suggests that the Nile's famous floods were much more extensive than previously thought — in fact, they spread nearly 100 miles west of the river and created "mega-lakes" in the ancient desert.  More...

Medieval Britons were twice as rich as the poor in the Third World today

[Mail Online]  Medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world's poorest nations today, according to new research.  More...

Ancient Canoe Recovered in Florida

[First Coast news]  State archaeologists are beaming following a very unexpected discovery in North Florida. They recovered an ancient dugout canoe in a lake south of Tallahassee. They estimate it's anywhere from 500 to 800 years old.  More...

Ancient Burial Site Found in Scotland

[Sci-Tech Today]  Archaeologists have discovered a Neolithic tomb site in Scotland, and bones found carefully placed in gaps in the stones inside the chambers suggest the ancient burial site has never been disturbed. The "once-in-a-lifetime" find is said to be the first undisturbed burial of a Neolithic community to be uncovered in Scotland in 30 years. More...

Mystery shipwreck washes up in Stockholm

[Ice News]  Archaeologists were given a thrill in Sweden this week when the remains of a ship dating from the 1600s were discovered in central Stockholm. The ancient planks, which were found by labourers carrying out renovation works in front the city’s Grand Hotel, are sewn together with rope rather than nailed – a virtually unknown technology.  More...

Stonehenge built by rolling stones in giant wicker baskets

[Australia Courier Mail]  For all the awe-inspiring wonder of the standing stones at Stonehenge no one has ever worked out how our ancient ancestors were able to heave boulders weighing many tonnes over such huge distances.  More...