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Item OverviewDescription: A unique, 21st Century bronze figure cast from a 16th Century beeswax model authenticated as the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The Original Bee’s Wax Mold by Leonardo’s Own Hand 28 cm x 23.5 cm x 13.35 cm On October 30th, a unique bronze sculpture by Leonardo da Vinci, will be auctioned at New York's prestigious Pierre Hotel. It is titled simply ''Horse and Rider" (Cavallo e Cavaliere). The work is cast from a beeswax model hand-carved by Leonardo himself, circa 1508 according to Dr. Carlo Pedretti. Author of over sixty books on the life and work of...

Wood Buried Under Ocean Floor Thousands of Miles at Sea October 22, 2019 | David F. Coppedge Wood chips hundreds of feet deep in ocean sediments have been found. How did they get there? Watch out for ocean trees. Geology researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) went boring into ocean sediments near India, and were surprised to find direct evidence that “Catastrophic events carry forests of trees thousands of miles to a burial at sea.” They pulled up six cores of sediment from the ocean floor a thousand feet below the surface. The cores were extracted miles apart...

A new reserve group, inspired by the Monuments Men of the World War II era, will aim to protect antiquities and important cultural sites in war zones. It’s no secret that the war-ravaged nations where American soldiers have been enmeshed in conflict for nearly two decades are home to many of civilization’s oldest and most prized antiquities and cultural treasures. But in the heat of battle in Afghanistan or Iraq, how are troops to know whether they are taking their positions behind mounds of insignificant rubble or inside the precious remains of a 3,000-year-old temple complex? The Pentagon’s answer, announced...

The #MeToo movement has ended the U.S. career of legendary 78-year-old Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, one of classical music’s greatest ambassadors and impresarios. For nearly half a century, Domingo’s intense stage presence and warm, soaring voice captivated opera audiences; during the 1990s, he reached millions of new listeners as a member of the itinerant Three Tenors. In recent years, long after most singers have retired from the stage, he has continued a grueling international performance schedule, now singing baritone roles with remarkable pitch control and legato. Domingo’s entrepreneurial drive has been as untiring as his stage career. He was pivotal...

OGDEN, Utah— A time capsule buried in an Ogden school in 1887 was opened to the public for the first time. During the construction of the Ogden Academy, educators, students, and even construction workers dropped what was important to them inside a capsule and closed it 132 years ago. The capsule was uncovered when the building was demolished in 1959 but sat in storage until Wednesday. “Nobody does this unless they think what they’re doing is important,” Alan Barnett said, local government archivist for the Utah State Archive. The building was also important to early Utahns. It was built for...

In May 2018, media outlets around the world ran the headline: “Secret Chamber Does Not Exist”, referring to the possible burial chamber of Queen Nefertiti behind the walls of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the Valley of the King's in Egypt. So you’ll image my surprise when this week I see that the major media outlets across the world are once again reporting that Nefertiti could be hiding behind a wall in King Tutankhamen’s tomb. The story was ran by a number of well known publications, including The Sun, New York Post, Fox News and more, but why have...

The Egyptian government is hailing the discovery of more than 20 wooden coffins as “one of the largest and most important” archaeological finds in the past few years. The coffins were found in Assasif, a necropolis on the west bank of the Nile River. Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities tweeted images of the “intact and sealed coffins” Tuesday. The sarcophagi, which were stacked in two layers in a large tomb, still boasted their original carvings of faces and hands and colors of red, green, white and black that have not faded much over time... Egyptian officials have not given the time...

In modern minds, the term “human sacrifice” conjures up macabre satanic rituals performed by bloodthirsty barbarians. In the ancient Americas, however, cultures now considered to be highly influential and civilized saw human sacrifice as a necessary part of everyday life. Whether it was to appease the gods or ensure success in battle and agriculture, for the following peoples, the lines between sacrifice and simple survival were often blurred. The Mayans are mostly known for their contributions to astronomy, calendar-making, and mathematics, or for the impressive amount of architecture and artwork that they left behind. They are also believed to be...

A couple of years ago, a retired teacher who stays in close touch with history teachers across Texas told me something disturbing. Like most states, Texas has standardized testing. Unlike most states, Texas requires public school students to study Texas history in the 4th and 7th grades. Texas history is red in tooth and claw and full of big personalities and big ideas. Standardized testing is forcing teachers to drop about half of the second semester of Texas history to focus on U.S. history -- not to deepen students' understanding of American history, but to teach to the standardized tests....

If you lurk around social media, particularly in conservative conversations, you will have undoubtedly seen something about recent statements on the part of a minor Democratic candidate for the Presidential nomination. I have no interest in the politics of the matter. However, the exchange goes to the heart of the modern impulse and serves as an excellent example of modernity’s dangers. The exchange: Don Lemon: Do you think religious institutions like colleges, churches, charities, should they lose their tax exempt status if they oppose same sex marriage? O’Rourke: Yes. There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break, for...

