Guatemalan family uncovers ancient Mayan murals on their kitchen walls during home renovation

[NY Daily News]  The kitchen of a house in the impoverished town of Chajul, Guatemala, is the unlikely site of a major archeological discovery: centuries-old Mayan murals found under layers of paint.

LEGOs Used to Conserve Ancient Mummy Case

[Labaratory Equipment]  Thanks to an ambitious conservation project and some tiny pieces of plastic, the ancient Egyptian mummy case of Hor is now on display in the Fitzwilliam Museum, at Cambridge Univ. The conservation of the cartonnage mummy case was undertaken with the assistance of the Department of Engineering, who helped construct clever frames to support the delicate case during conservation and a new display case with internal supports using LEGO.

World's first color film footage discovered in England

[The Verge]  Researchers at the UK's National Media Museum have unearthed the world's first color moving pictures, dating back to 1902. As the BBC reports, the footage was shot by Edward Raymond Turner as part of a test reel that includes images of marching soldiers, birds, and Turner's own children. The film had been gathering dust in a tin for more than a century before being discovered by Michael Harvey, Curator of Cinematography at the National Media Museum.

Lost Turner painting which may be worth £20MILLION 'unearthed in Oxfordshire'

[Mail Online]  It could be one of the art finds of the century. Art experts believed they have tracked down a long-lost Turner painting - potentially worth a staggering £20 million - after an artist stumbled across one that could be the first attempt by the celebrated artist.

Unearthed scarab proves Egyptians were in Tel Aviv

[MSNBC]  A rare scarab amulet newly unearthed in Tel Aviv reveals the ancient Egyptian presence in this modern Israeli city.

Richard III skeleton reveals 'hunchback king'

[The Telegraph]  More than 500 years since he was killed in battle, archaeologists believe they have finally found the skeleton of King Richard III, buried deep beneath a council car park.

Woolly mammoth tooth unearthed by builders in downtown San Francisco is hailed by experts as 'significant find'

[Mail Online]  The tooth, which still has intact enamel, was dug up by a crane operator during an excavation for a new transit centre in the city. The ten inches long, mud-coloured tooth has been called a ‘significant find’ by local paeleontologists who believe it could be 11,000 years old

Discovery: Ancient fort aided Caesar conquest of Gaul

[Live Science]  Archaeologists say they've identified the oldest known Roman military fortress in Germany, likely built to house thousands of troops during Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul in the late 50s B.C. Broken bits of Roman soldiers' sandals helped lead to the discovery.

Hair from ancient Alaskans offers clues to coastal diet, lifestyle

[adn.com]  Dozens of 700-year-old sod homes being excavated for the past few years near the Southwest Alaska village of Quinhagak have yielded thousands of Yup'ik tools, pots and carvings that for centuries were preserved in now-thawing permafrost. Human hair has also been discovered in the excavations, and scientists are learning more about the diet and lifestyle of the inhabitants.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/09/07/2615293/ancient-human-hair-found-in-southwest.html#storylink=cpy

Only 2nd photo of Emily Dickinson discovered, scholars believe

[New Haven Register]   Scholars at Amherst College in Massachusetts believe a collector may have what would be just the second known photo of Emily Dickinson. The college says a local collector who wishes to remain anonymous bought the photo in 1995 in Springfield and brought it to the college in 2007. They say they’ve been researching it since.

Israeli archaeologists uncover 3,000-year-old cistern in Jerusalem

[Haaretz]  A large public water cistern, dating back to the period of the First Temple, was recently discovered in archaeological excavations conducted in Jerusalem. The cistern is the first of its kind to be uncovered in Jerusalem.

Ancient Mayan theater discovered in Mexico

[Business Standard]  Archaeologists have unearthed a unique 1,200-year-old theatre in Mexico which functioned not as a place for art and culture but as a political tool for Mayan elite. Researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have found the Mayan theatre at the archaeological site of Plan de Ayutla, in Ocosingo, Chiapas.

Shipwreck Reveals Precious Coins, Rare Pewter Artifacts

[Sacramento Bee]   The most important shipwreck of its kind dating from the 1500s was recently discovered by Anchor Research & Salvage SRL. According to noted pewter expert Martin Roberts "Pewter finds from the 2012 diving season continue to support present hypotheses on date and origin while also surprising collectors and challenging orthodox knowledge of the mid-16th Century pewter trade. The quantity of pewter now recovered definitely makes this the largest single cache ever discovered."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/06/4793842/shipwreck-reveals-precious-coins.html#storylink=cpy

Could ancient Egyptians hold the key to 3D printed ceramics?

[PhysOrg]  A 7,000 year old technique, known as Egyptian Paste (also known as Faience), could offer a potential process and material for use in the latest 3D printing techniques of ceramics, according to researchers at UWE Bristol.

Judge rules unearthed coins belong to Uncle Sam

[Courthouse News Service]  The 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle, named after its designer Augustus St. Gaudens, is "one of the most sought-after rarities in history," according to the U.S. Mint. Though the double eagle was originally valued at $20, one such coin that belonged to King Farouk of Egypt sold for more than $7.5 million at a Sotheby's auction in the summer of 2002, making it the most valuable coins ever auctioned at the time. The Philadelphia Mint struck 445,500 double eagles at the height of the Great Depression, but it pulled them back weeks later as President Theodore Roosevelt ordered U.S. banks to abandon the gold standard.

Ancient Buddha idol, monastery unearthed in Jajpur

[Money Control]  An ancient statue of Gautama Buddha and remains of a Budhha Vihar (monastery) have been unearthed from Kesharaipur-Hatikhol village in the vicinity of world famous Lalitgiri Buddhist site in Odisha's Jajpur district. Workers came across the articles while digging the land for a drain there three days ago, said noted Buddhist researcher Harischandra Prusty.

Third 5,000-year-old figurine found at Orkney dig

[BBC]  Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "There was understandable excitement when the first figurine, believed to be the earliest artistic representation of the human form ever found in the UK, was found in 2009. "To now be able to say that two more examples have been uncovered is unprecedented."

Find hints at early medieval monastery

[Independent]   ARCHAEOLOGISTS exploring links among early medieval monasteries in Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe have discovered important evidence of a settlement in Co Donegal.
The team of tutors and students from the University of Sunderland made their discovery last week during a 10-day field trip to Culdaff on the Inishowen peninsula.

9,500-year-old figurines found in Israel

[Fox News]   Archaeologists believe these objects might have had cultic importance for the people who created them. The animal figurines were found near the remains of an ancient round building, dating back to a dynamic time in the region's history when humans were transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of farming and settling in villages.

Bronze Age Settlement Unearthed In China

[Personal Liberty Digest]  In addition to nearly 100 tombs, the center of the stone ruins features a uniquely designed residential structure, leading archaeologist Cong Dexin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said.

New stone inscription shows list of offerings to ancient gods

[Ahram Online]  A section of a New Kingdom stele listing offerings made to ancient Egyptian gods was discovered today by chance at Matariya in northern Cairo.

Couple discover 33ft deep hole built in middle ages beneath their living room after spotting bump in the floor

[Daily Mail]   A couple have discovered they are sitting on a piece of history after uncovering a 33ft-deep medieval well under their sofa....And just five feet into the dig he made another discovery - an old sword.

World record as message in bottle found after 98 years near Shetland

[BBC]  The drift bottle - containing a postcard which promised a reward of six pence to the finder - was released in June 1914 by Captain CH Brown of the Glasgow School of Navigation.
It was in a batch of 1,890 scientific research bottles which were specially designed to sink to help map the currents of the seas around Scotland when they were returned. Only 315 of them have been found.

Ancient genome linked to modern humans

[Health24]   A group of ancient humans called Denisovans - who were closely related to Neanderthals - may have contributed somewhat to the modern human genome, say scientists who sequenced the Denisovan genome. The existence of the Denisovans only came to light in 2010 when a piece of a finger bone and two molars were discovered in the Denisova Cave in southern Siberia.

Senegal floods uncover ancient artefacts in Dakar

[BBC]  Pieces of jewellery, pottery and iron tools dating back thousands of years have been discovered in Senegal's capital, Dakar, following recent floods, researchers say.

