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58 years later, records unsealed in Rosenberg spy case After 58 years, historians and journalists will have a chance to examine the secret grand jury testimony of witnesses in the espionage case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The couple was investigated in 1950, tried in 1951 for conspiracy to commit espionage and convicted and sentenced to death in 1953. Cold War scholars are hoping the grand jury transcripts will shed light on some nagging questions about the case -- primarily, just how strong the case was against Ethel Rosenberg. The National Security Archive, the American Historical Association, the Georgetown University...

Adolf Hitler found time amid the bloodiest war in history to crack jokes with his cronies. Hitler the comedian is one side of the Fuhrer painted in a new memoir called ‘The Last Witness‘ by one of the Nazi leader's bodyguards. Comedian: Hitler often cracked jokes according to his bodyguard Hitler, the mass killer, “had a small fund of jokes,“ recalled Misch, who is now 90. “The boss was said to be particularly fond of a couple jokes and told the best ones over and over,“ he said. While Misch did not divulge Hitler's favourite jokes ahead of the book's...

Oops ! He forgot your birthday again. Well do not blame his memory for this innocent forgetfulness as the the reason behind it is down in the genes. While men may fail to match a woman's ability to remember the date of an anniversary, they are better at storing a seemingly endless cache of facts and figures and all this is because of genetic differences. Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, have found that males use different genes from females when making the new connections in the brain that are needed to create long-term memories. They believe...

The influence of the Internet on our lives is increasing. Israel's security is especially vulnerable to the manipulation of geography. The online world allows the creation of a virtual reality that at times bears only passing resemblance to facts on the ground. The gap between reality and virtual reality is further exploited by political activists promoting what we term "replacement geography," a means of controlling the virtual representation of land in place of controlling the land itself. In an information age, control on the common map may be worth more in negotiations than control on the ground.

A footprint of 800 years old has been unearthed at one of Canada's top archaeological sites in the western Manitoba Province, scientists announced Tuesday. The footprint was discovered when archaeologists dug at the site located in the central area of provincial capital Winnipeg. The area has a rich history that includes aboriginal camping, the fur trade, the construction of the railway, waves of immigration and the Industrial Age. The place has been determined as the future site of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and archaeologists have been scraping away at the site for the basement of the building. Thousands...

A ROMAN ring that was discovered in a field near York has been classified as an item of treasure, an inquest heard. The silver ring which could date as far back as first century AD, was discovered by Peter Spencer, while he was searching a field in Dunnington using a metal detector. The jewel, whose value will be determined by the treasure valuation committee, was despatched to the British Museum, where it was examined, and a report on it completed. The report, by Ralph Jackson, at the museum’s department of pre-history and Europe, described the find as a small, Roman...

Excavation first began here in 1854 and was conducted by Spiegelthal. Operations continued systematically until the breakout of World War I and resumed after 1958. Studies carried out between 1910 and 1914 by Harold Butler of Princeton University produced more than 1,230 tombs in the Artemis Temple. Upon Butler's death in 1921, a joint initiative by Harvard University and Cornell University, headed by Professor George M. A. Hanfman and subsequently by Professor Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr., continued his work. The excavations have also led to the discovery of the Artemis Temple, the biggest known ancient synagogue of the world, one...

Pardubice, East Bohemia, July 11 (CTK) - Archaeologists have uncovered a 4000-year-old grave in Mikulovice, east Bohemia, with remains of what might have been considered a vampire at the time, Nova TV has reported. The experts made the terrifying find within their research of a burial site from the Early Bronze Age. One of the graves was situated somewhat aside. The skeleton in it bears traces of unusual treatment. When buried, the dead man was weighed down with two big stones, one on his chest and the other on his head. "Remains treated in this way are now considered as...

A major conference is being held in Kilkenny this weekend to celebrate the 800th anniversary of William Marshal's charter to the city. William Marshal's (c.1146-1219) deeds in medieval war, jousting, politics, kingship and commerce are legendary. He rose from relative obscurity to become one of the most powerful and famous men in Europe and from 1207-1213 Kilkenny was at the centre of his extensive Irish lordship. From the city he embarked on a massive campaign of town development and administrative re-organisation which transformed the south-east of Ireland. This conference celebrates Marshal's life and achievements and marks the 800th anniversary of...

At first glance, the ancient Egyptian texts look like scraps of garbage. And more than 2,000 years ago, that's exactly what they were -- discarded documents, useless contracts and unwanted letters that were recycled into material needed to plaster over mummies, like some precursor to papier-mache... The texts, collectively called papyri, were donated to Stanford in the 1920s by an alumnus who bought them from an antiquities dealer in London. They've been overlooked by generations of faculty who haven't focused on papyrology, said Joe Manning, an associate professor of classics... About 70 texts in Stanford's collection of several hundred papyri...

American entrepreneur Gregg Bemis finally gets courts go-ahead to explore the wreck off IrelandIt is the best known shipwreck lying on the Irish seabed, but it is only today that the owner of the Lusitania will finally begin the first extensive visual documentation of the luxury liner that sank 93 years ago. Gregg Bemis, who bought the remains of the vessel for £1,000 from former partners in a diving business in 1968, has been granted an imaging licence by the Department of the Environment. This allows him to photograph and film the entire structure, and should allow him to produce...

More than 2,000 wooden poles recently unearthed at a site in Jianchuan county, have been found to be more than 3,000 years old. The poles, still standing, were dug 4.5 m into the ground. Archaeologists said carbon tests showed the poles were from the Neolithic age, and were probably the foundations for a structure built by a community that existed at the time in southwest China... Excavation of the site is still going on. A total of 28 excavations have been made so far of an area that covers 1,350 sq m. Min Rui, a researcher at the Yunnan Archaeological...

