https://www.sott.net/category/19-Secret-History Signs of the Times: The World for People who Think. Featuring independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events. en-us Original content Copyright 2026 by Signs of the Times/Sott.net. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net. Mon, 14 Sep 2026 20:54:49 +0000 https://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net https://www.sott.net https://www.sott.net/article/508390-Paul-Otlets-Mundaneu-The-internet-before-there-was-an-internet Comment: As this article is over ten years old, one may skip the overly optimistic paragraphs on the possibilities of the Web as as repository of knowledge. But carry on to Otlet's vision and his efforts to realize it. Fascinating! Belgian information activist Paul Otlet envisioned some of the possibilities of today's Web more than a century before its existence. More than a century ago, Belgian information activist Paul Otlet envisioned a universal compilation of knowledge and the technology to make it globally available. He foresaw, in other words, some of the possibilities of today's Web. Otlet's ideas provide an important pivot point in the history of recording knowledge and making it accessible. In classical times, the best-known example of the knowledge enterprise was the Library of Alexandria. This great repository of knowledge was built in the Egyptian city of Alexandria around 300 BCE by Ptolemy I and was destroyed between 48 BCE and 642 CE, supposedly by one or more... https://www.sott.net/article/508390-Paul-Otlets-Mundaneu-The-internet-before-there-was-an-internet Mon, 14 Sep 2026 20:54:12 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508366-Romanias-secret-CIA-prison-Two-decades-of-denial-and-unanswered-questions As the long-delayed 9/11 case moves towards trial, evidence of torture at a CIA black site in Bucharest is putting Romania's role in the 'war on terror' under scrutiny. Ammar al-Baluchi remembers the cold most of all. Held nearly naked in a cell lit around the clock by fluorescent bulbs, he referred to his detention "as if I was living in a refrigerator". The nephew of self-declared 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Baluchi was one of six to a dozen men believed to be held and tortured in a secret CIA prison in Bucharest between 2003 and 2005. The treatment of detainees at the facility, formally known as "Detention Site Black", is described in detail in Guantanamo court filings. Solitary confinement under lights that never switched off, sleep deprivation that at times meant being forced to stand shackled for days, repeated dousing with icy water, and forced shaving and physical handling that interrogators euphemistically logged as "attention grasps" and "facial holds" were... https://www.sott.net/article/508366-Romanias-secret-CIA-prison-Two-decades-of-denial-and-unanswered-questions Sun, 13 Sep 2026 20:23:40 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/124498-Mossad-and-Moving-Companies-Masterminds-of-Global-Terrorism June 2, 2003: The other day I was scanning the news reports and came across a rather mundane item that really got me to thinking. Cloudcroft chief stops Israelis with suspicious cargo By Michael Shinabery Staff Writer Alamogordo Daily News Cloudcroft, New Mexico -- That they were speeding through the school zone first got his attention. That they had Israeli driver's licenses and expired passports made him suspicious. Cloudcroft Police Chief Gene Green stopped the 2-ton van on Thursday, for speeding. Initially, Green thought the truck was commercial because of exterior markings. But when he found it was out of Chicago, he asked for documentation such as logs books and manifests. "They said this is a U-Haul truck and handed me a rental agreement (for) in-town delivery only in Illinois, (which) had expired two days before," Green said. He called for backup, and Otero County Sheriff's Deputy Billy Anders, who patrols the Sacramento Mountains, arrived, along with Capt. Norbert Sanchez... https://www.sott.net/article/124498-Mossad-and-Moving-Companies-Masterminds-of-Global-Terrorism Fri, 11 Sep 2026 18:43:09 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508343-Scientists-uncover-first-known-adult-T-rex-trackway-dating-back-66-5-million-years The first known trackway made by an adult Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) was recently discovered in southwestern North Dakota by a team of scientists. Paleontologists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Liverpool John Moores University in England, found four connected, large, three-toed footprints in the North Dakota badlands, not far from the Montana border. According to a paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the trackway is roughly 23 feet long, with the toes measuring around 3.3 feet long. The spacing between the prints indicates the dinosaur had a stride of about 13 feet and was likely walking at a speed of approximately 3.5 to 4.5 mph. Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science said: "Bones tell us an enormous amount about these animals, but footprints capture a moment of behavior. With a trackway, we can actually follow an animal as it moved across the landscape. That is incredibly rare... https://www.sott.net/article/508343-Scientists-uncover-first-known-adult-T-rex-trackway-dating-back-66-5-million-years Fri, 11 Sep 2026 18:35:23 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508318-Strange-bedfellows-What-palmistry-and-medicine-have-always-had-in-common Physicians reject palmistry as nonsense. But reading the creases of our palms for hidden meaning is what doctors have always done Signs of the future are marked in our hands, or so any palmist will declare. But do hands also hold signs of the past? Do they have a history? Over decades of research as a historian of medicine and of human bodies, I'd never imagined such a niche question. And then it was sparked in an instant, between one second and the next, in the time it takes to open a manila folder. For another project altogether I was in the UK to research the papers of Charlotte Wolff, a physician trained in Berlin in the 1920s and living in London in the late 1930s, a Jewish refugee. Opening a file labelled 'Zoo, 1938', I came across a massive, delicate palm print: it belonged to Mok, a lowland gorilla at London Zoo. Two days after Mok's death, the keeper had granted Wolff special permission to enter the morgue and collect a pattern that had been too dangerous to acquire in... https://www.sott.net/article/508318-Strange-bedfellows-What-palmistry-and-medicine-have-always-had-in-common Wed, 09 Sep 2026 22:04:58 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508317-Routine-yard-work-turns-up-a-trove-of-Viking-silver-largest-treasure-of-its-kind-ever-discovered-in-Denmark The collection includes coins, jewelry, silver bars and a tiny artifact shaped like Thor's hammer. Experts say the roughly 700 items were buried during the tenth century When a resident of northern Denmark started clearing their backyard, the plan was to install a new terrace. They expected a few hours of hard work. But after half an hour of digging, they came across something metallic: a trove of jewelry and coins. Located in the municipality of Rebild, the backyard revealed the largest hoard of Viking silver ever discovered in Denmark. According to a statement from North Jutland Museums, the treasure includes roughly 700 artifacts and weighs more than 40 pounds. Experts think these items were buried in the tenth century. "This is an exceptionally important Viking Age silver hoard," archaeologist Torben Sarauw, head of cultural heritage at North Jutland Museums, tells the Art Newspaper's Hadani Ditmars. "It