Neighborhoods, farms, and roads are 1000 years older than previous discoveries.

Archaeologists once believed the ancient Amazon rainforest was an inhospitable place, sparsely populated by bands of hunter-gatherers. But the remains of enormous earthworks, pyramids, and roads from Bolivia to Brazil discovered over the past 2 decades have proved conclusively that the Amazon was home to large, complex societies long before European colonizers arrived. Now, there's evidence that another human society — the oldest yet — left its mark on the region: A dense network of interconnected cities, now hidden beneath the forest in Ecuador's Upano Valley, has been revealed by the laser mapping technology called lidar. The settlements, described today in Science, are at least 2500 years old, more than 1000 years older than any other known complex Amazonian society.

Lidar, which allows researchers to see through forest cover and reconstruct the ancient sites below, "is revolutionizing our understanding of the Amazon in pre-Columbian times," says Carla Jaimes Betancourt, an archaeologist at the University of Bonn who wasn't involved in the new work. Finding such an ancient urban network in the Upano Valley highlights the long-unrecognized diversity of ancient Amazonian cultures, which archaeologists are just beginning to be able to reconstruct.

Stéphen Rostain, an archaeologist at CNRS, France's national research agency, began excavating in the Upano Valley nearly 30 years ago. His team focused on two large settlements, called Sangay and Kilamope, and found mounds organized around central plazas, pottery decorated with paint and incised lines, and large jugs holding the remains of the traditional maize beer chicha. Radiocarbon dates showed the Upano sites were occupied from around 500 B.C.E. to between 300 C.E. and 600 C.E. "I knew that we had a lot of mounds, a lot of structures," Rostain says. "But I didn't have a complete overview of the region."

[The following is a sequel to Sir Henry Kissinger: Midwife to New Babylon]

"We had run up against the Judeo-Christian commitment to one God, one religion, one reality, that has cursed Europe for centuries and America since our founding days. Drugs that open the mind to multiple realities inevitably lead to a polytheistic view of the universe. We sensed that the time for a new humanist religion based on intelligence, good natured pluralism and scientific paganism had arrived."

-Dr. Timothy Leary (recounting Aldous Huxley's 1960 demand for a new world religion)

The Science of History: Pregnant Moments vs Linear Chronologies

The study of history can be approached from a number of directions, and using a number of diverse assumptions... but not all of them are equal, and some are extremely destructive.

Some people believe that history is simply associating events onto a linear time line and then adding creative writing to explain away causes of those events. Others presume that history is divided by "ages" with the "causes" of each event explained away by the age in which they occur. Others presume that the events across ages are caused by a never-ending class struggle of rich vs poor while others presume no causality exists behind the events on a time line except for raw hunger, greed or stupidity.

Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that history is best understood as a living process shaped by 1) ideas of good and evil, 2) decisions to act according to those ideas whether right or wrong, and 3) the freedom to embrace error, corruption and lies which often wear the clothing of truth.

When those false ideas are permitted to shape the cultural standards of what is considered "normal" for too long, decay across all spectrums of life can be found.

Let's get something straight. There have been countless attempts to conquer Russia, and they have all failed over the course of 1,000 years - yea - 1,000 years! The invaders encountered different incarnations of Russians as well. There were the Ancient Rus, the Moscow Tsardom, the Russian Empire, and most recently, the Soviet Union. The enemies have also come in different flavors, like ice cream. There has been a Northern military state, an Eastern empire invasion, and the more recent famous invasions of Hitler and Napoleon. Every single one of them has failed to conquer Russia except one - the Mongols.

The Mongols invaded under the grandson of Genghis Khan. He invaded Russia around the 1220s-1230s. The Rus were divided into tribes. Like Julius Caesar understood when he invaded Gaul, divide and conquer. The Mongol warriors succeeded because the various Russian princes at that time were competing against one another in a perpetual rivalry for the Kievan throne. Thus, the lands of Rus' were plundered, and in 1240, Kiev fell. Russian princes were forced to subjugate to the Tatar-Mongol khans. Indeed, there is still a Tatr population living in Crimea to this day. What is left of the Rus fortifications, the Golden Gate, is all that remains standing in Kiev.

In 1380, Moscow prince Dmitry Donskoy famously defeated the Tatar army at the Kulikovo field. Russia was born one hundred years later in 1480 when they were free of the Mongols, and he became the first Grand Prince of Moscow, Ivan III ( 1440-1505). If I actually listed every failed attempt to invade Russia ever since, I think that would require a book. The Mongols were used to the cold, unlike the Europeans.

