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Silvia Bello, Simon Parfitt and Chris Stringer from the Department of Paleontology, The National History Museum (London, UK) recently reported the discovery of the earliest Ice Age cups made from human skull/p> . Such macabre cups and bowls are known at least since the 5th century BCE, when ancient Greek historian Herodotus portrayed the Scythians as people who drank from the skulls of their enemies, and similar traditions have been described by the ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian in the 1st or 2nd centuries BCE. Still, archaeological evidence of how skull cups were made is extremely rare. Bello, Parfitt and...

Catapult-makers were once ye olde celebrities July 05 2004 at 08:24AM London - Catapult designers were the celebrity scientists of the ancient world, according to a British expert. Until the discovery of gunpowder, the catapult was the most powerful weapon in existence, said historian Serafina Cuomo. The machines, capable of hurling large projectiles long distances, were in high demand during the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans - and so were their makers. But the construction of catapults was no easy task, requiring great mathematical and engineering skill. It became a science in itself, known as "belopoietics" from the...