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The world's oldest sea-going boat, the Dover Bronze Age Boat is to sail again 3500 years after it crossed the English Channel. A new project, 'Boat 1550 BC' aims to rebuild the boat, which had lain hidden under the centre of Dover for 3,500 years until it was rediscovered in 1992 during the construction of an underpass. The oak-built boat sailed across the Channel at a time when Stonehenge was still in use, and before Tutankhamun became ruler of Egypt. The project aims to understand how people were able to cross the Channel in 1550 BC, using ancient boatbuilding techniques...

If you’re like me, the last post on the convoluted origins of our favorite fermented condiment—ketchup—probably left you wondering: What is the difference between Roman garum than modern Thai fish sauce? What little I know comes from an experiment performed by Sally Grainger, author of Cooking Apicus, recounted in the book Cured, Fermented and Smoked Foods. Grainger is a British chef and an experimental archeologist. She looked at studies on fish sauce amphorae (ceramic vessels) from archeological sites in Spain and North Africa. One of her more fascinating sources comes from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck discovered off the coast of Grado,...

On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech, officially titled “Sinews of Peace,” at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. After being introduced by President Harry Truman, Churchill, the former prime minister of Britain and now the opposition leader, warned of the threat posed by the Soviet Union, a World War II ally of Britain and the United States. The New York Times reported that “Mr. Churchill painted a dark picture of post-war Europe, on which ‘an iron curtain has descended across the Continent’ from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic.” “He strongly intimated...

A prehistoric eel-like creature discovered in a Canadian shale bed has been identified as the earliest known ancestor of man. Fossils dating back 505 million years preserve the relics of tiny, slithering animals which are the oldest life forms ever discovered with primitive spinal cords. As the precursor of vertebrates the species is also believed to be the direct ancestor of all members of the chordate family, which includes fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. The finding means the 5cm long creatures, known as Pikaia gracilens, were the forerunners of animals as diverse as snakes, swans and humans, scientists said....

Key Points High resolution SST and SSS reconstruction off Cape HatterasLow salinity anomaly (3.5-5.2 ka): absence of Labrador current influenceMillenial NAO pattern and solar variability Emphatic Blow To CO2 Warmists – New Study Shows A Clear Millennial Solar Impact Throughout HoloceneBy Pierre Gosselin (reposted from No Tricks Zone with permission) A new paper titled High-resolution sea surface reconstructions off Cape Hatteras over the last 10 ka appearing just recently in the AGU Paleoceanography Journal authored by Caroline Cléroux et al provides further, clear evidence of a major solar impact on climate during the Holocene. Hat/tip: http://kaltesonne.de/.According to the paper’s abstract,...

Date Set for James Ossuary Verdict Biblical Archaeology Society Staff • 03/05/2012 The James Ossuary verdict will be announced on Wednesday, March 14th. As events unfold, check in with Bible History Daily for exclusive reporting and commentary.

An Absurdly Cool Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Jurassic Park Dinosaur Puppets The late great Stan Winston was one of the undisputed masters of cinematic effects. With his team of make-up artists and puppeteers, Winston gave such films as Aliens and Predator an otherworldly sheen that's been seared into the collective memory of moviegoers for decades. And on the Stan Winston School's YouTube account, there are tons of behind-the-scenes reels of the dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park films. Behold amazing footage of the velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus hanging out casually with their human puppet masters.

During routine excavations on the northern side of the Amun-Re Temple in Luxor's famous Karnak temple complex, a team from the French-Egyptian Centre for the Study of the Karnak Temples this week unearthed a gate that they say has led to a significant breakthrough in archaeologists' understanding of Egypt's enigmatic 17th Dynasty. It was this dynasty that launched the military campaign that eventually succeeded in ridding Egypt of the tribe of invaders known as the "Hyksos." The gate, carved out of limestone, is engraved with the name of a king called "Sen-Nakht-En-Re." Mansour Boreik, general supervisor of monuments in Luxor,...

Faces of Civil War sailors from sunken USS Monitor reconstructed in hopes of identifying them Faces of 2 USS Monitor crewmembers reconstructed Recovery: The turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor is lifted out of the ocean off the coast of Hatteras, N.C. on August 5, 2002 RICHMOND, Va. — When the turret of the Civil War ironclad Monitor was raised from the ocean bottom, two skeletons and the tattered remnants of their uniforms were discovered in the rusted hulk of the Union Civil War ironclad, mute and nameless witnesses to the cost of war. A rubber comb was...

An amateur archaeologist and film maker claims to have identified what could be the remains of some of Christ's 12 disciples in a first century burial chamber buried beneath a block of flats in Jerusalem. A team led by Simcha Jacobovic, a Canadian documentary director, used a robot to photograph a number of limestone burial caskets, found below a block of flats, which may provide an unprecedented glimpse into Christianity's earliest days. But the potential significance of the discovery is almost certain to be overshadowed by controversy, with Mr Jacobovic using it as new evidence to bolster his widely disputed...

