Free Republic

An ancient fortress unknown to Bulgarian and international archaeology has been discovered in the thick and almost subtropical forests along the Ropotamo River in Southeast Bulgaria, the National Museum of History in Sofia has announced. The discovery has been made by Dr. Ivan Hristov, Deputy Director of the National Museum of History, who has also been excavating several other archaeological sites along Bulgaria's Southern Black Sea coast, including the Talaskara Fortress on Cape Chervenka (Chrisosotira). The previously unknown fortress, which appears to have been inhabited by Ancient Thracians, has been found in "the jungle of the Ropotamo" River, in the...

While the use of ochre by early humans dates to at least 250,000 years ago in Europe and Africa, this is the first time a paint containing ochre and milk has ever been found in association with early humans in South Africa, said Paola Villa, a curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and lead study author. The milk likely was obtained by killing lactating members of the bovid family such as buffalo, eland, kudu and impala, she said... The powdered paint mixture was found on the edge of a small stone flake in a layer of...

Nowhere gets you closer to the Romans on Hadrian's Wall than the fort and settlement of Vindolanda, the extraordinary hoard of personal artefacts gives you a unique insight into the lives of people living here 2000 years ago. The latest addition to the collection of artefacts from the current excavation has certainly made an impression on everyone. Someone 2000 years ago quite literally put their foot in it and as a result a volunteer digging at the site has unearthed a tile with a clear imprint of a human foot that accidentally, or perhaps mischievously stood on the freshly made...

Danish archaeologists doing a survey ahead of the construction of the Femern Belt link scheme, an immersed tunnel that will connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland, have found a 5,500-year old-ceramic vessel bearing the fingerprint of the artisan who made it. The vessel is known with the name "funnel beaker," a kind of ceramics which features a flat bottom with a funnel shaped neck. Such earthenware is characteristic of the Funnel Beaker Culture (4000 – 2800 B.C.), which represents the first farmers in Scandinavia and the north European plain. It was found in pieces...

A Jerusalem family ripping up its living room floor found a staircase lost for 2,000 years, leading to a large ritual bath carved out of bedrock. It took the family some years to call in the authorities and show them the discovery beneath their house, in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Kerem. Throughout the interim, the family blocked off the entrance to the mikveh with wooden doors, and simply continued to live over it. When they did call in the Israel Antiquities Authority, beneath the doors, the archaeologists found the carved stone staircase leaving to a big mikveh, 3.5 meters...

'It is one of the most hi-tech cars ever created - and you'll need to go on a course to learn how to drive it, even if you can afford the $2.3m pricetag. Aston Martin Vulcan showed off its track only 'hypercar' at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It features a hi-tech dashboard and smart steering wheel from which almost everything can be controlled.'

In this June 18, 2015 photo, Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former head of antiquities, stands next to his new book, "The legend of Tutankhamun," as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in Cairo. For more than a decade, he was the self-styled Indiana Jones of Egypt, presiding over its antiquities and striding through temples and tombs as the star of TV documentaries that made him an international celebrity. But four years after the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak and nearly ended his own career, Hawass can be found in a cramped office, lamenting...

The problem is clear: Traffic congestion will become significantly worse and more widespread without big changes in how people and products get around. Build more roads. Build more public transit. Rely on new technology. The possible solutions are many, but none is easy or cheap. A few ways to ease the nation's gridlock: ——— PUBLIC TRANSIT RENAISSANCE Ridership on public buses, trains and subways has reached its highest level nationally since the 1950s, and transit boosters cite this as evidence that expanded service and routes is a good investment. The nation's driving capital, Los Angeles, is making a multibillion-dollar investment...

Though it might seem like “no smoking” signs on airplanes aren’t even needed anymore — who could possibly think lighting up a cigarette in an enclosed cabin filled with other people is okay? — there are apparently those out there who still need reminding that smoking isn’t allowed. To wit: a United Airlines flight headed to Boston from Denver was forced to turn around after a passenger reportedly lit up and refused to stop smoking. Officials said the flight returned to Denver International Airport around midnight on Friday due to a disturbance on board, an airport spokesperson told Channel 2...

It has been claimed the chief architect of Pyongyang Airport was executed by North Korea's totalitarian leader Kim Jong-un because he disliked his designs. Ma Won-chun, who was North Korea's director of the Designing Department of the National Defence Commission, vanished last year and was allegedly executed in November. This coincided with a report the same month explaining how the fearsome ruler was dissatisfied with the construction of Terminal 2 at the country's capital city.