provides a rare insight into the Viking Age silver economy, where silver... https://www.sott.net/article/508317-Routine-yard-work-turns-up-a-trove-of-Viking-silver-largest-treasure-of-its-kind-ever-discovered-in-Denmark Wed, 09 Sep 2026 21:07:37 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508293-Mysterious-medieval-settlement-discovered-residents-seemingly-packed-up-and-vanished Village's abandonment remains an enigma, with no signs of destruction or fire found Archaeologists recently uncovered the remains of a medieval village that was mysteriously abandoned in Germany — raising questions about why its residents packed up and left. The excavation at the Am Frevelgraben site in Halberstadt, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, revealed numerous traces of a medieval settlement, including parts of a multi-tiered ditch system. The State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt announced the findings on Aug. 24. Archaeologists began excavating the site in March ahead of the development of a nearby industrial park, officials said. https://www.sott.net/article/508293-Mysterious-medieval-settlement-discovered-residents-seemingly-packed-up-and-vanished Mon, 07 Sep 2026 22:11:01 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508264-Tracing-the-circulation-of-nearly-four-million-coins-reveal-how-Rome-achieved-economic-integration A study conducted at the University of São Paulo combined digital archaeology and data science to map the financial flows of the Roman Republic. The results suggest that the consolidation of Roman rule depended not only on military conquest but also on the economic integration of the territories under Roman control. For centuries, the study of ancient history relied primarily on interpreting classical texts and examining inscriptions and archaeological remains at their sites of origin or in museums. In recent years, however, a little-known transformation has profoundly changed this landscape. The digitization of extensive archaeological collections, coupled with the development of quantitative methods that can integrate millions of scattered records, is ushering in a new era of historical research. Like other scientific disciplines that have benefited from processing colossal amounts of information, archaeology and history have entered the era of data science. Two researchers from... https://www.sott.net/article/508264-Tracing-the-circulation-of-nearly-four-million-coins-reveal-how-Rome-achieved-economic-integration Sun, 06 Sep 2026 19:47:08 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508204-From-Utukku-to-UFOs-Mesopotamian-Demons-Revisited From Babylonian Exorcists to Enoch's Angels to the Cassiopaeans — Two Traditions, One Choice: Diagnose or Pray Comment: First published on the author's Substack - 'Letters From The Edge of Reality' - 23 August 2026 The previous three articles were preparatory to what I want to write about today. Let me give a brief recap to jog everyone's memory and get us on the same page. Introduction and Review In the first piece, Giants, Omens, and Signs, I mentioned at the beginning that Henryk Drawnel's paper on the Mesopotamian background of the Enochic giants and evil spirits pinged several things in my mind as I read it. Drawnel argued that the violent giants of 1 Enoch were deliberately modeled on Mesopotamian demons, especially the utukku type found in the bilingual exorcistic series Utukkū Lemnūtu. So the first thing I thought about was Van de Mieroop's book "Philosophy Before the Greeks" where he describes the Omen Texts. But in order to really get a handle on the Omen Texts, one needs... https://www.sott.net/article/508204-From-Utukku-to-UFOs-Mesopotamian-Demons-Revisited Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:44:11 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508192-The-historical-fascists-are-preparing-to-take-their-revenge Before our very eyes, the historical forces of fascism are reorganizing. The losers of World War II, those who massacred millions of Soviets, Chinese, and Jews, are once again in power in Japan, Israel, and Ukraine. They hope to take their revenge. It is up to us to denounce their preparations and prevent them from unleashing the apocalypse. The losers of World War II are demanding revenge. They have no interest in it. They just want to win and reorganize the world hierarchically, with themselves at the top. Here's what they have to say. For the "militarists," Japan never lost the war. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is a staunch supporter of the Emperor. Every August 15th, the anniversary of the surrender, she visits the Yasukuni Shrine. This shrine honors all those who gave their lives for the Emperor during the "Fifteen Years' War" — that is, the invasion of the Far East and World War II. She regularly pays her respects at the graves of those convicted of crimes against... https://www.sott.net/article/508192-The-historical-fascists-are-preparing-to-take-their-revenge Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:42:45 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508081-A-unique-11000-year-old-statue-of-a-human-sitting-on-a-leopard-unearthed-at-Karahantepe Archaeologists excavating Karahantepe in southeastern Türkiye have uncovered an approximately 11,000-year-old composite statue depicting a human figure seated on the back of a leopard, adding an unexpected new variation to the site's already remarkable repertoire of human-animal imagery. The 70-centimeter-tall sculpture was discovered during the 2026 excavation season and announced on August 25 by Türkiye's Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy. According to the announcement, the statue was found where it had apparently been left in antiquity, resting on a bench running along the wall of a structure measuring about three meters in diameter. The building had a floor paved with flat stones. Ersoy described the sculpture as displaying a style not previously encountered at Karahantepe. No detailed archaeological publication explaining the object's chronology, manufacturing technique or precise interpretation has yet accompanied the announcement, leaving its meaning open for... https://www.sott.net/article/508081-A-unique-11000-year-old-statue-of-a-human-sitting-on-a-leopard-unearthed-at-Karahantepe Tue, 25 Aug 2026 18:24:53 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508070-Britains-forgotten-proxy-war-against-Russia London armed Russia's enemies, promised them independence, and walked away when its imperial gamble collapsed. What is there in common between Ukrainians and the highlanders of the Caucasus, and what parallels can be drawn between Russia and Great Britain in the 19th century, and these same countries in the 21st century? In the 19th century, the British Empire fought against the Russian Empire using the highlanders in the Caucasus in a way that's very similar to how Britain is now using Ukrainians. In the 19th century, the Russian and British empires clashed fiercely over spheres of influence in the Caucasus. This geopolitical rivalry made use of all the means available at the time: wars between spies and diplomats, covert operations, arms smuggling, ideological battles, and active media propaganda. Read more about the confrontation between Russia and Britain, the secret operations in the Caucasus, and the lessons that those who now place their trust in Britain should draw from... https://www.sott.net/article/508070-Britains-forgotten-proxy-war-against-Russia Mon, 24 Aug 2026 20:21:26 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/508061-Object-mistaken-for-an-animal-tooth-bead-turns-out-to-be-a-6500-year-old-human-tooth-pendant A small object from a Neolithic site in