Residents knew riches lay beneath because local fishermen had been collecting artefacts in their nets.
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Secret History
For 2000 years the ancient and decomposing hulk lay buried in deep, muddy waters, off the Italian coast. Everybody knew it was down there because for more than 80 years local fishermen had been collecting bits of Roman artefacts and pots in their nets. Finds of this nature are not unusual in Italian waters, which are littered with treasures going back thousands of years.
Residents knew riches lay beneath because local fishermen had been collecting artefacts in their nets.But these artefacts told a different story, and it was good enough to attract the interest of the archaeological community and a police commander who heads an expert diving squad in the city of Genoa.
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Residents knew riches lay beneath because local fishermen had been collecting artefacts in their nets.
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© Ministry of Defence
Remains of an Anglo Saxon warrior, buried with his spear and a bronze-bound drinking cup, after he was was discovered by modern soldiers on a rehabilitation programme.
Remains of an Anglo Saxon warrior, buried with his spear and a bronze-bound drinking cup, after he was was discovered by modern soldiers on a rehabilitation programme.
The haul astonished professionals from Wessex Archaeology, who led Operation Nightingale, an award-winning project to give soldiers new skills and interests as part of their rehabilitation. The excavation was expected to produce modest results, after earlier digs had turned up empty army ration packs and spent ammunition. Instead, they revealed their ancient counterparts, including an Anglo Saxon soldier buried with his spear and what must have been a treasured possession, a small wooden drinking cup decorated with bronze bands.
Mike Kelly, from 1 Rifles, found a skeleton with its head covered by a shield. He believes the position was a sign of respect to a fallen warrior. "I have been to war myself and I can imagine what the soldier would have felt as he went into battle. Knowing that as a modern-day warrior I have unearthed the remains of another fills me with an overwhelming sense of respect."
© L. Brian Stauffer
Residents of Cahokia, a massive pre-Columbian settlement near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, consumed "black drink" from special pottery vessels like this one. The drink made them vomit and was likely consumed during purification rituals.
Residents of Cahokia, a massive pre-Columbian settlement near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, consumed "black drink" from special pottery vessels like this one. The drink made them vomit and was likely consumed during purification rituals.
The ancient people may have downed the brew before ritual vomiting as part of purification ceremonies, the scientists added.
The discovery was made after investigating artifacts from Cahokia, "North America's first city," researcher Thomas Emerson, the director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, told LiveScience.
Cahokia existed near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers from about 1050 to 1350 in what is now in St. Louis, East St. Louis and the surrounding five counties, and inspired short-lived settlements as far away as Wisconsin.
The core of this society, Greater Cahokia, had as many as 50,000 residents in its heyday living amidst earthen mounds, some more than 100 feet (30 meters) in height, making it the largest prehistoric North American settlement north of Mexico.
Even after decades of research, archaeologists are at a loss to explain the sudden emergence of Greater Cahokia and its rapid decline, but its influences on art, religion and architecture are seen as far away as Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Wisconsin, Emerson said.
Marilyn mania in full swing on the eve of the 50th anniversary of her death, her FBI files are still mysteriously censored.
Like many of the stars of her era, Marilyn Monroe's movements, relationships and comments weren't just devoured by fans - they were followed closely by the FBI.
Records kept on Monroe, many of which were filed under "Foreign Counterintelligence," have intrigued many who have sought to learn more about the film star, including those who investigated her death.
In connection with the 50th anniversary of Monroe's death on 5 August, The Associated Press has attempted under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the most complete record of the bureau's monitoring of Monroe.
Nearly nine months later - after several requests and an appeal - obtaining a more complete record of how the FBI investigated Monroe in the months before she died have been stymied by an effort to simply find the files.
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.
© AP Photo/Courtesy Running Press
In this undated publicity photo courtesy Running Press, Marilyn Monroe is shown wearing a knife-pleated gold lamé gown made from “one complete circle of fabric.” She wore this dress in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. A half-century later, 50s bombshell Marilyn Monroe is a new generation's pop-culture phenomenon. Monroe died August 5, 1962.
In this undated publicity photo courtesy Running Press, Marilyn Monroe is shown wearing a knife-pleated gold lamé gown made from “one complete circle of fabric.” She wore this dress in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. A half-century later, 50s bombshell Marilyn Monroe is a new generation's pop-culture phenomenon. Monroe died August 5, 1962.
Records kept on Monroe, many of which were filed under "Foreign Counterintelligence," have intrigued many who have sought to learn more about the film star, including those who investigated her death.
In connection with the 50th anniversary of Monroe's death on 5 August, The Associated Press has attempted under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the most complete record of the bureau's monitoring of Monroe.
Nearly nine months later - after several requests and an appeal - obtaining a more complete record of how the FBI investigated Monroe in the months before she died have been stymied by an effort to simply find the files.
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.
© (Photo) Courtesy of Torquay Museum; (teeth, inset) Natural History Museum of London/Torquay Museum/University of Hull, Dept. of Engineering
Sloppy dig, uncertain date? Archaeologists have raised questions about the reliability of excavations conducted by Arthur Ogilvie (right, with white beard) at Kents Cavern, which could compromise radiocarbon dating of a human jawbone found there.
Sloppy dig, uncertain date? Archaeologists have raised questions about the reliability of excavations conducted by Arthur Ogilvie (right, with white beard) at Kents Cavern, which could compromise radiocarbon dating of a human jawbone found there.
