Massive Prehistoric Monument may have Been found Underwater in Scotland

[Past Horizons]   “The preliminary results from the high-resolution geophysical sensing are suggesting that there is an unusual ‘object’ in the shallow water just off the shore, but more work is needed before we can identify it or even confirm whether it is a natural, perhaps geological, feature, or something man-made.” More...

Rock art found in Ireland could date back to Bronze Age

[Archaeo News]  The drawing is believed to be thousands of years old.  More...

Stone-age toddlers had art lessons, study says

[The Guardian]  Research on Dordogne cave art shows children learned to finger-paint in palaeolithic age, approximately 13,000 years ago.  More...

Invisible Scribes of Medieval Literature Revealed

[Past Horizons]  “The clerks of the London Guildhall form the invisible link between medieval authors like Geoffrey Chaucer and their first audiences, the original owners of the medieval manuscripts we study today.”  More...

Peace Corps celebrates 50 years

[Atlanta Journal Constitution]  The first volunteers served in Ghana and Tanzania. They soon spread out to other areas such as Asia and Latin America and worked in fields such as education, health, business development and agriculture. Today, Peace Corps volunteers, who must be at least 18, work in 76 host countries. There is no age limit to serve — the oldest volunteer today is 84.  More...

.Oldest Antarctic "Sea Monster" Found

[National Geographic]  Marine reptile swam warm polar seas 85 million years ago.  More...

Fossil of an Armored Dinosaur Hatchling: Youngest Nodosaur Ever Discovered

[Science Daily]  It is the youngest nodosaur ever discovered, and a founder of a new genus and species that lived approximately 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Era.  More...

Strange stone structures caught on camera

[CBS]  They stretch from Syria to Saudi Arabia, can be seen from the air but not the ground, and are virtually unknown to the public.... Researchers believe that they date back to antiquity, at least 2,000 years ago. They are often found on lava fields and range from 82 feet to 230 feet (25 meters to 70 meters) across.  More...

Dead Sea Scrolls Now Online

[PC Magazine]  The Dead Sea Scrolls have made their way online some 2,000 years after they were written through a partnership between Google and Israel’s national museum.  More...

Confederate States had War Plane Plans

[Live Science]   Those rediscovered designs have found their way to the auction block, providing a glimpse at how Victorian-era technology could have beat the Wright Brothers to the punch.  More...

Meteor Shower Rained Gold On Ancient Earth

[Huffington post]  3.9 billion years ago a massive meteor shower of glittering gold and platinum fell on earth.  More...

Napoleon's hair found at Sir Walter Scott's former home

[BBC]  The hair was found by the Antiques Road Trip team during studies of a blotter book which had belonged to Napoleon.  More...

Search Is on for Lost Da Vinci

[Discovery News]  Nuclear physics might soon solve a longstanding Leonardo da Vinci mystery -- the fate of a lost masterpiece known as the "Battle of Anghiari."  More...

Shaggy, Shovel Headed Rhino Evolved in Tibet

[ABC]   This animal was about as furry as a beast can be, and it had a head that functioned like a snow shovel..  More...

170,000 year old skull unearthed in Nice

[Bioscholar]  Experts say the discovery could reveal important clues to the evolution of humans.  More...

Amateur treasure-hunter stumbles upon £1/2million iron age hoard

[The Scotsman]   "This hoard comprises the most significant discovery of Iron Age gold objects from Scotland for well over 100 years."  More...

Rembrandt chose Jewish models to depict a more realistic Jesus

[Forward]  Rembrandt intentionally relied on Jewish models to depict an unprecedented (and not without controversy) “ethnographically correct” Jesus, as the Philadelphia museum’s website describes it.  More...

Jefferson did not father his slave's son

[Daily Mail]  New study claims dad was actually president's brother.  More...

Tomb found at Stonehenge quarry site

[BBC]  The tomb for the original builders of Stonehenge could have been unearthed by an excavation at a site in Wales. More...

Climate in the Past Million Years Determined Greatly by Dust in the Southern Ocean

[Science daily]   The research study published in Nature evidences the close relation between the maximum contributions of dust to this ocean and climate changes occurring in the most intense glaciation periods of the Pleistocene period, some 1.25 million years ago.  More...

