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The identities of the occupants of the unspoiled 4th-century BCE Royal Tombs at Vergina in northern Greece have been identified. The burials contain the remains of Alexander's father, stepmother, half-siblings, and son, along with armor and other items belonging to the man himself...The researchers examined the skeletal elements with the aid of macrophotography, radiographs, and anatomical dissection. The study authors combined osteological analyses, macro photography, X-rays, and anatomical dissections of the ancient remains with historical sources from the ancient past.A knee fusion was found in the male skeleton of Tomb I consistent with the historic evidence of the lameness of...

ROME — Long before the industrial revolution and fossil fuels, “climate change” was wreaking havoc on the health of ancient Romans, Smithsonian magazine contends. Citing a study published in the journal Science Advances, Smithsonian underscores a correlation between cold, dry periods in ancient Rome and “devastating bouts of fatal illness” between 200 BC and 600 AD. Whereas Rome enjoyed stable weather from 200 to 100 BC, it later suffered “three very cold periods,” all of which “line up with documented plagues,” states Smithsonian writer Sarah Kuta. The first cold spell, which struck the Roman Empire between 160 and 180 AD,...

ROME — Long before the industrial revolution and fossil fuels, “climate change” was wreaking havoc on the health of ancient Romans, Smithsonian magazine contends. Citing a study published in the journal Science Advances, Smithsonian underscores a correlation between cold, dry periods in ancient Rome and “devastating bouts of fatal illness” between 200 BC and 600 AD. Whereas Rome enjoyed stable weather from 200 to 100 BC, it later suffered “three very cold periods,” all of which “line up with documented plagues,” states Smithsonian writer Sarah Kuta.

Ancient Bones Found in Honduras Said to Be Olmec TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) - Human bones believed to date from the ancient Olmec civilization have been found in southeastern Honduras, suggesting the influential culture extended farther than previously thought, Honduran authorities said on Tuesday. Missed Tech Tuesday? Here's the real reasons you need speed, plus better broadband tips and making do with dial-up. Carmen Fajardo, at the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, said it appeared to be the first time Olmec remains have been found outside the so-called Mesoamerican corridor that stretches from Mexico to central Honduras. "For the first...

The skeleton of a man was discovered with a nail through his heel in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, in 2017...The reconstruction of the man's face was revealed in a BBC Four programme, which explored details of his life.Prior to the Fenstanton discovery, the only other Roman crucified remains discovered had been in Israel, according to Ms Duhig, an osteologist from the university's Wolfson College.Other injuries were found, suggesting the man had suffered before he died, and his legs had signs of infection or inflammation caused by either a systemic disorder or by being bound or shackled.Analysis of the remains revealed he spent...

After decades of portraying the iconic character, it seems that Harrison Ford’s days as Indiana Jones are over based on a brand-new casting. Of all the characters created by George Lucas, it’s arguable that the most beloved is Indiana Jones. Known for his signature hat, whip, and phobia of snakes, Dr. Jones is the center of arguably the best action-adventure series of all time, which includes Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), The Last Crusade (1989), The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and The Dial of Destiny (2023). While much of...

Archaeologists in Sweden have discovered the medieval burial of an extremely tall man who was buried with a long sword — one that was nearly two-thirds of his height — and may have been a nobleman who supported the region's ill-fated union with Denmark and Norway.The sword, which is over 4 feet (1.3 meters) long, seems to have been inlaid with a different metal to form small Christian crosses, excavation leader Johan Klange, an archaeologist with the Halland Cultural Environment, an agency of the local government, told Live Science.Even taller than the sword was the man in the grave. Klange...

Margolis first studied the mummy excavated in 1908 while writing her master's thesis in anthropology at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. on female pelvic morphology in 2019. "I CT scanned her to obtain her pelvic measurements," Margolis said. "That is when we discovered the second fetus."The 3D images showed that the remains of a fetus, which no previous records mentioned, had become lodged in the girl's chest. Margolis and David Hunt, co-author of the new study and an anthropologist at GWU, X-rayed the mummy to obtain a clearer picture of the fetal remains."When we saw the second fetus...

William Taylor, an assistant professor of anthropology and curator of archaeology in the Museum of Natural History at CU Boulder, says this research shows that the story about people and horses in the Americas is "far more dynamic" than previously thought...Juan Bautista Belardi, a professor of archaeology at the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral in Argentina and Taylor's research colleague, and his team in Patagonia conducted all the field research at a canyon site called Chorrillo Grande 1 in southern Argentina. They unearthed the remains of an Aónikenk/Tehuelche campsite (people of the Indigenous Tehuelche nation traditionally used horses for...

