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After 2,000 years buried within a cave in the Holy Land, the features are barely distinct as that of a human face. But Bible historians are trying to determine whether this is the first ever portrait of Jesus Christ. They are investigating whether the picture, which can still just about be seen to depict a man wearing a crown of thorns, was created in Jesus’s lifetime by those who knew him. The portrait was found on a lead booklet, slightly smaller than a credit card, which lay undiscovered in a cave in a remote village in Jordan overlooking the Sea...

The incredible story of 70 ancient books hidden in a cave for nearly 2,000 years The image is eerily familiar: a bearded young man with flowing curly hair. After lying for nearly 2,000 years hidden in a cave in the Holy Land, the fine detail is difficult to determine. But in a certain light it is not difficult to interpret the marks around the figure’s brow as a crown of thorns. The extraordinary picture of one of the recently discovered hoard of up to 70 lead codices – booklets – found in a cave in the hills overlooking the Sea...

Is this the first ever portrait of Jesus? The incredible story of 70 ancient books hidden in a cave for nearly 2,000 yearsBy Nick Pryer Last updated at 12:15 PM on 3rd April 2011 The image is eerily familiar: a bearded young man with flowing curly hair. After lying for nearly 2,000 years hidden in a cave in the Holy Land, the fine detail is difficult to determine. But in a certain light it is not difficult to interpret the marks around the figure’s brow as a crown of thorns. The extraordinary picture of one of the recently discovered hoard...

British archaeologists are seeking to authenticate what could be a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus' life. As UK Daily Mail reporter Fiona Macrae writes, some researchers are suggesting this could be the most significant find in Christian archeology since the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947. The codices turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan—a region where early Christian believers may have fled after the destruction...

Could this be the biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls? Seventy metal books found in cave in Jordan could change our view of Biblical history By Fiona Macrae Last updated at 11:35 AM on 30th March 2011 For scholars of faith and history, it is a treasure trove too precious for price. This ancient collection of 70 tiny books, their lead pages bound with wire, could unlock some of the secrets of the earliest days of Christianity. Academics are divided as to their authenticity but say that if verified, they could prove as pivotal as the discovery of the...

The early settlement of anatomically modern humans in MSEA dates back to at least 65 thousand years ago (kya) and is associated with the formation of a hunter-gatherer tradition called Hoabinhian. Since the Neolithic period, which dates to about ~4,000-5,000 years ago, cultural transitions and diversification have happened multiple times.. ...Vietnam has a population size of more than 96 million people comprising 54 official ethnic groups; 110 languages are spoken in the country. To date, there are hundreds of ethnolinguistic groups in MSEA, speaking languages belonging to five major language families: Austro-Asiatic (AA), Austronesian (AN), Hmong-Mien (HM), Tai-Kadai (TK), and...

An ancient cave decorated with distinguished engravings depicting scenes of animals has been discovered at Wadi Al-Zulma in North Sinai. "The newly discovered cave is the first of its kind to be discovered in the area," said Aymen Ashmawi, head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities sector at the Ministry of Antiquities. Ashmawi explained that the scenes carved inside the cave are completely different from those found in South Sinai, having a special artistic style that resembles raised relief in execution. Studies are underway to determine their date. Hisham Hussein, head of the discovery mission, said that most of the discovered...

A new study by Russian and French researchers found new petroglyphs which helped the answer this conundrum. For example, at Baga-Oygur II was found the image of a long-gone woolly rhino. Most of the image is lost due to a rock slicing, but the animal is quite recognisable with an elongated, squat torso, short powerful legs, a characteristic tail, and an elongated muzzle with exaggeratedly enlarged two horns. This was useful because these animals - like mammoths - became extinct around 15,000 years ago in this region, making the drawings the work of Palaeolithic artists... The scientists also concluded that...

<p>In early April, writer Jen Miller urged New York Times readers to start a coronavirus diary.</p> <p>“Who knows,” she wrote, “maybe one day your diary will provide a valuable window into this period.”</p> <p>During a different pandemic, one 17th-century British naval administrator named Samuel Pepys did just that. He fastidiously kept a diary from 1660 to 1669 – a period of time that included a severe outbreak of the bubonic plague in London. Epidemics have always haunted humans, but rarely do we get such a detailed glimpse into one person’s life during a crisis from so long ago.</p>

The slab lay over the remains of several individuals dating from 14,000 to 12,000 years ago, based on radiocarbon analysis of several of the skeletons. However, the remarkable image on the slab was only noticed some years after its discovery, while the stone was being carefully studied in the laboratories of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Haaretz has learned. The image on the slab is an extremely rare example of an identifiable human figure made by Natufians, the researchers say. The Natufian culture existed from about 15,000 to about 11,700 years ago, and spanned from...