Researchers from George Washington University and the Smithsonian Institution have discovered evidence to debunk the theory that Neandertals' disappearance was caused in part by a deficient diet -- one that lacked variety and was overly reliant on meat. After discovering starch granules from plant food trapped in the dental calculus on 40-thousand-year-old Neandertal teeth, the scientists believe that Neandertals ate a wide variety of plants and included cooked grains as part of a more sophisticated, diverse diet similar to early modern humans... The discovery of starch granules in the calculus on Neandertal teeth provides direct evidence that they made sophisticated,...

On Wednesday I went into NYC and spent the entire afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was most interested to visit the newly renovated "American Wing." I admit to being a bit frightened by the idea of a renovation because I always like the American Wing the way it was, which was a little bit unusual. Paintings covered most of the walls nearly up to the ceilings. The only other museum I can recall that was like this was the old Barnes Museum in (or near) Philadelphia. I couldn't find a picture of an old American Wing gallery...

Storms; Tornadoes; Floods; Almost nationwide Fires; Earthquakes; Pollution worldwide; Corruption in High Places; Pestilences; Diseases that cannot be controlled; Ground Pollution from Oils and Gasoline; Government Run Amuck that Many will not try to correct; Rejection of GOD; AND Rejection of Israel by our people! I think Daniel called it Confusion of Face; when people are confused. You know; when people cannot make up their minds? Our political system is having a problem. This problem is also a national, or rather a Middle Eastern problem. We threw Israel under the bus, or rather, we are throwing Israel under, and God...

Seafaring before the Neolithic -- circa 7th millennium BCE -- is a controversial issue in the Mediterranean. However, evidence from different parts of the Aegean is gradually changing this, revealing the importance of early coastal and island environments. The site of Ouriakos on the island of Lemnos (Greece) tentatively dates to the end of the Pleistocene and possibly the beginning of the Holocene, circa 12,000 BP... Obsidian, or 'volcanic glass', has been a preferred material for stone tools wherever it is found or traded. It also absorbs water vapour when exposed to air -- for instance, when it is shaped...

Fleas use it to perform leaps that would make Olympic high jumpers green with envy. Bees use it to flap their wings without tiring. Now Australian scientists have achieved a world first by copying resilin, the "rubber" insects employ to accomplish such athletic feats. Future versions of the material could be used to make resilient spare parts, including spinal discs and artificial arteries. Chris Elvin, from CSIRO Livestock Industries in Brisbane, spent four years reproducing nature's "near perfect rubber". Dr Elvin said yesterday: "Nature had a couple of hundred million years of evolution do it. All insects have it. It...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the Jurassic era, even the flea was a beast, compared to its minuscule modern descendants. These pesky bloodsuckers were nearly an inch long. New fossils found in China are evidence of the oldest fleas - from 125 million to 165 million years ago, said Diying Huang of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology. Their disproportionately long proboscis, or straw-like mouth, had sharp weapon-like serrated edges that helped them bite and feed from their super-sized hostsAP Photo/D. Huang But Engel said it's not just the size that was impressive about the nine flea fossils. It was...

An exciting new project exploring how people in the past viewed the geography of the ancient world, has been backed by $50,000 grant from Google, Inc. via its Digital Humanities Awards Program. Google Ancient Places (GAP) is developing a Web application which allows users to choose a classical text or book (from between 500BC - 500AD) and then search for references to ancient places within it, presenting the results in a user-friendly interface.

IT LOOKS like Neanderthals may have beaten modern humans to the seas. Growing evidence suggests our extinct cousins criss-crossed the Mediterranean in boats from 100,000 years ago - though not everyone is convinced they weren't just good swimmers. Neanderthals lived around the Mediterranean from 300,000 years ago. Their distinctive "Mousterian" stone tools are found on the Greek mainland and, intriguingly, have also been found on the Greek islands of Lefkada, Kefalonia and Zakynthos. That could be explained in two ways: either the islands weren't islands at the time, or our distant cousins crossed the water somehow. Now, George Ferentinos of...

A bronze Greek warrior helmet dating back to the 6th or 5th century BC has been discovered on the seabed in Haifa Harbour, Israel – but the owner remains a complete mystery. Jacob Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit with the Israel Antiquities Authority, said: ‘The gilding and figural ornaments make this one of the most ornate pieces of early Greek armour discovered.’ However, how it ended up on the seabed and who it belonged to remains unknown. One theory is that it belonged to a warrior stationed on one of the warships of the Greek fleet that fought...

Some of the 50 miles of bookshelves in the Vatican secret archive Rome, Italy, Feb 29, 2012 / 03:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For the first time in history, the Vatican is making public over 100 historical documents from its Secret Archives. “They are revealed as a cultural context, as a fascinating appeal to the memory of our past, the past of the Church, of empires, kingdoms, duchies and republics,” said Cardinal Raffaele Farina, Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church. The “Lux in Arcana” exhibit at Rome’s Capitoline Museum was created to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Vatican's Secret Archives and includes notable...