'Ancient humans' used toothpicks

[BBC]  A team studied hominid jaws from the Dmanisi Republic of Georgia - the earliest evidence of primitive humans outside Africa. They also found evidence of gum disease caused by repeated use of what must have been a basic toothpick.

Bronze Age Sundial Found In Ukraine May Be Oldest Of Its Kind

[Huffington Post] The sundial may have marked the final resting place of a young man sacrificed or otherwise marked as a messenger to the gods or ancestors, said study researcher Larisa Vodolazhskaya of the Archaeoastronomical Research Center at Southern Federal University in Russia.

Archaeology excavation discovers 2700 year old Greek Portico

[Heritage Daily]  “Porticos are well known from the Hellenistic period, from the 3rd to 1st century BC, but earlier examples are extremely rare. The one from Argilos is the oldest example to date from northern Greece and is truly unique,” said Jacques Perreault, who is a specialist of the Greek Archaic period (7th and 6th centuries BC.)

Secrets of evolution lie beneath Scotland’s soil

[The Scotsman]   There are a number of big questions in palaeontology, such as where and under what conditions did life first evolve; what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs; and what were the detailed steps in our own evolution? But one question has stood out for many years as a mystery: what did the earliest vertebrates (animals with backbones) look like, and under what conditions did they emerge on wto land?

In Bolivia, Archeologists Find 1,500-Year-Old Bones And Skulls In Lake Titicaca

[Huffington Post] Gold and silver pieces as well as bones and pottery from 1,500 years ago were discovered in Lake Titicaca by underwater archaeologists, a researcher said Tuesday.

Did the Chinese discover America?

[Daily Mail] A new book claims the Chinese have been sailing to the New World since 40,000 BC across the Pacific Ocean

Leonardo da Vinci painting lost for centuries found in Swiss bank vault

[The Telegraph]  It was lost for so long that it had assumed mythical status for art historians. Some doubted whether it even existed.

Evidence unearthed of Richard III's lost chapel

[Darlington & Stockton Times]  ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe they have found a chapel built by Richard III to commemorate the Yorkist victory in one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on English soil.

Life-size statue of King Ramses II found in Sharqiya

[Ahramonline] Newly-unearthed statue of King Ramses II in Tel-Basta suggests the Nile Delta town was home to a great 19th Dynasty temple.

32,000-Year-Old Plant Brought Back to Life

[National Geographic] The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown from 32,000-year-old seeds—beating the previous record holder by some 30,000 years.

Slave Tunnels Found In Massive Network Underneath Second Century Roman Emperor's Villa

[Huffington Post]  Amateur archaeologists have uncovered a massive network of tunnels under the Roman Emperor Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, Italy. The underground passageways likely allowed thousands of slaves and merchants to keep the estate running without creating any distraction at the street level.

Scientists Reveal Source of Medieval Europe's "Year Without Summer"

[Popular Archaeology]  The researchers determined that the eruption ejected about 10 cubic miles of rock and ash, exceeding even the cataclysmic Tambora eruption of 1815, an event, also in Indonesia, that destroyed and buried an entire local civilization on the island of Sumbawa. That was thought to be the largest known eruption during the past 10,000 years. Their findings also revealed that the Samalas event had occurred sometime between May and October of 1257 AD, likely leaving much of Lombok, neighboring Bali and part of Sumbawa uninhabitable for many years after.

Hard Times Followed Booms for Europe's Ancient Farmers

[National Geographic] Hard Times Followed Booms for Europe's Ancient Farmers

Backhoe cuts into dinosaur's tail, revealing rare fossil find

[CNN]  It's like a scene out of a Flintstones comic. Fred is running a backhoe and drops its shovel right on top of a dinosaur's tail.

Medieval Birthplace Of Whiskey To Start Distilling Again

[GadlingLindores Abbey near Fife, Scotland, is the first place on record to have distilled whiskey, when in 1494 it received an order from King James IV. The abbey, founded in the 12th century, has been a ruin for centuries, first being sacked by a mob in 1543, and then thoroughly destroyed by John Knox, founder of Scottish Presbyterianism, in 1559.]

Oldest bog body in the world is that of sacrificed ancient Irish king

[Irish Central] The bog body known as the Cashel Man, now being researched at the National Museum of Ireland, is likely that of a king who met his end in a violent sacrifice.

Ancient Climate on Earth Reveals Origins of Life--But Not with Nitrogen

[Science World Report] Life is estimated to have evolved on our planet during the Archean, a time between 3.8 and 2.4 billion years ago. At the time, though, the weak Sun should have meant that the planet was simply too cold for life to take hold.

How evolution could bring back the sabercat

[io9] Saber fanged cats ruled the Pleistocene and survived the last Ice Age, but went extinct at roughly the same time that humans were discovering agriculture. This is the first time in millions of years that sabercats haven't roamed the planet. But we might just survive long enough to see them return.

'Bosham Head' Mystery Solved?

[Huffington Post] For more than two centuries, residents of a small district in southern England have puzzled over a giant stone known as the "Bosham Head." About twice the size of a human head, the badly eroded stone was believed to have once had human features. Now, researchers believe they know whose head it was modeled after.

Explosive supervolcanoes may have rocked ancient Mars

[CBS] Instead of the dead cone-shaped shield volcanoes usually seen on the Martian surface, like Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the solar system, ancient supervolcanoes leave different evidence of their presence