History

[CaaC (John)]

Titanic sub dive reveals parts are being lost to the sea

BBC VIDEO

The first people to dive down to the Titanic in nearly 15 years say some of the wreck is deteriorating rapidly.

Over the course of five submersible dives, an international team of deep-sea explorers surveyed the sunken ship, which lies 3,800m down in the Atlantic.

While parts of the wreck were in surprisingly good condition, other features had been lost to the sea.

The worst decay was seen on the starboard side of the officers' quarters.

Titanic historian Parks Stephenson said some of what he saw during the dive was "shocking".

"The captain's bathtub is a favourite image among Titanic enthusiasts - and that's now gone," he said.

"That whole deckhouse on that side is collapsing, taking with it the staterooms. And that deterioration is going to continue advancing."

He said the sloping lounge roof of the bow section would probably be the next part to be lost, obscuring views of the ship's interior.

"Titanic is returning to nature," he added.

Strong ocean currents, salt corrosion and metal-eating bacteria are attacking the ship.

The RMS Titanic has been underwater for more than 100 years, lying about 600km (370 miles) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The passenger liner, which was the largest ship of its time, hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912. Of the 2,200 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 died.

The Titanic expedition was carried out by the same team that recently made the deepest-ever plunge to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, which lies nearly 12km down the Pacific Ocean.

The dives took place in a 4.6m-long, 3.7m-high submersible - called the DSV Limiting Factor - which was built by the US-based company Triton Submarines.

Navigating the sub around the wreck, which lies in two main pieces about 600m apart, was challenging.

Bad weather in the Atlantic and strong underwater currents made the dives difficult. Getting entangled with the wreck was also a significant risk for the team.

A history of Titanic exploration

1985 - Titanic site discovered by American-French team

1986 - Submersible Alvin explores the wreck

1987 - First salvage expedition collects 1,800 Titanic artefacts

1995 - James Cameron visits the wreck - the footage is used in his film Titanic

1998 - First tourists dive there

1998 - Section of the Titanic hull is raised

2005 - Two crewed submersibles dive to the wreck

2010 - Autonomous robots map the site

2012 - Wreck now protected by Unesco

2019 - DSV Limiting Factor sub makes five dives

The dives have been filmed by Atlantic Productions for a forthcoming documentary.

As well as capturing footage, scientists on the expedition have also been studying the creatures living on the wreck.

Despite the near-freezing conditions, pitch-black waters and immense pressure, life is thriving there.

This though, said expedition scientist Clare Fitzsimmons, from Newcastle University, was a factor in the Titanic's decay.

"There are microbes on the shipwreck that are eating away the iron of the wreck itself, creating 'rusticle' structures, which is a much weaker form of the metal," she said.

These rusticles - stalactites of rust hanging off the wreck - are so fragile that they can crumble into a cloud of dust if disturbed.

The scientists are studying how different types of metal erode in the deep Atlantic waters, to assess how much longer the Titanic has left.

Commenting on the expedition, Robert Blyth from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich said it was important to go down and document the wreck in its current state.

"The wreck itself is the only witness we've now got of the Titanic disaster," he said.

"All of the survivors have now passed away, so I think it's important to use the wreck whilst the wreck still has something to say."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49420935

 

 

[CaaC (John)]

Scientists reveal the discovery of new species of stegosaur

A new species of one of the most recognisable types of dinosaur is also the oldest of its kind ever discovered, British scientists believe.

Remains of a stegosaur, a dinosaur made famous through the Jurassic Park films, were studied by a team from the Natural History Museum and belong to a new genus which walked the earth around 168 million years ago.

Stegosaurs are armoured dinosaurs recognisable by spike-like bones protruding from their spine and tails.

Despite the specimen including only a few vertebrae and an upper arm bone, scientists concluded it was a new species and genus which dates to the middle Jurassic period – much earlier than most known stegosaurs.

The team, led by Dr Susannah Maidment, named it Adratiklit boulahfa, meaning “mountain lizard” in the Berber language.

Boulahfa is a reference to the locality in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco where the specimen was found.

“The discovery of Adratiklit boulahfa is particularly exciting as we have dated it to the middle Jurassic,” said Dr Maidment.

“Most known stegosaurs date from far later in the Jurassic period, making this the oldest definite stegosaur described and helping to increase our understanding of the evolution of this group of dinosaurs.”

The specimen is the first stegosaur, a thyreophoran dinosaur, to be found in North Africa.

Gallery: T. rexes and other dinosaur skeletons look almost alive in a new set of remarkable photos (Business Insider)

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Thyreophoran dinosaurs are found across much of the globe and have been mainly attributed to Laurasian rock formations, the team explained.

This has suggested that when the earth was divided into two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana, thyreophorans were more common and diverse in Laurasia. But the recent discovery could dispute that.

Dr Maidment added: “Most stegosaurs we know of, including the Natural History Museum’s Sophie, the most complete stegosaur discovered, have been found in Laurasian rock formations.

“This, however, may not mean that stegosaurs were not so common in Gondwana and in fact, maybe due to the fact that Gondwana rock formations have been subject to far fewer excavations and detailed studies.”

The team said the discovery adds to the theory the Gondwanan fossil record of armoured dinosaurs is significantly biased by geological factors and collection efforts.

Dr Maidment said: “What is exciting about this is that there could be many more thyreophoran dinosaurs to find in places that until now have not been excavated.”

Further discoveries in the region will provide an improved view of the distribution of this group of dinosaurs and could result in a more complete specimen of Adratiklit boulahfa, the team said.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/scientists-reveal-discovery-of-new-species-of-stegosaur/ar-AAG4CsK?MSCC=1566456831&ocid=chromentp

Edited October 5, 2019 by CaaC (John)
Spelling corrections

[CaaC (John)]

Can DNA solve the mystery of Europe’s pointy skulls?

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Skull modification may have been an extreme way to declare one's identity during the Migration Period (ca. 300-700 A.D.), when so-called "barbarian" groups like the Goths and the Huns were vying for control of territory in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Could ancient DNA help archaeologists pinpoint what exactly those cultural alliances were?

At a site called Hermanov vinograd in eastern Croatia, archaeologists recently found a peculiar burial pit that contained the remains of three teenage boys. The teens were buried sometime between 415 and 560 A.D.

Two of the boys had artificially deformed skulls, and a DNA analysis, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, has now revealed another curious fact: The three boys buried together all had dramatically different genetic backgrounds. The one without any skull modifications had ancestry from western Eurasia, the teen who had a heightened but still, rounded skull had ancestry from the Near East, and the boy who had a very elongated skull had ancestry mainly from East Asia.

"When we got the ancient DNA results we were quite surprised," says senior author Mario Novak of the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia. "It is obvious that different people were living in this part of Europe and interacting very closely with each other. Maybe they used artificial cranial deformation as a visual indicator of membership in a specific cultural group."

Artificial cranial deformation (ACD) involves binding a child's head from infancy to deform the skull and is a form of body modification that has been practised since at least the Neolithic period in cultures all over the world. In Europe, the practice of ACD appeared around the Black Sea in the second and third centuries A.D., reached a high-point in the fifth and sixth centuries and faded away at the end of the seventh century, says Susanne Hakenbeck, a University of Cambridge historical archaeologist who has studied skull modification in Europe (Hakenbeck was not involved in the study).

According to Novak, about a dozen ACD skulls have been found in Croatia outside of Hermanov vinograd, but to date scientific studies of these skulls have not been published.

Enter the Huns

Novak and his colleagues think their findings lend support to a long-standing theory that the Huns—a nomadic, horse-riding confederacy that some believe originated in East Asia—introduced ACD in Central Europe.

"For the first time now we have physical, biological evidence of the presence of East Asian people, probably the Huns, in this part of Europe, based on ancient DNA results," Novak says.

Related Slideshow: 16 of history's greatest unsolved mysteries (Provided by Photo Services)

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However, the exact homeland of the Huns is a matter of debate among archaeologists, and other scholars have suggested this group came not from East Asia but from north of the Black Sea.