A multidisciplinary study has reconstructed the genomic history of the Balkan Peninsula during the first millennium of the common era, a time and place of profound demographic, cultural and linguistic change. The team has recovered and analyzed whole genome data from 146 ancient people excavated primarily from Serbia and Croatia — more than a third of which came from the Roman military frontier at the massive archaeological site of Viminacium in Serbia — which they co-analyzed with data from the rest of the Balkans and nearby regions.

The work, published in the journal Cell, highlights the cosmopolitanism of the Roman frontier and the long-term consequences of migrations that accompanied the breakdown of Roman control, including the arrival of people speaking Slavic languages. Archaeological DNA reveals that despite nation-state boundaries that divide them, populations in the Balkans have been shaped by shared demographic processes.

"Archaeogenetics is an indispensable complement to archaeological and historical evidence. A new and much richer picture comes into view when we synthesize written records, archaeological remains like grave goods and human skeletons, and ancient genomes", said co-author Kyle Harper, a historian of the ancient Roman world at the University of Oklahoma.

Douglas Boin, Ph.D., a professor of history at Saint Louis University, made a major announcement at the annual meeting of the Archeological Institute of America, revealing he and his team discovered an ancient Roman temple that adds significant insights into the social change from pagan gods to Christianity within the Roman Empire.

"We found three walls of a monumental structure that evidence suggests belonged to a Roman temple that dates to Constantine's period," Boin said. "It dates to the fourth century AD and it would be a remarkable addition to the landscape of this corner of Italy. It will significantly aid in the understanding of the ancient town, the ancient townscape and city society in the later Roman Empire because it shows the continuities between the classical pagan world and early Christian Roman world that often get blurred out or written out of the sweeping historical narratives."

Boin, Dr. Letizia Ceccarelli, Politecnico di Milano, and the rest of the excavation team made the monumental discovery over the summer. Boin, an expert in ancient Roman and its religious transitions, had been digging in the town of Spello, the famous medieval hilltop city about 20 minutes from Assisi and 2.5 hours north of Rome. Boin selected the town based on a rescript of a 4th century letter from Emperor Constantine to the townspeople regarding a religious holiday.

This rescript, which was discovered in the 18th century, allowed the people of Spello to celebrate a religious festival in their hometown rather than travel a great distance to another festival. However, in order to do so, the town was told it must erect a temple to Constantine's divine ancestors, the Flavian family, and worship them, showcasing how multicultural Roman society was at the time.

"There was a remarkable religious continuity between the Roman world and the early Christian world," Boin said. "Things didn't change overnight. Before our find, we never had a sense that there were actual physical, religious sites associated with this late 'imperial cult practice.' But because of the inscription and its reference to a temple, Spello offered a very tantalizing potential for a major discovery of an Imperial cult underneath a Christian ruler."

An ancient lead bullet "signed" by Julius Caesar and recently found in a Spanish agricultural field allows us to enrich our knowledge of the complex chessboard of municipal alliances during the civil war which supposedly brought the general who had subdued Gaul. The projectile ( pictured ) is shaped like an acorn, with pointed ends. It measures 4.5 centimeters long, 2 centimeters wide and 1.7 centimeters high. It weighs 71.1 grams. And it bears two inscriptions, in relief.

The discovery and study of the bullet were presented during a press conference held in recent hours by the municipality of Baena, in Andalusia. Why Baena? Because two writings appear on the bullet: Cesare - CAES (ar), in the inscription - and Ipsca - IPSCA, in the inscription -, a Roman city that stood on the border of what is now the territory of Baena.

The lead acorn was found 19 kilometers from Baena, in the countryside of Montilla, a Spanish municipality of around 23 thousand inhabitants, located in the autonomous community of Andalusia. The town is located at an average height of 372 meters above sea level and 49 kilometers from Cordoba. The terrible final clash of the civil war probably took place in his campaigns - the battle of Munda - which brought Julius Caesar here against the sons of Pompey, in 45 BC

Municipal military forces also took part in this huge battle, taking sides on one side or the other. The bullet found bears - associated - the name of Ipsca, precisely - and that - abbreviated - of Julius Caesar. Lead has now torn a veil, opening the scenario to new discoveries, to the knowledge of new alliances, strengthening the hypothesis relating to the place where the final clash between Caesar and Pompey's sons took place, in that fateful spring of 45 BC. Not only . The finding also opens a discussion relating to the most ancient roots of the term sponsorship, i.e. financing and aid for unity of purpose, support from a third party for self-promotion. Ultimately the lead acorn represents all of this.