Mysterious tablet’s secrets revealed

[Hurriyet Daily News]  A tablet found at the Ziyarettepe excavation area has stirred excitement among scientists and archaeologists. The tablet, which belongs to third century has writings in unknown language. Currently, scientists are working on it

Neil Armstrong 'had 20 seconds to make Moon landing decision'

[BBC]  US astronaut Neil Armstronghas died aged 82. Reg Turnill, who was the BBC's aerospace correspondent when Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon, remembers the man and the mission....  When Apollo 11 reached the point of hovering over the lunar surface Neil Armstrong had 20 seconds to decide whether to continue or abort. He had to be decisive.

Antarctic Peninsula started warming 600 years ago

[Chicago Tribune]  Temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula started rising naturally 600 years ago, long before man-made climate changes further increased them, scientists said in a study on Wednesday that helps explain the recent collapses of vast ice shelves. The study, reconstructing ancient temperatures to understand a region that is warming faster than anywhere else in the southern hemisphere, said a current warming rate of 2.6 degrees Celsius (4.7 Fahrenheit) per century was "unusual" but not unprecedented.

'Mr Treasure' finds Nottinghamshire's biggest hoard of ancient weapons

[This is Nottingham]  The Bronze Age sword blades, axe and spear heads were declared treasure at Nottingham Coroner's Court this week so they can be bought by a museum. Experts hailed his efforts and say it is probably the biggest-ever haul of its type found in the county.

Prehistoric druidical rock shelter found in Srikakulam

[The Hindu]  The cluster of unique oval-shaped standing rock formations each measuring about eight metres in height and 28 metres in circumference and having well-defined ledge cuts and postholes used for wooden canopy like shelter, could have been a habitation and a place of worship. That a prehistoric circular hut existed here is indicated by circular postholes found on boulders opposite to the cluster of standing rocks within a radius of 3.05 metres.

Letters, Documents Found In 100-Year-Old Package From Norway

[Huffington Post]  was a mystery 100 years in the making. On Friday, the contents of a mysterious package from Otta, Norway were finally revealed. The package, which dates back to 1912, appeared to hold a collection of historical documents, letters, newspapers and national decorations.

Arizona man finds what he believes are ancient artifacts

[AZ Family]  Boston University professor Curtis Runnels has seen photos of the artifacts and told 3TV they are worth more investigation. “He sent me these photographs of these stone tools that are strikingly like the ones I am familiar with that came out of my own research on the island of Crete," said Runnels.

2,000-year-old tombs bear secrets of ancient Tibetan kingdom

[The Global Times]   Four tombs recently unearthed in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region are believed to contain relics from an ancient Tibetan kingdom that thrived more than 2,000 years ago. The tombs, found in Gar County of Ngari Prefecture, were found to contain wooden caskets with human remains, copperware, swords and the skeletons of cattle believed to have been buried as sacrificial items, said Dr. Tong Tao from the archeological institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Archaeologists begin dig to uncover grave of Richard III in Leicester

[The Independent]  The son of a descendant of Richard III's eldest sister was on site today as what is believed to be the first ever search for the lost grave of an anointed King of England began in a city centre car park. Canadian-born Michael Ibsen watched as archaeological experts from the University of Leicester used ground penetrating radar equipment to find the best spots to begin their search today at the car park off Greyfriars in Leicester. His mother Joy Ibsen, who died four years ago aged 82, was a direct descendant of the King's eldest sister Anne of York,

Bronze Age pottery sherd from Isles of Scilly could be earliest British depiction of a boat

[Culture 24]  For Sean Taylor, an archaeologist with the Cornwall Council Historic Environment Service (CCHES), the find could be hugely significant for our understanding of the Bronze Age.
“The sherd is part of a small thick-walled vessel, perhaps a cup or beaker, and it’s highly unusual in that it has been inscribed, prior to firing, with a freehand design,” he explains. “If this is a ship, and it does look like a masted ship, then this is the earliest representation of a boat ever found in the UK.”

Divers find wreck of legendary pirate treasure ship

[Telegraph]  Divers in Tonga have discovered the wreck of a vessel said to be a historic pirate ship containing a legendary hoard of sunken treasure.

35-year-old Voyager 2 is NASA's longest mission ever

[CBS]   The iconic Voyager 2 spacecraft celebrated its 35th birthday Monday (Aug. 20) in a milestone for NASA's longest-running mission ever.  Voyager 2 launched in 1977 just 16 days before its twin, Voyager 1. The probes were tasked chiefly with studying Saturn, Jupiter and the gas giants' moons, but have continued on through the solar system and are now about to cross into interstellar space. Voyager 1 is due to cross first, becoming the first manmade object to travel beyond our solar system, and Voyager 2 is not far behind.

Ice Age Irish plant is still thriving 150,000 years later experts discover

[Irish Central]  Researchers have discovered a plant that has survived in Ireland since the Ice Age. According to the Irish Times, a team from NUI Maynooth, led by ecologist Dr Conor Meade, used an advanced DNA sampling method to show that the plant, Fringed Sandwort, has lived in Ireland for up to 150,000 years.

'Village' which may pre-date Romans discovered in Devon

[This Is South Devon]   Excavation work has uncovered the remains of a round house, the type of houses lived in by native Britons during the Iron Age and unlike the Roman houses which were usually square. The presence of Roman pottery indicates that the round house was still used after the Romans arrived.

Mother of Many Modern Languages Traced to Ancient Turkey

[Live Science]  English is one member of a large family, the Indo-European languages, that are now spoken by a huge swath of the world. But where they originated is the subject of controversy, with experts undecided between two areas of western Asia. Borrowing a technique used to reconstruct family trees for viruses, an international research team has come down squarely on one side of the debate: Indo-European languages originated in Anatolia, a southwestern Asian peninsula that is now part of Turkey, between 8,000 and 9,500 years ago, and were carried, at least in part, by the spread of agriculture.

Roman Curses Appear on Ancient Tablet

[Discovery]  An ancient Roman lead scroll unearthed in England three years ago has turned out to be a curse intended to cause misfortune to more than a dozen people, according to new research. Found in East Farleigh, U.K., in the filling of a 3rd to 4th Century AD building that may have originally been a temple, the scroll was made of a 2.3- by 3.9-inch inscribed lead tablet. Popular in the Greek and Roman world, these sorts of "black magic" curses called upon gods to torment specific victims.

Amazing ancient bronzes given up by Calabrian sea

[The Art Newspaper]  Three divers have discovered ancient bronze artefacts, believed to be Greek or Phoenician, off the coast of Calabria, in southern Italy. The finds include two statues and the remains of an ancient ship. The site is around 50km south of the spot where the Riace Bronzes were discovered 40 years ago, in 1972.  The divers have told the Italian press that they have seen many more treasures lying on the seabed.

Expedition may have found pieces of Amelia Earhart's plane

[LA Times]  amination of high-definition underwater video obtained from the Pacific island of Nikumaroro has revealed what appear to be pieces of aircraft wreckage that might have come from Amelia Earhart's plane, according to researchers from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, commonly known as TIGHAR. Although the pieces may not be readily apparent to the naked eye in the images, forensic scientists say they could be a pulley, a fender and a wheel.

Unreleased Martin Luther King Jr. interview unearthed in attic

[q13fox]  In a dusty old attic in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Stephon Tull was rummaging through dilapidated boxes left there by his father many years before, when he came across an interesting find.

In one of the battered boxes was an audio reel marked, "Dr. King interview, Dec. 21, 1960." "I'm a rummager, a packrat," said Tull. "That piqued my interest." Tull acquired a reel-to-reel player and listened to what sounded like his father interviewing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. about nonviolence and the civil rights movement. "I could not believe what I was hearing," said Tull.

Sardinian family declared world's oldest

[ABC]  Consolata Melis, whose family has been officially declared the longest-living family in the world, celebrates her 105th birthday today, and it's a party in her small remote hill town on the island of Sardinia. Four of Melis' eight siblings -- three brothers and five sisters -- are in their 90s, three are in their 80s and "la piccolina" (the little one) is 78. On June 10, all nine a combined age of 818 years, 205 days, and received a certificate from the Guinness World Records for "highest combined age, nine living siblings."

Antarctic Peninsula started warming 600 years ago

[Reuters]  Temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula started rising naturally 600 years ago, long before man-made climate changes further increased them, scientists said in a study on Wednesday that helps explain the recent collapses of vast ice shelves. The study, reconstructing ancient temperatures to understand a region that is warming faster than anywhere else in the southern hemisphere, said a current warming rate of 2.6 degrees Celsius (4.7 Fahrenheit) per century was "unusual" but not unprecedented.

