Gold hoard found in French cellar

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

Ancestry of Polar Bears Traced to Ireland

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

Was it really a meteor that killed the dinosaurs?

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

Navajo code talker shares his story

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

Massive ice age graveyard discovered in Colorado Rockies

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

Oldest Living Medal Of Honor Recipient Dies

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

DNA detectives Find Vikings

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

Yellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells

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

Churchill’s Secret Armys HQ Excavated

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

World's Biggest Extinction Event

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

WWII veteran who notified world of Pearl Harbor attack dies

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

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

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

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

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

Binham Priory discovery of giant medieval graffiti

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

Grapes domesticated 8,000 years ago

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

Scientists model ancient bog woman's face

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

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

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

Author: Medieval explorers may have visited New England

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

Italian researcher: symbols found in 'Mona Lisa'

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

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

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