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Cambridge scholar makes rare 30,000-year-old find Archaeologists have unearthed a pair of tiny bone fragments dating back almost 30,000 years and featuring minute designs carved by some of our earliest European ancestors. The thumbnail-sized bone fragments are engraved with parallel lines and match similar artefacts uncovered in the same area during the 19th century. They were carved by hunter-gatherers as they slowly made their way north in pursuit of moving populations of mammoth and reindeer 25-30,000 years ago. The unusual find was made by a Cambridge scholar, Becky Farbstein, who has been working at Predmosti in north Moravia, in the...

HOBART, Australia - Some of the coldest temperatures on Earth brought a rare cloud formation to the skies over Antarctica, scientists said Tuesday. Meteorological officer Renae Baker captured spectacular images of the nacreous clouds, also known as polar stratospheric clouds, last week at Australia's Mawson station in Antarctica. The clouds only occur at high polar latitudes in winter, requiring temperatures less than minus 176 degrees Fahrenheit. A weather balloon measured temperatures at minus 189 degrees Fahrenheit on the day the photos were taken. Resembling airborne mother-of-pearl shells, the clouds are produced when fading light at sunset passes through water-ice crystals...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - July 19, 2006 - A University of Illinois researcher had discovered a fourth copy of a rare letter Abraham Lincoln had written by to the nation's governors in 1861. The letter John Lupton found Tuesday in the Lehigh County Historical Society's holdings was one Lincoln wrote as part of an unsuccessful ratification process for a constitutional amendment Congress adopted during the term of his predecessor, President James Buchanan, that would have made slavery the law of the land. The president remembered for abolishing slavery had been willing to push the amendment as "kind of a carrot...

Matt Hamill sent me pictures of himself with Tito Ortiz and his buddies. You won't find these pictures anywhere else on the internet except on ...

Maine lobsterman pulls up rare lobster2 hours, 24 minutes ago A rare two-toned lobster is seen in this Thursday, July 13, 2006, photo taken in Bar Harbor, Maine. The lobster caught by Alan Robinson in Dyer's Bay is a typical mottled green on one side; the other side is a shade of orange that looks cooked. Robinson, of Steuben, donated the lobster to the Mount Desert Oceanarium. Staff members say the odds or finding a half-and-half lobster are 1 in 50 million to 100 million. (AP Photo/The Daily News, Abigail Curtis) BAR HARBOR, Maine - An eastern Maine lobsterman caught...

EXPERTS FIND RARE ROMANI DNA IN NORWICH ANGLO SAXON SKELETON By Sarah Morley 12/05/2006 The recent discovery of Romani DNA in an Anglo Saxon skeleton has made experts re-think the nature of the city's early population. Picture courtesy Sophie Cabot. © HEART Experts from Norfolk Archaeology Unit based at Norwich Castle have discovered a rare form of mitochondrial DNA identified as Romani in a skeleton discovered during excavations in a large area of Norwich for the expansion of the castle mall. The DNA was found in an 11th century young adult male skeleton, and with the first recorded arrival of...

Rare artefacts found T.S. Subramanian Plaque belonging to 2nd century A.D. depicts `kuravai koothu' NEW DISCOVERIES: The terracota plaque with five dancers, and a figurine of Ganesha. (Below) A `vel' found in front of the sanctum sanctorum of the Muruga temple near the Tiger Cave near Mamallapuram. — Photo: S. Thanthoni CHENNAI: Several artefacts have been unearthed from the ruins of a Muruga temple that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has been excavating since July 2005 on the beach at Salavankuppam close to the Tiger Cave, near Mamallapuram. The ASI's discoveries this year include a terracotta plaque that depicts...

Rare pre-Greek site to be exploredEnotrians ('wine lovers') renamed their kingdom 'Italia' (ANSA) - Palinuro, March 20 - A very rare example of surviving pre-Greek settlement in southern Italy is to be excavated and explored. The site, at Molpa in the hills above Palinuro south of Naples, is believed to contain the remains of a large village of the Enotrians, the earliest known inhabitants of Calabria and southern Campania. The Greeks who settled across southern Italy from 700BC to create Magna Graecia had an idealised vision of the Enotrians ("wine lovers") as coming from the Eden-like land of Arcadia ....

Rome paid tribute to the barbarians clamoring at her gates. It didn't do any good. Paying ransom only postponed the inevitable sacking, burning, and looting of the empire's capital. The UK's Neville Chamberlain sought to pacify Hitler, only to see Brits hiding in basements from the blitzkrieg a few years later. Instead of remembering history's lessons, the Washington Post today indulges in feel-good, intellectual rationalization of Muslim intolerance and hatred. In a 5-page manifesto entitled, "Anatomy of the Cartoon Protest Movement," authors Anthony Shadid and Kevin Sullivan exercise unlimited poetic license, calling Islamist hooliganism "a rare moment of empowerment among...

