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The Serce Port shipwreck, on display at the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology in southwestern Mugla province, offers a glimpse into the popular 11th-century trade route between the Middle East and Europe. Popularly called the "Glass Wreck," the exhibit hosts hundreds of items reflecting the ship's historical and archaeological importance. The ship is believed to have set sail from Lebanon's Port of Beirut... in the 11th century and sunk at a depth of 33 meters (108 feet) in Serce Port, Marmaris, in southwestern [Anatolia]... Among the artifacts exhibited along with the ship are gold Islamic and copper Byzantine coins, scales,...

We bring to light the unknown sunken port of Ancient Eretria, which is only 30 meters from the modern port, but is separated by 2,400 years from it... The ancient construction along its entire length maintains a constant width (8 meters) and is located -86 cm lower than the current sea level. The original construction dates back to the beginning of the second half of the 4th century BC with some reinforcing modifications at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. century... The city owes its great flourishing to the maritime trade during the 9th and 8th BC. century. The...

Alfred the Great, King of Wessex from 871 and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 to 899, is widely touted as establishing England's first Royal fleet but research led by Flinders Medieval Studies Ph.D. candidate Matt Firth has found evidence that the Anglo-Saxons' first recorded naval victory occurred 20 years before Alfred was crowned King of Wessex and 24 years before his first recorded naval victory... Using a combination of tenth-century historical texts and the growing archeological evidence for medieval ship design, the new research shows that Alfred was not the first English monarch to coordinate a fleet to defend...

Archaeologists investigating the Tuscan island of Elba have identified the remains of the villa belonging to the real-life individual that inspired one of the principal characters in the epic tale of Ben-Hur. Overlooking Portoferraio's bay, the once magnificent 1st-century B.C. villa has long been believed to have been owned by Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, portrayed as Ben-Hur in the Hollywood blockbuster starring Charlton Heston. Now in ruins, the property was known as Villa Le Grotte (the Caves) because of the shape of its vaulted facades facing the sea. While Ben-Hur was a fictional villain dreamed up in Lew Wallace's 1880...

America’s First Mass St. Brendan (Naomh Breandán) and the whale by Honorius Philoponus from "Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis" (1621)America’s First Mass | John Buescher | Catholic World ReportWhen was it, where was it, and who said it? When and where was the first Mass offered in America? No one living today knows the answer to this intriguing question. But we can summarize what we do know about the first Masses in various parts of the New World.Some legendary accounts of the life of St. Brendan, who was a priest, say he set off in a small boat on a...

Researchers have long clashed over the circumstances of the 1495 European syphilis epidemic. The so-called Columbian theory posits that Columbus and his crew carried the bacterium, or an earlier progenitor of it, when they returned to Europe in 1493 after their American journey. Skeletons of Native Americans who died prior to Columbus's arrival show bone lesions from Treponemal diseases, including yaws and bejel, and some researchers suspect syphilis was also present. However, other researchers believe syphilis itself circulated in Europe for centuries and became more virulent in the late 1400s. They point to a growing body of archaeological evidence: skeletal...

Ancient UAE Was Active Trading Hub© XPRESS/DANESH MOHIUDDIN Archaeologists now claim that the Arabian Peninsula was home to developed settlements during the same period. Published: August 16, 2007, 12:13 By Derek Baldwin, Staff Reporter You might want to set aside those early school lessons that taught you the dawn of Western civilisation was confined to Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). An expert panel of archaeologists from around the world now claim the Arabian Peninsula – long thought to be a barren wasteland from around 5,000BC – was home to developed settlements during the same period. In the August 3 edition of Science...

Geneticists have scanned the genomes of 173 Armenians from Armenia and Lebanon and compared them with those of 78 other populations from around the world. They found that the Armenians are a mix of ancient populations whose descendants now live in Sardinia, Central Asia and several other regions... Armenians share 29 percent of their DNA ancestry with Otzi, a man whose 5,300-year-old mummy emerged in 1991 from a melting Alpine glacier. Other genetically isolated populations of the Near East, like Cypriots, Sephardic Jews and Lebanese Christians, also share a lot of ancestry with the Iceman, whereas other Near Easterners, like...

Rat DNA clues to sea migration This carving shows Pacific rats on the face of a Polynesian ancestor Scientists have used DNA from rats to trace migration patterns of the ancestors of today's Polynesians. People are thought to have arrived in Polynesia, comprising the Pacific islands of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, by boat some 3,000 years ago. Rat data suggests the journey was more complex than the popular "Express Train" theory, which proposes a rapid dispersal of people from South Asia. Details appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith and Judith Robins from the University of...

A corroded, damaged helmet unearthed in Yarm, Stockton-on-Tees, in the 1950s is a rare, 10th century Anglo-Scandinavian helmet, the first ever found in Britain and only the second nearly complete Viking helmet found in the world. **** The hammer marks covering the surface and ragged edges of the infill plates show the helmet was made at a blacksmiths forge without benefit of additional refinement. The rivet holes were punched through hot metal from the outer side, ensuring a smooth exterior that would not catch bladed weapons. The out turned lip of the brow band was a later alteration, pushing the...