In a fiery exchange last month, CNN anchorwoman Abby Phillip told GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy that there was "no evidence" to support his claim that federal agents abetted protesters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ramaswamy shot back that the FBI conspicuously has never denied that law enforcement agents were on duty in the crowd. He argued that federal officials have repeatedly "lied" to the American people about not only that investigation but one that has gotten much less attention: the alleged failed plot to kidnap and kill Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan in 2020.

"It was entrapment," Ramaswamy said. "FBI agents putting them up to a kidnapping plot that we were told was true but wasn't."

His zeroing in on the Michigan case highlighted an uncharacteristic development in contemporary politics, where progressives vigorously defend law enforcement power while conservatives view it with deep suspicion. Further, Ramaswamy's linking of Jan. 6 and the Whitmer plot resonated with many on the right who want similarities between the two episodes exposed to the general public, especially the FBI's reliance on informants and other paid operatives.

On Oct. 8, 2020, Whitmer announced the shocking arrests of several men accused of planning to kidnap and possibly assassinate her. The case produced alarming headlines just weeks before Election Day; Democrats, including Whitmer, used news of the plot to blame Trump for inciting violence.

A message etched into an ancient sphinx has proven to be, well, sphinx-like. The "mysterious" inscription has long been an enigma, puzzling scholars for over a century.

But now, it's finally been deciphered, revealing a brief, but "unusual" poem, according to a study published Dec. 30 in the journal Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry.

Dating to the third century, the bronze sphinx statue originated from Dacia, a Roman province that largely corresponds to modern-day Romania.

Taking the form of a winged lion, "the sphinx was perceived by the original creators and users of the artifact as a representation of a mythical deity that they honored and worshiped," Peter Revesz, the study author and professor at the University of Nebraska, told McClatchy News.

After being discovered in the 19th century, the statue was stolen from a European count sometime around 1848, Revesz said.

While it was never recovered, a detailed drawing of the sphinx remained. In the drawing, the inscription — composed of a handful of characters — can be seen on the base of the statue. For decades, scholars examined the drawing, attempting to decode the inscription. However, they were unsuccessful, perhaps because — in an "unusual" break from ancient norms — it reads from left to right.

On August 4, 1983, Marxist revolutionary Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara came to power in the French Upper Volta (present-day Burkina Faso). A fighter for freedom and justice, he rejected colonial dependence, set the country on the course of economic independence and social-democratic development, and carried out innovative reforms.

During the four years of his presidency, Burkina Faso achieved record economic growth, much to the indignation of its former colonial rulers. Sankara was assassinated during a coup organized with the help of the French military. More than 30 years after this crime, many of its perpetrators have still not been punished.

The future president was born in 1949 and was the tenth child in a Catholic family. His father, a member of the French army, was a representative of the Mossi people - the country's largest ethnic group - and his mother was a descendant of the Fula people. Sankara's mixed ancestry made him a "third-class" man.

As a young man, he was encouraged to become a priest, but instead chose a military career. He entered a military academy in Upper Volta and in 1970 continued his studies in Madagascar, where he graduated as an officer. In Madagascar, he became familiar with the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, studied the basics of political science and political economy, and became interested in revolutionary ideas.

During Sankara's time in Madagascar, the country's authoritarian leader, Philibert Tsiranana, who maintained close ties with France and sought to strengthen ties with the West, was deposed. His overthrow made the young Sankara consider the possibility of changing the regime in his homeland.

Returning to Upper Volta two years later, Sankara was able to put his military skills into practice. He joined a unit of parachutists, and in 1974 fought against Mali when the latter laid claim to resource-rich land in the northeast of Upper Volta.

A rare, early medieval cemetery has been unearthed in Wales and it has left archaeologists scratching their heads.

It's thought to date to the 6th or 7th Century and 18 of the estimated 70 graves have been excavated so far.

Some of the well preserved skeletons have been found lying in unusual positions and unexpected artefacts are also emerging from the site.

The dig is starting to reveal more about this ancient community - but it's also raising questions.