Genetic data alone also can't prove that a specific individual from the past—such as the boy with the most elongated skull at Hermanov vinograd—would have identified as a Hun, which Novak is quick to acknowledge.

"I wouldn't say that we can say, based on ancient DNA, that this [person] is an Ostrogoth or this [person] is a Hun," Novak says. "It also depends on how people felt about themselves, which is quite subjective"—and fairly impossible to glean without written sources, which the Huns didn't leave.

After studying the spread of ACD skulls discovered in Europe and Eurasia, Hakenbeck doesn't think there's an exclusive link between Huns and the practice. "More likely the practice came to Europe through connections with the Eurasian steppes that aren't necessarily historically attested," she says. "It's possible that the Huns contributed to that, but they weren't the only ones."

More surprising stories

How the teens came to be buried in the pit together is also still a mystery. Hermanov vinograd is the site of a large Neolithic settlement but there is no Migration Period settlement in the immediate vicinity. The one-off burial wasn't part of any larger, established cemetery, and was perhaps linked to a community of nomads or a group of people who lived elsewhere, Novak says. The boys had similar diets in their final years, suggesting they had lived in the same place for some time. They were buried with horse and pig bones, and their cause of death is unclear. Though the incomplete skeletal remains show no signs of a violent death, the researchers think it's possible that the teens were killed in some sort of ritual, or that they may have died of plague or another quick-killing disease.

"The caveat is really that it's a small sample size—it's just one burial and we don't have much information about what it is," says Krishna Veeramah, a geneticist at Stony Brook University in New York, who was not involved in the study. "But even so, it's interesting that you'd have such diversity."

Last year, Veeramah and his colleagues published a study analyzing the DNA of women with artificial cranial deformation who had been buried in southern Germany during the Migration Period. Those women had very diverse genetic backgrounds, including possible components of East Asian ancestry, and one possible explanation for this pattern is that women with ACD skulls migrated westward by marriage. According to Hakenbeck, the majority of individuals with modified skulls in Europe and western Eurasia are female, at a ratio of about 2 to 1.

Novak says that with more samples, researchers could get a finer and more precise resolution on where people who practised ACD came from and figure out if it really was a visual indicator of association with a certain cultural group.

There hasn't been much work studying the DNA of individuals with ACD skulls, and the Migration Period in Europe hasn't been very well covered in the plethora of ancient DNA studies that have been published in the last two decades, says Ron Pinhasi of the University of Vienna, another senior author of the new study.

In terms of genetic data, "we know a lot more about what happened 5,000 years ago in Europe than we know what happened 1,500 years ago in Europe," Pinhasi says. However, he thinks that's starting to change, and he expects to see more investigations on DNA samples from the last 2,000 years.

"I think we're going to find a lot more surprising stories," says Pinhasi. "And maybe when they're pieced together, we'll have a very different understanding of the Migration Period."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/can-dna-solve-the-mystery-of-europes-pointy-skulls/ar-AAGbbQr

[CaaC (John)]

Rare Pictish stone carved 1,200 years ago discovered at an early Christian church in the Scottish Highlands is 'of national importance'

The stone, thought to have been carved around 12,000 years ago, is decorated with a number of Pictish symbols and is said by experts to be of national importance

A Pictish stone described as a 'once-in-a-lifetime find' has been uncovered in the Scottish Highlands.

The stone, thought to have been carved around 12,000 years ago, is decorated with a number of Pictish symbols and is said by experts to be of national importance.

It is believed the stone, discovered at an early Christian church site in Dingwall, originally stood at more than 7.8 feet (2.4 metres) high.

A Pictish stone described as a 'once-in-a-lifetime find' has been uncovered in the Scottish Highlands

It now measures around 4.9 feet (1.5 metres), having been broken over the years and been reused as a grave marker in the 1790s.

WHAT WERE PICTISH STONES? 

The Picts are known chiefly for their elaborately but regularly decorated memorial stones found in profusion throughout eastern Scotland from Shetland to the Firth of Forth. 

The symbol stones are decorated in a structured way with a series of animal and object symbols current in late Roman Iron Age times - including mirrors, combs, cauldrons, geese and hounds.

Gallery: 10 priceless artefacts countries are arguing over (Photos)

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They were erected from perhaps as early as the fifth century AD but were chiefly in use in the sixth and seventh centuries.

In the seventh or eighth centuries, simple cross-incised stones which were most likely grave-markers, indicate the arrival of Christianity in Aberdeenshire 

Anne MacInnes, from the North of Scotland Archaeological Society, was the first to recognise the stone while carrying out a survey at the church site.

It now measures around 4.9 feet (1.5 metres), having been broken over the years and been reused as a grave marker in the 1790s.

She said: 'I was clearing vegetation when I spotted the carving. I really couldn't believe what I was seeing.'

The find was verified by archaeologists from Highland Council and Historic Environment Scotland, before being safely removed from the site by specialist conservators.

The stone will now be professionally conserved with a view to ultimately putting it on public display at a Highland museum or other suitable venue.

 The find was verified by archaeologists from Highland Council and Historic Environment Scotland, before being safely removed from the site by specialist conservators

Kirsty Cameron, an archaeologist at Highland Council, said: 'This is a once-in-a-lifetime find and what started as a small recording project has resulted in the identification of not only this important stone but also that the site itself must be much older than anyone ever expected.

'All credit goes to the local archaeologists for immediately recognising the importance of the stone and putting plans in place for securing its future.'

Designs on the stone include several mythical beasts, oxen, an animal-headed warrior with sword and shield, and a double-disc and z rod symbol.

The stone will now be professionally conserved with a view to ultimately putting it on public display at a Highland museum or other suitable venue

Details of the carvings on the reverse side of the stone are not yet known but experts suggest that, based on examples from similar stones, they are likely to include a large ornate Christian cross.

It would make the stone one of an estimated 50 complete or near-complete Pictish cross-slabs known across the world, and the first to be discovered on the Scottish mainland for many years.

John Borland, president of the Pictish Arts Society, said: 'The discovery of the top half of a large cross-slab with Pictish symbols is of national importance.

 It is believed the stone, discovered at an early Christian church site in Dingwall, originally stood at more than 7.8 feet (2.4 metres) high

'The findspot - an early Christian site in Easter Ross - is a new location for such sculpture so adds significant information to our knowledge of the Pictish church and its distribution.

'This new discovery will continue to stimulate debate and new research.'    

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/rare-pictish-stone-carved-1200-years-ago-discovered-at-an-early-christian-church-in-the-scottish-highlands-is-of-national-importance/ar-AAGfTF5

[CaaC (John)]

Archaeologists remain baffled by a 1,000-year-old skeleton discovered in 1928 which was used by Nazis and the Soviet Union as propaganda - as new study offers no clues

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A skeleton from the Middle Ages that was first discovered inside Prague Castle in 1928 and then used as gruesome Nazi propaganda continues to baffle scientists. 

The man who lived during the 10th century was buried with a sword and two knives have long been the focal point of a debate that rages between warring academics.

No agreement has been found among experts as to who or what the individual was, despite Hitler's government claiming the remains 'proved' the castle was Germanic.

The skeleton made another bizarre appearance later when the Soviets tried to pull the same trick the Nazis and claim it was of Soviet origin. 

The latest analysis says it could be a Slav from a neighbouring region, 'who had mastered Old Norse as well as Slavonic' or he may have been a legitimate Viking.

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A new study published in the journal Antiquity looked at all previous analysis and theories to try and reach a conclusion.  

However, the authors failed to bring any clarity to the murky picture. 

The authors could not conclude for definite the origin of the bones but were able to give some clarity to possible explanations. 

They write: '[The] material culture is a mix of foreign (i.e. non-Czech) items, such as the sword, axe and 'fire striker' (a common piece of Viking equipment), and domestic objects, such as the bucket and the knives'.

They also reveal that the sword is especially unique as it is the only one discovered in 1,500 early medieval graves so far found in Prague Castle. 