Huge dinosaur fossil found in Alberta

[CBC]  Palaeontologists took 12 long days unearthing the 2,000-kilogram — or 4,460-pound — triple-horned herbivore earlier this summer in a location that's about a 30-minute drive from Drumheller. Dr. François Therrien, curator of dinosaur palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, said it looked like a huge “log jam” of bones in the dirt. Therrien says a former employee noticed the 65-million-year-old fossil that was poking up after being exposed by erosion.

Historic Torah Scrolls Unearthed in Polish Town

[The Forward]   Two Torah scrolls, one complete and one incomplete, were found in Poland’s Sokolow Podlaski district. The Torah scrolls found Aug. 20 are believed to have belonged to a synagogue in nearby Wegrow. A local policeman brought the scrolls to the municipal offices in Sokolow and gave them to Marcin Pasik, Sokolow Commune Head. “The policeman is known in the local community because of his interest in history. That’s why he was contacted by a woman living in a nearby village. She asked him to help her sell the old scrolls. The policeman thought, however, that such a precious treasure should go to a museum,” Slawomir Tomaszewski, Sokolow police press officer, told JTA.

Archaeologists believe they have found the remains of a medieval village in Herefordshire

[BBC]  Excavation work began a week ago on land in the Brockhampton Estate, near Bromyard and experts say it gives a glimpse of rural 13th Century life. They believe the remains, on the estate that is managed by the National Trust, includes part of a building that may have been a manor house.

Human Skull Begins to Fill in 20,000-Year Gap in Fossil Record

[Discover]  Back in the day, in the northern part of modern-day Laos, an early modern human died and its corpse washed into a nearby cave. Sure, it doesn’t sound like a particularly noteworthy event. But researchers dated the remains of this human’s skull to at least 46,000 years ago, making it the oldest modern human ever discovered in Southeast Asia.

Ancient Lion's Head And Armor Discovered Off Coast Of Italy

[Huffington Post]   According to AFP, the hulking head is said to weigh 33 pounds and it would reach a little over a foot-and-a-half in height. The remains of vases and other statues, along with armor in bronze and copper, were found near the lion, ANSA details.  An expert reportedly told the daily newspaper Il Quotidiano di Calabria that the artifacts were possibly from a Greek or Phoenician ship that sank nearby.

Indiana Museum Finds Lost Picasso

[Huffington Post]  Considered lost for 50 years, Pablo Picasso's "Seated Woman with Red Hat," has finally been discovered at The Evansville Museum of History & Science... in storage.

17th century shipwreck to be freeze-dried, rebuilt

[CBS]   More than three centuries ago, a French explorer's ship sank in the Gulf of Mexico, taking with it France's hopes of colonizing a vast piece of the New World — modern-day Texas. Like La Salle in 1685, researchers at Texas A&M University are in uncharted waters as they try to reconstruct his vessel with a gigantic freeze-dryer, the first undertaking of its size.

Jefferson may not have been first to say "United States of America"

[Daily Mail]   The National Archives cite the first known use of the 'formal term United States of America' as being the Declaration of Independence in June 1776, which would recognise Jefferson as the originator. But historians have uncovered an example of the phrase published in The Virginia Gazette three months earlier.

Babe Ruth footage unearthed

[Huntington Beach Independent]  "There are so few moving images of Babe Ruth that even Major League Baseball's monstrous archive contains less than an hour's worth."  Less than one hour of film exists of Ruth — who died Aug. 16, 1948 — that we know about.

Was Ancient Egypt Wiped Out by a Mega-Drought?

[The Epoch Times]  Analysis of deep sediments around the Nile River in Egypt has shown a massive drought 4,200 years ago contributed to the end of Egypt’s pyramid-building era, according to a new U.S. study.

York’s secret underground passages unearthed

[Yorkshire Post]  IT IS a site that has been at the heart of York’s ruling elite since the Roman era, but the secrets of the past have remained hidden away beneath the ground.

Solved: the 17 year mystery of the ship under the floorboards

[Current Archaeology]  In 1995 archaeologists made a surprising discovery beneath the floorboards of the Georgian wheelwright’s workshop at Chatham Historic Dockyard – the remains of an 18th-century flagship. Now after almost two decades of research, the mystery vessel has been named as the Namur, a second-rate ship of the line that played a key role in the battle that eliminated the threat of French invasion and left Britain ruling the waves.

Canadian family discovers 'Superstar' reptile fossil

[Global News]  "A new window into our ancient world has just opened," says Deborah Skilliter, Nova Scotia Museum's curator of geology.  Skilliter says she was "jumping up and down" in her chair when Peter Keating sent in photos of the fossils.

Discovered! Captain Scott's ship Terra Nova reveals itself in north Atlantic

[Daily Record]  THE REMAINS of the legendary ship Captain Robert Scott used to take him to the South Pole has been discovered 100 years after his ill-fated adventure. The wreck of the SS Terra Nova, which was built in Dundee, was found 1000 feet beneath the sea off the coast of Greenland, where she has lain for nearly 70 years.

Drought brings 19th century Missouri River shipwreck to surface

[Digital Journal]   A steamboat that was lost on the Missouri River in the latter part of the 19th century has resurfaced due to the severe drought conditions that have been plaguing the region. For 128 years the boat was hidden beneath the waters of the Missouri River

Biblical Samson Tale May Be Depicted on Ancient Seal

[Live Science]  An ancient seal slightly smaller than a penny apparently depicts a man fighting a lion, which archaeologists believe could be an early reference to the Biblical tale of Samson.

Lost Egyptian pyramids found by Google Earth

[Global Post]  A Google Earth satellite imagery survey may have found two pyramid complexes in Egypt, Discovery News reported.

Tonga Shipwreck Discovered, Believed To Be Pirate Treasure Ship

[Gadling]  A recent discovery made by divers in Tonga could hold a missing puzzle piece to an age-old mystery. A local diver in the Ha'apai group of islands last month found wreckage believed to be a pirate vessel containing treasure that sank in 1806.

"Sensational" finds unearthed in Kazakhstan

[Caspionet]  A well-known Kazakh archaeologist Viktor Merz has made a new scientific discovery. On the shore of Lake Borly located about 100 kilometres from Pavlodar, his expedition came upon traces of an early settlement of an unknown archaeological culture. Ceramics with anthropomorphic motifs, darts, arrow tips, and other household items were among the finds serving as evidence that many thousands of years ago, the steppes of Kazakhstan were buzzing with life with an active cultural and intellectual exchange taking place. The actual discovery is a round-shaped ancient dwelling dating back to third millennium BC.

2000 year old Roman ship found nearly intact

[Discovery News]  An almost intact Roman ship has been found in the sea off the town on Varazze, some 18 miles from Genova, Italy. The ship, a navis oneraria, or merchant vessel, was located at a depth of about 200 feet thanks to a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) following tips from fishermen who had caught some jars in their nets.  The ship sank about 2,000 years ago on her trade route between Spain and central Italy with a full cargo of more than 200 amphorae. Test on some of the recovered jars revealed they contained pickled fish, grain, wine and oil.

New Fossils Indicate Early Branching of Human Family Tree

[NY Times]  Fossil by fossil, scientists over the last 40 years have suspected that their models for the more immediate human family tree — the single trunk, straight as a Ponderosa pine, up from Homo habilis to Homo erectus to Homo sapiens — were oversimplified. The day for that serious revision may be at hand. The discovery of three new fossil specimens, announced Wednesday, is the most compelling evidence yet for multiple lines of evolution in our own genus, Homo, scientists said. The fossils showed that there were at least two contemporary Homo species, in addition to Homo erectus, living in East Africa as early as two million years ago.

Volcano blast led to thousands of deaths in London in 1258, archaeologists find

[Medievalists.net]  A report to be released tomorrow by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) will reveal that a mass burial on the site of the Augustinian priory and hospital of St Mary Spital had thousands of victims from a famine that occurred in 1258. The famine was caused by a volcanic blast from the other side of the world, which sent vast amount of ash into the atmosphere and dropped world temperatures.

Nazi war criminals could have lived out their lives in New Zealand

[NZ Herald]  A former police detective who led a 1992 investigation to track down former Nazi collaborators, Wayne Stringer,  spent a year investigating 47 people who arrived in New Zealand as "displaced" people from former Nazi-occupied countries after World War II and were suspected war criminals.

