Scientists say that the sponge-like fossils recently uncovered in Namibia are the world’s first animals, a discovery which pushes back the emergence of life by millions of years. The tiny vase-shaped creatures’ fossils were found in Namibia’s Etosha National Park and other sites around the country in rocks between 760 and 550 million years old, [...]
Researchers working in a cave on Spain’s Costa del Sol have found what may be the world’s oldest works of art: 42,000-year-old paintings of seals, painted by Neanderthals. Six paintings of seals are at least 42,000 years old and are the only known artistic images created by Neanderthal man, experts claim. Professor Jose Luis Sanchidrian, [...]
The remains of two cremated bodies which date back 2,000 years have been found in Cawston, England. The bodies were not intact as they were laying in sand which does not preserve bone well, but project officer for Cotswold Archaeology, Vasileios Tsamis, said it was by far the most important discovery made by his team. [...]
A trove of ancient artifacts which were misplaced during WWII have been found again and now have a new home in the Bode Museum in Berlin. Dozens of mostly Egyptian objects from the 4th to 7th centuries AD which had been missing since the end of World War II have been unearthed and returned to [...]
Conservators, working at the Brandy Station Graffiti House in Virginia have peeled back the layers of paint to reveal the signatures of Union and Confederate soldiers from the Civil War. The circa-1858 structure is believed to have been used as a hospital by Confederate and Union forces during the war. For unknown reasons, patrons decided [...]
Archaeologists working in Pakistan have unearthed a seal featuring the image of an ibex which dates back to 2,500 B.C. The seal is almost square in shape and slightly broken on the right side but the figure of the ibex is almost intact. The muscles, genitalia, hooves and tail of the ibex were engraved artistically [...]
Remember that Viking axe I posted about last week? Turns out it was just an 18th century woodworking tool. Archaeologist Kurt Adams, from Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, said he went to see the find at Stroud Museum on Thursday. He said: “It’s definitely an 18th or 19th Century woodworking tool – a heavy duty [...]
It is easy to focus of the plight of the 34 dead or missing from the Costa Concordia. Regrettably, these casualties have not been the only recent deaths on the water. The past week has been particularly brutal with ship and boat sinkings in … Continue reading →
A treasure hunter and his crew have found the wreckage of the SS Port Nicholson, and believe it may contains $3 billion worth of platinum. The merchant ship was sunk by a German U-boat back in 1942, but the British government says that it’s not so sure that it actually contained the treasure — thought [...]
A substantial piece of the Jennie and Annie, a schooner which sank 140 years ago, has washed ashore on a Lake Michigan beach. Sleeping Bear Dunes historians believe the schooner fragment, estimated to be about 40-feet long and peppered with twisted metals spikes, is part of the ship’s bilge keelsons, which the Oxford Handbook of [...]A Viking axe head found in Gloucestershire may be evidence of a bloody battle fought 1,100 years ago. According to historians King Alfred the Great fought the Vikings in a bloody battle at Minchinhampton, about 10 miles from Slimbridge, in 894 AD. Three Viking princes were killed in the battle, and fighting could have ranged [...]
A number of Japanese land mines installed during WWII have been found dotting the coastline of Kawit Island in the Philippines. Bersales related that at the Talisay City landing on March 26, 1945, the American forces were surprised that there was no resistance or gunfire from the beach. But the coastline was lined with land [...]
A Byzantine cemetery in Istanbul’s Çatalca district has been repeatedly plundered for years. Who knows what history has been lost as a result? “Grave diggers have swarmed into the region when the excavation work in the cemetery came to an end in 1995 upon the order of the Archeology Museum. Unlicensed excavations take place inside [...]
This week Germany returned some ancient artifacts that were looted from Afghanistan’s National Museum during their civil war. “This is a masterpiece … I am optimistic that in the future we will get the other artefacts back,” said Omara Khan Massoudi, the director of Afghanistan’s National Museum, which housed the sculpture before it was stolen. [...]
The remains of 17 women killed under General Francisco Franco’s regime in 1937 are being exhumed from a mass grave in Spain. Since the exhumation began last week, the remains of 14 of the 17 women have been discovered at the cemetery in the southwestern town of Gerena, said 25-year-old Lucia Socam, whose great-aunt Granada [...]
Late in this past Thursday’s sun-drenched afternoon, the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain arrived in Ventura County’s Channel Islands Harbor, following their passage north from Oceanside Harbor. Both ships finalized their arrival with single shot cannon salutes, their reports echoing through the harbor. The two, full-scale reproduction tall ships are here as part of [...]