Related Slideshow: 16 of history's greatest unsolved mysteries (Provided by Photo Services)

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It is possible, they say, that the individual was a Slav from a neighbouring region, 'who had mastered Old Norse as well as Slavonic' or he may have been a legitimate Viking. 

On 11 July 1928, the remains of a male were discovered under the courtyard of Prague Castle.

A project to excavate the region led by the National Museum intended to study the earliest phases of the Castle stumbled across the skeleton for the first time. 

The body was located on the edge of an old burial ground from when a hill fort was built on the site, likely dating to AD 800–950/1000. 

It had a number of weapons, including a sword, located in the grave with the remains. 

THE HISTORY OF THE PRAGUE CASTLE SKELETON 

It was discovered by Ivan Borkovský on July 11 1982. 

The true identity was unknown and the discoverer opted not to publish his findings. 

It is possible he was concerned with the progress of his application for Czech citizenship.

This decision proved fateful when the Nazis invaded.

Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 and seized Prague Castle, and the skeleton, and claimed it was German in order to further the Nazi ideology. 

The nation then came under the control of the Soviets in 1945. 

They tried a similar tactic with the skeleton. 

His true origin is unknown, but his burial with weapons and some analysis has found he may have been a Slav from a neighbouring region, 'who had mastered Old Norse as well as Slavonic' or he may have been a legitimate Viking.

It was discovered by Ivan Borkovský, a Ukrainian who fought for both the Austro-Hungarians and the Russians in the early 20th century.  

Nazi soldiers invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 and the discoverer became embroiled in a scandal and accusations were fired at him that he conspired to conceal the skeleton's true identity. 

Nazi's claimed the remains were Germanic, or maybe Viking, but certainly not Slavic.

The Nazis pushed this unfounded ideology to add credence to their claim that German heritage was a real thing which spread over established borders of space and time.    

The unwitting remains became part of a larger rhetoric which claimed Prague Castle, a national landmark, belonged to Germany. 

Mr Borkovský is thought to have attempted to publish his analysis but was threatened with imprisonment in a concentration camp if he did so.  

The tale of the discoverer became almost as enthralling as the skeleton's story itself when Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Soviets and in 1945.

His anti-communist past condemned him to a Siberian gulag, but he narrowly escaped and fled the country.  

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/archaeologists-remain-baffled-by-a-1000-year-old-skeleton-discovered-in-1928-which-was-used-by-nazis-and-the-soviet-union-as-propaganda-as-new-study-offers-no-clues/ar-AAGgwvH

Edited August 25, 2019 by CaaC (John)
Spelling

[CaaC (John)]

Pumice island size of Manhattan floating in Pacific

An underwater volcano is the likely source of a pumice stone island, the size of Manhattan, which has formed in the Pacific.

The huge mass of stone, near to Tonga, has been floating through the Pacific for the last two weeks and follows reports of plumes of smoke from the direction of a named submarine volcano.

But NASA reports that volcanologists at the Smithsonian in the US believe the pumice raft could be from an unnamed volcano, which hasn't had a reported explosion since 2001.

The NASA Earth Observatory wrote: "On August 13, 2019, the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 acquired natural-colour imagery of a vast pumice raft floating in the tropical Pacific Ocean near Late Island in the Kingdom of Tonga.

"NASA's Terra satellite detected the mass of floating rock on August 9; the discoloured water around the pumice suggests that the submarine volcano lies somewhere below.

"By August 13, the raft had drifted southwest. As of August 22, the raft had moved north again and was a bit more dispersed, but still visible."

Shannon Lenz, who sailed through the field of various size rocks making up the pumice island, wrote: "We sailed through a pumice field for six to eight hours, much of the time there was no visible water.

"It was like ploughing through a field. We figured the pumice was at least 6 inches thick."

Michael Hoult and Larissa Brill, who were sailing to Fiji in a catamaran, passed the raft and logged a detailed explanation of what they saw on Facebook.

They said: "We had heard the previous day on email of "pumice fields" 50NM North of Vava'u. We saw none as we rounded North of Vava'u earlier in the day on our route ex Bora Bora.

"Sailing on 255T we started seeing some floating rocks of random sizes (marbles to tennis balls) from position 18 46' S 174 55'W.

"We reduced sail to slow our speed."

They reported a smell of sulphur and started to see and strike larger rocks as they sailed through.

The pair reported seeing rocks the size of basketballs and have passed on a warning to other boats sailing in the same areas to travel as slowly as possible.

According to Scott Bryan of Queensland University, the travelling pumice stones may help the Australian Great Barrier Reef to recover.

He told The Guardian: "Based on past pumice raft events we have studied over the last 20 years, it's going to bring new healthy corals and other reef dwellers to the Great Barrier Reef.

"Each piece of pumice is a rafting vehicle. It's a home and a vehicle for marine organisms to attach and hitch a ride across the deep ocean to get to Australia."

Writing on Discover Magazine's blog, Volcanologist Erik Klemetti of Denison University said: "Pumice rafts can drift for weeks to years, slowly dispersing into the ocean currents. These chunks of pumice end up making excellent, drifting homes for sea organisms, helping them spread.

"The erupted pumice means this volcano erupts magma high in silica like rhyolite."

The raft is about 150 square km, and events similar to this happen about every five years.

Gallery: Earth from space: Spectacular volcanic eruptions seen from above (Espresso)

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https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/pumice-island-size-of-manhattan-floating-in-pacific/ar-AAGmTPC?ocid=chromentp

[CaaC (John)]

Skull of humankind's oldest-known ancestor discovered

VIDEO

The face of the oldest species that unambiguously sits on the human evolutionary tree has been revealed for the first time by the discovery of a 3.8 million-year-old skull in Ethiopia.

The fossil belongs to an ancient hominin, Australopithecus anamensis, believed to be the direct ancestor of the famous “Lucy” species, Australopithecus afarensis. It dates back to a time when our ancestors were emerging from the trees to walk on two legs, but still had distinctly ape-like protruding faces, powerful jaws and small brains, and is the oldest-known member of the Australopithecus group.

While Lucy became celebrated in studies of human evolution, her direct predecessor has remained a shadowy trace on the record, with only a handful of teeth, some limb bones and a few fragments of the skull to provide clues about appearance and lifestyle.

The latest specimen, a remarkably complete adult male skull casually named MRD, changes this.

“It is good to finally be able to put a face to the name,” said Stephanie Melillo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, based in Germany, who is the co-author of an analysis of the find.

Prof Fred Spoor of the Natural History Museum, London, who was not involved in the research, said the discovery of MRD – and its dating to a period when the fossil record is very sparse – would substantially affect thinking on the evolutionary family tree of early hominins. “This cranium looks set to become another celebrated icon of human evolution,” he said.

The skull shows that MRD had a small brain – about a quarter of the size of a modern human – but was already losing some of its ape-like features. Its canines are smaller than those seen in even earlier fossils and it is already developing the powerful jaw and prominent cheekbones seen in Lucy and the famous Mrs Ples fossil (another later member of the Australopithecus group), which scientists think helped them chew tough food during dry seasons when less vegetation was available.

The dating of the skull also reveals that Anamensis and its descendent species, Lucy, coexisted for a period of at least 100,000 years. This discovery challenges the long-held notion of linear evolution, in which one species disappears and is replaced by a new one. Anamensis, which now spans from 4.2 million to 3.8 million years ago, is still thought to be Lucy’s ancestor but continued to hang around after the Lucy group branched off from the parent lineage. Geological evidence suggests the landscape would have featured extremely steep hills, volcanoes, lava flows and rifts that could easily have isolated populations, allowing them to diverge.

Divergent groups may have later crossed paths and competed for food and territory.

Yohannes Haile-Selassie, of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Case Western Reserve University, who led the research, said: “This is a game-changer in our understanding of human evolution during the Pliocene

Afarensis, which continued to appear on the fossil record until at least 3 million years ago, has often been put forward as a likely candidate ultimately giving rise to the Homo lineage to which modern humans belong. But the discovery that multiple different lineages coexisted makes this hypothesis much less certain, according to the researchers.

