Free Republic

An experiment inspired by Homer's description of combat in The Iliad tested the capabilities of the Dendra armour suit from Greece's Bronze AgeModern military volunteers donned replicas of ancient Greek armour and engaged in exercises inspired by Homer's epic poem The Iliad. The demonstration shows how elite Bronze Age warriors could have fought in heavy protective gear during sustained combat.The experiment's results strongly suggest that the 3500-year-old Dendra armour suit – one of the oldest complete suits of metal armour from Europe's Bronze Age – was indeed suitable for battle. Some scholars have argued that it was merely a ceremonial...

Native American campaigners are raising questions about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first-ever curator of Native American art — claiming she does not belong to a federally recognized tribe in the US, The Post has learned. Patricia Marroquin Norby was hired with great fanfare in 2020, after what the museum said was “a long and competitive search,” as its “inaugural Associate Curator of Native American Art” in its American Wing. For years, Marroquin Norby, 53, described herself — including in legal filings — as “Apache,” “Eastern Apache” and “Nde” as well as “Purepacha/Tarascan,” an indigenous group from the northwestern part...

The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the Ministry of Culture have confirmed a great archaeological find in Quintana Roo.During excavations in section six of the Mayan Train, which extends between Tulum and Chetumal, vestiges of ancient Mayan beekeeping have been found...The team of archaeologists has recovered jobón caps, an indication of meliponiculture, the breeding of stingless bees, practiced by the Mayans in ancient times.Initially, it was thought that the excavations were revealing an albarrada (wall), but the discovery of these covers changed the hypothesis, identifying the vestiges as parts of a meliponary.The lids, made of limestone, have...

Talk to anyone in my business and they'll all say the same thing: No matter how long you write stories and put them in the newspaper, you are never really sure which ones are going to strike a nerve.What you think might be a Pulitzer-quality epic might draw only a nice call from Mom, while a simple tale tossed off on deadline causes an uproar, or an avalanche of praise. One legendary former investigative reporter at this paper wrote scores of stories that changed laws and saved lives, yet never did he get more mail than when he wrote about...

Genre EphemeraNotes- When decoded, this paper tape recording of the historic message transmitted by Samuel F. B. Morse reads, "What hath God wrought?" Morse sent it from the Supreme Court room in the U.S. Capitol in Washington to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore. Morse's early system produced a paper copy with raised dots and dashes, which were translated later by an operator. Across the top of this artifact of his historic achievement Morse has given credit to Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of a good friend, for suggesting the message he sent. She found it in the Bible, Numbers...

In life, sometimes things just drop into your lap. This is one of those times. Today I am very happy to announce the full release of Major General Ethan Allen's work A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's CaptivityWhat is cool about this is that it is a solo work, meaning it is IMHO higher quality and easier to follow. Moreover, most of my personal efforts to try to recruit others have admittedly been a failure. But this one, it was just some random person who I don't have any association with saw it and recorded it. From my view, its...

In 5,259 BC, our planet was bombarded with a shower of highly energetic particles resulting from a rare cosmic event of exceptional magnitude. Initially revealed through the discovery of carbon isotopes measured in ancient tree ring data, the event produced a roughly two percent increase in atmospheric Carbon-14 (14C), making it one of the strongest events of its kind known to scientists...The breakthrough relied on the combination of annual growth ring measurements with the measurable spike in cosmogenic radiocarbon that occurred during the 5259 BC event. This allowed them to establish a chronological reference point for producing accurate dates for...

The final resting place of an iconic U.S. Navy submarine that was sunk 80 years ago during World War II was located 3,000 feet below the ocean's surface, the Naval History and Heritage Command said Thursday. The USS Harder – which earned the nickname "Hit 'em HARDER" – was found off the Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and "relatively intact" except for damage behind its conning tower from a Japanese depth charge, the command said. The sub was discovered using data collected by Tim Taylor, CEO of the Lost 52 Project, which works to locate the 52 submarines sunk...

American submarine USS Harder that vanished in 1944 is discovered more than 3,000 below surface near Philippines' Luzon island The wreck of a U.S. Navy submarine that "sank the most Japanese warships" during World War II has been found in the South China Sea after being missing for nearly 80 years. The USS Harder, which vanished on Aug. 24, 1944, with 79 sailors onboard, has been discovered off Luzon island in the Philippines with the help of data provided by Tim Taylor, CEO of Tiburon Subsea and the Lost 52 Project, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC)....

How Does One Find Private Genetic Testing. I am looking for private genetic testing and if needed counseling related to family history of dementia. How does one find this sort of thing.. not interested in getting primary involved.

