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While it might have been dismissed as underwater junk by the untrained eye, the archaeologists soon realised they had discovered a vital clue to a lost civilisation. The timber was not isolated. In fact they found another 23 pieces of all shapes and sizes intersecting throughout the underwater cliff off Bouldnor, on the north coast of the Isle of Wight. They are now convinced the timber is evidence of a huge wooden structure built about 8,000 years ago by our Mesolithic ancestors. Garry Momber has been excavating the 1km-long site for more than a decade and believes it is the...

With Shoreline communities filling up with visitors for beach season, golf carts laden with towels and umbrellas could be popping up on local roads. After a year of uncertainty for owners about whether they could drive their carts on the road, new legislation passed by the General Assembly authorized towns to allow golf carts, with certain restrictions. This week, the Old Saybrook Police Department started a program for owners to register their vehicles, following recent approval by the Police Commission. State Rep. Marilyn Giuliano, R-Old Saybrook, said a reinterpretation of existing state regulations about a year ago led to golf...

Some of the oldest words in use in have been identified by scientists studying the evolution of language. English and Indo-European words including 'I', 'we', 'two' and 'thou' have changed so little in tends of thousands of years that ancient hunter-gatherers would have been able to understand them. Researchers have also identified several words that could die out within 1,000 years because they are likely to evolve into different forms. They include "throw", "stick", "dirty", "guts" and "squeeze" which could all be out of use by the year 3000. Mark Pagel, of the University of Reading, who is leading the...

Note: Video included. January 21, 2009 For hate speech -- after declining to do so last year, which means that Islamic supremacist groups in the Netherlands have kept up the pressure on lawmakers until they got the outcome they wanted. Hate speech, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, and hate speech laws are tools in the hands of the powerful that they can use to silence the powerless and crush dissent. And make no mistake: even though the Muslims in the Netherlands and elsewhere in the West present themselves as embattled victims of racism and "Islamophobia," that...

How old is a piece of string? In this case, 8,000 years - making it the oldest length of string ever found in Britain. Our ancestors made it by twisting together what seem to be fibres of honeysuckle, nettles, or wild clematis, and used it in their struggle for survival as the last ice age ended. This early piece of technology, measuring about 41/2in must have been a revolutionary advance at the time, useful for binding together weapons or tools. Found in the mud: The ancient string It has only survived thanks to the huge floods that followed the melting...

Rare artefacts from the late Stone Age have been uncovered in Russia. The site at Zaraysk, 150km south-east of Moscow, has yielded figurines and carvings on mammoth tusks. The finds also included a cone-shaped object whose function, the authors report in the journal Antiquity, "remains a puzzle". Such artistic artefacts have been found in the nearby regions of Kostenki and Avdeevo, but this is the first such discovery at Zaraysk. The Upper Palaeolithic is the latter part of the Stone Age, during which humans made the transition from functional tool-making to art and adornment. The new artefacts, discovered by Hizri...

The people of the Mondsee Lake settlement were apparently relatively advanced within this cultural group. They had metallurgical skills, which were rare in Europe. They cleverly searched the mountains for copper deposits, melted the crude ore in clay ovens and made refined, shimmering red weapons out of the metal. In dugout canoes... they paddled along the region's river networks and sold their goods in areas of present-day Switzerland and to their relatives on Lake Constance. Even Otzi the Iceman had an axe, made of so-called Mondsee copper. At approximately 3200 B.C., says Binsteiner, the master blacksmiths were struck by a...

Graves Found From Sahara’s Green Period By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD When Paul C. Sereno went hunting for dinosaur bones in the Sahara, his career took a sharp turn from paleontology to archaeology. The expedition found what has proved to be the largest known graveyard of Stone Age people who lived there when the desert was green. The first traces of pottery, stone tools and human skeletons were discovered eight years ago at a site in the southern Sahara, in Niger. After preliminary research, Dr. Sereno, a University of Chicago scientist who had previously uncovered remains of the dinosaur Nigersaurus there,...

 Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid Slams Beijing Olympics: Nothing Makes Satan Happier Than The 'Bikini' Olympics Sheikh Muhammad Al-Munajid is a well-known Saudi Islamic lecturer and author. He frequently appears on Saudi TV channels and is known for issuing controversial fatwas. He previously worked in Washington, D.C. at the Saudi Embassy Islamic Affairs Department but was stripped of his diplomatic credentials. [1] In an August 10, 2008 interview with Al-Majd TV, Al-Munajid was highly critical of the Beijing Olympics, which he called the "bikini Olympics," referring to them as "satanic." Al-Munajid is known for his criticism of other sporting events....

Stone Age axe holds hidden human figure Published: 10 Jun 08 17:37 CET Online: http://www.thelocal.se/12344/ An artifact from the Stone Age has been hiding in the plain sight of museum visitors and researches in western Sweden. But no one noticed until archaeologist Bengt Nordqvist suddenly discovered the form of a human body on a stone axe. “The axe has been in the museum’s collection for more than 100 years. Anyone could have found the image,” said Nordqvist, who had a hard time containing his excitement. The stone axe was found in connection with the building of a road near Stala...