“Having multiple candidates ancestral species in the right time and place makes it more challenging to determine which gave rise to Homo,” said Melillo.

Spoor described Anamensis as the “oldest-known species that is unambiguously part of the human evolutionary tree”. Older fossils, like Ardi, which dates to 4.4 million years, are more contentious – some say it is on the human lineage, while others regard it as an extinct form of ape.

The first piece of the new fossil, the upper jaw, was found by a local worker in February 2016, in the Afar region of Ethiopia. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I spotted the rest of the cranium. It was a eureka moment and a dream come true,” said Haile-Selassie.

Fossil pollen grains and chemical remains of fossil plant and algae taken from the sediment suggest that the individual lived by a river or along the shores of a lake surrounded by trees and shrubland.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/skull-of-humankinds-oldest-known-ancestor-discovered/ar-AAGt1VO?li=BBoPWjQ

[CaaC (John)]

45 Historical Sites That No Longer Exist

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[CaaC (John)]

DNA to solve the mystery of Napoleon's general lost in Russia

© Denis Maximov Genetic analysis is being carried out to confirm the identity, using DNA from one of the general's descendants

Archaeologists are set to unveil the answer to a 200-year-old question over the remains of a French general who died during Napoleon's 1812 campaign in Russia.

Charles Etienne Gudin was hit by a cannonball in the Battle of Valutino on August 19 near Smolensk, a city west of Moscow close to the border with Bela

© Denis Maximov The Franco-Russian search team checked a theory by a witness of the general's funeral and found pieces of a wooden casket buried under an old dance floor in the city park

His leg was amputated and he died three days later from gangrene, aged 44.

Related Slideshow: Historical events that nobody can explain (Provided by StarInsider)

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The French army cut out his heart, now buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, but the site of the rest of his remains was never known until researchers found a likely skeleton this summer.

"As soon as I saw the skeleton with just one leg, I knew that we had our man," the head of the Franco-Russian team that discovered the remains in July, Marina Nesterova, told AFP.

Genetic analysis is being carried out to confirm the identity, using DNA from one of the general's descendants, with the results to be announced on Thursday.

Gudin is said to have been one of Napoleon's favourite generals and the two men attended military school together. His name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe monument in Paris.

The fresh search for his remains has been underway since May, funded by a Franco-Russian group headed by Pierre Malinowski, a historian and former soldier with ties to the French far-right and support from the Kremlin.

The team in Smolensk first followed the memoirs of a subordinate of Gudin, Marshall Davout, who organised the funeral and described a mausoleum made of four cannon barrels pointing upward, said Nikolai Makarov, the director of the Russian Institute of Archaeology.

© Denis MAXIMOV Charles Etienne Gudin is said to have been one of Napoleon's favourite generals and the two men attended military school together

When that trail ran cold, they checked another theory by a witness of the funeral and found pieces of a wooden casket buried under an old dance floor in the city park.

A preliminary report concluded that the skeleton belonged to a man who died aged 40-45.

Gudin's death near Smolensk came near the beginning of Napoleon's march toward Moscow, 400 kilometres (250 miles) further east.

Napoleon had hoped to defeat the Russian army at Valutino and sign an advantageous treaty, but it managed to escape and Russian Tsar Alexander refused to discuss peace.

"This battle could have been decisive if Napoleon hadn't underestimated the Russians," Malinowski said.

"Heavy losses in this battle showed Napoleon that he was going to go through hell in Russia."

Napoleon's march on Russia ended in a disastrous retreat as Russians used scorched earth tactics and even ordered Moscow to be burnt to sap Napoleon's resources.

Less than 10 per cent of his Grand Armee survived Russian invasion

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/dna-to-solve-mystery-of-napoleons-general-lost-in-russia/ar-AAGs7k2

[CaaC (John)]

Arctic shipwreck frozen in time astounds archaeologists

To investigate the lower decks of the H.M.S. Terror, a Parks Canada archaeologist inserts a miniature underwater drone through a skylight.

The wreck of H.M.S. Terror, one of the long lost ships from Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage, is astonishingly well preserved, say Parks Canada archaeologists, who recently used underwater drones to peer deep inside the historic vessel’s interior.

“The ship is amazingly intact,” says Ryan Harris, the lead archaeologist on the project. “You look at it and find it hard to believe this is a 170-year-old shipwreck. You just don’t see this kind of thing very often.”

Discovered in 2016 in icy waters off King William Island in Canada’s far north, the shipwreck hadn’t been thoroughly studied until now.

Taking advantage of unusually calm seas and good underwater visibility, a team from Parks Canada, in partnership with Inuit, earlier this month made a series of seven dives on the fabled wreck. Working swiftly in the frigid water, divers inserted miniature, remotely-operated drones through openings in the main hatchway and skylights in the crew’s cabins, officers’ mess, and captain’s stateroom.

“We were able to explore 20 cabins and compartments, going from room to room,” says Harris. “The doors were all eerily wide open.”

What they saw astonished and delighted them: dinner plates and glasses still on shelves, beds and desks in order, scientific instruments in their cases—and hints that journals, charts, and perhaps even early photographs may be preserved under drifts of sediment that cover much of the interior.

“Those blankets of sediment, together with the cold water and darkness, create a near-perfect anaerobic environment that’s ideal for preserving delicate organics such as textiles or paper,” says Harris. “There is a very high probability of finding clothing or documents, some of them possibly even still legible. Rolled or folded charts in the captain’s map cupboard, for example, could well have survived.”

 

The only area below decks the team was unable to access was the captain’s sleeping quarters. Apparently the last person to leave closed the door. “Intriguingly, it was the only closed door on the ship,” says Harris. “I’d love to know what’s in there.”

Just as tantalising is the possibility that there could be pictures of the expedition awaiting discovery. It’s known that the expedition had a daguerreotype apparatus, and assuming it was used, the glass plates could still be aboard. “And if there are, it’s also possible to develop them,” says Harris. “It’s been done with finds at other shipwrecks. The techniques are there.”

A great mystery

The fate of the Franklin expedition has been one of history’s great mysteries. What’s known is that Sir John Franklin set sail in May 1845 with a crew of 133 men and orders to discover the Northwest Passage—a goal that had eluded explorers for centuries.

Then as now, geopolitics was a driving force in Arctic exploration, with the Royal Navy wanting to secure the fabled shortcut to the Pacific ahead of the Russians, who had maritime aspirations of their own. With this in mind, no expense was spared.

Franklin was given command of two state-of-the-art ships, Erebus and Terror, both equipped with stout, iron-sheathed hulls and steam engines, as well as the finest scientific equipment and enough food and supplies for three years in the high Arctic. It was one of the best equipped and best-prepared expeditions ever to leave Britain’s shores.

After brief stops in Scotland’s Orkney Islands and Greenland, the two ships set off for Arctic Canada in hopes of picking their way through its labyrinth of straits and bays and islands and eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean. The last European eyes to see the ships were the crews of two whaling vessels who encountered Erebus and Terror in late July 1845, on the crossing from Greenland to Canada’s remote Baffin Island. After that, they were never seen or heard from again.

As years passed with no word of the expedition, search parties were sent out. Over time the discovery of skeletons and discarded equipment—as well as disturbing evidence of cannibalism—made clear that the expedition had met with disaster. But how and why has remained a mystery.

A brief note found under a cairn gives a bit of the story. Dated April 1848 and signed by Francis Crozier—captain of the Terror, who by then had taken command of the expedition—it stated that the ships had been locked in ice for a year and a half, that 24 of the men were already dead—including Franklin—and that Crozier and the other survivors planned to attempt to walk overland to a remote fur-trading outpost hundreds of miles away on the Canadian mainland. None of them ever arrived.

What caused such a well-equipped expedition to go so badly wrong remains a mystery. But in recent years the two biggest pieces of the puzzle—the ships themselves—were discovered: Erebus in 2014, lying in 36 feet of water off King William Island, and Terror two years later, found in a bay about 45 miles away, in 80 feet of water and largely intact.

