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One rarely-visited site surveyed, known as Site XI or Airigh na Beinne Bige, now consists of a single standing stone on an exposed hillside overlooking the great circle. Geophysics revealed that not only was the stone originally part of a circle of standing stones, but also that there was a massive, star-shaped magnetic anomaly in the centre – either the result of a single, large lighting strike or many smaller strikes on the same spot. Project leader Dr Richard Bates, of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews, said: “Such clear evidence for lightning...

Firefighters have saved the only known natural stand of Wollemi pines, so-called “dinosaur trees” that fossil records show existed up to 200m years ago, from the bushfires that have devastated New South Wales. The state’s environment minister, Matt Kean, said a specially deployed team of remote area firefighters helped save the critically endangered trees from the giant Gospers Mountain fire. The pines are in an undisclosed sandstone grove in the Wollemi national park, in the Blue Mountains, about 200km north-west of Sydney. They were thought extinct until discovered 26 years ago..............................

How did the #Ancient Civilisations cut and shape such intricate stonework like we see in #Ancient Egypt? How were holes seemingly drilled through solid granite? How did the #Incas create walls with perfectly connecting blocks of stone? Did they use traditional tools? Did they harness the power of the sun as I explained in a previous video? Or did they know the secrets of sound and this was a form of ancient high technology?

A boat made of reeds will be put to the test by a team of intrepid adventurers when they embark on the 800 mile journey from the Black Sea to Crete in August. The voyage aboard the vessel — the 'Abora IV' — is hoped will prove that the ancient Egyptians could have made similar trips in reed boats thousands of years ago. The 46 feet-long (14 metre) boat will be crewed by a team of two dozen researchers and volunteers, from eight different countries. Setting out from the Bulgarian port of Varna, on the Black Sea, the voyagers will...

More than a decade has passed since we joined forces to try and find out if there was any reality to a claim that highly accurate units of length had been in used during the British Neolithic. We found that these supposedly primitive people were using a highly developed science that connected them to the rhythms of the Earth.But our biggest personal challenge has been to face up to the consequences of our own findings because they have brought us to the point where we have found compelling evidence that our planet and its environment has been carefully designed for...

During the construction of London's massive "super sewer," archaeologists discovered something unusual in the mud: a 500-year-old skeleton of a man still wearing his thigh-high leather boots. The Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) announced this week that the skeleton was unearthed on the shores of the Thames, near a bend in the river downstream from the Tower of London. "By studying the boots, we've been able to gain a fascinating glimpse into the daily life of a man who lived as many as 500 years ago," said Beth Richardson, a finds specialist who analyzes artifacts at MOLA Headland, a consortium...

The messages convey a sense of urgency, and are coming with increasing frequency. They are short, focused reactions to the latest “outrage” committed by President Trump. Some end by asking for money, some urge participation in protests. All read as if they are sent from the official headquarters of the resistance. Hillary Clinton is up to something. Five times in the last month alone, she sent e-mails touting her super PAC’s role in combating President Trump. Most seized on headline events, such as the family-separation issue at the southern border. Under the message line, “horrific,” she wrote June 18: “This...

New research published today in the journal Science Advances overturns more than a century of thought about the source of turquoise used by ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica, the vast region that extends from Central Mexico to Central America. For more than 150 years, scholars have argued that the Aztec and Mixtec civilizations, which revered the precious, blue-green mineral, acquired it through import from the American Southwest. However, extensive geochemical analyses reveal that the true geologic source of Aztec and Mixtec turquoise lies within Mesoamerica. Geochemist Alyson Thibodeau, assistant professor of earth sciences at Dickinson College, and a team of researchers...

Barack Obama was born in the U.S. It was his own book publisher that started the false rumor that he was born in Kenya. NPR later repeated the false claim. Barack Obama was born in the U.S.According to this 2012 article from ABC News, in 1991 Obama’s own book publisher printed a paper pamphlet which said that Obama was “born in Kenya.” An employee of the publisher said that it was a “fact checking error” of hers that caused this to happen, and that the false information did not come from Obama. The bolding is mine:https://web.archive.org/web/20120518040015/http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/born-kenya-obamas-literary-agent-misidentified-birthplace-1991/story?id=16372566#.WDjC8FxHR_k‘Born in Kenya’: Obama’s Literary Agent...