Serbia, long classified as an animal-tooth bead, has turned out to be something far more unusual: a carefully modified human canine that was likely worn as a pendant more than 6,500 years ago. The tooth came from Jablanica, a Late Neolithic settlement south of Belgrade associated with the Vinča culture. Researchers Nemanja Marković of the Institute of Archaeology in Belgrade and Ana Maričić of the Belgrade City Museum identified it as a human upper right canine after reexamining an object that had remained in the Museum of Mladenovac collection for nearly two decades. Their study, published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, found clear evidence that the tooth had been deliberately shaped, drilled and suspended. More unusually, the researchers argue that it was probably obtained after its owner had died and the body had already become skeletonized. A Human Tooth Hidden in a Museum Collection The object was originally recovered... https://www.sott.net/article/508061-Object-mistaken-for-an-animal-tooth-bead-turns-out-to-be-a-6500-year-old-human-tooth-pendant Mon, 24 Aug 2026 02:32:35 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507940-Did-Assyrians-invent-the-telescope-2700-years-ago-The-mystery-of-the-Nimrud-lens More than 2,700 years ago, someone in ancient Assyria carefully ground and polished a small piece of rock crystal, leaving it with one flat face and another slightly convex. The object, now known as the Nimrud Lens, can focus light and even provide crude magnification — properties that have led to a much larger and more controversial question: could the Assyrians have experimented with telescopic observation long before the telescope appeared in early modern Europe? The possibility sounds extraordinary. The earliest documented telescope is generally associated with the Netherlands in 1608, when spectacle maker Hans Lippershey sought a patent for an instrument that made distant objects appear closer. Yet the Nimrud Lens was manufactured between about 750 and 710 BC, more than two millennia earlier. That enormous chronological gap has helped turn a small archaeological artifact into one of the most debated objects in the history of ancient optics. The evidence shows that the crystal... https://www.sott.net/article/507940-Did-Assyrians-invent-the-telescope-2700-years-ago-The-mystery-of-the-Nimrud-lens Sat, 15 Aug 2026 20:55:14 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507914-3500-year-old-Linear-A-prayer-may-reveal-Minoan-roots-of-Dionysus-and-Demeter A tiny stone offering table from a Minoan mountaintop sanctuary may preserve something far larger than its size suggests: possible evidence that Dionysus and Demeter had religious predecessors on Crete centuries before they became familiar gods of the Greek world. The object, known as IO Za 2, carries one of the longest surviving examples of the mysterious Linear A script. In a new study, researcher Michael Schümann proposes that its damaged inscription can be reconstructed as a structured ritual prayer naming divine figures he identifies as early forms of Dionysus and Demeter. If that interpretation withstands scrutiny, the implications would extend well beyond the decipherment of a single Bronze Age inscription. It would suggest that at least some elements later associated with two major Greek deities were not created entirely within Greek religion, but developed from much older Minoan religious traditions. That remains a significant "if." Linear A has never been securely... https://www.sott.net/article/507914-3500-year-old-Linear-A-prayer-may-reveal-Minoan-roots-of-Dionysus-and-Demeter Fri, 14 Aug 2026 18:41:37 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507897-10000-year-old-rectangular-buildings-unearthed-at-Gobeklitepe-may-have-been-homes Archaeologists working at Göbeklitepe in southeastern Türkiye have uncovered rectangular buildings just beneath the surface in a newly opened excavation area, offering fresh evidence about how people may have lived at one of the world's most important Neolithic sites. The structures belong to what researchers describe as the second phase of occupation at Göbeklitepe. Unlike the site's better-known monumental buildings dominated by massive T-shaped stone pillars, the newly exposed spaces contain fewer pillars and may have served a more domestic purpose. The discovery was made in a new excavation zone north of Göbeklitepe's main protected archaeological area. According to excavation director Prof. Dr. Necmi Karul, archaeologists began working across an area of roughly 1,500 square meters after olive trees growing there were carefully relocated. The team is excavating horizontally across a broad surface before moving into deeper archaeological layers, a strategy intended to reveal how... https://www.sott.net/article/507897-10000-year-old-rectangular-buildings-unearthed-at-Gobeklitepe-may-have-been-homes Thu, 13 Aug 2026 19:55:38 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507764-Child-burial-discovered-beneath-the-Temple-of-Zeus-in-Crimea-Was-it-a-sacrifice A skull shaped by disease, a temple built to face the sunrise, and a 2,000-year-old mystery about a child who may have been sacrificed or simply mourned. On the windswept steppe of eastern Crimea, where the ruins of the ancient fortress-city of Artezian have slept beneath the earth for over two millennia, archaeologists have just uncovered something that has never been documented at the site before: the remains of an infant, buried directly beneath the foundation of a sacred temple, in what may be evidence of a ritual sacrifice dating back roughly 2,100 years. The find comes from the 40th field season of the Artezian Archaeological Expedition (AAE), and researchers are calling it the first discovery of its kind for the classical period anywhere on this stretch of the Crimean Azov coast. A Burial Hidden in the Foundation The tiny skeleton was found tucked beneath an altar table, right at the base of the north wall of the Temple of Zeus Genarchos and Soter — a name that roughly... https://www.sott.net/article/507764-Child-burial-discovered-beneath-the-Temple-of-Zeus-in-Crimea-Was-it-a-sacrifice Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:55:58 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507749-How-Christian-Europe-learned-to-fear-the-forest-and-the-beasts-within Exploring Medieval Europeans' evolving relationship with the wilderness Europe is not a continent of deserts, but in the early Middle Ages, Europeans began to assimilate biblical notions of the wilderness by applying the same philosophy to a regionally appropriate context: the forest. In the absence of the arid, rocky deserts of the Middle East, early Christians looked instead to a tangle of trees and briars growing up outside their lonely settlements and recognized some unifying, shape-shifting quality. Though to modern eyes these landscapes might seem a world apart, to medieval monks the linguistic parallels were obvious. Early Latin translations of the Bible from the fourth century onwards used terms like desertum and solitudo in their depiction of the wilderness trials of the prophets — that is, emphasizing their empty, uninhabited qualities over climatic ones. And there was a lot of deserted land in medieval Europe. After the withdrawal of the Roman Empire from much of western... https://www.sott.net/article/507749-How-Christian-Europe-learned-to-fear-the-forest-and-the-beasts-within Tue, 04 Aug 2026 22:02:42 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507740-Study-uncovers-lost-golden-age-of-languages A new study coauthored by Yale linguist Claire Bowern suggests that tens of thousands of languages were spoken between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago. A