Why the ships ended up so far apart, which one went down first, and why and how the ships sank are questions archaeologists hope to answer.

“There’s no obvious reason for Terror to have sunk,” says Ryan. “It wasn’t crushed by ice, and there’s no breach in the hull. Yet it appears to have sunk swiftly and suddenly and settled gently to the bottom. What happened?”

Teasing out the answers won’t be easy, even with such a bounty of artefacts. There are plans to excavate both wrecks, but it will be a slow process requiring years.

“Diving up here is extremely difficult,” says Ryan. “The water is extremely cold, making it impossible to stay down for very long, and the diving season is short—a few weeks if you’re lucky, a few days if you’re not.”

Even so, this season’s work on Terror has already provided some tantalising clues that will help researchers develop a chronology of the disaster.

“We noticed the ship’s propeller still in place,” says Ryan. “We know that it had a mechanism to lift it out of the water during winter so that it wouldn’t be damaged by the ice. So, the fact that it’s deployed suggests it was probably spring or summer when the ship sank. So, too, does the fact that none of the skylights were boarded up, as they would have been to protect them against the winter snows.”

No doubt there are a lot more answers lying beneath the sediment in those cabins, says Ryan. “One way or another, I feel confident we’ll get to the bottom of the story.” 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/arctic-shipwreck-frozen-in-time-astounds-archaeologists/ar-AAGuAT0

[CaaC (John)]

The Most Famous Shipwrecks Still Waiting to Be Discovered

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The Most Famous Shipwrecks Still Waiting to Be Discovered

Shipwrecks are the stuff of stuff of movie magic. Nothing makes for better blockbuster fodder than a giant glamorous vessel crashing into an iceberg and sinking to the bottom of the ocean—just ask James Cameron. However, these incidents on the high seas are just as much fact as they are fiction. And while technological advancements and the concerted efforts of treasure hunters have led to the discovery of many of the greatest ships lost at sea (the Titanic included!!), there are still dozens out there. From Christopher Columbus' Santa Maria to "Australia's Titanic," here are some of the most famous shipwrecks that have yet to be discovered. And for more mysteries of the deep, check out these  30 Reasons Why the Ocean Is Scarier Than Space.

 

[CaaC (John)]

Battle of Worcester artefacts unearthed for the first time

Artefacts from the site of the final battle of the English Civil War have been unearthed for the first time.

Musket balls, horse harness fittings and belt buckles were found at the Battle of Worcester site in Powick, Worcestershire.

Historians have always known the area was the site of the 1651 battle, but it is the first time physical evidence has been recovered.

The artefacts will now be analysed and recorded.

Archaeologists from Worcestershire County Council were able to explore an area of land close to Powick Church while the Worcester Southern Link Road is being built.

They had hoped artefacts might be uncovered as there is shot damage on the church tower, while Powick Bridge was reportedly the location of intense fighting.

The 98 finds were found buried deep at the bottom of a river valley, covered by flood deposits accumulated over hundreds of years since the battle.

The finds show the battlefield site was further south than previously thought.

The English Civil War lasted from 1642 to 1651. Although usually called the English Civil War, it was a much wider conflict also involving Scotland, Ireland and Wales

Richard Bradley, the on-site lead archaeologist, said it was "fantastic" to be able to locate and map physical remains of the battle.

"We are just outside the registered battlefield area but this is still a nationally significant site," Mr Bradley said.

"The construction work has given us the opportunity to investigate the floodplain across which thousands of infantry and cavalry engaged, and to get down to the level where artefacts were deposited.

"Many of the lead musket and pistol balls show evidence of firing or impact and these tangible signs of the conflict offer a poignant connection to the soldiers who fought and died here."

Archaeology teams were supported in their work by the construction teams, using their engineering equipment which was already on site.

Richard Shaw, chairman of the Battle of Worcester Society, said: "How exciting that 368 years after the Battle of Worcester these artefacts should be discovered.

"We are sure that there was fighting at this location on 3rd September 1651.

"Parliamentary forces had crossed the river at Upton-upon-Severn and were driving the Royalists back towards Worcester. The discoveries really bring the events of that day to life."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-49551833

[CaaC (John)]

The mysterious prehistoric city built on a coral reef

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The mysterious prehistoric city built on a coral reef

In a remote region of the western Pacific Ocean lies a stunning and spooky unsolved mystery: the ruins of the ancient city of Nan Madol.

Located next to the eastern shore of Micronesian island Pohnpei, this once-great, prehistoric city is comprised of nearly 100 geometrically shaped man-made stone islands, and it’s the only ancient city built atop a coral reef.

No one is sure of the origins, nor why anyone would want to build a city far from food and water, and yet its ruins are rife with stories and spirits. Check out the gallery for a brief tour of the space and travel back in time.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/the-mysterious-prehistoric-city-built-on-a-coral-reef/ss-AAGGFvh

[CaaC (John)]

A Lost Japanese Village Has Been Uncovered in the British Columbia Wilderness

The site is located on the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, about 12 miles northeast of Vancouver. It’s approximately the size of a football field and contains the remains of more than a dozen cabins, a bathhouse, a road made of cedar planks, and a cedar platform that may have been a shrine. Muckle and his students have also unearthed more than 1000 items, including sake and beer bottles from Japan, teapots, game pieces, medicine bottles, clocks, pocket watches, clothing buttons, coins, and hoards of ceramics.

Japanese businessman Eikichi Kagetsu secured logging rights to the area near the camp around 1918, so it’s likely that the settlers were originally loggers and their families. Though the trees were cleared out by 1924 and Kagetsu continued his business ventures on Vancouver Island, there's evidence to suggest that some members of the logging community didn't leave right away.

Muckle believes that at least some of the 40 to 50 camp inhabitants chose to remain there, protected from rising racism in Canadian society, until 1942, when the Canadian government started moving Japanese immigrants to internment camps in the wake of the outbreak of World War II.

Muckle thinks the residents must have evacuated in a hurry since they left so many precious and personal items behind. “When people leave, usually they take all the good stuff with them,” he told North Shore News. His team even uncovered parts of an Eastman Kodak Bulls-Eye camera, a house key, and an expensive cookstove that someone had hidden behind a stump on the edge of the village. “They were probably smart enough to realize people might loot the site,” he added.

Related Slideshow - Amazing archaeological finds (Provided by Photo Services)

SLIDES - 1/14

According to Smithsonian.com, Japanese immigrants had been victims of racism and discrimination in Canada since the first wave of immigration from Japan in 1877. They were generally met with hostility across the country, and kept from voting, entering the civil service, and working in law and other professions. Anti-Japan sentiment dramatically worsened after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, and The Canadian Encyclopedia estimates that more than 90 per cent of Japanese Canadians—many of them citizens by birth—were displaced during the war.

To Muckle, this all contributes to the likelihood that villagers would have chosen to stay insulated by the forest for as long as they could. “The impression that I get, generally speaking, is it would have been a nice life for these people,” he said. It wouldn't be the first time a remote, wild area served as a refuge for a persecuted community—farther south and east, escaped enslaved people settled in the swamplands bordering North Carolina and Virginia for the century leading up to the Civil War.

While Muckle believes people stayed in the Canadian camp until the 1940s, it's hard to prove—there are no records for the inhabitants of the camp or where they might have gone. If there’s evidence in the village that can prove residents did stay until the 1940s, it will soon fall to other curious archaeologists to find it: Muckle thinks this will be his last season at the site.

Or, maybe the smoking gun will be discovered by someone who isn’t an archaeologist at all. Here are 10 times ordinary people (and one badger) unearthed amazing archaeological finds.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/a-lost-japanese-village-has-been-uncovered-in-the-british-columbia-wilderness/ar-AAGTsVt

 

[CaaC (John)]

'Nearly-complete' skeleton of a 26-foot long duck-billed dinosaur that roamed modern-day Japan 72 million years ago is unearthed

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A magnificent dinosaur that lived 72 million years ago has been unearthed in Japan.

