In a groundbreaking discovery, archaeologists excavating Kruger Cave in South Africa have identified what may be the oldest confirmed multi-component arrow poison in the world, dating back 7,000 years. The femur bone of an unspecified antelope, found during a 1983 excavation, contained three modified bone arrowheads embedded in its marrow cavity.

After lying in storage at the University of the Witwatersrand for nearly four decades, renewed archaeological investigations in 2022 prompted scientists to re-examine the femur and its contents. A team from the University of Johannesburg, led by Associate professor Justin Bradfield focused on organic materials, conducted a detailed analysis of the chemical matrix surrounding the arrowheads.

The research revealed a complex recipe combining at least two toxic plant ingredients, including cardiac glycosides known to disrupt heart function. Notably, digitoxin and strophanthidin were identified, alongside ricinoleic acid, a by-product of the toxic lectin ricin. The presence of these compounds suggests that ancient peoples were adept at mixing various plant toxins to create effective hunting poisons.

Interestingly, none of the plant species containing these toxins are native to the Kruger Cave area, indicating that the ingredients may have been sourced from distant locations or through established trade networks. This finding challenges previous assumptions about the movement of non-domestic plants in southern Africa during this period.

Recent findings have revealed that the long-distance transport of non-domestic plants in Africa may have occurred much earlier than previously thought. While researchers have long known that the transport of seashells as ornaments and currency was common throughout the continent well before 7,000 years ago, the movement of non-native plants at such an early date was unexpected.

An Indian state governor has offered a $1 million reward to anyone who can prove definitively they've deciphered the script of the Indus Valley Civilization.

One of the oldest urban societies in history, the Indus Valley, or Harappan people began building settlements in the Indus River Valley in Pakistan/India 5,500 years ago.

They left behind a script and language that have yet to be deciphered, and M.K. Stalin, the Chief Minister (equivalent to a US governor) of Tamil Nadu, has offered a massive bounty to any codebreakers who are able to do so.

Mr. Stalin announced the prize after a recent scientific publication linked a variety of graffiti marks found on ancient Tamil pottery to the Harappan script, and believes there may be a connection with these two ancient lands.

If there were, it would be almost as remarkable a discovery as the ability to read the various seal stamps and symbols on Harappan artifacts, as Tamil Nadu is the southernmost state on the Indian subcontinent, thousands of miles away from the Harappan heartland.

Numerous efforts by linguistic scholars have been made to try and gain some understanding of how to read the language, but all have failed. According to the BBC, many modern IT workers and AI pioneers are contacting the government of Tamil Nadu claiming they have cracked to code, so to speak, but scholars are doubtful machine learning and algorithms alone can make any headway.

The total research base is around 4,000 inscribed or stamped artifacts of pottery, sandstone, and copper, consisting of around 68 symbols. Most of these bear only very brief inscriptions — between 5-6 characters — with the single longest measuring 34 symbols.

A remarkable 'underground city' was discovered under five historical houses in the ancient town of Abarkuh in Yazd province in central Iran.

Abarkuh is located in Yazd Province, Iran. The city is situated approximately 140 kilometers southwest of Yazd. It holds a significant historical and cultural position, lying within a "golden triangle" formed by the cities of Shiraz, Yazd, and Isfahan. This strategic location has made Abarkuh an important settlement throughout history.

Investigations are ongoing, with the potential for more underground structures to be found throughout the historic fabric of Abarkuh, including a newly discovered waterway made of carved stones.

These underground structures provide valuable insights into ancient construction techniques, water management, and daily life practices. Additionally, the findings emphasize the need for further research and preservation of Abarkuh's historical fabric.

Hossein Hatami, the governor of Abarkuh, announced the find in an interview, noting that the "underground city" was likely designed for ease of access, security, water transfer, and daily living. According to old aerial photographs of Abarkuh and subsequent investigations, it appears that in the past, residents built their homes and important places on rocky foundations.

In an exclusive interview with IRNA on Friday night, "Hossein Hatami" stated that the spaces between these rocky foundations were transformed into gardens by the ancestors. They had designed pathways beneath these rocky sections for ease of access, security, water transfer, and daily life.

Hatami emphasized that the presence of small stone chambers in the historic houses of Abarkuh, located beneath the rocky foundations, indicates functional significance in the past This has led to ongoing research and investigations, resulting in the discovery of an underground settlement.

Viktor Yushchenko launched the process of total Ukrainization, advocated close ties with NATO and a definitive break with Russia.

Two decades ago, on January 23, 2005, Viktor Yushchenko was inaugurated as president of Ukraine. He was the first Ukrainian leader to rise to power through mass protests - this happened after the Western-backed 'Orange Revolution', which shook the country in November 2004. Yushchenko had initially lost the presidential election, but his supporters set up a tent city in central Kiev and blocked the government district.

Foreign NGOs played a significant role in these events. The direct orchestrators of that color revolution included the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and its affiliates, the Soros Foundation, the International Republican Institute, the Eurasia Foundation, and several other foreign entities.

NGOs that directly supported Yushchenko and were involved in monitoring elections in Ukraine were foreign funded. In 2003, the International Renaissance Foundation, financed by Hungarian tycoon George Soros, spent nearly $1.5 million on projects related to the presidential election. Some of them successfully conducted exit polls and effectively presented to the public the idea that the victory of then-Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich had been the result of widespread election fraud.

Those who seized the government district in the capital were demanding the annulment of the election results. In response, the authorities accused the protesters of attempting a coup. With neither side willing to compromise, Yanukovich ultimately agreed to a third round of voting, which resulted in Yushchenko's victory. Ukrainian society was divided in two, and Yushchenko's policy laid the groundwork for a significant political crisis and the eventual war.