linguistic "golden age" flourished between 1,000 to 3,000 years ago when tens of thousands of languages were spoken throughout the world, according to a new study coauthored by Yale linguist Claire Bowern that traces trajectories in global language diversity over the past 12,000 years. The golden age was followed by a period of rapid decline in linguistic diversity that coincided with the rise of large states and multinational empires, such as the Roman Empire, the researchers found. The finding challenges a commonly held view that widespread language extinction began later, about 500 years ago, with the onset of European colonial expansion. The languages of expanding states and empires were disproportionately likely to survive while those of absorbed, displaced, or declining populations disappeared, the researchers concluded. This... https://www.sott.net/article/507740-Study-uncovers-lost-golden-age-of-languages Tue, 04 Aug 2026 19:52:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507718-The-Underground-Nation-returns-Switzerlands-new-war-time-shelter-strategy The "one shelter per citizen" doctrine returns as Europe militarizes. Civilian infrastructure, stockpiles, and daily life are now being reorganized for war. When Switzerland is mentioned, images of the Alps, postcard-perfect landscapes, and the famous cartoon character Heidi usually come to mind. Yet beneath the surface lies one of the world's most complex underground networks. Built upon the Cold War-era principle of "one shelter place for every citizen" (Jeder Einwohnerin und jedem Einwohner ein Schutzplatz) and the Swiss Army's "National Redoubt" (Réduit) strategy, the country developed a vast underground infrastructure. After the end of the Cold War, the underground fortresses (Schweizer Reduit) hidden beneath the Swiss Alps and mountains lost much of their military importance. A large part of these facilities was declassified, opened for civilian use, sold, or transformed into museums. The main reason was the enormous cost of maintaining them. Similarly, in urban areas,... https://www.sott.net/article/507718-The-Underground-Nation-returns-Switzerlands-new-war-time-shelter-strategy Mon, 03 Aug 2026 18:16:12 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507621-This-man-defied-Britain-France-and-Israel-and-his-legacy-still-animates-Africa Gamal Abdel Nasser proved that true independence is won through active solidarity When Gamal Abdel Nasser led the Free Officers Movement to power in 1952, Africa's political landscape was mostly vacant - with independent nations limited to Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, and apartheid-ruled South Africa. Yet, by his death in September 1970, more than 40 African countries had achieved sovereignty. This monumental shift was no coincidence. Under Nasser, Cairo transformed into the hub of global anti-colonialism - a diplomatic base and logistics center for liberation struggles from Algeria's National Liberation Front (FLN) to movements in the Congo, Angola, and Southern Africa. By exporting the ideals of the July 23 Revolution, Egypt helped engineer Africa's decolonization wave, anchoring a Pan-African momentum that forged the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and championed a multipolar world order through the Non-Aligned Movement. Marking its 74th anniversary today, the legacy of... https://www.sott.net/article/507621-This-man-defied-Britain-France-and-Israel-and-his-legacy-still-animates-Africa Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:47:38 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507594-From-cash-to-trash-rinse-and-repeat The Continental dollar, born in 1775, was meant to finance the colonies' fight against Britain — the American Revolution. What it actually financed was a masterclass in how quickly a currency can evaporate when it has no anchor, no credible backing, and no one willing to stop the printing presses. Hundreds of millions of Continental notes were issued with nothing but the promise of future redemption in gold or silver — which the colonies did not possess in sufficient quantity. As wartime expenses mounted and the conflict dragged on, the colonies' solution was a time-honored tactic. Just dig yourself a deeper financial hole by printing more currency. When confidence in the Continental buck inevitably collapsed, merchants demanded ever-larger stacks of paper for the same goods. By 1781, a barrel of flour that once cost a few Continental dollars cost hundreds or thousands. The exchange rate against silver reached the point where it took five hundred to a thousand Continentals to buy a... https://www.sott.net/article/507594-From-cash-to-trash-rinse-and-repeat Sat, 25 Jul 2026 16:22:05 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507558-New-evidence-reveals-a-25000-year-old-center-of-magic-healing-and-ritual-in-Australia For at least 25,000 years, people entered Cloggs Cave carrying plants. They did not appear to bring the grasses solely for food, warmth or ordinary domestic work. Instead, new microscopic evidence suggests that whole plants were deliberately gathered, transported into the secluded cave and burned in repeated, low-temperature fires — activities that strengthen the interpretation of Cloggs Cave as a place reserved for ritual specialists, healing practices and spiritual power. Located in GunaiKurnai Country in southeastern Australia, Cloggs Cave preserves one of the continent's longest archaeological records of relationships between people and plants. A new study published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology examined phytoliths — microscopic silica structures formed inside plants — preserved in deposits spanning approximately 25,000 years. The results point toward something far more complex than a shelter where people simply cooked, slept or sought protection from the weather. https://www.sott.net/article/507558-New-evidence-reveals-a-25000-year-old-center-of-magic-healing-and-ritual-in-Australia Wed, 22 Jul 2026 23:34:02 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507517-Ancient-Romes-strange-hair-law-Long-locks-out-bald-heads-in In late antique Rome, a bad hair day could become a legal matter. In AD 416, emperors Honorius and Theodosius II prohibited long hair inside Rome and its surrounding districts — at roughly the same time that an influential philosopher was portraying bald men as healthier, wiser, and altogether more trustworthy. The unusual connection between Roman hairstyle laws and the ancient Eulogy of Baldness is examined by historian Javier Arce in a study published in the journal Pyrenae. His research suggests that Rome's long-hair ban was not simply an eccentric attempt to regulate personal grooming. It formed part of a wider struggle over status, public order and the growing popularity of fashions associated with peoples the Romans called "barbarians." Rome's 1,600-year-old long hair ban The law was issued on December 12, AD 416, from Ravenna, where Emperor Honorius was then based. It ordered that no one be permitted to wear "longer locks" within the sacred city of Rome. Long hair was not... https://www.sott.net/article/507517-Ancient-Romes-strange-hair-law-Long-locks-out-bald-heads-in Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:25:19 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507509-A-chorus-of-poets-On-the-possible-existence-of-multiple-Homers Henry Power Considers Theories on the Authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey Dawn touches the sky with her rosy fingers, and I realize that I forgot to put the bin out. I turn on the radio, and the news is full of stories about powerful men with fragile egos catapulting the world into chaos, and