Free Republic

A 55-year-old Florida man allegedly attacked his girlfriend with a holiday ornament on Christmas morning, documents showed. Frankie Caldwell, of Clearwater, was arrested after he allegedly struck his girlfriend in the head with an "angel figurine" during a confrontation in the couple's home at around 7 a.m. Sunday, the Smoking Gun reported, citing an arrest affidavit. The "fragile" Christmas ornament shattered into pieces as a result of the attack, with the unnamed victim claiming that some of the bits had fallen down the back of her dress, according to police. Caldwell denied carrying out the attack and instead claimed it...

If human culture seems obsessed with sex lately, it's nothing new. Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known artistic representation of a woman - a carved ivory statue of a naked female, dating from 35,000 years ago. The figurine, unearthed in September 2008 in Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, may be the oldest known example of figurative art, meaning art that is supposed to represent and resemble a real person, animal or object. The discovery could help scientists understand the origins of art and the advent of symbolic thinking, including complicated language. ... The fixation wasn't just for naked women,...

(IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists have discovered an 1,800-year-old marble figurine of what is believed to be the head of a Roman boxer. The bust was found during excavations in the area of the Givati car park in the City of David, across the street from the Dung Gate leading to the Western Wall (Kotel). The figurine, which depicts the head of a man with a short, curly beard, is carved from pale yellow marble and might indicate the raw material came from Asia Minor, according to excavation directors Dr. Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets. "The high level of finish on the figurine...