Mexican experts find hundreds of bones piled around skeleton in unprecedented Aztec burial

[Washington Post]  Mexican archaeologists say they have found an unprecedented human burial in which the skeleton of a young woman is surrounded by piles of 1,789 human bones in Mexico City’s Templo Mayor. Researchers found the burial about five meters (15 feet) below the surface, next to the remains of what may have been a “sacred tree” at one edge of the plaza, the most sacred site of the Aztec capital.

Letter to Winston Churchill May Contain First Known Use of ‘OMG’

[New York Magazine]  Letters of Note curator Shaun Usher has pointed out what might be the first known usage of O.M.G., in a September 1917 missive from British admiral John Arbuthnot "Jacky" Fisher (or Lord Fisher) to Sir Winston Churchill. In a letter to Churchill about some "utterly [upsetting]" World War I–era newspaper headlines, Fisher wrote, "I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis — O.M.G (Oh! My! God!)— Shower it on the Admiralty!!"

Robot and unmanned helicopter to search for pirate treasure

[Daily Mail]  Shaun Whitehead is heading up an archaeological expedition to try to uncover treasure buried on the Pacific island of Cocos worth an estimated £160million. The plunder could contain 113 gold religious statues, 200 chests of jewels, 273 swords with jewelled hilts, 1,000 diamonds, solid gold crowns, 150 chalices and hundreds of gold and silver bars.

Have archaeologists discovered lost Egyptian pyramids using Google Earth?

[io9]  Satellite archaeologist Angela Micol believes she may have stumbled upon two previously unidentified pyramid structures by using Google Earth. Located in Egypt, the sites contain distinct features and orientations that definitely suggest the potential presence of pyramids — a prospect that has local archaeologists eager to check it out.

Possible da Vinci painting found in Scottish farmhouse; could be worth $150 million

[Yahoo News]  Fiona McLaren, 59, had kept an old painting in her Scottish farmhouse for decades. She reportedly didn't think much of the painting, which had been given to her as a gift by her father. But after she finally decided to have the painting appraised, some experts are speculating that it may in fact be a 500-year-old painting by Leonardo da Vinci and potentially worth more than $150 million.

Ancient bridge unearthed in China

[UPI]   A 2,000-year-old wooden bridge found in Shaanxi province, home of the famous Terracotta Army, may have been the world's biggest at that time, scientists say.Remnants of the bridge's piers were unearthed in a suburb of Xi'an, the province's capital, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. The bridge is estimated to have been almost 1,000 feet long and 65 feet wide,

2000 year old roman shipwreck discovered off Italian coast

[BBC]  Divers searching off Italy's northeastern coast have discovered the wreck of a trade ship believed to have sunk there about two thousand years ago. The search followed a tip-off from local fishermen. The divers say the vessel is remarkably well preserved.

Medieval treasure found on Swedish island

[UPI]  More than 600 pieces of medieval silver coins have been unearthed on the Swedish island of Gotland, officials said. The coins were discovered Monday as a landowner was moving soil on his property, The Local.se reported. "This is an amazing find. It's unbelievable that treasures of this scale exist here on Gotland," Marie Louise Hellquist of Gotland's County Administrative Board said.

DNA helps solve a centuries old mystery

[BBC]    DNA mapping has shed light on a 260-year-old mystery of the origins of a child shipwrecked on Anglesey, who helped shape medical history. The boy of seven or eight, who could not speak English or Welsh, washed up on the north Wales coast with his brother between 1743 and 1745. Named Evan Thomas, he was adopted by a doctor and went on to show bone setting skills never seen before in the UK.

Mass grave in London reveals how volcano caused global catastrophe

[The Guardian]  When archaeologists discovered thousands of medieval skeletons in a mass burial pit in east London in the 1990s, they assumed they were 14th-century victims of the Black Death or the Great Famine of 1315-17. Now they have been astonished by a more explosive explanation – a cataclysmic volcano that had erupted a century earlier, thousands of miles away in the tropics, and wrought havoc on medieval Britons.

U.K.'s House of Lords may face modern elections

[USA Today]  For centuries, the British House of Lords has played a role in laws that have defined Western civilization. England now appears poised to end that. The House of Commons on Tuesday voted 462-124 to advance a bill that would require most members of the House of Lords, where some of the more than 800 members inherited their seats from forebears, to gain their seats through elections.

Marilyn Monroe mystery: Where are her ‘censored’ FBI files?

[Washington Post]  In connection with the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death on Aug. 5, The Associated Press has attempted under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the most complete record of the bureau’s monitoring of Monroe. The FBI says it no longer has the files it compiled on Monroe; the National Archives — the usual destination for such material — says it doesn’t have them either. Finding out precisely when the records were moved — as the FBI says has happened — required the filing of yet another, still-pending Freedom of Information Act request.

Drones map ancient Peruvian ruins

[New Scientist]   For the past month, a lunch tray-sized aircraft has been skimming over Peruvian ruins snapping high-definition photos which are then stitched together to build a 3D map of the site.

The flyer is the brainchild ofSteven Wernke and Julie Adams, archaeologist and roboticist respectively at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Wernke says that the craft will speed up site mapping drastically compared to traditional methods - a fiddly medley of theodolites, measuring tapes and photography which often requires repeat visits over two or three years during the dry season.

Invisible volcanic ash gives clues to Neanderthal demise

[Natural History Museum]  About 40,000 years ago, a layer of cryptotephra particles carpeted a huge area of Central and Eastern Europe after a massive volcanic eruption in Italy called the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI). This eruption, and the resulting environmental and climatic disruption, has been suggested as a factor in the extinction of the Neanderthals. Interaction with us, modern humans, is one of the other possibilities.Neanderthals, who were our closest relatives, had been living in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years. But all physical evidence of them disappears after about 30,000 years ago.

Newly Discovered Leonardo da Vinci Sculpture to be Unveiled

[Hollywood Today]   “Perfect, perfect, perfect,” says Professor Carlo Pedretti upon examination of recently discovered Leonardo da Vinci Sculpture, Horse and Rider in May 2012. What he saw was a first generation bronze sculpture that was cast from a mold made from a beeswax hand-carved sculpture by the renaissance master over 500 years ago. A formal invitation-only unveiling for media and special guests will be held at the Historic Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills on August 27th.

When the world burned less: Cool climate, not population loss, led to fewer fires

[Science Blog]  In the years after Columbus’ voyage, burning of New World forests and fields diminished significantly – a phenomenon some have attributed to decimation of native populations by European diseases. But a new University of Utah-led study suggests global cooling resulted in fewer fires because both preceded Columbus in many regions worldwide.

Letter discovered from Hitler's nephew begging to enlist in U.S. Army for fight AGAINST the Nazis in WWII

[Daily Mail]  An extraordinary letter from the nephew of Adolf Hitler has been discovered in which he begs to be allowed to enlist in the U.S. Army to fight against his uncle's facist regime. William Patrick Hitler fled Nazi Germany when war broke out in 1939 to come and live with relatives in New York. After being rejected from the U.S. Army because of his family connection, he wrote an emotional plea to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 on why he so strongly wanted to fight for Allied Forces.

Truman's grandson meets Japan atomic bomb survivors

[Yahoo News]  A grandson of former US president Harry Truman, who authorised the atomic bombing of Japan during World War II, met survivors in Tokyo Friday, calling it "a good first step towards healing old wounds".Clifton Truman Daniel, 55, was in Japan to attend 67th anniversary ceremonies of the bombs falling -- on August 6 in Hiroshima and August 9 in Nagasaki -- the first Truman relative to attend the annual events in the southern Japanese cities.

Newly unearthed ancient sculptures linked to Bible

[Ottawa Citizen]  Canadian team finds bearded, wild-eyed figure buried in Turkey. The latest find - the exquisitely preserved head and torso of a figure that would have stood four metres tall in the historical Neo-Hittite city of Kunulua - exemplifies a monumental sculptural tradition referenced in the Bible, including passages that describe the "graven images" created in the "kingdoms of the idols" north of ancient Israel.

Mountains, Seaway Triggered North American Dinosaur Surge

[Science Daily]  The rise of the Rocky Mountains and the appearance of a major seaway that divided North America may have boosted the evolution of new dinosaur species, according to a new Ohio University-led study.

Archaeologists find traces of 2,500-year old chocolate

[The Telegraph]  Archaeologists say they have found traces of 2,500-year-old chocolate on a plate in the Yucatan peninsula, the first time they have found ancient chocolate residue on a plate rather than a cup, suggesting it may have been used as a condiment or sauce with solid food.