Paris (AFP) – Cro-Magnon man had a face covered in lumps including a large one on his forehead — likely benign tumours caused by a genetic disease, according to a team of French researchers in new findings published Friday. The skeleton of Cro-Magnon 1, a male Homo sapiens dating back 28,000 years, was discovered in 1868 in the Eyzies cave in France’s southwestern Dordogne region. To mark 150 years since the discovery of the bones, a team of researchers including anthropologist Philippe Charlier reexamined the remains. At the end of their investigation, “we proposed a new diagnosis: he had suffered...

The Federalist Society's Georgetown Student Chapter presented its Seventh Annual Lifetime Service Award to Professor Richard A. Epstein on April 1, 2010.His address was titled "Natural Law in Ancient and Modern Guise".

The first modern Britons, who lived about 10,000 years ago, had “dark to black” skin, a groundbreaking DNA analysis of Britain’s oldest complete skeleton has revealed. The fossil, known as Cheddar Man, was unearthed more than a century ago in Gough’s Cave in Somerset. Intense speculation has built up around Cheddar Man’s origins and appearance because he lived shortly after the first settlers crossed from continental Europe to Britain at the end of the last ice age. People of white British ancestry alive today are descendants of this population. It was initially assumed that Cheddar Man had pale skin and...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Pope Francis accused victims of Chile’s most notorious pedophile of slander Thursday, an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church its credibility in the country. Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadimas, such accusations against Barros are “all calumny.”

Singer Nancy Sinatra on Thursday called for members of the National Rifle Association to be killed by firing squad. Sinatra—the daughter of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra—shared the sentiment on Twitter following the murder of 59 people in Las Vegas by a mass shooter over the weekend. The murderous members of the NRA should face a firing squad. https://t.co/5ceuMvk5Tl — Nancy Sinatra (@NancySinatra) October 3, 2017 In response to criticism, Sinatra clarified that she did not mean all gun owners, just NRA members. I didn't say every one, I said the "murderous members of the NRA" — Nancy Sinatra (@NancySinatra) October...

Nancy Pelosi’s problem inside the Democratic caucus isn’t going away – as a new generation of lawmakers starts to openly question her leadership in the wake of consecutive special election losses. The long-reigning House Democratic leader remained defiant at a press conference Thursday, saying she thrives on “competition” and touting her skills as a “master legislator” and “politically astute leader.” But inside the rank-and-file, members are getting restless and the call for Pelosi to depart is louder than ever.

History is full of mysterious disappearances — of people, of places and even of entire civilizations. In many cases, time has not told us what happened to the populations that have vanished en masse, all over the world. Archeologists unearth ruins and uncover clues as to the demise of ancient cultures, but the fates of many inexplicably evaporated peoples remain question marks. Here are four mysteriously vanished civilizations that keep scientists scratching their heads.

Unearthed: the humble origins of world diplomacy By David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent 19 January 2003 Archaeologists have discovered evidence of an invasion of the Middle East by one of the world's first superpowers, which destroyed much of the region 33 centuries ago. Under the ruins of a 3,800-year-old royal palace in western Syria they have found part of an ancient diplomatic and administrative library, the most important archaeological discovery of its kind for more than 20 years. Accounts on clay tablets describe the region's conquest by one of the Bronze Age's superpowers, the Hittite Empire, in 1340BC. This helped to...

As of 6:20 AM Central Time, I am now 40 years old. Should I ping SunkenCiv?

Israeli archaeologists have uncovered dramatic evidence of what they believe are the earliest known attempts at agriculture, 11,000 years before the generally recognised advent of organised cultivation. The study examined more than 150,000 examples of plant remains recovered from an unusually well preserved hunter-gatherer settlement on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. Previously, scientists had believed that organised agriculture in the Middle East, including animal husbandry and crop cultivation, had begun in the late Holocene period – around 12,000 BC – and later spread west through Europe.

A 3,000-year-old ceramic jar discovered in pieces in Israel has been restored to reveal a rare inscription of the name of a biblical figure and ruler whose reign coincided with that of King David, archaeologists announced today (June 16). The pottery was found in an ancient city overlooking the Valley of Elah, where, as described in the Bible, the legendary David defeated Goliath. The inscription, the researchers found, read: Eshba'al Ben Bada', who the archaeologists say was likely an important person since his name was inscribed on a jar. (Eshba'al Ben Shaul ruled over Israel at the same time...