Rock art from 5,000 years agoThe Astuvansalmi rock paintings are located on a steep outcrop, resembling a human head, on the shore of lake Yövesi. The site may have been used for ceremonial purposes. Rock paintings created during the Stone Age can still be seen today in dozens of sites around Finland. These awe-inspiring artworks are like windows into the ancient past, revealing tantalising glimpses of long lost cultures. FINLAND’S rock paintings mainly consist of brownish-red figures and markings painted onto steep granite walls, often overlooking waterways. Scenes feature people, boats, elk, fish and mysterious partly human figures that may...

Neolithic village found in Orkney sheds new light on Stone Age life August 14, 2007 David Lister The remains of a Neolithic settlement discovered in Orkney were hailed yesterday as potentially as important as the Skara Brae village on the islands. The 2.5 hectare site is believed to date back nearly 5,000 years and to include a complex system of temples and dwellings spread over two fields. The find, at Ness of Brodgar, between the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness, will add to the area’s reputation as home to some of the most remarkable archaeological monuments in...

Source: University of Southampton Date: August 5, 2007 Stone Age Site Surfaces After 8000 Years Science Daily — Excavations of an underwater Stone Age archaeological settlement dating back 8000 years took place at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton between 30 July – 3 August 2007. A diver working at the site just off the Isle of Wight coast. (Credit: Copyright Simon Brown 2007) Maritime archaeologists from the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology (HWTMA) have been working at the site just off the Isle of Wight coast. Divers working at depths of 11 metres have raised sections of the...

Arab princesses kicked off British Airways plane to jeers and whistles after refusing to sit next to male strangers By RAY MASSEY - More by this author » Last updated at 11:45am on 28th July 2007 Three Arab princesses were thrown off a packed British Airways flight after refusing to sit next to male passengers they didn't know. The dispute - in which the three princesses from the ultra-conservative Qatar royal family demanded segregated seating - left the London-bound plane delayed on a baking Italian runway for nearly three hours. Furious passengers whistled and clapped as the row intensified before...

Islamic militants in Pak. set afire offices of aid agencies Karachi, July 10 (PTI): Enraged Islamic militants set on fire offices of two international aid agencies working in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province today in retaliation to the military action against militants in the Lal Masjid. Local residents said that around 100 people, some of them armed, had come down from villages in the mountains surrounding Batgram town near Mansehra and attacked the offices of 'Care International' and the 'French Red Cross' and set the big tents on fire. The aid agencies were working in the area for the survivors...

Afghan girls traded, sold to settle debt By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 9, 4:19 PM ET Unable to scrounge together the $165 he needed to repay a loan to buy sheep, Nazir Ahmad made good on his debt by selling his 16-year-old daughter to marry the lender's son. "He gave me nine sheep," Ahmad said, describing his family's woes since taking the loan. "Because of nine sheep, I gave away my daughter." Seated beside him in the cramped compound, his daughter Malia's eyes filled with tears. She used a black scarf to wipe them away. Despite advances...

SpotLight: Stone Age Potters By : SANTHA OORJITHAM Bukit Tengkorak in Sabah’s southeastern Semporna peninsula was a pottery hub for the region 3,000 years ago. — Pictures courtesy of the Centre for Archaeological Research Malaysia at Universiti Sains Malaysia. Malaysia aims to become an ICT hub and an education hub, among others. But 3,000 years ago, it was a pottery-making hub, pre-historians tell SANTHA OORJITHAM. A clay stove found at Bukit Tengkorak archaeological site, in a style still used today. KAMPUNG Tampi-Tampi villagers today don’t think twice about using clay from the foot of Bukit Tengkorak and nearby areas in...

Attention Fred Flintstone and the Geico cave guys: "Stone Age" is no longer acceptable, joining the list of other words and terms deemed offensive in polite society.

Which is the true face of 12,000 years BC? NICK PISA IN ROME "TRAVEL back through time and space to the edge of man's beginnings... discover a savage world whose only law was lust!" ran the tagline for One Million Years BC, the "caveman" film starring Raquel Welch. One can only hope that ancient ideals of feminine beauty were somewhat different, after scientists revealed for the first time what Stone Age women really looked like. Thea, who lived more than 14,000 years ago, was reconstructed by sculptors working with anthropologists using computer technology. Experts have recreated the faces of men...

Stone Age Camp Found In Germany Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 120,000-year-old Stone Age hunting camp in a coal mine in Germany. It is a find of great European importance, researchers say. Open-cast coal mines may get a bad press, but in Germany they're still big business -- the country is the world's largest producer of lignite, or brown coal. Now another advantage of open-cast mines has been discovered -- they can conceal a rich seam of archaeological sites. Archaeologists have found the remains of a 120,000-year-old Stone Age hunting camp in an open-cast lignite mine near Inden...