Humans Shaped Stone Axes 1.8 Million Years Ago

[Science Daily]  A new study suggests that Homo erectus, a precursor to modern humans, was using advanced toolmaking methods in East Africa 1.8 million years ago, at least 300,000 years earlier than previously thought. The study, recently published in Nature, raises new questions about where these tall and slender early humans originated and how they developed sophisticated tool-making technology.  More

Ancient Burial Box Linked to Priest Who Played Part in Christ's Crucifixion

[The Christian Post]   On close examination the ossuary was found to have a rare inscription mentioning the names "Miriam," "Yeshua," and "Caiaphus." Once the inscription was authenticated, archaeologists were astounded by what they had found.  More...

Neanderthal survival story revealed in Jersey caves

[BBC]  New investigations at an iconic cave site on the Channel Island of Jersey have led archaeologists to believe the Neanderthals have been widely under-estimated.  More...

Cherokee tribe expels slave descendants

[Reuters]  The nation's second-largest Indian tribe formally booted from membership thousands of descendants of black slaves who were brought to Oklahoma more than 170 years ago by Native American owners.  More...

King Arthur's round table may have been found by archaeologists in Scotland

[The Telegraph, UK]   The King's Knot, a geometrical earthwork in the former royal gardens below Stirling Castle, has been shrouded in mystery for hundreds of years. More...

Shipwreck Yields over 500,000 Silver and Gold Coins

[Heritage Daily]   Odyssey Marine Exploration who is involved in deep-ocean shipwreck exploration announced today that it has completed the preliminary excavation of a Colonial period shipwreck site code-named “Black Swan” in an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean.  More...

Saudi Arabia discovers 9,000 year-old civilization

[Reuters]  The Maqar Civilization is a very advanced civilization of the Neolithic period.  More

Oldest U.S. Survivor of Bataan March Dies at 105

[History.com] The godson of  Buffalo Bill Cody and a cousin of Henry Fonda, he was told he would never make it to age 50.  More...

Ancient Egyptians used 'hair gel'

[Nature News]  Egyptians used the product to ensure that their style stayed in place in both life and death.  More...

33,000-year-old fossil suggests dogs arose in multiple places

[National Geographic] The fossilized remains of a canine found in the 1970s in southern Siberia's Altay Mountains is the earliest well-preserved pet dog.  More...

Northern Humans Had Bigger Brains, to Cope With the Low Light Levels, Study Finds

[Science Daily]  Scientists have found that people living in countries with dull, grey, cloudy skies and long winters have evolved bigger eyes and brains so they can visually process what they see.  More...

Oldest Fossils On Earth Discovered

[Science Daily]  Found in Australia by a team from the University of Western Australia and Oxford University, the microscopic fossils show convincing evidence for cells and bacteria living in an oxygen-free world over 3.4 billion years ago.  More...

13,000 year old petroglyphs of mammoths found in Utah

[Archaeo News]  Until now, no unambiguously ancient rock art imagery of Ice Age megafauna has been found in North America.  More...

Iceman Had Bad Teeth

[Discovery News]  The 5,300-year-old mummy suffered from cavities, possibly brought on by a high-carb diet.  More...

Sunken Treasure Found in the Seas Of Sicily

[Discovery News] Italian archaeologists have retrieved a sunken treasure of 3,422 ancient bronze coins in the small Sicilian island of Pantelleria.  More...

Black Death Study Lets Rats off the Hook

[Heritage Daily] "The evidence just isn't there to support it."  More...

Experts Say Butch Cassidy May Have Survived Shootout

[Slate]   The famous Old West outlaw allegedly killed in a Bolivia shootout may have survived quietly into old age.  More...

Early human ancestors were more advanced than first thought and sailed the high seas

[Daily Mail]  Archeologists now believe that man was crossing the Mediterranean Sea from northern Africa at least 130,000 years ago - more than 100,000 years earlier than previously thought.   More...

Mystery Fossils Link Fungi to Ancient Mass Extinction

[Wired News] Of the five mass extinctions in the Earth’s past, one stands above the rest in magnitude: the Permian-Trassic extinction, known as the Great Dying.  More...

Ancient Egypt was destroyed by drought

[The Scotsman] "There were great riots, and anarchy breaking out as a result of it." More...

Is this Captain Henry Morgan's ship hull?