about human beings who endure under impossible circumstances. The stories are familiar from two poems I first read when I was eight years old, written (or so I was told) by a blind man named Homer. I have thought about those poems every day since. Homer is already on my mind as I drag the bin onto the street, and Homer will still be on my mind when night comes, the tamer of gods and men. I teach literature at a university, so it's impossible to escape Homer in my working life: echoes of the Iliad and the Odyssey can be found everywhere in the literature of the English-speaking world, and beyond. But I see their traces everywhere, not just in the poems and novels I discuss with my students.... https://www.sott.net/article/507509-A-chorus-of-poets-On-the-possible-existence-of-multiple-Homers Sun, 19 Jul 2026 22:00:23 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507500-Underwater-ruins-off-Louisiana-have-revived-the-theory-of-a-12000-year-old-lost-city Federal scientists investigating submerged terrain off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana have documented seafloor features consistent with ancient shorelines and river channels that existed when sea levels were far lower, raising pointed questions about whether humans occupied those lands as early as 13,000 years ago. The research, carried out through NOAA's Paleolandscapes expedition and supported by Bureau of Ocean Energy Management survey mandates, has given new life to long-debated claims of a "lost city" beneath the Gulf of Mexico. No confirmed artifacts or built structures have been recovered so far, but the geophysical data now in hand has narrowed the search area enough to make targeted verification possible for the first time. Why submerged Gulf shorelines demand attention right now The tension is straightforward: offshore energy leasing in the Gulf is expanding at the same time that federal law requires protection of possible archaeological sites before drilling can... https://www.sott.net/article/507500-Underwater-ruins-off-Louisiana-have-revived-the-theory-of-a-12000-year-old-lost-city Sun, 19 Jul 2026 20:22:37 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507496-The-strange-death-of-James-V-Forrestal-the-first-US-Secretary-of-Defense Did Israel start its serial assassination campaigns of its American opponents much earlier than we assume? I have always enjoyed reading a wide variety of books on somewhat arcane subjects. Many are triggered by references from other books, and they form a sort of chain reaction. Around 10 years ago, I read Webster Griffin Tarpley's book 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, my first exposure to alternative 9/11 theories of what truly happened in 2001. Tarpley's book led me to David Ray Griffin's The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11. I subsequently read perhaps 30 books on the subject such as Kevin Ryan's Another Nineteen: Investigating Legitimate 9/11 Suspects, Chris Bollyn's Solving 9/11: The Deception That Changed the World, Jim Fetzer's The 9/11 Conspiracy - the Scamming of America, and more. Griffin's New Pearl Harbor further led me to Peter Dale Scott's The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War as well as his books... https://www.sott.net/article/507496-The-strange-death-of-James-V-Forrestal-the-first-US-Secretary-of-Defense Sun, 19 Jul 2026 18:12:12 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/464264-They-used-axes-to-spare-the-ammo-How-modern-Ukraines-Nazi-heroes-massacred-civilians-during-WWII The Second World War is usually seen as a confrontation between giant military alliances. However, in reality, many smaller separate conflicts unfolded within this epic war, and the struggle between peoples and countries was often conducted without compromise or mercy. One of the darkest and least-known pages of the Second World War is the Volyn massacre - an ethnic cleansing carried out by pro-Nazi Ukrainian nationalist groups in the Volyn region, which is now almost entirely part of Ukraine. Volhynia has historically been a border zone. These swampy forests were part of Russia in the Middle Ages and later became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - the Polish state in its heyday. The partitioning of Poland brought Volhynia into the Russian Empire. After the First World War, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Russian Civil War, Volhynia was once again part of an independent Poland. In short, this region, although a bit of a backwater, has changed hands often. https://www.sott.net/article/464264-They-used-axes-to-spare-the-ammo-How-modern-Ukraines-Nazi-heroes-massacred-civilians-during-WWII Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:53:05 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507373-Crimes-against-humanity-The-CIAs-sickest-secret-may-finally-be-exposed New MKULTRA hearings have reopened questions about victims, destroyed files, and experiments America never answered for A decorated US Air Force serviceman with no history of violence suddenly abducted, raped and murdered a three-year-old girl. When a search party found Jimmy Shaver wandering near San Antonio, Texas, he appeared to be in a trance, unable to explain where he was or how he had gotten there. After his arrest, he reportedly failed to recognize his own wife when she visited him in jail. Until the moment he was executed four years later, Shaver insisted he had no memory of committing the crime for which he had been sentenced to death. More than seventy years later, some researchers believe his case may have been linked to one of the CIA's darkest Cold War programs: MKULTRA, the covert project that sought to manipulate, erase and ultimately control the human mind through drugs, hypnosis and psychological experimentation. https://www.sott.net/article/507373-Crimes-against-humanity-The-CIAs-sickest-secret-may-finally-be-exposed Sat, 11 Jul 2026 20:41:27 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507370-Uncovering-three-new-kings-of-Assyria A new study co-written by Yale's Eckart Frahm provides evidence that the ancient kingdom of Assyria had three more kings than previously thought. Imagine, if you will, that an industrious scholar has unearthed credible evidence of a missing monarch in the accepted historical line of succession of the British crown. Another Elizabeth who ruled for a brief period, perhaps. Or a Charles III who preceded the current king, effectively making him Charles IV. Such a finding would shake up the popular understanding of how the crown has been passed down over the ages and leave scholars with a whole new set of questions about the British monarchy. New research into the ancient Assyrian kingdom promises to be similarly disruptive for the world of Assyriologists. A study by Yale's Eckart Frahm and Alexander Johannes Edmonds, of the University of Münster, in Germany, provides evidence for three previously unknown Assyrian kings who ruled for brief periods in the 10th and 8th centuries B.C.E.... https://www.sott.net/article/507370-Uncovering-three-new-kings-of-Assyria Sat, 11 Jul 2026 17:18:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507254-Declaration-of-Independence-copy-seized-by-British-navy-in-1776-uncovered-in-Londons-National-Archives Listed simply as "another paper" in the Royal Navy inventory, the Declaration remained buried in British archives for 250 years. A rare copy of the Declaration of Independence lost for 250 years has been discovered in London, where it is the only known example of its kind outside the U.S. Printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, just days after the Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776, the document was intended to spread