The first thing you must know before swim across the Strait of Gibraltar is this challenge have experienced a boom over the last few years. Every year, the demand continues to grow and as a result the Association has had to implement a procurement process.Waiting lists can exceed two years. This timeframe will give you the opportunity to get information and train yourself in order to be brilliantly successful and achieve your goal. The association works to reduce these waiting times mixing swimmers and other techniques, so the allocation of dates depends to a large extent on the flexibility...

The discovery of the burials of four medieval knights near the Polish village of Cieple has highlighted the region's connections to Scandinavia during the reign of the first Polish kings. The warriors were found lying in richly adorned chamber tombs dating to the early eleventh century A.D., the time of Boleslaw I the Brave. They had been buried with a variety of weapons, including swords, spears, and daggers, as well as full sets of equestrian equipment, such as spurs, stirrups, bits, and buckles. Isotope and DNA analysis demonstrated, though, that these individuals were not locals, but instead likely immigrated from...

The research, a collaboration between the University of Roehampton, the University of Cambridge and several other institutions, combined archeological data with palaeoclimatic reconstructions to show for the first time that climate dramatically impacted the migration of people across Europe, causing a dramatic slowdown between 6,100 BCE and 4,500 BCE. The research team, including Dr. Lia Betti, Senior Lecturer of the University of Roehampton, assembled a large database of the first arrival dates of Neolithic farmers across the continent and studied the speed of their migration in relation to climatic reconstructions of the time. They also re-analysed ancient DNA data to...

Scientists have discovered extinct strains of smallpox in the teeth of Viking skeletons - proving for the first time that the killer disease plagued humanity for at least 1400 years. Smallpox spread from person to person via infectious droplets, killed around a third of sufferers and left another third permanently scarred or blind. Around 300 million people died from it in the 20th century alone before it was officially eradicated in 1980 through a global vaccination effort - the first human disease to be wiped out... He said: "We discovered new strains of smallpox in the teeth of Viking skeletons...

Tools excavated from a cave in central Mexico are strong evidence that humans were living in North America at least 30,000 years ago, some 15,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday.​ Artefacts, including 1,900 stone tools, showed human occupation of the high-altitude Chiquihuite Cave over a roughly 20,000 year period, they reported in two studies, published in Nature. "Our results provide new evidence for the antiquity of humans in the Americas," Ciprian Ardelean, an archeologist at the Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas and lead author of one of the studies, told AFP. "There are only a few artefacts and...

Archaeologists in Mexico found stone tools and other signs that people were living in North America 30,000 years ago, much earlier than widely believed, according to new research reshaping the debate over the origins of people in the Americas.In a study reported Wednesday, scientists led by archaeologist Ciprian Ardelean at Mexico’s University of Zacatecas said that they had unearthed hundreds of unusual green limestone spear points, blades and other implements from a lofty cavern in the central Mexican highlands. For wandering hunter-gatherers, the cave served as a makeshift tool shed possibly beginning as early as about 33,000 years ago, the...

.....American Indian lineage has been traced to a tiny region of Russia called Altai, which borders China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago, these Altaians trekked thousands of miles, up through Russia/Siberia, eventually crossing the then-exposed Bering land mass into the Americas. "Altai is a key area because it's a place where people have been coming and going for thousands and thousands of years," said Dr. Theodore Schurr, from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Schurr's team checked Altai DNA samples for markers in mitochondrial DNA, which is always passed on by mothers, and Y chromosome DNA, which...

Persons residing on the Israeli coastline 120,000 many years in the past strung ocher-painted seashells on flax string, in accordance to a recent examine in which archaeologists examined microscopic traces of have on inside of by natural means developing holes in the shells. That may well lose some light on when folks very first invented string -- which hints at the invention of points like clothes, fishing nets, and perhaps even seafaring... Shell collectors at Misliya appeared to like primarily intact shells, and there is no signal that they embellished or modified their finds. But 40,000 years later on and...

Greece is ready to open its first underwater museum beginning in August. The park, located off the coast of Alonissos Island in the western Aegean, will show-off the stunning marine life and a historic wreck off of Pertistera Islet. According to the news from ekathimerini, the site will be open to tours from licensed guides from August 3rd until October 2nd. The part will let amateur divers explore the 5th century BC wreck which carried a cargo of hundreds of amphoras of wine. The site is blessed with a wealth of archaeological treasures and incredibly rich sea life resulting from...

A colossal statue of Atlas, buried for centuries among ancient ruins, will soon take its rightful place among the ancient Greek temples of Agrigento on Sicily. The city's archaeological park announced that the artwork, one of the most celebrated sculptures on the island, will be raised upright in front of the Temple of Zeus. In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan or god who was forced to bear the sky on his shoulders after being defeated by Zeus, one of the next generation of gods called Olympians. The statue, eight metres high and built in the 5th century BC, was...