Ideas: Humans and Neanderthals: Kissing Cousins?
on Oct 26, 2009 in Ideas Inter-species love in the Late Pleistocene? Modern humans and Neanderthals did indeed get it on, according to Svante Paabo, director of genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and director of the project to decode the Neand...

Current Affairs: Grisly Deaths For Illegal Diggers
on Oct 14, 2009 in Current Affairs Egypt An interesting, albeit sad article from Gulf News on the surprising number of fatalities among illegal antiquities hunters in Egypt: Cairo: Early this month, rescue teams spent four days desperately trying to save six Egyptians, who had been trapped...

Current Affairs: Russian Monstrosity Is Archaeological Tragedy
on Oct 13, 2009 in Current Affairs Europe Energy behemoth Gazprom: marking their territory on the St. Petersburg skyline St. Petersburg, Russia's proposed 400-meter-high Gazprom skyscraper has gotten a lot of flack from architects, cultural preservationists, and even Unesco, and now it appea...

Current Affairs: Egypt- No Love for the Louvre
on Oct 7, 2009 in Current Affairs Egypt The Louvre holds five mural fragments illegally chipped off the walls of a Theban tomb in the 1980s and has yet to return them despite promising to do so, according to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities director Zahi Hawass. Since...

Current Affairs: Archaeologists + Beavers = Controversy
on Oct 6, 2009 in Americas Current Affairs Archaeologists are finding themselves in the middle of a beaver battle in Minnesota, where there's an argument going on about whether to reintroduce the toothy creatures to the state's blufflands. Environmentalists support the plan, saying beaver dam...

Discovery: "Mini-Stonehenge" Found
on Oct 5, 2009 in Discovery Europe Archaeologists from Sheffield University have announced the discovery of the remains of a "mini-Stonehenge" located a mile from the world-famous monument on the Salisbury Plain. Dubbed "Bluehenge" after the color of the 27 dolerit...

Discovery: World's Oldest Brain Found In Cave
on Sep 30, 2009 in Discovery It sounds like a bad science fiction story, but mass spectometry analysis performed at the University of California, Irvine seems to confirm that remains of THE WORLD'S OLDEST BRAIN have been found in Armenia. According to the report, a 9x7...

Rome: Tooth Analysis Reveals Cross-Cultural Tastes
on Sep 17, 2009 in Rome What do your teeth say about where you're from? Isotopic analysis of of teeth from 40 burials from a Roman cemetery in Winchester, UK suggests the cultural connections of its inhabitants were more complex than previously thought. In a report...

Discovery: Flagship of Chesapeake Flotilla Found?
on Sep 14, 2009Joshua Barney "We think we have the Holy Grail." That's what J. Rodney Little, chief historical preservation officer for the state of Maryland, has said regarding the possible discovery of Scorpion, the 75-foot flagship of Commodore Joshua...

Ideas: Fido-Friend Or Food?
on Sep 8, 2009 in Ideas Today's dog is a loyal, if spoiled companion, and still a workhorse in some parts. Most people are usually aghast to find that Fido is even eaten in a few corners of the world. But a team of Swedish geneticists...