The Republic of Colombia announced Wednesday in a press release that they designated the wreckage of the San Jose galleon as a “Protected Archaeological Area.“ The Colombian government called the San Jose wreckage “one of the most important of the colonial period in America” and announced they were also launching a multiphase research project around the ship, the press release reads. The San Jose, a ship belonging to the Spanish crown, was sunk by the British navy in 1708 with only a few of its 600-strong crew surviving the incident, CBS News reported. The ship was reportedly believed to be...

A study of the Canadian Indian schoolchildren mass murder hoax is accused of "hate" and "denialism." The Quesnel, British Columbia city council's censorious response to the revealing, well researched, and well documented book, Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us And the Truth About Residential Schools (editors Tom Flanagan and Chris Champion, 2023) is, sadly enough, more grist for the woke mill. Cancel culture is running amok throughout the West and Quesnel (Pronounced Quinn-L) is merely its microcosm. The book is a collection of essays by academics, journalists, and others debunking claims that First Nations children went missing (victims of...

When a trusting customer purchases a kit from 23andMe, spits in their tube, and mails it back, they effortlessly provide 23andMe with genetic data on dozens and dozens of their traits. If the intended goal is to discover a family ancestry line, or if they are a candidate for ailments like breast or prostate cancer and other disease-causing variants, then 23andMe may seem like a valuable tool. However, by consenting to let 23andMe run tests, customers agree to user terms set by the company. (snip) As the partnership between 23andMe and GSK came to life, besides publicly disclosed deals with...

A valiant nod to America's military heroes is soon to be seen in Washington, D.C. A WWI monument called "A Soldier’s Journey" will be unveiled in Pershing Park on Sept. 13, 2024, and will serve as the centerpiece of the National World War I Memorial in the nation's capital. The sprawling bronze sculpture, which measures about 60 feet long, depicts the heroic journey of a soldier — from the time he leaves home for war until he finally returns. Fox News Digital spoke to master sculptor Sabin Howard, who took the lead on the project, about his artwork. He said...

The analysis of fat traces in over one hundred pottery vessels reveals deep changes in food consumption and preparation by communities living in central Germany between the Early Neolithic and the Late Bronze Age, as well as in their relation with innovations in pottery styles and decorations.In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the UAB and the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt identified a generalised inclusion of dairy products in prehistoric diets, a preference in consuming pork with the arrival of communities from the Eurasian Steppe, and the importance of dairy products in funeral rites.Central Germany was...

A man who was renovating his wine cellar in Austria has made an extraordinary discovery. It wasn't a vintage red or white - but the remains of prehistoric mammoths...The winemaker, Andreas Pernerstorfer, came across a number of huge bones, buried deep in his wine cellar in the village of Gobelsburg, in the district of Krems, west of Vienna.He reported his find to the authorities, who identified them as the bones of at least three Stone Age mammoths..."I thought it was just a piece of wood left by my grandfather. But then I dug it out a bit and then I...

The studied Psittacosaurus under natural (upper half) and UV light (lower half). (Zixiao Yang, Author provided) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Strong but light, beautiful and precisely structured, feathers are the most complex skin appendage that ever evolved in vertebrates. Despite the fact humans have been playing with feathers since prehistory, there's still a lot we don't understand about them. Our new study found that some of the first animals with feathers also had scaly skin like reptiles. Following the debut of the first feathered dinosaur, Sinosauropteryx prima, in 1996, a surge of discoveries has painted an ever more interesting picture of feather evolution....

The elongated skulls of Paracas in Peru caused a stir in 2014 when a geneticist that carried out preliminary DNA testing reported that they have mitochondrial DNA “with mutations unknown in any human, primate, or animal known so far”. A second round of DNA testing was completed in 2016 and the results almost as controversial – the skulls tested, which date back as far as 2,000 years, were shown to have European and Middle Eastern Origin. It was claimed these surprising results would change the known history about how the Americas were populated. But did they? Paracas is a desert...

The number of people using Gaelic has increased across Scotland despite a decline in the language's heartland, according to the latest census data. Experts say the increase in Gaelic medium education (GME) accounts for the rise. However, Gaelic is now a minority language in the Western Isles - while 52% reported speaking Gaelic in 2011, the figure in 2022 was 45%. Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes told BBC Scotland that Scottish Gaelic was part of a "modern, diverse Scotland". Ms Forbes – who is also minister for Gaelic – said she was “extremely optimistic” about the future of the language....

Welcome to the party, Koleken inakayali, we'll clap for you. La Colonia Formation continues to deliver the new dinosaur goods. Image credit: © Gabriel Díaz Yantén Behold, the tiny arms of a new species of abelisaurid dinosaur, Koleken inakayali. Retrieved from La Colonia Formation in Patagonia, it dates back 70 million years and has an impressively miniature set of arms. Think T. rex’s were mini? You ain’t seen nothing yet. The new tiny-armed species looks similar to the iconic “meat bull” Carnotaurus, made famous from Jurassic World and that love scene in Prehistoric Planet. Koleken is different, however, both in...