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.