[BBC]  Archaeologists from Texas State University believe they have uncovered a ship found near the site where Welsh Admiral Sir Henry Morgan's ships wrecked in 1671. More...

Egypt's Lost Fleet—It's Been Found

[Discover] The discovery of 
an ancient harbor on 
the Red Sea proves 
ancient Egyptians 
mastered oceangoing technology and 
launched a series of 
ambitious expeditions 
to far-off lands. More...

Ancient City Mysteriously Survived Mideast Civilization Collapse

[Live Science] Why did Tell Qarqur, a site in northwest Syria, grow at a time when cities across the Middle East were being abandoned?  More...

Archaeologists Unearthing Major City-State in Jordan

[Popular Archaeology] Many scholars are suggesting that the textual and archaeological evidence may indeed support the hypothesis that the remains of Tall el Hammam represent the remnants of the ancient city of Sodom. More...

All Non-Africans Part Neanderthal, Genetics Confirm

[Discovery News] If your heritage is non-African, you are part Neanderthal, according to a new study in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution. More...

Gold hoard found in French cellar

[BBC] A French couple have found a hoard of gold coins worth at least $140,000 in the cellar of their home. They were working on their drains when they dug up the 34 coins in a little clay pot, French media said. The coins date from 1595 to the French Revolution said a local coin expert.  More...

Ancestry of Polar Bears Traced to Ireland

[ScienceDaily] — An international team of scientists has discovered that the female ancestor of all living polar bears was a brown bear that lived in the vicinity of present-day Britain and Ireland just prior to the peak of the last ice age -- 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. More...

Was it really a meteor that killed the dinosaurs?

[ScienceDaily]— A team of scientists has discovered the youngest dinosaur preserved in the fossil record before the catastrophic meteor impact 65 million years ago. The finding indicates that dinosaurs did not go extinct prior to the impact and provides further evidence as to whether the impact was in fact the cause of their extinction. More...

Navajo code talker shares his story

[Yuma Sun]  A surviving Navajo code talker who served in the Pacific theater of World War II was in Yuma Saturday to share his story during the Spirit of Yuma Military Festival....During the early months of the war, Japanese intelligence had broken every code the U.S. had devised, giving them a great advantage in military strategy.“We were in bad shape, so the Marines decided to look for another code,” Toledo said.That is when civilian Philip Johnston realized the Navajo language could be turned into an unbreakable code.  More...

Massive ice age graveyard discovered in Colorado Rockies

[Carrantals  UK]  The remains of dozens of huge ice age animals have been discovered near a popular ski resort in the Colorado Rockies.  More...

Oldest Living Medal Of Honor Recipient Dies

[KITV] Pvt. Barney Hajiro embodied the motto of the fabled 442nd battalion "Go For Broke," the military unit he served under during his service in World War II.  More...

DNA detectives Find Vikings

[Past Horizons]  The Norse are alive and well and living in the North West of England!  That’s the revelation in a new book on an epic research project into the genetic footprint of the Scandinavian invaders.  More...

Yellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells

[National Geographic]  Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano just took a deep "breath," causing miles of ground to rise dramatically, scientists report. The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions—each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 eruption—three times in the past 2.1 million years. Yellowstone's caldera, which covers a 25- by 37-mile (40- by 60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago.  More...

Churchill’s Secret Armys HQ Excavated

[Arch News]  Archaeologists from Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team are surveying the remains of Winston Churchill's secret headquarters in the hope of uncovering a new underground operations base. More...

World's Biggest Extinction Event

[ScienceDaily] — About 250 million years ago about 95 per cent of life was wiped out in the sea and 70 per cent on land. Researchers at the University of Calgary believe they have discovered evidence to support massive volcanic eruptions burnt significant volumes of coal, producing ash clouds that had broad impact on global oceans.  More...

WWII veteran who notified world of Pearl Harbor attack dies

[The Missoulian]  On Sunday, a little more than 69 years after notifying the world that "This is no drill - Pearl Harbor is being bombed by the Japanese - this is no drill," the 88-year-old Navy veteran died at his home in Billings. He was one of Montana's last survivors of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that propelled the United States into World War II.  More...