Amazing fossil discovery shows how insects got their wings

[IO9]  The fossil is described in this week's Nature, and has been dubbed Strudiella devonica. Dated to the Late Devonian, around 370 million years ago, this 8mm long fossil has a "six-legged thorax, long single-branched antennae, triangular jaws and a 10-segmented abdomen," all features that would push it into the context of an insect — and possibly the oldest complete insect fossil ever discovered.

Ancient Antarctic Rainforest Discovered

[International Science Times]  Researchers studying sediment cores found fossilized pollen that came from a near-tropical forest that covered the continent during the Eocene period, approximately 34 million to 56 million years ago. An analysis of the core revealed that Antarctica was much warmer back then, most likely around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Discovered: medieval carvings hidden for centuries

[BBC]  Medieval carvings hidden from sight for hundreds of years have been discovered in the roof of a church on the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire border.

Is This the Oldest Cave Art on the Planet?

[Smithsonian]  In the Australian science magazine Cosmos, Elizabeth Finkel reports on her journey to a rock formation in the northern part of the country that could very well be the site of the world’s oldest art. Underneath a massive rock slab which rests on dozens of narrow stilts, researchers have found the world’s oldest stone axe, and a vast collection of painted artwork. Finkel describes the site, which is known as Gabarnmung: "Like the Sistine Chapel, the ceiling of the expansive rock shelter was a mural of breathtakingly vivid and bold works of art – hundreds of them. And the paintings extended up and down 36 remarkable sandstone columns that, like the pillars of a temple, appeared to support the cave."

Archaeologists Discover Funerary Boat Of One Of Ancient Egypt's Earliest Pharaohs

[Gadling]  A funerary boat dating back 5,000 years has been discovered in Egypt, Ahram Online reports. The boat was meant to take the Pharaoh Den to the afterlife and was buried in the northeast of the Giza Plateau, site of the famous (and later) pyramids. Den was a ruler of Ancient Egypt's poorly understood First Dynasty, which saw the unification of Egypt and its development as a major civilization.

Captain Morgan's pirate treasure unearthed in Panama

[CNN]  The belongings of a real-life Pirate of the Caribbean have been discovered off the coast of Panama and are set to go on show for travelers keen to see how 17th-century buccaneers lived. The pirate was Captain Henry Morgan, of rum bottle fame, a Welshman who looted throughout the Spanish Main in the 17th century before losing five ships in the West Indies.

Israeli scholars claim to have uncovered first archaeological evidence of Samson

[Daily Mail]  A tiny seal has been uncovered that could be the first archaeological evidence of Samson, the Biblical slayer of Philistines. Archaeologists discovered the ancient artifact while excavating the tell of Beit Shemesh in the Judaean Hills near Jerusalem, Israel.

Tomb of Mayan prince unearthed in jungle ruins

[MSNBC]  Excavators have uncovered what they believe to be the 1,300-year-old remains of a Mayan prince entombed within a royal complex of the ancient city of Uxul, located in Mexico near the Guatemalan border.   The fossilized man, who researchers estimate was between 20 and 25 when he died, was found lying on his back, with his arms folded inside a tomb 4.9 feet  below the floor in a building within the city's royal complex.

Ancient Genetic 'Mistake' Drove Evolution

[Sci-Tech Today]   Five-hundred million years ago, a genetic mistake led to the evolution of humans. A spineless creature experienced two doublings in DNA, triggering the evolution of humans and other animals. The results have been both good and bad: Good because it led to better information integration in cells, but bad because breakdowns can cause disease.

Oldest poison pushes back ancient civilization 20,000 years

[CBS]  The late Stone Age may have had an earlier start in Africa than previously thought -- by some 20,000 years. A new analysis of artifacts from a cave in South Africa reveals that the residents were carving bone tools, using pigments, making beads and even using poison 44,000 years ago. These sorts of artifacts had previously been linked to the San culture, which was thought to have emerged around 20,000 years ago.

Warrior king statue discovered

[MSNBC]  A newly discovered statue of a curly haired man gripping a spear and a sheath of wheat once guarded the upper citadel of an ancient kingdom's capital. The enormous sculpture, which is intact from about the waist up, stands almost 5 feet  tall, suggesting that its full height with legs would have been between 11 and 13 feet

German World War II sub discovered off Nantucket

[Boston.com]  Earlier this week, after years of research and days of painstaking searches of the ocean floor, a crew discovered the elusive craft about 70 miles south of Nantucket. Crew members said the submarine was among the last undiscovered German warships along the eastern seaboard, where it once attacked merchant ships and forced blackouts in coastal cities.

Ancient diet offers clues to today's diabetes epidemic

[MSNBC]  The ancient Native Americans of the desert Southwest subsisted on a fiber-filled diet of prickly pear, yucca and flour ground from plant seeds, finds a new analysis of fossilized feces that may explain why modern Native Americans are so susceptible to Type II diabetes.

Discovery of early medieval royal stronghold in southwest Scotland

[Past Horizons]  A recent Heritage Lottery funded archaeological excavation has discovered a hitherto forgotten early medieval royal stronghold in Scotland

Rare 19th Century Map of Jerusalem Unearthed

[The Forward]  A map of Jerusalem that was drafted some 190 years ago by a German tourist was recently unearthed by two researchers – one Israeli, the other German – in an archive in Berlin. The map, sketched by hand in 1823, was discovered in the course of a study conducted in tandem by Israeli researchers and scholars at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, in Leipzig, Germany.

Ancient life-size lion statues baffle scientists

[MSNBC]  Two sculptures of life-size lions, each weighing about 5 tons in antiquity, have been discovered in what is now Turkey, with archaeologists perplexed over what the granite cats were used for.

Archaeologists amazed at treasures found near tomb raided by Nazi SS

[The Mirror]  An underground pyramid from 500BC and suspected of containing untold treasures has been found near a Celtic tomb raided by Heinrich Himmler.The SS chief, obsessed with Celtic mysticism, stole golden artefacts from an ancient tomb of a noble couple in Buehl, South West Germany. The loot, thought to be worth £500million, was never seen again. But now archaeologists are excited by a nearby Iron Age burial chamber that is even bigger at 18 square feet, probably the grave of a great chieftain

Earliest spiral galaxy ever seen: a shocking discovery

[Phys Org]  Astronomers have witnessed for the first time a spiral galaxy in the early universe, billions of years before many other spiral galaxies formed. In findings reported July 19 in the journal Nature, the astronomers said they discovered it while using the Hubble Space Telescope to take pictures of about 300 very distant galaxies in the early universe and to study their properties. This distant spiral galaxy is being observed as it existed roughly three billion years after the Big Bang, and light from this part of the universe has been traveling to Earth for about 10.7 billion years.    

Oldest Pharaonic boat discovered

[Egypt Independent]  The oldest wooden boat from the Pharonic period was discovered in Abu Rawash, said Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Ali on Wednesday. The boat dates back to the era of King Den of the First Dynasty, around 3,000 BC. It is in good condition, Ali said in a statement.

Extraodinary discovery of Leonardo sculpture

[Marketwatch]  A-once-in-a-lifetime find of a Leonardo da Vinci sculpture will be unveiled to the world at a private event at the historic Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills California. Made from the mold of a beeswax statue dating back over 500 years, the sculpture has been authenticated to come from the hands of Renaissance Master, Leonardo da Vinci.

No wreckage found in expedition to solve fate of Amelia Earhart

[Reuters]  Researchers on July 3 set off on a $2.2 million expedition and travelled 1,800 miles (2,897 km) by ship from Honolulu to Nikumaroro in the Republic of Kiribati to search for clues to her disappearance in 1937. "We are returning from Nikumaroro with volumes of new sonar data and hours upon hours of high-definition video," The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery said in a statement on Monday. TIGHAR did not immediately release details about what the sonar data or video might show, and it did not say that any plane wreckage it had sought has been recovered.

Ancient astronomical observatory unearthed in Georgia

[Examiner]  About three hours west of Savannah, archaeologists unearthed an ancient Indian mound which had a secret hidden chamber inside. Inside this secret chamber was a circle of fifty seats and an altar in the shape of a hawk or eagle. Known as the Ocmulgee Earthlodge, new evidence proves this earth-covered building was a sophisticated piece of engineering with precise astronomical alignments that likely served as an astronomical observatory.