Last year, researchers reported that an upper jaw found in the cave could be the oldest modern human fossil in Europe. But a new study questions that claim, arguing that the date of the jawbone may never be known with certainty. The controversy has an important bearing on debates about the spread of Homo sapiens out of Africa.
"One bad date can rewrite the entire prehistory of our species in Europe," says Paul Pettitt, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom and co-author of the new study, which is in press at the European Journal of Archaeology. But members of the original team, who published their dating results last year in Nature, have responded sharply to the criticisms.
The new study's conclusions, says Thomas Higham, a radiocarbon dating expert at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and lead author of the Nature paper, "expose a breathtaking ignorance of the [new] developments in scientific approaches to the past."
Kents Cavern has been excavated numerous times since the 1820s by some of the United Kingdom's most famous archaeologists. In 1927, Arthur Ogilvie, then curator of the Torquay Museum, discovered the partial jawbone, which includes three teeth.
Over the years, researchers have debated whether the fossil was that of a modern human or a Neandertal, as well as how old it was. In 1989, scientists at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit attempted to directly date the bone and came up with an age of approximately 35,000 years. (All dates in this story are calibrated to account for fluctuations in atmospheric radiocarbon over time.)
© piotreknik / Shutterstock
Traces of chocolate that were found on plate fragments could be evidence of a Mayan precursor for modern Mexican dishes like mole, the chocolate-based sauce served with chicken or beef.
Earlier this week, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History announced the discovery, which was based on artifacts taken from the Paso del Macho archaeological site in Yucatan in 2001.
"This is the first time it has been found on a plate used for serving food," archaeologist Tomas Gallareta said. "It is unlikely that it was ground there (on the plate), because for that they probably used metates (grinding stones)."
Fragments recovered from the site were tested by a joint team of scientists that included experts at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.
The chemical tests revealed a "ratio of theobromine and caffeine compounds that provide a strong indicator of cacao usage," according to a statement from the college.
© Zvi Lederman
The seal depicts a man with long hair fighting a large animal with a feline tail.
The seal depicts a man with long hair fighting a large animal with a feline tail.
Less than an inch in diameter, the seal depicts a man with long hair fighting a large animal with a feline tail.
The seal was excavated at the Tell Beit Shemesh site in the Judaean Hills near Jerusalem at a level that dates to roughly the 11th century BC.
Biblically speaking, this was during the time when the Jews were led by leaders known as Judges, one of whom was Samson.
The location where the stone seal was unearthed, close to the Sorek river that marked the ancient border between Israelite and Philistine territories, suggests the figure could represent the Biblical slayer of Philistines.
A character that jumped from the Old Testament into legend, Samson was given supernatural strength by God to overcome his enemies.
The strength, which Samson discovered after encountering a lion and ripping it apart with his bare hands, was contained in his long hair.
© Unknown
Unlike today, she argues, it was normal for men and women to show compassion for each other- and gender was not so clearly defined.
The researcher argues male bias in archaeology has distorted our understanding of how ancient peoples lived, in a new book published by Oxford University Press.
Of the 40 people buried in a "death pit" in South Eastern Turkey where she was part of an excavation team, there were equal numbers of men and women.
Her theory is also based, in part, by the find of a teenage girl's skull buried carefully by the pit, called Kim by the team.
The girl - between 15 and 17 years old - whose face has been reconstructed by Chris Rynn and Caroline Wilkinson, now at Dundee University with Stuart Campbell from The University of Manchester, was deeply cared for by the men and women who tended the site. The facial reconstruction creates an emotive picture of the girl who lived 7,500 years ago.
Kim was carefully placed next to the death pit. The pit contained the fragmented remains of around 40 people, along with animal remains, pottery, flint, obsidian, and other material culture. It also displays signs of cannibalism.
Though the finds to modern eyes are gruesome, Dr. Croucher says, they show a compassionate side to both Neolithic men and women.
© Unknown
Yucatan: The peninsula is a rich source of Mayan artefacts
Yucatan: The peninsula is a rich source of Mayan artefacts
Experts have long thought cacao beans and pods were mainly used in pre-Hispanic cultures as a beverage, made either by crushing the beans and mixing them with liquids or by fermenting the pulp that surrounds the beans in the pod. Such a drink was believed to have been reserved for the tribal elite.
But the discovery announced this week by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History expands the conception of how chocolate may have been used in ancient Mexico. It would also suggest that there may be ancient roots for traditional dishes eaten in Mexico today, such as mole, the chocolate-based sauce often served with meats.
© Courtesy Paola Villa, University of Colorado
Border Cave in South Africa was occupied by humans for tens of thousands of years.
Border Cave in South Africa was occupied by humans for tens of thousands of years.
A new analysis of artifacts from a cave in South Africa reveals that the residents were carving bone tools, using pigments, making beads and even using poison 44,000 years ago. These sorts of artifacts had previously been linked to the San culture, which was thought to have emerged around 20,000 years ago.
"Our research proves that the Later Stone Age emerged in South Africa far earlier than has been believed and occurred at about the same time as the arrival of modern humans in Europe," study researcher Paola Villa, a curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, said in a statement.
The Later Stone Age in Africa occurred at the same time as Europe's Upper Paleolithic Period, when modern humans moved into Europe from Africa and met the Neanderthals about 45,000 years ago.
"[T]he differences in technology and culture between the two areas are very strong, showing the people of the two regions chose very different paths to the evolution of technology and society," Villa said.