Russia intervened militarily in Ukraine to denazify the country. But, according to Westerners, there are no Nazis in Ukraine. Russia wants to invade and annex this country. This mutual incomprehension caused the Russian special operation to degenerate into open war. However, several identical facts, which have occurred in the Baltic countries since 2005 and in the European Parliament since 2016, demonstrate that this is not a misunderstanding, but a deliberate NATO strategy.

This mobilizes 53 states to oppose the adoption by the United Nations of a traditional resolution against the glorification of Nazism.

At the Liberation (that is to say at the end of the Second World War), Westerners were aware of the suffering caused by the ideologies according to which Humanity was divided into distinct races hierarchically arranged among themselves. Everyone understood that the assertion that these "races" could not mix and have fertile offspring was contradicted by the facts and had only been able to prevail thanks to intense propaganda.

From the creation of the United Nations and throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union and France ensured that each year the General Assembly adopted a resolution prohibiting Nazi propaganda and the glorification of this ideology. This ritual was forgotten with the dissolution of the USSR. Surprisingly, as of 2020, it has not been possible to reform consensus around this issue. Thus, 53 States opposed the last resolution to this effect, on December 17, 2024, and 10 abstained.

From Ancient Egypt to the Scandinavian Culture of the Viking Age, evidence of female autonomy and matriarchal political and social empowerment has been documented throughout time.

Now, a team of geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists from Bournemouth University have discovered compelling evidence that suggests Iron Age Britain may have been even more matriarchal than previously thought.

Dr. Lara Cassidy, an Assistant Professor in Trinity's Department of Genetics who led the study, was presented with the opportunity to sequence the DNA of 50 ancient genomes from burial grounds in Dorset, Southern England.

A few days before Remembrance Day, November 11, 2024, the Government of Canada announced that it will not release that portion of a report produced by the Commission of Inquiry into War Criminals in Canada (Deschênes Commission) that names 900 Canadians accused of war crimes committed on behalf of the Nazis.

Canada admitted these people and others after the Second World War, including many former members of the Waffen SS Galizien (Ukrainian).

We then learned that it was Global Affairs Canada which prevented Library and Archives Canada (LAC) from granting an access to information request to make these names public. According to the LAC spokesperson, the decision to keep the list sealed "was based on concerns regarding risk of harm to international relations."


The Globe and Mail, which along with others filed the access to information request, explained the decision this way: "Global Affairs has repeatedly warned about Russian President Vladimir Putin using disinformation to justify his invasion of Ukraine."

Remembrance Day? Or Suppression of Remembrance Day?

The chronic want of food and water, the lack of sanitation and medical help, the neglect of means of communication, the poverty of educational provision, the all-pervading spirit of depression that I have myself seen to prevail in our villages after over a hundred years of British rule make me despair of its beneficence. — Rabindranath Tagore

If the history of British rule in India were to be condensed to a single fact, it is this: there was no increase in India's per-capita income from 1757 to 1947.[1]

Churchill, explaining why he defended the stockpiling of food within Britain, while millions died of starvation in Bengal, told his private secretary that "the Hindus were a foul race, protected by their mere pullulation [Eng: 'the rapid increase in the number of individuals in a population,'] from the doom that is their due."[2]

Excavation of a Roman-era cemetery in France yielded nearly two dozen lead tablets inscribed in Latin and Gaulish.

Archaeologists in France have discovered dozens of Roman-era graves of men who were buried with "curse tablets," at least one of which was written in an extinct language.

Excavations underneath an 18th-century hospital in the town of Orléans, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of Paris, have revealed more than 60 burials arranged in a single row along a wall. The cemetery, which dates from the end of the first century to the beginning of the third century, was atypical for this time because the burials were dug in a row, there were no women or children, there were traces of painted wooden coffins, and there were no cremations. This could mean that the dead were from a particular group, such as members of the same profession, according to the Orléans Archaeology Service, which excavated the site.

Even more unusual was the discovery of 21 curse tablets, which are small, rolled-up lead plates with inscriptions on them.

At the outset of the nineteen eighties the State of Israel is in need of a new perspective as to its place, its aims and national targets, at home and abroad. This need has become even more vital due to a number of central processes which the country, the region and the world are undergoing. We are living today in the early stages of a new epoch in human history which is not at all similar to its predecessor, and its characteristics are totally different from what we have hitherto known. That is why we need an understanding of the central processes which typify this historical epoch on the one hand, and on the other hand we need a world outlook and an operational strategy in accordance with the new conditions. The existence, prosperity and steadfastness of the Jewish state will depend upon its ability to adopt a new framework for its domestic and foreign affairs.

This epoch is characterized by several traits which we can already diagnose, and which symbolize a genuine revolution in our present lifestyle. The dominant process is the breakdown of the rationalist, humanist outlook as the major cornerstone supporting the life and achievements of Western civilization since the Renaissance. The political, social and economic views which have emanated from this foundation have been based on several "truths" which are presently disappearing — for example, the view that man as an individual is the center of the universe and everything exists in order to fulfill his basic material needs. This position is being invalidated in the present when it has become clear that the amount of resources in the cosmos does not meet Man's requirements, his economic needs or his demographic constraints. In a world in which there are four billion human beings and economic and energy resources which do not grow proportionally to meet the needs of mankind, it is unrealistic to expect to fulfill the main requirement of Western Society, [1] i.e., the wish and aspiration for boundless consumption. The view that ethics plays no part in determining the direction Man takes, but rather his material needs do — that view is becoming prevalent today as we see a world in which nearly all values are disappearing. We are losing the ability to assess the simplest things, especially when they concern the simple question of what is Good and what is Evil.