Lost Katherine Mansfield short story found

[The Guardian] A lost short story by Katherine Mansfield has been discovered in an archive by a PhD student, giving new insight into one of the most turbulent periods of her short life, when she was abandoned by her lover while pregnant and went on to marry a man she left on her wedding night.

Ancient Alteration of Seawater Chemistry Linked With Past Climate Change

[Science Daily]  Scientists have discovered a potential cause of Earth's "icehouse climate" cooling trend of the past 45 million years. It has everything to do with the chemistry of the world's oceans.

"Seawater chemistry is characterized by long phases of stability, which are interrupted by short intervals of rapid change," says geoscientist Ulrich Wortmann of the University of Toronto, lead author of a paper reporting the results and published this week in the journal Science.

Polar bear split from brown bear over 4 million years ago

[Science News]  With such old origins, the creature must have weathered extreme shifts in climate, researchers report online July 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Simulations of how the DNA changed over time suggest that polar bear populations rose and fell with the temperature. After thriving during cooler times between 800,000 and 600,000 years ago, the bears seem to have suffered a genetic bottleneck and crashed after a warmer period that started about 420,000 years ago.

"Dramatic" New Maya Temple Found, Covered With Giant Faces

[National Geographic]  Some 1,600 years ago, the Temple of the Night Sun was a blood-red beacon visible for miles and adorned with giant masks of the Maya sun god as a shark, blood drinker, and jaguar. Long since lost to the Guatemalan jungle, the temple is finally showing its faces to archaeologists, and revealing new clues about the rivalrous kingdoms of the Maya.

An olive stone from 150BC links pre-Roman Britain to today's pizzeria

[The Guardian]   Iron Age Britons were importing olives from the Mediterranean a century before the Romans arrived with their exotic tastes in food, say archaeologists who have discovered a single olive stone from an excavation of an Iron Age well at at Silchester in Hampshire. The stone came from a layer securely dated to the first century BC, making it the earliest ever found in Britain – but since nobody ever went to the trouble of importing one olive, there must be more, rotted beyond recognition or still buried.

Ancient Mayan 'night sun' temple found in Guatemala

[AFP]  Archeologists have uncovered a 1,600-year-old Mayan temple dedicated to the "night sun" atop a pyramid tomb in the northern Guatemalan forest near the border with Mexico. "The sun was a key element of Maya rulership," lead archeologist Stephen Houston explained in announcing the discovery by the joint Guatemalan and American team that has been excavating the El Zotz site since 2006.

Weird Ancient Spiral Galaxy Discovered

[Discovery]  Astronomers have discovered a three-armed spiral galaxy dating back nearly 11 billion years -- much older than similarly structured objects that are common in the modern universe. The discovery was so jarring, scientists at first didn't believe their data.

Evidence of Nazi plot to kill Churchill through explosive chocolate unearthed

[Pakistan Today]  A1943 scheme by Nazi Germany to assassinate Winston Churchill through an explosive bar of chocolate has been uncovered nearly 70 years later in a secret letter from a wartime spymaster. As discovered in a letter from former MI5 spy Lord Victor Rothschild to the artist Laurence Fish, it was believed that Nazis devised bombs dressed up as chocolate, with a delay mechanism which would cause the bomb to explode as it was opened.

Neanderthals used medicinal plants

[Popular Archaeology]  An international team of researchers, led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the University of York, has provided the first molecular evidence that Neanderthals not only ate a range of cooked plant foods, but also understood its nutritional and medicinal qualities. Until recently Neanderthals, who disappeared between 30,000 and 24,000 years ago, were thought to be predominantly meat-eaters.

48 Tons of Silver Recovered From World War II Shipwreck

[ABC News]  An American company has made what is being called the heaviest and deepest recovery of precious metals from a shipwreck,...the SS Gairsoppa, a sunken British cargo ship in three miles of water off the coast of Ireland. Between the Gairsoppa, torpedoed by a German U-boat during World War II, and the SS Mantola, sunk by a German submarine during World War I, Odyssey said in a press release that about 240 tons of silver may be recovered by the end of the operation.

Has Mona Lisa's skeleton been found?

[Daily Mail]  Archaeologists are convinced they've unearthed the secret behind the world's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. Buried beneath the floor of a convent in Florence, Italy they've found a skeleton they believe belonged to Lisa Gherardini, the model who posed for Leonardo's da Vinci's mysterious masterpiece.

300 000 year old flint tools found in Northern France

[Past Horizons]  The deposits at Etricourt Manancourt in the Picardie region of France documents the history of early European settlements, revealing at least five prehistoric levels, ranging between 300,000 and 80,000 years old.

Famous Leonardo self portrait in critical condition

[Reuters]    Art conservation and restoration experts recently concluded weeks of tests on the famous self portrait of one of history's greatest geniuses, sketched in the early 1500s when he was in his 60s.And the diagnosis is decidedly grim. The non-invasive studies confirmed art experts' worst fears: the drawing is seriously damaged and deteriorating and any restoration would be delicate and risky to say the least.

Ancient Hellenistic Harbor Discovered in Acre

[Bloomberg]  An ancient harbor where warships may have docked 2,300 years ago has been discovered by archaeologists in the Israeli port city of Acre.  The harbor, the largest and most important found in Israel from the Hellenistic period, was uncovered during archaeological excavations carried out as part of a seawall conservation project, the Israel Antiquities Authority said today.

Ancient Maya dam uncovered that created a man made 20 million gallon reservoir

[Daily Mail]  The largest ancient dam built by the ancient Maya of Central America, it was constructed from cut stone, rubble and earth. Stunned researchers found the mysterious dam stretched more than 260 feet in length, stood about 33 feet high and held about 20 million gallons of water in a man-made reservoir.

Three Kingdoms' tomb holding warrior discovered

[MSNBC]  One of the biggest finds was a life-size bronze horse, the largest ever found in China. It measures 5.3 feet long and by 5.3 feet tall (163 by 163 centimeters). "The horse figurine is in standing posture, has erected ears, protruded eyes, opened mouth, long and broad neck, upright mane and drooped tail," writes archaeologist Liu Jiangsheng.

Climate was hotter in Roman, medieval times than now: Study

[The Register UK]   A new study measuring temperatures over the past two millennia has concluded that in fact the temperatures seen in the last decade are far from being the hottest in history.
A large team of scientists making a comprehensive study of data from tree rings say that in fact global temperatures have been on a falling trend for the past 2,000 years and they have often been noticeably higher than they are today - despite the absence of any significant amounts of human-released carbon dioxide in the atmosphere back then.

Engineering technology reveals eating habits of giant dinosaurs

[PhysOrg]  High-tech technology, traditionally usually used to design racing cars and aeroplanes, has helped researchers to understand how plant-eating dinosaurs fed 150 million years ago.    

Top Nazi war criminal located in Hungary

[AFP] The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre has confirmed that Laszlo Csatary, accused of complicity in the killings of 15,700 Jews, had been tracked down to the Hungarian capital. "I confirm that Laszlo Csatary has been identified and found in Budapest," the centre's director Efraim Zuroff told AFP.

Trigger for past rapid sea level rise discovered

[University of Bristol]  Towards the end of the last ice age, at the time of mammoths and primitive humans, the climate naturally warmed. This started to melt ice at increasingly high elevations, eventually reaching and melting the saddle area between the ice domes. This triggered a vicious circle in which the melting saddle would lower, reach warmer altitudes and melt even more rapidly until the saddle had completely melted. In just 500 years, the saddles disappeared and only the ice domes remained.

'Someone digs up an ancient relic every day in Britain'

[Daily Mail]   It’s the stuff of fairytales. Small boys find golden treasure that holds a sacred secret. Farm labourers uncover riches in muddy cow fields. An unsung hero stumbles on a pot of gold that will rewrite history. But this is no fantasy. Every year the British public discover no fewer than 90,000 archaeological artefacts, some up to half a million years old. They are enthusiasts, collectors – or simply members of the public who happen upon something unexpected while building a patio.

Did Tito Kill Stalin? A New Book on the Theory

[The Daily Beast]  A new book by a Slovenian historian suggests that Stalin might have been killed by an assassin sent by former Yugoslavian dictator Tito.

Lost Viking Military Town Unearthed in Germany?