The crested creature is one of the best prehistoric fossils ever found - with virtually the entire remains perfectly preserved.

It includes the skull, jawbones, spine, ribs and teeth, plus the front and back legs.

Experts believe the discovery is globally significant because it shows Asia and the United States were joined by land in the age of dinosaurs.

HOW DID THEY LOOK? 

Kamuysaurus was a member of the species known as Edmontosaurus that roamed Earth during the Late Cretaceous. 

They were among the most successful and diverse group of dinosaurs. They were large-bodied with stiff tails. 

They had specialised jaws and teeth that enabled them to grind down tough ferns and leaves. 

Related slideshow: The world's most valuable dinosaurs ever found (Provided by Lovemoney)

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The front of the snout was flattened, like a duck's bill. 

They walked on all fours. Some had elaborate crests and other headgear, possibly for attracting mates.

Corresponding author Professor Yoshitsugu Kobayashi said: 'It is rare and pretty astonishing to find an almost complete skeleton.

'There is no doubt that this is the best-preserved large dinosaur skeleton from Japan.'

It has been named Kamuysaurus japonicus after a spiritual being worshipped by people on Hokkaido Island, in northern Japan, where it was dug up.

The plant-eater was more duck-billed than most with a face like a shovel at the end of a long neck.

It was 26 feet (eight metres) long and weighed more than five tons. It was at least nine years old at the time of its death, making it a juvenile.

It had a thin, bony crest on its head - a feature of the hadrosaur family to which it belonged.

Kamuysaurus was a member of the species known as Edmontosaurus that roamed Earth during the Late Cretaceous. They inhabited North America with fossils found in places such as Montana, Nebraska and New Jersey. 

Genetic analysis found it is closely related to the dinosaurs Kerberosaurus and Laiyangosaurus from Russia and China, respectively.

Comparing it with 70 other hadrosaurs also detected so many unique characteristics that it was identified as a dinosaur completely new to science.

Its discovery in marine sediment adds to evidence that hadrosaurs, although spending most of their time on land, liked to live by the water.

They were among the most successful and diverse group of dinosaurs. They were large-bodied with stiff tails. They had specialised jaws and teeth that enabled them to grind down tough ferns and leaves. The front of the snout was flattened, like a duck's bill.

They walked on all fours. Some had elaborate crests and other headgear, possibly for attracting mates.

Co-author Dr Anthony Fiorillo, the chief curator at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Texas, said: 'This discovery is not only significant for the people of Hokkaido and all of Japan. 

'It has global significance because this dinosaur shows us how the world has been connected through time. Kamuysaurus is closely related to the animal we study from Alaska, Edmontosaurus, a duck-billed dinosaur also found throughout much of western North America.

'Because these dinosaurs are so closely related, they provide further evidence that long ago, Asia and North America were connected.'

Known as the Bering Land Bridge, it ran between Siberia and Alaska. It has been described as 'a dinosaur migration highway'.

The first 13 ribs of Kamuysaurus were stumbled upon by a local resident in 2003. They were originally thought to belong to a prehistoric sea creature called a plesiosaur.

It was only eight years later that it was identified as a dinosaur. So Prof Kobayashi's team carried out two expeditions to the fossil site in 2013 and 2014.

While exploring the same hill, they came across so many more bones they were able to perform a total reconstruction.

The preparation has taken nearly a decade, with the help of a large number of volunteers. Many miscellaneous bones remain to be identified.

Dr Fiorillo added: 'But the fossils clearly demonstrate this is a nearly complete skeleton including multiple skull elements and a nearly complete series of vertebrae and fore and hind limbs.'

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/nearly-complete-skeleton-of-a-26-foot-long-duck-billed-dinosaur-that-roamed-modern-day-japan-72-million-years-ago-is-unearthed/ar-AAGS1WM

Edited September 6, 2019 by CaaC (John)

[CaaC (John)]

Incredible Fossils Link Ancient Creature to Earliest ‘Footprints’ on Earth

© Image: NIGPAS Yilingia spiciformis fossil (left), track marks (right), an artist’s reconstruction (centre).

Aquatic, worm-like animals capable of crawling through mud appeared at least 550 million years ago, according to new fossil evidence. The discovery is helping to resolve a longstanding question as to when segmented, mobile animals first appeared on the planet.

It’s the paleontological equivalent of finally being able to put a face to a name.

In this case, a team of scientists from Virginia Tech and the Chinese Academy of Sciences were able to connect an ancient species to the trail marks it left behind. Prior to this study, the same group of scientists detected animal tracks in rocks dated to between 551 million and 539 million years old. Trouble is, these tracks could not be connected to a specific organism, leaving the features ambiguous in nature; it’s exceptionally rare to find a fossilized creature resting next to its fossilized trail marks. 

New research published today in Nature showcases one such example. The fossilized remnants of a newly described creature, dubbed Yilingia spiciformis, were found in rocks pulled from China’s Dengying Formation in the Yangtze Gorges area. These rocks date back to the Ediacaran period, long before the appearance of dinosaurs and the Pangea supercontinent. The track marks found in these rocks are among the oldest known on Earth—and we finally know who made them.

FULL REPORT

 

Edited September 6, 2019 by CaaC (John)
Spacing correction

[Panflute]

^Finally I get to break out my "akzhually that's prehistory" line

[CaaC (John)]

Dead Sea scrolls study raises new questions over texts' origins

The Dead Sea scrolls have given up fresh secrets, with researchers saying they have identified a previously unknown technique used to prepare one of the most remarkable scrolls of the collection.

Scientists say the study poses a puzzle, as the salts used on the writing layer of the Temple scroll are not common to the Dead Sea region.

“This inorganic layer that is really clearly visible on the Temple scroll surprised us and induced us to look more in detail how this scroll was prepared, and it turns out to be quite unique,” said Assistant Professor Admir Masic, co-author of the research from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.

“These salts are not typical for anything we knew about associated with this period and parchment making,” he added.

Found in the middle of the 20th century but dating back to between the third century BC and the first century AD, the Dead Sea scrolls are made up of copies of writings that form parts of the Hebrew Bible, hymns and writings about religious texts and practices. Some sections are mere fragments while others are intact scrolls.

The discovery of the ancient texts itself sounds like something out of scripture: nomadic Bedouin shepherds found cloth-wrapped scrolls hidden in jars in the Qumran caves of the West Bank.

Most of the writings are on parchment sheets – some of which have been tanned, an eastern practice, while some are untanned or lightly tanned, a western practice.

One of the most remarkable intact scrolls is the Temple scroll, a manuscript that was reportedly sold by the Bedouins to an antique dealer who wrapped it in cellophane and stuck it in a shoe-box under his floor. The scroll is now housed with many of the other Dead Sea scrolls in the Shrine of the Book, part of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

The bright, pale scroll – which is more than 8 metres long and written on parchment sheets whitened through treatment with a salt called alum – has a number of unusual features. It is wafer-thin – experts have suggested it might have been made from an animal skin split in two – and unlike most scrolls, the text is on the flesh side of the skin. Even more surprisingly, the text is written on a thick mineral-containing layer that forms a writing surface on top of the collagen.

“The layer reminds [one] of plaster on a wall,” said Prof Ira Rabin, another author of the study.

Now, writing in the journal Science Advances, Masic and colleagues report that they have analysed a fragment of the Temple Scroll to unpick the makeup of this mineral-containing layer.

The results suggest the writing surface is largely composed of sulfate salts, including glauberite, gypsum and thenardite – minerals that dissolve in water and are left behind when the water evaporates.

However, the researchers say these salts are not typical for the Dead Sea region, raising questions of where exactly they came from.

Prof Timothy Lim from the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved in the study, said the findings did not show that the Temple scroll did not come from the region, even if the salts used in its preparation might come from elsewhere.

However, Prof Jonathan Ben-Dov from the University of Haifa disagreed: “I am not the least surprised to learn that a part of the scrolls was not prepared in the Dead Sea region. It would be naive to assume that they were all prepared there.”