Here it is, the second Monday in October which means it’s once again Columbus Day, that most contentious of holidays. Columbus Day has unofficially been celebrated since 1792 and has been a national holiday since 1934. Ever since the late 70s there has been a move afoot to “take back the holiday” from the evil white privileged supremacist and celebrate instead those perfectly formed, innocent and peaceful Indigenous Peoples who discovered corn.Naturally California and universities were the first to embrace this politically correct change, alleging that the man who literally changed the world did so with malice aforethought. We are...

After years of snafus and miscues, a revamped Portland Marathon and its concurrent half marathon—under new management and with a new route through downtown—went off on Sunday and garnered largely positive reviews. But for about 15 to 20 of the race’s fastest runners—organizers don’t yet have an exact number who were affected—this edition of the 48-year-old race was another exercise in frustration. By mile 9, the eventual race winner, Kallin Khan, had already opened up a sizable lead. With a motorcycle guiding him, he was out of sight of the trailing pack. Runners were supposed to bear right from the...

When the Berlin wall was being built, people whose houses were on the dividing line, were ordered to move to the interior. Instead, many opted to escape to Western Berlin through the windows, like this woman. East Berlin police tried to grab her and drag her back, but people on the other side pulled her to safety. At the link - a series of amazing clips from 1961 of people escaping. Here's an example: https://imgur.com/gallery/QbDbVJS 

When Richard Nixon took office in 1969, the Left was somewhat new to the art of attempting to remove a president from office but they had some real advantages: they had all of the media on their side (only three TV networks and all or most of the newspapers) and they had a fully mature organization formed to help our North Vietnamese enemy to win.The Leftists hated Nixon with every ounce of passion in them: Nixon made his mark as a Congressman by taking down the Communist operative in the State Department, Alger Hiss and defeating the Left’s darling, Helen...

A pair of 2,000-year-old Roman scrolls believed to have belonged to the family of Julius Caesar, and were buried and charred during Vesuvius’ eruption, have been virtually “unwrapped” for the first time ever. The scrolls, known as the Herculaneum Scrolls, are too fragile to be handled by hand, so researchers needed to use the X-ray beam at Diamond Light Source, as well as a “virtual unwrapping” software to detect the carbon ink on them. “Texts from the ancient world are rare and precious, and they simply cannot be revealed through any other known process,” University of Kentucky professor Brent Seales,...

Sure, we revere Lincoln today, but in his lifetime the bile poured on him from every quarter makes today’s Internet vitriol seem dainty. His ancestry was routinely impugned, his lack of formal learning ridiculed, his appearance maligned, and his morality assailed. We take for granted, of course, the scornful outpouring from the Confederate states...But the vituperation wasn’t limited to enemies of the Union. The North was ever at his heels... Yes, his sure-footed leadership during this country’s most-difficult days was accompanied by a fair amount of praise, but also by a steady stream of abuse—in editorials, speeches, journals, and private...

On Sept. 30, 1972, Roberto Clemente passed Honus Wagner for most games ever played by a Pittsburgh Pirate, but the fans in Three Rivers Stadium witnessed a much more important milestone that day. Pitching for Yogi Berra's New York Mets was Jon Matlack, a lefthander that won 15 games that year and would be awarded the National League Rookie of the Year. He struck out Clemente in the first inning, but Clemente smoked a double off the leftfield wall in the fourth -- hit number 3,000. At that point, Clemente was just the 11th player to reach the 3,000-hit milestone....

ISRAEL—There was a certain man who had two sons, and the younger son demanded his inheritance and then wasted it all in a distant country. When the son came crawling back, begging for forgiveness, the father made a huge celebration to mark the return of his prodigal son. But that celebration was cut short when old tweets the younger son had written surfaced, some of which were characterized as racist. Though the son apologized for those tweets as well, he was immediately kicked out of the house. “He was dead and is alive again,” the father said, “but is now...

A painting found hanging in an elderly French woman's kitchen was found to be a long-lost panel from a polyptych by 13th-century Italian artist Cimabue. The painting, titled "Mocking of Christ," is scheduled to be auctioned Oct. 27. Photo courtesy of Acteon =========================================================== Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A long-lost painting by pre-Renaissance painter Cimabue is headed to auction after being found hanging in an older French woman's kitchen. Experts said the Compiegne woman decided to have the painting hanging in her kitchen appraised and numerous tests were conducted that confirmed it to be the work of 13th-century Italian artist Cimabue,...

Israeli team used DNA to design first Denosivan replica Portrait of a female Denisovan teen. (photo credit: MAAYAN HAREL) ================================================================ Meet “Denise,” the first reconstructed anatomical profile of what, until now, were considered the mysterious Denisovans, a group of archaic humans. She was revealed on Thursday by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The team who managed to recreate her profile say that long-term, their research shows possible strategies that could be taken for forensic applications. Denisovans lived in Siberia and Eastern Asia before going extinct approximately 50,000 years ago, said Hebrew University researcher Prof. Liran Carmel, who led...