[National Geographic]   A battle-scarred, eighth-century town unearthed in northern Germany may be the earliest Viking settlement in the historical record, archaeologists announced recently. Ongoing excavations at Füsing (map), near the Danish border, link the site to the "lost" Viking town of Sliasthorp—first recorded in A.D. 804 by royal scribes of the powerful Frankish ruler Charlemagne

Ancient Pre-Inca Tomb found

[France24]  Archeologists said Friday they have discovered a tomb about 1,200 years old, from the pre-Inca Sican era, in northern Peru. Human remains and jewelry were found July 4 along with the tomb, likely that of a member of the aristocracy of the Sican or Lambayeque elite, head researcher Carlos Wester La Torre told AFP.

'First' Americans Were Not Alone

[Discovery]  Stone points found in an Oregon cave suggest a whole group of people existed at the same time as the Clovis.

Recovery of most complete skeleton of human ancestor to be streamed live

[Christian Science Monitor]  Archaeologists will stream live footage online as they recover significant parts of an early human skeleton that's nearly two million years old, the first time the public can participate in the discovery process from their homes, a South African scientist said.

'UFO' at bottom of Baltic sea may be a top-secret Nazi anti-submarine defence lost since World War 2

[Daily Mail]  Former Swedish naval officer and WWII expert Anders Autellus has revealed that the structure - measuring 200ft by 25ft - could be the base of a device designed to block British and Russian submarine movements in the area. The huge steel-and-concrete structure could be one of the most important historical finds in years.

Archaeologists unearth temple to Demeter in Sicily

[Ansa Med]  Archaeologists have discovered what may be among the oldest remains at the ancient site of Selinunte: an ancient temple. Inside, fragments have been found that help explain the site's significance: an offering to Demeter, the goddess of grain and agriculture; a small flute, made of bone and dating to 570 BC; a small Corinthian vase.

    

Most complete skeleton of ancient relative of man found

[Telegraph UK]  The remains of a juvenile hominid skeleton, of the newly identified Australopithecus (southern ape) sediba species, are the "most complete early human ancestor skeleton ever discovered," according to Lee Berger, a paleontologist from the University of Witwatersrand.

"We have discovered parts of a jaw and critical aspects of the body including what appear to be a complete femur (thigh bone), ribs, vertebrae and other important limb elements, some never before seen in such completeness in the human fossil record," said Prof Berger.

Treasure trove of baseball cards may be worth millions

[LA Times]  The find is one of the biggest, most exciting finds in the history of sports card collecting, a discovery worth perhaps millions. The cards are from an extremely rare series issued around 1910. Up to now, the few known to exist were in so-so condition at best, with faded images and worn edges. But the ones from the attic in the town of Defiance are nearly pristine, untouched for more than a century. The colors are vibrant, the borders crisp and white. "It's like finding the Mona Lisa in the attic," Kissner said.

Gold coins from time of Crusades found in Israeli ruins

[Fox News]  Israeli archaeologists have found buried treasure: more than 100 gold dinal coins from the time of the Crusades, bearing the names and legends of local sultans, blessings and more -- and worth as much as $500,000.

Ancient wine discovered in Chinese tomb

[CBC]  Archeologists have unearthed what they believe is the oldest wine in China, according to a report in the state-controlled news agency Xinhua. While excavating a nobleman's tomb in the northwest Shaanxi province, the archeologists found a sealed bronze wine vessel. When they shook it they heard a liquid, but they have yet to identify it. The tomb is believed to be from the West Zhou Dynasty, which the report said dates back to between 1046 BC and 771 BC.

Ancient "New York City" of Canada discovered

[CBS News]  Today New York City is the Big Apple of the Northeast but new research reveals that 500 years ago, at a time when Europeans were just beginning to visit the New World, a settlement on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Canada, was the biggest, most complex, cosmopolitan place in the region.

Archaeologists dig up clue to early Irish independence bid

[Independent]  ARCHAEOLOGISTS have made a landmark discovery that could help answer the question that has puzzled Irish historians for over 200 years. Could an invasion of Ireland by Napoleon's French forces have succeeded and triggered Irish independence more than century earlier than it was actually won?

6th century Christian monastery discovered in Gulf

[Business Standard]  Recent archaeological excavations in the Gulf have discovered remains of a sixth century Christian monastery, abandoned by monks in about 750 AD following advent of Islam in the region, Senior Metropolitan of the Universal Assyrian Church Mar Aprem said here today. Aprem, who visited the Nestorian Monastery's ruins in Sir Bani Yas Island at Abu Dhabi on June 21, said the discovery is of historical significance as it was the only early Christian site in the Gulf region.

De Soto discovery could change history books

[The Gainesville Times]  An archaeologist has found what his contemporaries deem rarer than the gold De Soto was seeking — physical evidence of the explorer's precise journey through Marion County and enough information to redraw Florida De Soto maps and fuel many more archaeological digs based on his findings.

Viking’s Most Powerful City Unearthed in Northern Germany

[Smithsonian]  According to Niels Ebdrup reporting at ScienceNordic, archaeologists working in northern Germany may have found one of the most important cities in Viking history—Sliasthorp, where once sat the first Scandanavian kings.

Crusaders' Gold Worth $100K Discovered in Israel

[Jewish Daily Forward] A gold cache, one of the largest ever found in Israel, was discovered last week in a dig in Israel’s Apollonia National Park, near Herzliya, heads of the archaeological project said. The diggers have discovered numerous findings shedding light on the Crusaders in general and on the last days of the 13th century fortress in particular. Findings include hundreds of arrow heads and catapult stones from the battle in which the Mamluks conquered the castle from the Crusaders. In a landfill dug at the site diggers found shards imported from Italy and rare glass utensils.

Early humans settled in Arabia

[USA Today]  Stone Age tools uncovered in Yemen point to humans leaving Africa and inhabiting Arabia perhaps as far back as 63,000 years ago, archaeologists report.  "The expansion of modern humans out of Africa and into Eurasia via the Arabian Peninsula is currently one of the most debated questions in prehistory," begins an upcomingJournal of Human Evolution report led by Anne Delagnes of France's Université Bordeaux. 

Dozens of Caravaggio sketches 'discovered'

[BBC]  Two Italian art historians say they believe they have uncovered dozens of sketches and paintings attributable to the Renaissance master Caravaggio. The works are believed to date from Caravaggio's time as a student in Milan, Italian media reports. They were previously ascribed to the archive of painter Simone Peterzano, with whom he studied from aged 11.

Important Hitler letter Unearthed

[Daily Mail]  Some German Jews escaped the Holocaust by fleeing the country, others hid and some battled to stay alive long enough to be freed from the Nazi death camps. But Ernst Hess owed his survival to the personal intervention of Adolf Hitler. The Fuhrer ordered his SS thugs to leave the Jewish judge alone because Hess had been his commanding officer during the First World War. Hitler looked back on his time on the Western Front with great pride and fondness so, while some six million Jews perished in the Holocaust set in motion by Hitler, Hess was allowed to live on the Fuhrer's whim.

Scientists believe high oxygen levels in Paleozoic era led to super-sized bugs

[Pittsburg Post-Gazette]  Three hundred million years ago, jumbo bugs zipped along with 2 foot-wide wingspans -- nearly the size of a crow's. Now, scientists think they know the secrets to their super size: Sky-high oxygen levels and no hungry birds.

Google to put Mussolini online

[The Guardian]  As part of its attempt to digitalise world history and culture, Google has struck a deal with the Italian government to post 30,000 Italian newsreels and documentaries from the 20th century online, many of which glorify Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship.

Medieval Jewish Cemetery Rediscovered In Oxford, England

[BBC]   "The cemetery belonged to the Jews of medieval Oxford, who came from France with William the Conqueror and played a key part in the life of the city and the early development of the university throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. "  In 1231, after their original burial ground was confiscated, the Jews were given a small section of wasteland where the modern-day Rose Garden now stands.   "This was their burial ground until 1290, when all Jews were forcibly expelled from England by King Edward I and not allowed to return for 350 years."

Sotheby's to offer recently discovered Canaletto drawing

[Spears]  An unsolicited phone call to Sotheby’s Paris has revealed the remarkable existence of a previously unrecorded Canaletto, Campo di San Giacomo di Rialto, to be offered in Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings sale on the 4th July. Unsuspecting its true value, the current owners have kept this rare drawing preserved – unknown to scholars - for over a century in their private collection. It comes to the market as a historic event, the first major Canaletto drawing of a real Venetian view to be offered in over 30 years.