news of American independence throughout the American colonies. The early copy remained tucked away in Britain's National Archives until a volunteer cataloging records from the American Revolutionary War came across it in May among the papers of Royal Navy captains. Only 11 copies of the so-called Exeter printing are known to survive, and until this discovery, none had been found outside the U.S., Britain's National Archives said in a news release Thursday. https://www.sott.net/article/507254-Declaration-of-Independence-copy-seized-by-British-navy-in-1776-uncovered-in-Londons-National-Archives Sat, 04 Jul 2026 19:30:12 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507249-Studebaker-The-rise-and-fall-of-a-US-industrial-dream-and-a-forgotten-alliance Despite geopolitical disagreements and the fading of history, human connection and a shared memory of the losses and cooperation during the war — symbolized by the American "Studebaker" truck — can transcend the decades and bring people together. A Russian general who had driven "Studers" through the mud of a war that ate his generation whole gave an American stranger a bear hug because the stranger understood, in Russian, what had been lost and what had been shared. There is a moment, small and human, that cuts through decades of geopolitical noise like a blade through fog. In April 2015, in Moscow, Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who spent 27 years briefing American presidents, attended a ceremony hosted by the Russians. This event marked the 70th anniversary of the Meeting on the Elbe. In April 1945, American and Soviet troops joined hands on a bridge in Germany, realizing together that the war was nearly over. McGovern had recited Nekrasov's devastating anti-war poem in both... https://www.sott.net/article/507249-Studebaker-The-rise-and-fall-of-a-US-industrial-dream-and-a-forgotten-alliance Sat, 04 Jul 2026 18:48:13 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507239-Egypt-uncovers-a-complete-Byzantine-city-in-the-Dakhla-Oasis Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered a mudbrick residential settlement at Ain el-Sabil in the Dakhla Oasis, revealing a planned Late Roman or early Byzantine community with streets, houses, a basilica church, defensive structures, written documents, and coins. The discovery was announced by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities after excavations by an Egyptian mission affiliated with the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The site lies in New Valley Governorate, in Egypt's Western Desert, where the oases preserve some of the clearest archaeological evidence for daily life outside the Nile Valley during Late Antiquity. A planned mudbrick settlement in the Western Desert According to the ministry's statement, all of the newly uncovered buildings were made of mudbrick. The settlement follows an organized urban plan, with main streets running north to south and smaller cross-streets running east to west. These created open spaces and squares within the settlement, while a... https://www.sott.net/article/507239-Egypt-uncovers-a-complete-Byzantine-city-in-the-Dakhla-Oasis Fri, 03 Jul 2026 21:02:02 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507144-French-archaeologist-cracks-4000-year-old-Elamite-script-from-Iran TEHRAN - French archaeologist François Desset has decoded the 4,000-year-old Linear Elamite writing system from ancient Iran, unlocking one of the last undeciphered scripts of the ancient Near East after years of research. Desset, a researcher at the University of Liège in Belgium, said his breakthrough came after studying newly accessible inscriptions on ancient silver vases from the Mahboubian Collection in London. The additional texts enabled him to identify recurring royal names that provided the key to understanding the script, according to France 24. Linear Elamite, a writing system consisting of 77 geometric signs, was used during the Bronze Age by the Elamite civilization, which flourished in what is now southwestern Iran. The script was first rediscovered in 1903 during French archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Susa but remained undeciphered for more than a century because of the limited number of surviving inscriptions. Desset said his interest in the... https://www.sott.net/article/507144-French-archaeologist-cracks-4000-year-old-Elamite-script-from-Iran Mon, 29 Jun 2026 03:49:00 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507111-WTF-happened-in-1971 Wanna see something weird? Get a load of this: Not so weird? OK, how about this? Not getting it yet? Then try this! Are you starting to get the picture? Then, feast your eyes on this: And this: And even this: https://www.sott.net/article/507111-WTF-happened-in-1971 Sat, 27 Jun 2026 17:36:45 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507091-4000-year-old-sealed-cuneiform-letters-from-Anatolia-read-without-breaking-their-clay-envelopes 4,000-year-old sealed cuneiform letters from ancient Anatolia have been read without breaking their clay envelopes, thanks to a mobile X-ray CT scanner designed to bring advanced imaging directly into museum collections. The study, published in npj Heritage Science, marks an important step for Assyriology and cultural heritage science. Many cuneiform tablets from Southwest Asia remain sealed inside clay envelopes, making their texts inaccessible unless the outer shell is destroyed. For decades, that was the only way to read them. It also meant losing seal impressions and other traces left by the people who sent, handled, and protected the documents. https://www.sott.net/article/507091-4000-year-old-sealed-cuneiform-letters-from-Anatolia-read-without-breaking-their-clay-envelopes Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:24:23 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507065-How-the-crossword-conquered-America-and-reigns-even-to-this-day They're old fashioned. They were never supposed to be this popular. I saw why they're only getting bigger. Even in a boom time for games, the decidedly old-fashioned puzzles are more popular than ever. I went to the best place on Earth to understand why. What are puzzles for? They boom at times of trouble. During the 1930s, the New York Times dithered about whether to make its crossword puzzle a regular, serious feature of the paper. Then came the attack on Pearl Harbor. Margaret Farrar became the paper's first crossword puzzle editor after writing to the Times' publisher in the aftermath of the attack. "I don't think I have to sell you on the increased demand for this type of pastime in an increasingly worried world," she wrote. "You can't think of your troubles while solving a crossword." The first crossword had been written a few decades earlier, by a Liverpool-born man called Arthur Wynne, and published in the New York World newspaper in 1913. Wynne thought he ought to patent... https://www.sott.net/article/507065-How-the-crossword-conquered-America-and-reigns-even-to-this-day Wed, 24 Jun 2026 21:17:07 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507059-The-American-Revolution-and-the-danger-of-standing-armies Among the key men involved in the American Revolution and the following periods, we find an oft-repeated concern that may seem foreign to us today — the threat of standing armies. This was a heritage of British legal thought and history, and it became an underappreciated part of American political thought and experience. Why were peacetime standing armies viewed as such a threat? To many Americans of this period, peacetime standing armies posed a threat not only because they could be used by the state to overthrow liberty, but because they tended to reshape society and