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our shared human past

The BBC reports that the popular belief of eight hours of sleep being optimal is a development of the 19th century, and that people have had a very different pattern of sleep before. In previous times humans usually had a first period of sleep of several hours, followed by a night-time awake phase, which in…

Archaeologists have made perhaps one of the most exciting Pre-Columbian finds in recent decades! In the vicinity of El Caño, Panama, excavations have unearthed fantastic tombs filled exquisite golden items. Since 2010, dozens of artifacts have been recovered and now scholars are peeling back the layers of time in order to solve the mysteries of…

The New York Times ran an article last month, detailing the importance of geoglyphs found deep within the Amazon rainforest in northwestern Brazil. Although they have been known to scientists and archaeologists since the 1970s, these “land carvings” are receiving increasing attention from the international community. Characterized by remarkable “geometric precision” and intricate detail, scholars…

LONDON. Ever wondered how the Celts warded off evil spirits? Come along to this event and find out more about the Celts. The British Museum is hosting an event of Celtic art and mythological stories for children and adults alike. The event costs GBP 12 and takes place on Sunday 04 March at the British…

The Costa Concordia, a cruise liner than recently sunk off the Italian island of Giglio, nearly landed on an ancient Roman shipwreck. The modern ship sunk only a ship’s length away from the ancient wreck. The waters around Giglio are in fact an ancient ship graveyard, as many vessels have sunk there before. Even the…

Russian biologists have managed to regrow flowers from seeds that were frozen for about 30.000 years. The seeds of prehistoric Silene stenophylla were extracted from plant seeds found in the Russian permafrost soil. They were probably dug in by Ice Age squirrels and never defrosted since. The flowers show significant differences from their modern counterparts:…

The Wall Street Journal had a great review of Aelian’s “On the Nature of Animals,” in a of a new translation, by Gregory McNamee. Born c. 170 CE, Aelian is perhaps the world’s first “naturalist.” Please click here to read this review.

We have the unfortunate news of reporting a robbery of precious items from the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games, in Olympia, Greece. The BBC is reporting that around seventy items were stolen and that the museum has been significantly damaged. The news prompted the resignation of Greece’s Minister of Cultural Affairs, Pavlos…

ABC News is reporting that a joint team of Japanese and Egyptians scientists is in the process of restoring a 4.000 year old boat, which originally belonged to the famous Pharaoh Kufu. Khufu–also known as “Cheops”–ordered the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Egyptologists and scientists have already restored another similar boat with much…