• sean-williams

    Early Man Did Have Sex with Neanderthals

    One of the world’s leading geneticists claims modern man and Neanderthals were more than mere neighbours thousands of years ago. Swedish expert Professor Svante Paabo, of the Max Planck Institution for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, is sure the two species had sex during their 10-12,000-year coexistence some 30,000 years ago. Yet Paabo, who made the claim during a conference in New York, is unsure as yet whether the cross-copulating led to children – and whether those children would have been infertile, as is the case in the offspring of lions and tigers, or horses and zebras. Prof. Paabo, named among…

  • bija-knowles

    World’s Oldest Statue to go on Show in Rome

    Ancient artworks from Jordan some of them never before seen outside Petra and Amman – are going on display today at Rome’s Quirinal Palace. The star attraction at the exhibition is a statue found at the site of Ayn Ghazal near Amman dating from 7500 BC, one of the oldest surviving statues of its kind and size. The exhibition has been organised by the President of the Italian Republic in honour of the state visit of the King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan. Sixty items will be on display in the ‘Sale delle Bandiere’ at the Palazzo del…

  • bija-knowles

    Rome’s Third Metro Line Delayed Again By Archaeological Discoveries

    While London’s tube had much of its 12 lines and 250 miles of track in place well before the mid 20th century, Rome is still struggling to add its third metro line. The problem is an age-old one: the metro runs deep underground and is deep enough so that the tunnels themselves do not interfere too much with Rome’s layers of buried civilisations. The stations and air vents, however, need to come to the surface and, much to the frustration of the construction company, they more often than not strike valuable archaeological areas. The first line (the unchronologically-named line B)…

  • meral-crifasi

    Hen Parties, Dancing and Steamy Encounters in Turkey’s Ancient Hammams

    We are approaching winter; the weather is going downhill and the days are getting shorter. After a long, sun-deprived day in the office there’s nothing better than the idea of cosying up with hot chocolate, thick socks, and woolly jumpers, or – best of all – a long hot bath. This winter-time ritual reminds me of the Turkish bath, or hammam. Throughout the world, spas and baths have become part of our busy lives, as a means of peaceful retreat and to recharge our batteries. They’re a place of sanctuary that we search for to find peace and quiet. But…

  • sean-williams

    ‘Atlantis and Mini-Stonehenge’ found in Devon

    Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a prehistoric city, buried beneath a reservoir in southern England. The ‘mini-Atlantis’ was unearthed after water levels were lowered at the old Tottiford Reservoir, near Moretonhampstead – and comes complete with a Stonehenge-esque ceremonial site. Archaeologists observing the city are justifiably astonished at its existence. Jane Marchand, of Dartmoor National Park Authority, describes the find and its Avebury-like credentials: “It’s a proper ceremonial site – we’ve also got ten burial cairns there. It was probably a real community centre. There are a lot of earlier recordings in this area of polished stone axes and…

  • owenjarus

    Pottery Find on the Galapagos Islands Suggests Pre-Columbian Visitors

    , of Australian National University, has said that Andean coastal South American Pottery, possibly Incan, has been discovered on the Galapagos Islands. The islands arenearly 1,000kilometers off the coast of South America, and its been widely believed, until now, that the first people to reach the Galapagos were European explorers in 1535. Dr. Haberle, along with Professor Atholl Anderson, is leading a team of scientists who are looking for evidence that people voyaged on the Galapagos Islands before Europeans arrived in the 16th century. Theyve been re-analyzing all the pottery that has been discovered in the Galapagos Islands so far.…

  • meral-crifasi

    Making Machinimas: The Essential Checklist

    What’s Machinima? Machinima is film making within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, mostly using 3D video-game technologies. Its creating a short film by using a game engine.It all started in the late 90s with Quake when gamers were filming and editing to create short films. We have widely used it in Rezzable and our OpenSim-based Private Grid to create short films of Fashion Shows, exhibitions or simply wandering around on our beautifully created sims . If you would like to know more about how it’s used in other gaming platforms or advertising you can do a bit more reading here.…

  • bija-knowles

    York University Dig Turns up Fourth Roman Skeleton

    A fourth skeleton has been unearthed at the site of York University’s proposed new campus at Heslington East, 3.5 km outside the city of York. The skeleton is well preserved and was found laid with feet pointing north to south, rather than the east-west direction common in Christian burials of that time. It was discovered buried next to a less well-preserved skeleton in a separate grave. So far little is known about the individual except that it is male. Cath Neal, Field Officer for the Heslington East archaeological project, hopes that the good condition of this skeleton will enable them…

  • malcolmj

    Missing Link Ida May Not be Human Ancestor

    A team of palaeontologists from New York, writing in the journal Nature, have provoked the first exchange of blows in what may prove an almighty scientific sparring match. The subject thats got them so heated? Ida: a tiny $1 million, 47-million-year-old fossil, who has been trumpeted as the missing link between humans and animals. Shes the eighth wonder of the world, our Mona Lisa and evolutions Rosetta Stone, according to the researchers who discovered her, or rather purchased her for $1 million from a private dealer in a vodka bar in Hamburg in a scene that sounds like it could…

  • michael-kan

    British Museum to Face Questions in China’s Hunt for Looted Summer Palace Relics

    In what looks like a massive relic hunt, China plans on sending experts across the world to find and catalogue artifacts that were looted from a historic summer palace in the second Opium War. Announced earlier this week, the project will involve a team of experts traveling to museums, libraries, and private collections in such countries as the United States, Britain, France, Japan – including the British Museum. The aim is to find out which artifacts were taken from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace when British and French troops sacked it in 1860, during the Second Opium war. According to rough…