government itself. A permanent military establishment could develop interests distinct from those of the people, become an instrument for enforcing unpopular or unconstitutional policies, and concentrate power in the hands of central authorities. Standing armies also required permanent taxation, debt, and bureaucracy, fostering what later historians would call a fiscal-military state. This process also creates vested... https://www.sott.net/article/507059-The-American-Revolution-and-the-danger-of-standing-armies Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:04:05 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507013-Enormous-2000-year-old-luxurious-Roman-bathhouse-uncovered-in-the-Netherlands Archaeologists working in the Dutch city of Nijmegen have uncovered the largest Roman bathhouse complex ever found in the Netherlands. The structure stood in Ulpia Noviomagus, a Roman city along the River Waal, and covered at least 4,900 square meters. The size of the complex points to the importance of Nijmegen during the Roman period. Teams from RAAP and BAAC began excavations in September at a redevelopment site in the Waalfront district, an area once occupied by industrial buildings. Their work exposed far more than a bathhouse. Researchers identified streets, residential blocks, large houses, and a tower, allowing them to reconstruct part of a prosperous urban neighborhood from the second and third centuries CE. The bath complex was much larger than similar public bathhouses known elsewhere in the Netherlands. The bathhouse at Forum Hadriani, near modern Voorburg, covered about 2,200 square meters. The one at Coriovallum, in present-day Heerlen, measured around 2,500 square... https://www.sott.net/article/507013-Enormous-2000-year-old-luxurious-Roman-bathhouse-uncovered-in-the-Netherlands Mon, 22 Jun 2026 14:33:46 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507000-The-world-government-that-wasn-t In 1961 Washington and Moscow agreed to abolish war. Then the men who meant it died. There are certain episodes in Cold War history that modern conservatives are expected to treat as either sinister fantasy or liberal delusion. The McCloy-Zorin Accords of 1961 occupy a curious place. Explain the concept today and half of the audience assumes you are describing a proto-globalist fever dream hatched in Manhattan conference rooms full of Scandinavian furniture and earnest men in rimless spectacles. Yet for a brief moment — and this is the part that ought to unsettle both the utopians and the cynics — the United States and the Soviet Union formally agreed that the ultimate goal of international politics should be the abolition of war itself. Not metaphorically. Literally. The "Joint Statement of Agreed Principles for Disarmament Negotiations," better known as the McCloy-Zorin Accords, was negotiated between American statesman John J. McCloy and Soviet diplomat Valerian Zorin in... https://www.sott.net/article/507000-The-world-government-that-wasn-t Sun, 21 Jun 2026 19:18:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506988-The-Middle-Ages-enlightenment-and-propaganda It's often seemingly hopeless to try to convince people that the Middle Ages was anything other than the caricature often found in popular culture and eighteenth-century commentary. As historian Ralph Raico has noted, other than the Industrial Revolution, there is probably no historical topic in which the general public is more propagandized and more generally wrong than the topic of the Middle Ages. Raico has described how no matter how often he told his students that medieval princes and kings were subject to the law, and constrained in their powers by a variety of religious and political institutions, his students overwhelmingly stated in exams that medieval lords ruled as autocrats. Although the general public still thinks of the Middle Ages in terms of images from popular culture, actual historians have long since moved on. This is partly why historians virtually never use the term "the Dark Ages" anymore. And if the term is used, it refers only to the early Middle Ages, due... https://www.sott.net/article/506988-The-Middle-Ages-enlightenment-and-propaganda Sat, 20 Jun 2026 19:50:58 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506958-Stonehenges-solar-alignment-may-be-older-than-we-thought Radiocarbon dated to around 5,000 years ago, the discovery reveals evidence for the earliest known alignment with the solstice in the Stonehenge landscape. As thousands flock to Stonehenge ahead of summer solstice celebrations on June 21, a team from Wessex Archaeology led by Phil Harding has announced the discovery of an ancient structure that may have served as an early 'prototype' for the alignment with the solstice at Stonehenge. Radiocarbon dated to around 5,000 years ago, the discovery reveals evidence for the earliest known alignment with the solstice in the Stonehenge landscape, showing that ancient people were using this feat of astronomical engineering to celebrate the solstice here at least 500 years before the alignment of the stones at Stonehenge. Located 5km from Stonehenge in Bulford, Wiltshire, the site is contemporary with the earliest phase of Stonehenge when the first earthworks were built. Excavated as part of the Ministry of Defence's Army Basing Programme, the... https://www.sott.net/article/506958-Stonehenges-solar-alignment-may-be-older-than-we-thought Fri, 19 Jun 2026 03:43:28 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506740-New-study-links-Gobekli-Tepes-vulture-stone-to-Europes-Trypillia-culture A new study compares the carved symbolism of Göbekli Tepe's Vulture Stone with ritual imagery from the Trypillia culture, suggesting that early farming societies in Anatolia and Eastern Europe may have shared cosmological ideas about time, death, sacred space and the movement of the heavens. At Göbekli Tepe, the famous Vulture Stone has never been easy to read. Its carved birds, snakes, scorpion, abstract signs and headless human figure have inspired competing interpretations for decades. Was it a scene of death ritual, an astronomical code, a mythic narrative, or something more complex? A new study argues that the answer may not lie in choosing one explanation over another, but in seeing the pillar as part of a wider symbolic system linking architecture, timekeeping and cosmology across early farming societies. A new reading of one of Göbekli Tepe's most debated pillars The study, published in the International Journal of Culture and History by Oleksandr Zavalii, focuses on the... https://www.sott.net/article/506740-New-study-links-Gobekli-Tepes-vulture-stone-to-Europes-Trypillia-culture Sun, 07 Jun 2026 03:57:27 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506721-Archaeologists-excavating-a-Spanish-monastery-have-identified-the-remains-of-a-14th-century-queen The tomb of Elisenda of Montcada has long fascinated experts. But the team was surprised to learn that burials supposedly belonging to a medieval knight and abbess held entirely different individuals The tomb of Elisenda of Montcada has long fascinated experts. But the team was surprised to learn that burials supposedly belonging to a medieval knight and abbess held entirely different individuals Elisenda of Montcada founded the Royal Monastery of St. Mary of Pedralbes in 1327. She was buried there after her death in 1364. Culture Institute of Barcelona When Elisenda of Montcada, the onetime queen of the Kingdom of Aragon, died in 1364, she was buried in a marble sepulcher in what is now Barcelona, Spain. One side of the tomb pays tribute to her royal status, while the other alludes to her later years as a devout widow living in a monastic