Archeology

It is thought that neanderthals may have been the first to build structures using mammoth bones.At least one mammoth-bone structure built by neanderthals has been found dating back some 44,000 years. Thought to be either used as a shelter or as an area for killing and cooking animals the structure consisted of 116 mammothbones and tusks arranged in a large ring-shaped enclosure.

Similar homo sapien structures have dated back to around 27,500 years ago. Neandertals are stumping for bragging rights as the first builders of mammoth-bone structures, an accomplishment usually attributed to Stone Age people.  

View: Full article |  Source: Science News  

Ruins from a long-lost civilization have been revealed beneath the desert sands of the Sahara.Evidence of the advanced Garamantes civilization had remained mostly undocumented due to the strict regime of Colonel Gaddafi, but now due to recent events in Libya archaeologists have a chance to finally investigate in full the secrets of this long lostancient culture.

"It is like someone coming to England and suddenly discovering all the medieval castles," said Proffessor David Mattingly. "These settlements had been unremarked and unrecorded under the Gaddafi regime." Satellite images have revealed the ruins of a long-lost civilisation which existed in what is now the Sahara desert in Roman times andbefore.  

View: Full article |  Source: The Register  

A magical "sunstone" that could tell the position of the sun on a cloudy day may have really existed.Scientists have been able to determine that a type of crystal, the Iceland spar, is capable of ascertaining the sun"s position with considerable accuracy. If the Vikings had access to this materialthen they could have fashioned their sunstones from it.

A Viking legend which tells of a glowing "sunstone" that, when held up to the sky, disclosed the position of the Sun on a cloudy day may have some basis in truth, scientists believe.  

View: Full article |  Source: Telegraph  

A canon from the shipwreck of infamous pirate Blackbeard has been retrieved from the depths.The Queen Anne"s Revenge sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1718 and wasn"t discovered until 1996. "Four cannons were all found to be loaded, with cannon shot and wads in placeready to be fired," said project conservator Sarah Watkins-Kenney.

Archaeologists raised another cannon on Wednesday from the sunken wreck of pirate Blackbeard"s legendary ship off the coast of North Carolina.  

View: Full article |  Source: Reuters