Last update - 08:55 18/11/2005 Rare seal bearing Jesus image found in Tiberias By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent A rare seal bearing a picture of Jesus on one side was discovered at an archeological dig in the old city of Tiberias on Thursday. The other side of the seal, which dates from the sixth century, depicts a cross and bears the inscription "Christos." The seal was discovered by two volunteers, employees of the American and British embassies. Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who is directing the dig, said the seal apparently belonged to a high-ranking church...

NEW ORLEANS - Searing heat and lack of electricity throughout New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ruined hundreds of thousands of bottles of rare wines by degrading corks and cooking the contents. Owners fear that even those bottles that appear to have survived the hurricane may hold spoiled wine. This city's once-vibrant culinary industry, already beaten back by disaster, has been further injured by damage to its wines. Losses are estimated to be as much as tens of millions of dollars. Private collectors, restaurants and distributors are preparing to destroy much of their stock. Insurance companies are just...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a rare look at the moon to gauge the amount of oxygen-bearing minerals in the lunar soil that could be mined by astronauts and used in a new moon mission. NASA said Wednesday that the telescope's ultraviolet observations of two Apollo landing sites and an unexplored but geologically intriguing area will help scientists pick the best spots for robot and human exploration. The space agency hopes to return astronauts to the moon by 2018 using Apollo-like capsules and rockets made of shuttle parts. The data also will benefit a lunar...

NAPA, Calif. (AP) - California wine country was reeling after a huge warehouse fire wiped out millions worth of rare vintages. No one was seriously injured in the fire, the cause of which was still under investigation, and the losses weren't expected to put a big dent in the state's multibillion-dollar wine industry. But for some, the potential loss of years of effort and hope spelled big trouble. "It is a terrible thing," said Gary Lipp, who suspects that most of his 2003 cabernet sauvignon and all of his 2004 pinot noir are gone. Lipp and Brooks Painter, both wine...

Mexican immigrants rely heavily on health clinics but use emergency room services less often than most white Americans, a study released Thursday found. The joint study by the University of California and the National Population Council of Mexican Governments of Mexico bucks long-held perceptions that recent immigrants make more frequent emergency room visits. "Mexican immigrants when they come here, they don't get here with the idea of using public services," said Fabian Nuez, speaker of the California assembly and a son of Mexican immigrants himself. "They come here to contribute something." Still, even after living in the United States for...

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's rarest songbird is facing extinction, despite being the most promiscuous and energetic lover in the avian world, and concerned scientists are looking urgently for ways to save it. The male aquatic warbler is described as "continuously ready to mate" and able to indulge in record-breaking mating sessions, which in turn gives the females ample opportunity to sample and select the best mates. However, numbers have slumped to less than 20,000 in the past century -- a decline of 95 percent -- and its range has shrunk from continent-wide to isolated strongholds in eastern Europe as humans...

Mexican Archeologists Find Rare Sacrifice Saturday July 23, 2005 2:16 AM By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press Writer MEXICO CITY (AP) - Archeologists digging through an Aztec temple say they've found a rare child sacrifice to the war god, a deity normally honored with the hearts or skulls of adult warriors. The child found at Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruins was apparently killed sometime around 1450, in a sort of grim cornerstone ceremony intended to dedicate a new layer of building, according to archaeologist Ximena Chavez. Priests propped the child - apparently already dead, since the sand around him showed no...

AVALON, Calif. - A species of grass not seen since 1912 has been discovered growing on Santa Catalina Island off the Southern California coast, botanists say. The plant, California dissanthelium, had long been thought extinct until a botanist recently spotted the wispy, 7-inch-tall tufts while hiking in Cottonwood Canyon. "I saw a little grass, and I thought, 'Hmm, that doesn't look familiar,'" said Jenny McCune, an assistant plant ecologist for the Catalina Island Conservancy. McCune found the grass on March 30 in an area of the canyon hit by fire two years ago. Scientists confirmed the plant's identity last month....

Tiberias dig unearths very rare marble floor By Eli Ashkenazi A marble floor dating from the first century CE was unearthed during this season's excavations of ancient Tiberias. According to archaeologist Professor Yizhar Hirschfeld, director of the three-week dig that ended yesterday, the floor is apparently a remnant of a pavement in the palace of Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, who ruled the Galilee from 4 BCE to 38 CE.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan went before thousands of employees in a rare staff meeting Tuesday to defend the United Nations against what he called "relentless" attacks, and told them they should feel proud to work for the world body. The meeting was billed as a chance for Annan to spell out his plans to reform the United Nations and address staff concerns at a time when the organization is enduring fierce criticism over a host of scandals, from allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food program in Iraq to sex abuse by peacekeepers and claims of harassment...

Researchers find rare letters from fifth century Gaza Strip Mon Jan 24, 3:48 PM ET Mideast - AFP GENEVA (AFP) - Swiss researchers have uncovered a rare exchange of letters written in ancient Greek during the fifth century in what is now the Gaza Strip , the University of Fribourg said. The discovery offers proof of a rich intellectual society in a region that is better known today for a bitter and bloody standoff between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, said one of the researchers, Professor Jacques Schamp. Located amid mounds of manuscripts stored at the Marciana National Library in...