Rabin said: “We believe the [Temple scroll] primary treatment is consistent with the ‘western’ way [of parchment preparation]. But the detailed treatment is rather unique.”

The team say the findings raise questions of how best to conserve the Dead Sea scrolls, noting that the sulfate salts might mean the scrolls are more sensitive to small changes in humidity than previously thought.

Among those who welcomed the findings was Dr Kipp Davis from the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute at Trinity Western University in Canada, one of the academics who recently revealed that the trade-in fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls were full of fakes.

“This is an important study that reveals a number of things which promise to continue to be helpful in the study of ancient Jewish scribal culture, but moreover also in our efforts to develop more robust and reliable techniques for evaluating authenticity and forgery in ancient manuscripts,” he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/dead-sea-scrolls-study-raises-new-questions-over-texts-origins/ar-AAGWiEA

[CaaC (John)]

Remarkable 2,100-year-old 'iPhone' found deep in young woman's grave

VIDEO

A remarkable 2,137-year-old object - said to resemble an "iPhone" - has been dug from a grave of a young woman.

The structure is made of black gemstone jet - a type of lignite - with inlays of semi-precious stones.

It was found after the Ala-Tey necropolis, a reservoir near Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam, Russia's biggest power plant, was drained.

Experts say the deceased was a fashionable young woman who lived in the Hunnu-era (Xiongnu) in rural south Russia. It is believed she actually wore the object like a belt buckle.

"Natasha’s’ burial with a Hunnu-era (Xiongnu) iPhone remains one of the most interesting at this burial site.

"Hers was the only belt decorated with Chinese wuzhu coins which helped us to date it," said Dr Pavel Leus, who led the team of archaeologists in the summer.

© IHMC RAS/Pavel Leus Archaeologists were in awe to find a 2,100-year-old object in a grave

Photos of the accessory capture its extraordinary turquoise and red inlays.

The buckle, around seven by three and a half inches in size, was discovered in the normally submerged "Atlantis necropolis" near the dam.

The region is Tuva, a largely mountainous sprawl of beautiful countryside - a holiday spot frequented regularly by Vladimir Putin.

Other graves of prehistoric civilisations dating from the Bronze Age to the time of Genghis Khan are located in the area.

Two more partly-mummified prehistoric fashionistas - buried with the tools of their trade - were unearthed earlier this year.

Dr Marina Kilunovskaya from the St Petersburg Institute of Material History Culture, who leads the Tuva Archeological Expedition, said: "This site is a scientific sensation.

© IHMC RAS/Pavel Leus It is understood the object was used as a belt buckle

"We are incredibly lucky to have found these burials of rich Hun nomads that were not disturbed by (ancient) grave robbers."

Scientists admit they are in a race against time to examine the sites and save priceless treasures from damage by water.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/remarkable-2100-year-old-iphone-found-deep-in-young-womans-grave/ar-AAH02mN

[CaaC (John)]

Archaeologists claim 2,200-year-old ruins in Israel could be the remains of the biblical town Emmaus where Jesus travelled after his resurrection

Archaeologists in Israel have claimed to have discovered the true location of the biblical town of Emmaus, where Jesus first appeared to two followers after being crucified and resurrected.

The remains of a 2,200-year-old fortification at Kiriath-Jearim, a hill on the outskirts of Abu Ghosh, a village near Jerusalem have been uncovered by researchers.

The massive walls of the Hellenistic fortification are believed to have been built by the Seleucid general who defeated Judah the Maccabee, the Jewish leader spoken of in the Hanukkah story.

© Provided by Associated Newspapers Limited Emmaus is significant in Christianity as Jesus appeared to two of his apostles on the road to the town after his crucifixion and resurrection

Tel Aviv University professor Israel Finkelstein, who leads the archaeologist project with Thomas Romer and Christophe Nicolle of the College de France, now claims that the hill and village should be identified as Emmaus.  

In Christianity, Emmaus is significant as Jesus appeared to two of his apostles on the road to the town after his crucifixion and resurrection. 

In Luke 24:13-35, the town is described as being fortified and about seven miles west of Jerusalem. 

This matches the location of Kiriath-Jearim, Abu Ghosh and Jerusalem, as well as the distance between them. 

However, Benjamin Isaac, emeritus professor of ancient history from Tel Aviv University, warned that there are at least two other sites nearby which also have strong claims to be Emmaus.

He said: 'Finkelstein and Römer have a good case archaeologically, geographically, and topographically.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)]

Cryodrakon Boreas: Enormous, Dinosaur-eating Reptile Is One of the Biggest Flying Creatures Ever Discovered

An enormous reptile discovered in Alberta, Canada, is one of the biggest flying creatures ever discovered, with a wingspan of up to 32 feet—roughly double the height of an average giraffe. The species, which has been named Cryodrakon boreas, lived about 77 million years ago and may well have fed on small animals such as lizards and baby dinosaurs.

The fossilized remains were first found over 30 years ago but previously assigned to a different flying species of pterosaur—Quetzalcoatlus. This was another giant flying reptile, which weighed up to 550 lbs and had a wingspan of up to 34 feet.

Over the last three decades, as more ancient remains were uncovered, researchers realized there were key differences between the two species. In a study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers have now named and described the new species.

Both Quetzalcoatlus and Cryodrakon are types of azhdarchid—a family of pterosaurs that lived during the late Cretaceous Period. These creatures had long necks and stork-like bills. While most species were extremely large, researchers have recently identified a cat-sized azhdarchid.

In the latest study, David Hone, from the Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues showed how the neck bones in the newly identified species are shorter and wider than in Quetzalcoatlus, while Cryodrakon has a thinner humerus. "Really as soon as I started looking in detail it was clear there were some differences between the two," he told Newsweek. "I think a fair number of researchers have suspected as much for a while, but sitting down to do the work and getting into the details takes time."

The team said that Cryodrakon and Quetzalcoatlus were probably of a similar size and build, with a similar flight performance and muscles. Combined with the somewhat greater length of the humerus in Cryodrakon, it is likely that Cryodrakon was slightly heavier than Quetzalcoatlus, but their overall mass was likely similar.

Azhdarchids were found across the globe, with species identified on almost every continent. Despite probably being able to cross oceans, azhdarchids tended to stay around the land. They are believed to have been predators and, because of their limited mouth size—with the beak being very long and thin—it is thought they tended to eat small prey.

Cryodrakon was mainly identified from the fossil of a juvenile and scientists used this to estimate its size as an adult. Potentially, Hone said, there could have been larger individuals, but finding evidence of this is unlikely.

"Finding any bone is good, finding a good one of a giant animal is going to be unlikely," he said. "The biggest azhdarchids may have pushed the limit [of] how big a flying animal you can have but Cryodrakon, while probably not the largest—based on what we have—is certainly in the mix of these giant animals."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/cryodrakon-boreas-enormous-dinosaur-eating-reptile-is-one-of-the-biggest-flying-creatures-ever-discovered/ar-AAH5s8A

[CaaC (John)]

Adria, the world's lost continent: Greenland-sized landmass smashed into Europe 100million years ago but was then obliterated

Geologists have revealed the history of a lost continent in painstaking detail for the first time. 

Greater Adria would have been about the size of Greenland and attached to what are now France, Spain and Africa.

In a 427-page long record of 240million years of world history, researchers have detailed how the continent essentially crumbled into what is now Europe.

The paper is the most detailed reconstruction of how the Earth's landmasses could have looked a quarter of a billion years ago.

And Greater Adria, which could have stretched from the Alps to Iran, may have been the driving force behind the formation of mountains throughout Italy, Turkey, Greece and south-eastern Europe.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)]

Cavemen were eating cheese 6,000 years ago - despite being lactose intolerant

A groundbreaking study has found cavemen were drinking milk and possibly eating cheese and yoghurt 6,000 years ago - despite being lactose intolerant. 