The First Folio To the memory of my beloved, The Author MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: and what he hath left us. [by Ben Jonson] ...Soule of the Age! The applause! delight! the wonder of our Stage! My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye A little further, to make thee a roome:Thou art a Moniment, without a tombe, And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live, And we have wits to read, and praise to give. That I not mixe thee so, my braine excuses; I meane with great, but disproportion'd Muses:...

From approximately 3,000 to 1,000 years ago, between 700 and 3,400 people lived on the island of Samoa. Roughly 1,000 years ago, the island's population exploded from a few thousand to 10,000 individuals. By analyzing the genomes of 1,197 individuals living in Samoa, scientists were able to gain new insights into one of the last major migrations of humans into previously uninhabited territories. The results of the genomic analysis -- published this week in the journal PNAS -- could also help researchers explore links between early human history in Samoa and the modern health problems, including obesity, hypertension and Type...

Cave paintings of the Spanish Altamira Cave and the French Lascaux Cave, to the Hurrian Hymns from "Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, and Greeks." They're around 17,000 years old.

A sex spell designed to force a man into bed with his female admirer has been discovered on an ancient Egyptian papyrus. The newly-translated spell demands that a man called Kephalas face 'anxiety at midday, evening, and at all times' until he has sex with a woman called Taromeway. It also features a crude drawing of the naked Kephalas, his genitals grossly exaggerated, as he's shot with an arrow by the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis. The 'erotic-binding spell', apparently commissioned by Taromeway herself, was likely placed in a tomb where it was meant to summon the ghost...

A farmer has discovered one of the largest hauls of Roman coins to ever be found in Poland. Mariusz Dyl had been looking for abandoned antlers in a field near Cichobórz, south of Hrubieszów, Lublin, when he stumbled upon the 2,000-year-old coins scattered across 100 metres of the field. After calling in experts, the 1,753 coins weighing 5.5kg and which were found in 2019, were taken to the Hrubieszów Museum where they have now been analysed and their authenticity confirmed. Director of the Museum Bartlomiej Bartecki said... all the coins, had been originally placed in a wooden box or leather...

One of these Amarna letters (EA 39) came to light just before the turn of the previous century (1900). Researchers noted references to "ameluti Ia-u-du" and "ameluti tsabe Ia-u-du." The spelling of Ia-u-du is identical to that of later Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions referring to Judah (Judah is our Anglicized form of the Hebrew Yehuda). As such, we would have a translation of the above two passages as "men of Judah" and "soldiers of Judah." Prof. Morris Jastrow Jr. (1861–1921) wrote an article titled "'The Men of Judah' in the El-Amarna Tablets"... the inscription was related to territory in the extreme...

The State Department of Archaeology and Museums (DAM) is engaged in the chemical treatment of a treasure trove of 1,600 palm-leaf manuscripts, dated back to the 17th, 18th and 19th century, at the Andhra Sahitya Parishad Archaeology Museum and Research Institute here. DAM Assistant Director K. Timma Raju told The Hindu that the text in the manuscripts belongs to the fields of ayurveda, mathematics, astrology, Telugu and Sanskrit literature and classical music. "The text of the Hindu epics -- Ramayana and Mahabharata -- is also available in the manuscripts," said Mr. Timma Raju. AMD chemist K. Rambabu said the chemical...

Throughout the ancient world, many people, including Jews, carved and painted words and pictures (we might call them graffiti today) in places that would shock modern sensibilities -- inside and around holy spaces and shrines, pagan sanctuaries, synagogues, and churches; and throughout cemeteries, necropoleis, and tombs in regions of modern Israel, Syria, Greece, Italy, Malta, Sardinia, Tunisia, and Libya. The ancients also made their marks in other locations: upon cliffs and open-air sanctuaries along desert roads and trade routes of Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula, and Saudi Arabia; and around public theaters and hippodromes (horse racecourses) along the Syrian coast (modern...

Along with inventing writing, the wheel, the plow, law codes and literature, the Sumerians are also remembered as some of history's original brewers... dating back to the fourth millennium B.C. The brewing techniques they used are still a mystery, but their preferred ale seems to have been a barley-based concoction so thick that it had to be sipped through a special kind of filtration straw. The Sumerians prized their beer for its nutrient-rich ingredients and hailed it as the key to a "joyful heart and a contented liver." ... The Sumerian invention of cuneiform -- a Latin term literally meaning...