A powerful group of senior archaeologists are sharpening their trowels to fight "ethically unacceptable" plans they say will destroy one of the nation's greatest Iron Age treasures. Old Oswestry Hill Fort, an imposing ancient feature that dominates the skyline on the fringe of the Shropshire market town, is on the frontline of an increasingly bitter struggle pitting historians and residents against the local authority and central government. At stake is the ancient rural surroundings of the hill fort, an elaborate, 3,000-year-old earthwork dubbed "the Stonehenge of the Iron Age". It is said to have been the birthplace of Queen Ganhumara...

The defunct underwater wing of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is set for a revival with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the government keen to establish the scientific veracity of Dwarka, the mythological submerged capital of Lord Krishna's kingdom, and the Rama Setu, a set of limestone shoals believed to date back to the Ramayana... "The National Institute of Oceanography has the expertise. They will be training our fleet of young divers," said Dr RS Fonia, ASI joint director general. The ministry of culture, the nodal ministry for ASI, is also looking at options to bring on board...

An "extraordinary testimony" to the lives of prosperous people in Bronze Age Britain could lie under the soil of a 1,100-square metre site destroyed in a fire 3,000 years ago, say archaeologists who are about to start digging within a brick pit near Peterborough. Must Farm -- part of the Flag Fen Basin, and the site where nine pristine log boats were famously unearthed in 2011 -- was protected by a ring of wooden posts before a dramatic fire at the end of the Bronze Age caused the dwelling to collapse into the river. Its submergence preserved its contents, creating...

You would think that 12 miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea is the last place to find a dolphin clutching a fish between its jaws. Hewn from marble, the 2,000-or-so-year-old statuette surfaced during archaeological excavations near Kibbutz Magen, bordering the Gaza Strip, in March of this year. The discovery of the dolphin statue amid the ruins of a late Byzantine and early Islamic site in the northern Negev was only announced this week by Israel's Antiquities Authority. Alexander Fraiberg, head archaeologist with the IAA team, said he believes the sculpture dates to the Roman era, but was incorporated into a...

The work has been carried out by specialists in the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) at the University of Dundee, one of the world's leading centres for facial reconstruction. Caroline Erolin, Lecturer in Forensic and Medical Art at CAHID, said, "His grave lay slightly under an important sarcophagus burial, which had resulted in excellent preservation of his skull making it the best candidate among the skeletons for facial reconstruction." ... "The burial of this man was one of eight burials which were interred inside a small stone church or chapel which predates Lincoln Castle and was previously unknown,"...

Don't bring your selfie stick to Disney World. Officials announced Friday that a ban takes effect Tuesday at all four Disney theme parks in Orlando as well as at Disney's water parks and Disney Quest, a gaming attraction at Downtown Disney.

We hear no end of complaining about how overcrowded the subways are and how hard it is to find a seat, and yet here we have enough room on the F train for at least five people (maybe even six) and nobody wants to sit down? So there's a bag with a big fat snake or two sitting there, big deal. We've sat next to worse. This photo and video (below) were sent to us by commuter Hiram Becker, who remarks, "I was riding the F train on Sunday afternoon from the 7th and 9th street stop in Park Slope...

SEATTLE -- Panhandlers carry them. Protestors call them essential. But one Seattle man's sign -- warning of a speed trap -- has been dubbed illegal and could end up costing him $138. "I thought it was nonsense," said Daniel Gehlke, who made the handwritten sign "Cops Ahead! Stop at sign and light!" with a marker and a Rubbermaid top. "I am a believer that the Constitution, the Bill of Rights are there specifically so they can't be modified or restricted. This clearly is not a stop sign." Gehlke was holding the sign near 14th Avenue S. and S. Washington Street...

According to Italian media reports, the Vatican congregation concluded June 24 that the alleged Marian apparitions are inauthentic, but recognized the site as a place of prayer.If reports in Italian media outlets are to be believed, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met June 24 to discuss the alleged Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, reaching the conclusion that they are inauthentic, but recognizing the site as a place of prayer. On Thursday, Vatican watcher Gianluca Barile wrote that, “for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in fact, the ‘apparitions’ do not have any supernatural character; therefore,...

An improperly secured switch was to blame for the derailment in New Orleans East last month of two railroad cars carrying some 60,000 gallons of crude oil, according to the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad. ... An investigation found the switch handle at Jourdan Road had been “out of the foot latch and in neutral position,” Beck said. “The cause of the derailment was that the switch was not secured properly,” she said, “although it cannot be definitively determined what caused the switch to not be secured properly.” The switch was found to be in proper working order with no...