Scientists at the University of York identified milk protein entombed in the mineralised dental plaque of seven prehistoric British farmers.

The fascinating discovery represents the earliest direct evidence of milk consumption anywhere in the world.

The ancient human remains tested as part of the research lived in modern-day Britain during the Neolithic period, around 6,000 years ago.

Interestingly, it's known humans at that time were lactose intolerant, so it's believed Stone Age people were only drinking small amounts of milk at a time.

Alternatively, they could have been processing it into other foodstuffs such as cheese and yoghurt, thereby removing most of the lactose, researchers say.

The caveman remains came from three different Neolithic sites - Hambledon Hill and Hazleton North in the south of England, and Banbury Lane in the East Midlands.

Individuals from all three sites showed the presence of milk proteins from cows, sheep or goats, suggesting people were exploiting multiple species for dairy products.

The proteins were entrapped within dental plaque which had become mineralised by components of saliva to form tartar or 'dental calculus'.

Lead author of the study, Dr Sophy Charlton, from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, said: "The fact that we found this protein in the dental calculus of individuals from three different Neolithic sites may suggest that dairy consumption was a widespread dietary practice in the past.

"It would be a fascinating avenue for further research to look at more individuals and see if we can determine whether there are any patterns as to who was consuming milk in the archaeological past - perhaps the amount of dairy products consumed or the animals utilised varied along the lines of sex, gender, age or social standing."

Dr Charlton said the discovery of milk proteins is particularly interesting as recent genetic studies suggest people who lived at this time did not yet have the ability to digest the lactose in milk.

Dr Charlton added: "If you are lactose intolerant and you consume very, very small amounts of milk, then it doesn't make you too ill. You can just about cope with that.

"The alternative option, which I think is perhaps slightly more plausible, is that they were processing the milk in such a way that it's removing a degree of the lactose.

"So if you process it into a cheese, or a fermented milk product, or a yoghurt, then it does decrease the lactose content so you could more easily digest it.

"That idea fits quite well with other archaeological evidence for the period in which we find dairy fats inside lots of Neolithic pottery, both in the UK and the rest of Europe."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/cavemen-were-eating-cheese-6000-years-ago-despite-being-lactose-intolerant/ar-AAHh35t

[CaaC (John)]

Denisovans: Face of long-lost human relative unveiled

Researchers have provided the first glimpse of what an ancient group of humans looked like.

Denisovan remains were discovered in 2008 and human evolution experts have become fascinated with the group that went extinct around 50,000 years ago.

One of the biggest questions had been over their appearance, with no full sketches of the Denisovan drawn up.

But now a team of researchers have produced reconstructions of our long-lost relatives.

Who were the Denisovans?

Around 100,000 years ago there were several different groups of humans including modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans.

"In many ways, Denisovans resembled Neanderthals but in some traits they resembled us and in others they were unique," said Prof Liran Carmel, a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Denisovans are thought to have been based in Siberia and eastern Asia.

Scientists have found evidence that the Denisovans lived at high altitudes in Tibet, passing on a gene that helps modern people cope at similar elevations.

It is not yet known why they disappeared.

They only came to the attention of the world after archaeologists investigated remains in a cave in Siberia little over a decade ago.

So far, the only Denisovan remains discovered are three teeth, a pinky bone and a lower jaw.

About 5% of the ancestry of people from Oceania can be traced to Denisovans, according to studies.

What do the new reconstructions tell us?

The reconstructions - based on complex DNA analysis of Denisovans, Neanderthals, Chimpanzees and humans - show that the Denisovan skull was probably wider than that of us or Neanderthals. They also appeared to have no chin.

The experts predict many Denisovan traits that are similar to that of Neanderthals including a sloping forehead, long face and large pelvis and others that are unique among humans, like a large dental arch.

Denisovans lived at high altitudes

Prof Carmel told the BBC he was delighted to find that some of their predictions had been confirmed by the discovery of a Denisovan jawbone by separate researchers.

"The jawbone was reported and we were very excited to see how it matched. It was kind of an independent confirmation of our method," he said.

The reconstructions were just the start in Denisovan research, Prof Carmel said.

"They were humans very similar to us so pointing out the differences between us is critical to understand what makes us human and what might have led to the way we adapted to the world," he said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-49760240

[CaaC (John)]

Submerged for Decades, Spanish ‘Stonehenge’ Reemerges After Drought

© Image: Pleonr/CC BY-SA 4.0 Low water levels due to drought conditions have fully exposed the Dolmen de Guadalperal, Spanish monumental site dating back to between 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.

Receding water levels in Spain’s Valdecañas Reservoir has exposed a stone monument dating back to between 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.

Unusually warm weather produced drought conditions across much of Europe this past summer, including Spain. The lack of rain, while a headache for farmers and gardeners, has resulted in the complete re-emergence of an ancient megalithic site known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal, as reported in The Local.

The site is located near the town of Peraleda de la Mata, and it’s normally submerged, either completely or partially, by the waters of the Valdecañas Reservoir. Originally constructed in Francoist Spain during the 1960s, the reservoir brought fresh water and hydroelectricity to underdeveloped regions in Spain, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory. At the same time, however, the reservoir required the flooding of some inhabited areas along the Tagus River—and also the Dolmen of Guadalperal.

For nearly 60 years, the site has largely remained underwater, though the tips of the rocks have poked up through the surface when water levels are low (see, for example, this photo taken in 2012). Photos of the Dolmen of Guadalperal taken this past July, however, show the entire megalithic site liberated from its aquatic confines. So rare is the sight that locals are flocking to the Dolmen of Guadalperal to see it for themselves, reports The Local.

Images taken by the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite show the extent of the drying along the Peraleda de la Mata coast. In a series of images provided by NASA’s Space Observatory, the reservoir can be seen on July 24, 2013, and July 25, 2019.

The site dates to around 2,000 BCE to 3,000 BCE, and it presently consists of 144 stones, some reaching as high as 2 meters (6 feet). Some stones are etched with engravings of serpents. Like England’s Stonehenge, this megalithic monument is arranged in a circle-like pattern. Its purpose isn’t entirely clear, but Angel Castaño, a member of Raíces de Peralêda—a group dedicated to the preservation of the site—suspects it served a dual function, serving as both a religious site and a trading hub, reports The Local.

© Image: Landsat/USGS A satellite photo showing water levels at Valdecañas Reservoir on July 25, 2019.

Castaño and his colleagues told The Local that now’s the time, when the water is exceptionally low and the monuments are fully exposed, to relocate the site. Not only will this relocation help to preserve the stones, which are already showing signs of degradation, but it will also establish a new tourist attraction for the region, where few come to visit, Castaño told The Local.

Removing and reinstalling the monuments would require some work, such as documenting the position, angle, and depth of each stone, but a task certainly within the realm of possibility. According to Repelando, ancient Romans looted the site, and some elements were removed by a German archaeologist in the 1920s. Aside from these disruptions, most of the stones are still resting in their original position, which will allow for a faithful reconstruction and ongoing scientific investigations of the site.

© Image: Pleonr/CC BY-SA 4.0 A close-up of the freshly exposed monuments.

The excessive heat and drought experienced across much of this Europe this summer may or may not be linked to human-induced climate change (spoiler alert: it is), but the odd juxtaposition of a warming climate and its penchant to expose previously hidden archaeological sites is not without precedent. In 2010, for example, retreating ice exposed 3,400-year-old pre-Viking hunting gear in Norway, and it’s possible that retreating ice caps also exposed Ötzi the Iceman, whose well-preserved remains were found in 1991 in the mountains along the Italian-Austrian border. 

These finds, along with the recent exposure of the Dolmen of Guadalperal, are certainly fortuitous, but climate change has the potential to inflict more evil than good as far as archaeology is concerned. Research from 2017 warned that sea-level rise could threaten as many as 32,000 prehistoric and historic archaeological sites in North America, depending on how high the waters rise. So yes, climate change still sucks. 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/submerged-for-decades-spanish-stonehenge-reemerges-after-drought/ar-AAHyz1m