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.