9,400-year-old dog found, earliest found in Americas

[Christian Science Monitor]  PORTLAND, Maine  Nearly 10,000 years ago, man's best friend provided protection and companionship — and an occasional meal.  More...

1,200-Year-Old Royal Tomb Uncovered in Peru

[Fox News]  The 1,200-year-old tomb of a ruler of the pre-Incan Sican culture was found recently in Peru's Lambayaque region, the director of the Las Ventanas archaeological dig announced on Wednesday.  More...

Binham Priory discovery of giant medieval graffiti

[BBC]  Thousands of years of history at a remote priory in Norfolk could be unearthed after the discovery of giant medieval graffiti on its walls.  More...

Grapes domesticated 8,000 years ago

[USA Today]  In the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by Sean Myles of Cornell, looked at "1,000 samples of the domesticated grape, Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera, and its wild relative, V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris." Comparing the gene maps across the grapes, the team concludes that humanity has only begun to explore the genetic diversity of the humble grape.  More...

Scientists model ancient bog woman's face

[The Local]  German researchers have shed light on life during the Iron Age after examining the ancient remains of a woman found in a bog in what is now Lower Saxony. The body dates back to the pre-Roman era, more than 2,600 years ago. More...

Caligula's tomb found after police arrest man trying to smuggle statue

[UK Guardian]   The lost tomb of Caligula has been found, according to Italian police, after the arrest of a man trying to smuggle abroad a statue of the notorious Roman emperor recovered from the site. More...

Author: Medieval explorers may have visited New England

[Norwich Bulletin]   The evidence is fading from years of the elements pounding upon it, but even stone can’t hold the image of a medieval knight forever — an image that suggests there might have been Europeans exploring America 96 years before Christopher Columbus. In 1954, the late Frank Glynn uncovered the figure, whose arms have been identified as belonging to the Gunn clan incised on a slab of glacier rock along the side of the road in Westford, Mass.Known as the Westford knight, the image is one of the clues and scholarly research author Richard White, of East Lyme, explores in his nonfiction book, “These Stones Bear Witness.”  More...

Italian researcher: symbols found in 'Mona Lisa'

[Yahoo News]  An Italian researcher says the key to solving the enigmas of "Mona Lisa'" lies in her eyes.Silvano Vinceti claims he has found the letter "S" in the woman's left eye, the letter "L" in her right eye, and the number "72" under the arched bridge in the backdrop of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting. According to the researcher, the symbols open up new leads to identifying the model, dating the painting, and attesting to Leonardo's interest in religion and mysticism.  More...

New Book: In the Beginning: the Story of the King James Bible and how it changed a Nation, a Language and a Culture.

[BBC]   Readers absorbed its language both directly and through other reading. Tennyson considered Bible reading "an education in itself", while Dickens called the New Testament "the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world." The US statesman Daniel Webster said: "If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures." Equally celebrated as a British orator, TB Macaulay said that the translation demonstrated "the whole extent of [the] beauty and power" of the English language.  More...

Monks' diaries to help weather forecast

[BBC]  Medieval weather records, including details from monks' diaries are helping experts work out how and why climates have changed over the past 500 years. Edinburgh University scientists found the historic data, such as harvest records, matched modern computer simulations of climate patterns.  More...

Ike warned of 'military-industrial complex' 50 years ago

[USA Today]  Today is the 50th anniversary of a very historic White House speech, one that resonates to this day: Dwight Eisenhower's warning against "the military-industrial complex.""In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex," Ike said that night. "The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."  More...

2,100 year-old Greek coin may have marked rare astronomical event.

[Unreported Heritage News]  An unusual Greek coin, minted around 120 BC, may have marked a moment in time when people in ancient Syria saw Jupiter being blocked out by the moon.  More...

Scientists to Clone Woolly Mammoth in Five Years

[PC World]  Professor Akani Iritani of Kyoto University told the The Daily Telegraph that he thinks there's a "reasonable chance" that a "healthy mammoth could be born in four or five years."  More...

Divers say they've found shipwreck from 1811

[MSN]  Oliver Perry's USS Revenge went down off the coast of Rhode Island.  More...