'Britain's Atlantis' found at bottom of North sea

[Daily Mail]  'Britain's Atlantis' - a hidden underwater world swallowed by the North Sea - has been discovered by divers working with science teams from the University of St Andrews. Doggerland, a huge area of dry land that stretched from Scotland to Denmark was slowly submerged by water between 18,000 BC and 5,500 BC. Divers from oil companies have found remains of a 'drowned world' with a population of tens of thousands - which might once have been the 'real heartland' of Europe... and revealed the full extent of a 'lost land' once roamed by mammoths.

Large Roman cemetery discovered in Norfolk

[BBC]  Archaeologists have discovered 85 Roman graves in what has been hailed as the largest and best preserved cemetery of that period found in Norfolk.

Rare Map Related to America‘s 'Birth Certificate' Discovered in Munich University Library

[Science Daily]  The American continent was "christened" by the cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. A previously unknown variant of the famous world map from the mapmaker's workshop has unexpectedly turned up in the collections in the University Library in Munich.  On this map, the New World appears for the first time under the name "America," chosen to honor the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1451 -- 1512), whom Waldseemüller erroneously regarded as the discoverer of the continent.

Legendary Viking town unearthed

[Science Nordic]  Danish archaeologists believe they have found the remains of the fabled Viking town Sliasthorp by the Schlei bay in northern Germany, near the Danish border. According to texts from the 8th century, the town served as the centre of power for the first Scandinavian kings.

Tiny Tracks of First Complex Animal Life Discovered

[Live Science]   teensy sluglike animal that wriggled around the sediment in search of food at least 585 million years ago didn't die in vain. The tiny mover left behind tracks that researchers now say represent evidence of the earliest known bilateral animal, or multicellular life with bilateral symmetry. The finding, detailed in the June 29 issue of the journal Science, pushes back the date for the existence of advanced multicellular animal life by at least 30 million years.

Do clues to Amelia Earhart mystery lurk beneath the sea?

[CNN]  A deep-sea expedition will launch from the shores of Honolulu on Tuesday in an attempt to solve the mystery of vanished aviator Amelia Earhart, according to the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. The group will launch its Niku VII expedition 75 years after the first ship set sail in search of Earhart, her navigator Fred Noonan and their Lockheed Electra aircraft.

Remarkable ancient relics discovered in Peru

[The Telegraph]  Archaeologists in Peru have discovered a sundial, aunderground tunnel and a reception room in a complex dating back to the Wari civilisation.    One of the relics is believed to be a precursor to an Incan sundial, while 18 niches painted in white on the walls may have held ancestral mummies,

Ancient synagogue and mosaic unearthed in Galilee

[The Times of Israel]  Huqoq discovery dates back 1,500 years; artwork depicts biblical story of Samson.

Gower cave reindeer carving is Britain's oldest rock art

[BBC]  A reindeer engraved on the wall of a cave in south Wales has been confirmed as the oldest known rock art in Britain. The image in Cathole Cave on Gower, south Wales was created at least 14,000 years ago, said Bristol University.

Bulgaria archaeologists discover ancient settlement underwater

[Focus Information Agency]  Archaeologist Dr Ivan Hristov [Associate Professor Dr Ivan Hristov, Deputy Director of the National Museum of History] also discovered a continuation of the fortified wall into the sea. The continuation of the wall surrounds a big mud-bank Southwest of the cape. The fortified wall is preserved to some big height and the team has seen the outlines of a big battle tower of five meters height and three and a half meters width.

New finding: Ancient Antarctic warmer and wetter

[Otago Daily Times]  By examining the remnants of plant leaf wax found in sediment cores taken below the Ross Ice Shelf, scientists from the University of Southern California (USC), Louisiana State University and Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory determined summer temperatures along the Antarctic coast 15-20 million years ago were 11degC warmer than today.

Oldest Neolithic Bow Unearthed in Spain

[Sci-News]  Archaeological research carried out at the Neolithic site of La Draga, near the lake of Banyoles, has yielded the discovery of an item which is unique in the western Mediterranean and Europe. The item is a bow which appeared in a context dating from the period between 5400-5200 BC, corresponding to the earliest period of settlement. It is a unique item given that it is the first bow to be found intact at the site. According to its date, it can be considered chronologically the most ancient bow of the Neolithic period found in Europe.

Did a super volcano extinguish the Neanderthals?

[MSNBC]  A super-eruption of an Italian volcano that may have played a major role in the Neanderthals' fate was apparently even larger than thought, new research suggests. For the new study, scientists investigated the Campi Flegrei caldera volcano in southern Italy. About 39,000 years ago, it experienced the largest volcanic eruption that Europe has seen in the last 200,000 years. This super-eruption may have played a part in wiping out or driving away Neanderthal and modern human populations in the eastern Mediterranean.

Scientists discover a three billion-year-old crater in Greenland

[Wales Online]   Scientists have discovered a three billion-year-old crater in Greenland believed to be the largest and oldest on the planet. Cardiff University scientists were at the heart of a project which discovered the site where a huge asteroid struck – resulting in an apocalyptic fireball engulfing earth.... If the meteor, thought to have been as much as 30 kilometres across, struck today all life would be destroyed.

Oldest ever modern human DNA unearthed in Spain

[Jagran Post]  Scientists claim to have collected the oldest fragment of the modern human genome from the bones of two 7,000-year-old cavemen unearthed in Spain. These findings, published in the journal Current Biology, suggest that the cavemen in that region were not the ancestors of the people found there on Friday, the researchers said. "These are the oldest partial genomes from modern human prehistory," researcher Carles Lalueza-Fox, a paleogeneticist at the Spanish National Research Council, told LiveScience.

Date of Earliest Animal Life Reset by 30 Million Years

[Science Daily]   University of Alberta researchers have uncovered physical proof that animals existed 585 million years ago -- 30 million years earlier than previous records show.

Ancient Hunter-Gatherers Kept in Touch

[ScienceNow]  Until about 8500 years ago, Europe was populated by nomadic hunter-gatherers who hunted, fished, and ate wild plants. Then, the farming way of life swept into the continent from its origins in the Near East, including modern-day Turkey. Within 3000 years most of the hunter-gatherers had disappeared. Little is known about these early Europeans. But a new genetic analysis of two 8000-year-old skeletons from Spain suggests that they might have been a remarkably cohesive population both genetically and culturally.

Ancient Text Confirms Mayan Calendar End Date

[Live Science]  A newly discovered Mayan text reveals the "end date" for the Mayan calendar, becoming only the second known document to do so. But unlike some modern people, ancient Maya did not expect the world to end on that date, researchers said.

Harvard and Boston University researchers find evidence of 20000-year-old pottery

[Boston.com]  After people started farming about 10,000 years ago and were faced with the challenge of cooking plants and grains, pottery was invented. But that explanation has been fraying for years, and now an international team that includes a Harvard University anthropologist and Boston University scientists has pushed back the timeline even further, with evidence of pot shards from a cave in eastern China that date to 10 millennia before agriculture began.

Supernova Could Have Caused Mysterious "Red Crucifix" in the Sky in A.D. 774

[Scientific American]  An eerie "red crucifix" seen in Britain's evening sky in ad 774 may be a previously unrecognized supernova explosion — and could explain a mysterious spike in carbon-14 levels in that year's growth rings in Japanese cedar trees. The link is suggested today in a Nature Correspondence by a US undergraduate student with a broad interdisciplinary background and a curious mind.

Oldest Pearl In World Discovered In United Arab Emirates

[Huffington Post]  Discovered in a grave, the Umm al Quwain pearl — named for the location in the United Arab Emirates where it was found — has been carbon-dated back to the 5500 B.C., during the Neolithic Period, which makes it more than 7,500 years old, Press Trust of India reports. Previously, the oldest known pearl was just over 5,000 years old.

Wreckage of World War II battleship found near Sardinia

[Washington Post]  The Italian navy says the wreckage of the World War II battleship Roma, sunk by German planes 69 years ago with the loss of 1,352 lives, has been located north of Sardinia. The navy says the wreckage was located Thursday some 3,280 feet under the sea by a company using a deep-sea diving robot.

World's oldest purse may have been found in Germany

[National Geographic]  Excavators at a site near Leipzig (map) uncovered more than a hundred dog teeth arranged close together in a grave dated to between 2,500 and 2,200 B.C. According to archaeologist Susanne Friederich, the teeth were likely decorations for the outer flap of a handbag."Over the years the leather or fabric disappeared, and all that's left is the teeth. They're all pointing in the same direction, so it looks a lot like a modern handbag flap," said Friederich, of the Sachsen-Anhalt State Archaeology and Preservation Office.