community. https://www.sott.net/article/506721-Archaeologists-excavating-a-Spanish-monastery-have-identified-the-remains-of-a-14th-century-queen Fri, 05 Jun 2026 20:00:48 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506717-Study-details-epic-transportation-of-Stonehenge-stone-across-ancient-Britain New research by Curtin University has revealed how one of Stonehenge's most mysterious stones was likely transported hundreds of kilometres across Britain through challenging terrain, highlighting the remarkable capabilities of ancient communities. Stonehenge's central Altar Stone is a six-tonne sandstone megalith now believed to have originated in northeast Scotland, around 700km from Salisbury Plain, underscoring the extraordinary scale of its journey. The new study builds on earlier findings that ruled out glaciers as the sole mechanism for moving the stones, strengthening the conclusion people were responsible for transporting them across difficult terrain rather than relying on natural Ice Age processes. Researchers have now focused on what that journey may have looked like, combining mineral grain dating with ice-sheet modelling to pinpoint the stone's origin and test whether glaciers could have carried it south. Co-lead author Dr Anthony Clarke, from the Timescales of... https://www.sott.net/article/506717-Study-details-epic-transportation-of-Stonehenge-stone-across-ancient-Britain Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:52:52 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506573-Ancient-mega-structure-discovered-in-Romania Archaeologists investigating a prehistoric settlement in northeastern Romania have uncovered evidence from a massive communal building that could transform our understanding of how some of Europe's earliest large communities were organised more than 6,000 years ago. The structure, discovered at the Cucuteni settlement of Stăuceni-Holm in Botoșani County, has been identified as a rare "mega-structure" - a type of oversized building believed to have played a central role in the social, political, or ritual life of prehistoric communities. Researchers argue that the discovery may also force a reassessment of the chronology of the Cucuteni culture, one of Europe's most sophisticated prehistoric societies. The findings were published in PLOS One by a team led by Doris Mischka, Carsten Mischka, Adela Kovács, Constantin Aparaschivei and Elena Marinova. From 2021 to 2024, archaeologists conducted geophysical surveys and field investigations at the site and found around 45 houses surrounded... https://www.sott.net/article/506573-Ancient-mega-structure-discovered-in-Romania Thu, 28 May 2026 17:49:36 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506532-Ancient-DNA-reveals-patchwork-of-families-more-than-5000-years-ago Children from previous relationships growing up as siblings in a new family, couples adopting or fostering children - so-called patchwork families are a widespread way of life today. It is considered modern, but is in fact ancient. This is demonstrated by the latest analyses of human genetic material from the Neolithic period. "We can show that even more than 5,000 years ago, people in Central Europe lived in communities where biological ties and social bonds were surprisingly flexible," explains Professor Ben Krause-Kyora, an expert in ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis at the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) at Kiel University. He coordinated the study, funded by the ROOTS Cluster of Excellence, which was published today in the renowned international journal Science. Impressive and still a mystery The Neolithic period marks a fundamental turning point in human history. For the first time, communities settled down and practised agriculture and livestock farming. Between... https://www.sott.net/article/506532-Ancient-DNA-reveals-patchwork-of-families-more-than-5000-years-ago Tue, 26 May 2026 02:37:44 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506500-Ancient-Greek-theatre-mask-discovered-in-Illyrian-sanctuary-cave Archaeologists have uncovered a remarkably preserved terracotta head depicting a Greek theatrical mask inside the Crno Jezero (Black Lake) cave on the Pelješac Peninsula in Croatia. Dating from the 4th to 3rd centuries BC, the hollow mask features a suspension hole at the top, suggesting it was once hung on a wall, likely as part of ritual activity associated with Dionysus, the Greek god of theatre and wine. According to archaeologist Domagoj Perkić, head of the Archaeological Museum, the discovery raises intriguing questions about the cave's religious significance and the possible worship of Dionysus or an Illyrian equivalent deity. "Thanks to their location in a hidden, intact part of the cave, the finds have remained intact and almost completely preserved, almost like a frozen image more than two thousand years old," said archaeologist Domagoj Perkić, head of the Archaeological Museum." Research conducted in 2025 revealed that the cave served multiple purposes across different... https://www.sott.net/article/506500-Ancient-Greek-theatre-mask-discovered-in-Illyrian-sanctuary-cave Sun, 24 May 2026 15:03:58 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506489-Were-the-deceased-cremated-already-in-the-Stone-Age-The-first-signs-of-human-cremation-date-back-100000-years Researchers have possibly discovered the earliest evidence of human cremation. The findings were made in the Afar Rift in Ethiopia, one of the best preserved open air archaeological concentrations of early Homo sapiens communities. The latest discoveries by an international research team, which includes Academy Research Fellow Ferhat Kaya from the University of Oulu, offer a detailed view of how early humans lived, moved, and adapted to their environment 100,000 years ago. The group has been studying the Afar Rift since 1981. Significant fossils were found in the area, including remains of Homo sapiens individuals, among them bones that had been burned at high temperatures. This may indicate cremation and could represent the earliest known evidence of human cremation. The remains also showed bite marks from predators and signs of sudden burial. The study further shows that local hydrological factors — such as the flood cycles of the ancient Awash River — influenced human life more... https://www.sott.net/article/506489-Were-the-deceased-cremated-already-in-the-Stone-Age-The-first-signs-of-human-cremation-date-back-100000-years Sat, 23 May 2026 16:56:46 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506403-Study-reveals-one-of-worlds-first-cities-prospered-as-wealth-gap-shrank New research reveals that the 4,000-year-old city of Mohenjo-daro defied the 'rules' of history by becoming more equal as it became more successful. For decades, historians have generally agreed that the progress of small villages as they evolved into cities came at the price of widening inequality. A small group of leaders, Kings and priests, would inevitably seize control of the wealth and the gap between rich and poor would grow. But a new study at the University of York delves into the archaeology of Mohenjo-daro, the Indus civilisation's largest city, and shows the opposite was true. By analysing house sizes across the ancient city, researchers found that Mohenjo-daro was not only more equal than its neighbours in Mesopotamia and Greece, but it actually became more egalitarian over time. Entirely different The lead author, Dr Adam Green from the University of York's Department of Archaeology and Department of Environment and Geography, said: "Legacy data from the ancient city... https://www.sott.net/article/506403-Study-reveals-one-of-worlds-first-cities-prospered-as-wealth-gap-shrank Tue, 19 May 2026 18:19:34 +0000