WikiLeaks Cables Cited in Lawsuit Over $500 Million Sunken Treasure

[Wired]  A deep-sea treasure-hunting company in Florida says that diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks have exposed the U.S. government’s backdoor interference in a lawsuit over $500 million in silver and gold coins recovered from a Spanish galleon. According to Odyssey Marine Exploration, based in Florida, the U.S. State Department cables show that the U.S. ambassador to Spain made a quid pro quo deal to assist that country in its battle with Odyssey for the treasure.  More...

Blackbeard's Ship Yields Ornamental Sword

[National Geographic]  Since 1997, archaeologists have been excavating the Queen Anne's Revenge. The sword hilt is among their latest finds and was revealed to the public this month.  More...

Did the Scots visit Iceland?

[Unreported Heritage News]  New research reveals island inhabited 70 years before Vikings thought to have arrived.  More...

Did Famine Destroy ‘Camelot’?

[Arch News]   South Cadbury Castle is well known for its suspected association with King Arthur as the site of his infamous castle, Camelot. Excavations have shown that the site was indeed strengthened in the period formally known as the Dark Ages, at the time of the legendary Arthur. However, there is one question that remains an enigma – why was the site abandoned?  More...

Remains Of Oldest Fruit Trees In Iberian Peninsula Found

[Arch News]   Recent research on seed samples gathered over the years at medieval archaeological sites in the historic old quarter of Hondarribia, has that these are the remains of the oldest fruit trees in Southern Europe.  More...

Climate Changes Linked to Fall of Roman Empire

[Discovery]   Think small variations in temperature and precipitation levels don't have much of an impact? Guess again.  More...

'Oldest known wine-making facility' found in Armenia

[BBC]   A wine press and fermentation jars from about 6,000 years ago were found in a cave in the south Caucasus country.  More...

34,000-year-old bacteria discovered...and it's still alive

[Christian Science Monitor]  The microbes were discovered in trapped inside tiny bubbles in salt crystals buried in Death Valley, in a state of suspended animation.  More...

Renaissance Score Engraved in Church's Exterior

[Discovery]  One of the most beautiful churches in Naples, Italy, conceals a musical score within its unusual stone-clad facade, a new study has concluded. Famous for its triumphant Neapolitan Baroque interior and lavishly decorated with colored marble and frescoes, the fortress-like church of Gesù Nuovo has long puzzled historians for the mysterious symbols engraved on the diamond-shaped stones protruding from its facade. More...

Constable's sketch of Wordsworth uncovered

[Telegraph]  A little known drawing kept in a provincial British museum has been revealed to depict the product of a meeting between two of the country's most beloved and famous artistes.  More...

German Archeologists Uncover Celtic Treasure

[Spiegel]  Archeologists in Germany have discovered a 2,600-year-old Celtic tomb containing ornate jewellery of gold and amber. They say the grave is unusually well preserved and should provide important insights into early Celtic culture. More...

7,000-year-old timbers found beneath MI6 Thames headquarters

[Guardian]  Archaeologists hail oldest wooden structure ever found on river, despite security services' armed response to researchers.  More...

Hidden Literary References Discovered in the Mona Lisa

[ScienceDaily]  Queen's University Classics professor emeritus Ross Kilpatrick believes the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, incorporates images inspired by the Roman poet Horace and Florentine poet Petrarch.  More...

Skeletons give insight into ancient Roman healthcare

[BBC]  The skeletons of twin children found in Pompeii have revealed that even poor Roman families were able to provide basic healthcare for their sick children.  More...

New Treasure Find In UK

 [Archnews]  Medieval crucifix that was discovered by a Metal Detector may find a permanent home in Dorset, UK.  More...

UF study of lice DNA shows humans first wore clothes 170,000 years ago

[University of Florida]  A new University of Florida study following the evolution of lice shows modern humans started wearing clothes about 170,000 years ago, a technology which enabled them to successfully migrate out of Africa.  More...

Land where Greek's ancient language survives

[The Independent]  An isolated community near the Black Sea coast in a remote part of north-eastern Turkey has been found to speak a Greek dialect that is remarkably close to the extinct language of ancient Greece.  More...

Cretan tools point to 130,000-year-old sea travel

[AP]   Archaeologists on the island of Crete have discovered what may be evidence of one of the world's first sea voyages by human ancestors, the Greek Culture Ministry said Monday.  A ministry statement said experts from Greece and the U.S. have found rough axes and other tools thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years old close to shelters on the island's south coast. More...