Saliency map highlights areas that contribute to the similarity between the two fingerprints from the same person. Credit: Gabe Guo,/Columbia Engineering ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From "Law and Order" to "CSI," not to mention real life, investigators have used fingerprints as the gold standard for linking criminals to a crime. But if a perpetrator leaves prints from different fingers in two different crime scenes, these scenes are very difficult to link, and the trace can go cold. It's a well-accepted fact in the forensics community that fingerprints of different fingers of the same person—"intra-person fingerprints"—are unique and, therefore, unmatchable. A team led by...

Scientists analysing ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies have discovered they overwhelmingly share genes with people from Europe and not Africa, as previously believed. The first ever full-genome study of mummies dating from 1400 BC to 400 AD found that the ancient Egyptians were closely related to populations in the Levant – now modern day Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Israel.Daily Mail reports: They were also genetically similar to Neolithic populations from the Anatolian Peninsula and Europe. In plain English, Egyptians were related to Persians, Rome and Greece whom were all white European people.The groundbreaking study used recent advances in DNA...

Some 24 years ago, Diana Bianchi peered into a microscope at a piece of human thyroid and saw something that instantly gave her goosebumps. The sample had come from a woman who was chromosomally XX. But through the lens, Bianchi saw the unmistakable glimmer of Y chromosomes—dozens and dozens of them. “Clearly,” Bianchi told me, “part of her thyroid was entirely male.” The reason, Bianchi suspected, was pregnancy. Years ago, the patient had carried a male embryo, whose cells had at some point wandered out of the womb. They’d ended up in his mother’s thyroid—and, almost certainly, a bunch of...

If two persons are biologically related, they share long stretches of DNA that they co-inherited from their recent common ancestor. These almost identically shared stretches of genomes are called IBD ("Identity by Descent") segments. Up to the sixth-degree relatives—such as second to third cousins would be, or a great great great great grandparent—the two relatives even share multiple IBD segments. Personal genomics companies such as 23andme or Ancestry detect those segments routinely in DNA of their customers, and use this signal to distinctively reveal biological relatives in their databases.In a new study published in Nature Genetics, researchers from the Max...

What has been found at the site?·70 graves are estimated to have been dug into the bedrock.·There are two rings of perimeter ditches.·Of the 18 graves excavated, four contain crouching skeletons.·The researchers have also found fragments of glass from Bordeaux and pottery from North Africa.·They believe that they may find evidence of a church or monastic site.In particular, the archaeologists are interested in fragments of fine glass from Bordeaux and pottery that may have come from as far as North Africa.This suggests that the people buried in the cemetery were of a high status within society and that the site...

The Black Death’s reign of terror lasted for more than 400 years. By culling up to 50% of the population of Europe, the Great Plague guaranteed its place in the history books. Yet while accounts of the Black Death have focused graphically on those who died, the stories of those who survived have gone untold. Until now. The Riddle of the Plague Survivors focuses on those who walked away unaffected. Could this village be the first example of quarantining to avoid disease? How could anyone survive in the face of what is described as one of the most pathogenic bacterial...

... The website coincides with a study from the team published in the journal Antiquity, which investigates the inhabitants of the hospital of St. John the Evangelist. Founded around 1195, this institution helped the "poor and infirm," housing a dozen or so inmates at any one time. It lasted for some 300 years before being replaced by St. John's College in 1511. The site was excavated in 2010. "Like all medieval towns, Cambridge was a sea of need," said Robb. "A few of the luckier poor people got bed and board in the hospital for life. Selection criteria would have...

Black women of African descent were more likely to die of the medieval plague in London, academics at the Museum of London have found. The study is the first archaeological exploration showing how racism influenced a person's risk of death during what was known as the Great Pestilence or Great Mortality. The research is based on 145 individuals from three cemeteries. The outbreak is believed to have claimed the lives of 35,000 Londoners. Data on bone and dental changes of the 145 individuals from East Smithfield emergency plague cemetery, St Mary Graces and St Mary Spital formed the basis of...

London, England (CNN) -- Heads hacked off, a bite from a lion, tiger or bear, massive muscles on massive men -- all clues that an ancient cemetery uncovered in northern England is the final resting place of gladiators, scientists have announced after seven years of investigations. The archeological dig has found "what may be the world's only well-preserved Roman gladiator cemetery," the York Archaeological Trust said. -snip-

The bubonic plague killed so many people in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa that that natural selection event is still rippling through our genomes today. But the same genes that helped your ancestors survive the Black Death may be contributing to autoimmune disease today.Have an Autoimmune Disease? Blame the Black Death | 7:16SciShow | 7.77M subscribers | 572,860 views | November 7, 2023

An ancient Egyptian woman had an ovarian tumor with teeth and was buried with a possible healing object.While excavating an ancient Egyptian cemetery, archaeologists made a rare discovery: an ovarian tumor nestled in the pelvis of a woman who died more than three millennia ago. The tumor, a bony mass with two teeth, is the oldest known example of a teratoma, a rare type of tumor that typically occurs in ovaries or testicles.A teratoma can be benign or malignant, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and it is usually made up of various tissues, such as muscle, hair, teeth or bone....