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The key difference between the new method and other techniques previously developed to read un-openable historical documents is the unprecedentedly high contrast resolution it provides to distinguish between ink and parchment. This means the ink show
The cause of this cooling has been much debated, especially because it closely coincided with the abrupt extinction of the majority of the large animals then inhabiting the Americas, as well as the disappearance of the prehistoric Clovis culture, kno
Not until the Neolithic Revolution, beginning about 10,000 years ago, did agriculture and domestication appear. This in turn allowed permanent settlement, leading to specialisation of labour, the development of crafts (including pottery and metalwor
From the several pandemics generally called 'pestilences' three are historically recognized as due to plague, but only for the third pandemic of the 19th-21st centuries AD there were microbiological evidences that the causing agent was the bacteriu
The same appears to have been true of the Amazon rain forest, where extensive ruins suggesting the presence of an advanced civilization have been located. Infertile jungle soils throughout the region have been extensively altered by ancient human enr
Have scientists discovered a lost city?
". He describes the marvel of a water-raising screw made using a new method of casting bronze – and predating the invention of Archimedes' screw by some four centuries.
Rather, the entire region went through a cultural shift around 1000 B.C., with all nearby cultures adopting similar architectural and ceremonial styles. [See Images of the Ancient Maya Observatory]
Further analysis of the fossil revealed that its teeth were adapted to catching slippery, wiggling prey like fish. Dinosaur researchers have established that most meat eaters had teeth with serrations on both sides which like a steak knife helped the
And carbon-dating of material at the site has revealed continuous occupation of the area between 7500BC and 4700BC, it is being revealed on BBC One's The Flying Archaeologist tonight. Research at a site around a mile from Stonehenge has found evi
The grand Mycenaens, the first Greeks, inspired the legends of the Trojan Wars, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." Their culture abruptly declined around 1200 B.C., marking the start of a Dark Ages in Greece. The disappearance of theMycenaens is a
Pearce found that Neanderthals had significantly larger eye sockets – by an average of 6mm from top to bottom. Although this seems like a small amount, she said that it was enough for Neanderthals to use significantly more of their brains to proce
What is known today as the map of the Turkish admiral Piri Reis is actually just a fragment of the original, much larger map, which represented the whole known world. This surviving portion
The dramatic collapse of the Mayan civilisation 1000 years ago is one of the world's enduring archaeological mysteries. But how the Maya got started in the first place is no less mysterious.
A small, bird-like North American dinosaur incubated its eggs in a similar way to brooding birds - bolstering the evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs, researchers at the University of Calgary and Montana State University study have found.
Alternative theories are that these creatures are either a small group of modern humans, Homo sapiens, whose brains and bodies have been prevented from growing normally because of a wasting disease, or that they are descendants of tiny-brained ape-li
, for centuries, the legends of giants in the jungles and highlands of Peru were the most known. Along with tales by the local tribes, the Incas and subsequent explorers described a variety of giant-sized beings in the region. There have been a few m
Researchers from Columbia University and MIT have discovered that the climate in Sahara was quite lush between 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, a period known as the African Humid Period. On either side of that period, the region has been a desert, as we
After analyzing a sample, Barabe and his colleagues concluded that the gospel was likely penned with an early form of iron gall ink that also included black carbon soot bound with a gum binder. While this finding suggested that the text may have been
"We detected a second pigment in the samples, dehydroindigo, which must have formed through oxidation of the indigo when it underwent exposure to the heat that is required to prepare MayaBlue," Antonio Doménech, a researcher from the University of
“As of now, we have four 15ft high mounds around which we have evidence of pottery, coins and some terracotta figures,” said J.R. Bhagat, deputy director in the department. “Once we begin, the entire digging could take at least 5-10 years.”
‘One reason why the meeting places of the Bronze Age are not discussed very often is that we haven’t been able to find them. This is in strong contrast to the trading places of the Viking Age, which have been easy to locate as they left behind such r
There are a few guidelines for which ancient species are considered, and sadly, dinosaurs are so long dead they aren't in the picture. Their DNA has long ago degraded, so researchers are fairly sure that Jurassic Park will never happen. But there
After years of study, Haas and his colleagues have concluded that during the Late Archaic, maize (Zea mays, or corn) was indeed a primary component in the diet of people living in the Norte Chico region of Peru, an area of remarkable cultural floresc
Point function was determined by comparing wear on the ancient points to damage inflicted on modern experimental points used to spear a springbok carcass target with a calibrated crossbow. This method has been used effectively to study weaponry from
I came to the conclusion that the oldest portions of the Great Sphinx date back to a much earlier period than previously believed by most Egyptologists and historians. Conventional wisdom places the Great Sphinx in the reign of the Pharaoh Khafre (Ch
is completely covered by rectangular concrete blocks. Properties of the concrete, such as extreme hardness and low water absorption, are, according to the scientific institutions in Bosnia, Italy and France, far superior to any
Fifty million years ago, when these fossil beds were laid down, the world had low seasonality outside of the tropics, right to the poles. Because of this, if Janzen's theory is right, the pattern of biodiversity that he described in modern tropical
It was the first time scientists had found an effective method to retrieve and analyse ancient human DNA from remains outside permanent frost zones.
One of the big questions in European archaeology has been whether farming was brought or borrowed from the Near East," says T. Douglas Price, a University of Wisconsin-Madison archaeologist who, with Cardiff University's Dusan Boric, measured stron