Historical artefacts dating back to the mid-19th century during King Dingane's reign have been unearthed at his former uMgungundlovu home in KwaZulu-Natal. The archeological find includes an iron spearhead and coloured glass beads. The dig was undertaken in an area where Dingane inspected his army and cattle. "It was here on February 4,1838 that King Dingane ordered the slaying of trekker leader Piet Retief and his party," read a statement from Amafa Heritage KZN chief executive Barry Marshall. The find will be displayed once the construction of Amafa's R25 million multi-media centre has been completed. Dingane (also spelt as Dingaan)...

Archeologists discovered a gold ring in a grave in Skriduklaustur in east Iceland where there used to be a monastery. The discovery is considered significant because very few gold rings have been found in archeological excavations in Iceland. "It looks like a normal wedding ring, but it has been decorated a little," archeologist Steinunn Kristjansdottir, who is responsible for the current excavation project in Skriduklaustur, told Morgunbladid. The ring is engraved with a leafy pattern and Kristjansdottir believes that indicates that the ring was made in the 16th or 17th century. The monastery church in Skriduklaustur was used after Iceland...

Archeologists have uncovered a unique funerary monument of the first millennium AD on the territory of Opolye, Suzdal. The discovery of this Finno-Ugric burial ground is a real event for archeologists. In the excavation around 300 square meters large there have been unearthed 11 tombs that make it possible to reveal the earlier unknown facts of ancient history. The monument dating back to the 3rd-4th centuries has kept Finnish jewelry and is evidence of a rich militarized society, where cattle breeding played an important role. All entombments are located in a row. Judging by their size at least four of...

BARLETTA, Italy -- Collecting music written in internment camps before and during World War II may n ot occur to everyone but that has been Francesco Lotoro's quest since 1991. "To allow the musicians to continue to work was also a way to control them better," said the 44-year-old Italian Jew. "At Auschwitz, there were seven orchestras." Lotoro has amassed some 4,000 pieces, all composed between March 1933, when the Nazis' Dachau death camp was opened soon after Hitler won absolute power, and the end of World War II in 1945. But while much is from Nazi camps, Lotoro's collection...

In the remote desert highlands of southern Yemen, a team of archaeologists have discovered new evidence of ancient transitions from hunting and herding to irrigation agriculture 5,200 years ago. As part of a larger program of archaeological research, Michael Harrower from the University of Toronto and The Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) team explored the Wadi Sana watershed documenting 174 ancient irrigation structures, modeled topography and hydrology, and interviewed contemporary camel and goat herders and irrigation farmers. "Agriculture in Yemen appeared relatively late in comparison with other areas of the Middle East, where farming first developed near the...

The remains of what appear to be four US soldiers who died in 1846 during the Mexican-American war have been found, Mexican officials have said. The skeletons were found at the site of the Battle of Monterrey in northern Mexico alongside relics indicating the bodies were US soldiers... Mexico's state archaeological agency said the bodies were found in several digs between 1996 and 2008 but it took a long time to identify the remains because it was believed only Mexicans were buried at the battle site.

Abraham didn't exist? The Exodus didn't happen? The Bible's Buried Secrets, a new PBS documentary, is likely to cause a furor. "It challenges the Bible's stories if you want to read them literally, and that will disturb many people," says archaeologist William Dever, who specializes in Israel's history. "But it explains how and why these stories ever came to be told in the first place, and how and why they were written down." The Nova program will premiere Nov. 18. PBS presented a clip and a panel discussion at the summer tour of the Television Critics Association. The program says...

AMMAN, (AFP) - Barack Obama strode onto the world stage on Tuesday with trademark audacity, or as his political enemies would have it, a dearth of humility, in the symbolic shadow of Jordan's Temple of Hercules. As he tries to convince Americans he will keep them safe, the White House hopeful held his first major press conference abroad as presumptive Democratic nominee near ancient Roman ruins and a shrine to the mighty Greek mythic hero. Overlooking sun-bleached homes and minarets of the Jordanian capital, Obama spoke about his stealth mission to Iraq, against a backdrop seemingly chosen to suggest a...

With his dashing chiselled features, swept back hair and perky bouffant the resemblance is unmistakable. But incredibly this carving of Elvis Presley was created around 1800 years before the King of Rock and Roll first warbled his first note. The amazing likeness has come to light as part of a sale of ancient antiques by the auction house Bonhams.

Archaeology and the Book of Exodus: Exit From Egypt Archaeologists have made many significant discoveries that make the book of Exodus and the Israelistes' time in Egypt come alive. by Mario Seiglie In earlier issues, The Good News examined several archaeological finds that illuminate portions of the book of Genesis. In this issue we continue our exploration of discoveries that illuminate the biblical accounts, focusing on Exodus, the second book of the Bible.Exodus in English derives from the Latin and means simply "to exit." The book of Exodus describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, an event distinguished by...

I was privileged this week to preview, before its release to the public, what may well prove to be a masterpiece of the documentary film-making art—a new look at the Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt in the light of contemporary archeology and politics in the Middle East. Filmmaker Tim Mahoney´s "The Exodus Conspiracy",[1] due to be released within a few months, seeks to demonstrate the historical accuracy of the Biblical narrative of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt on the basis of recent archaeological discoveries and geographic explorations. A secondary thesis of the film is...

Bayonetted and shot by drunken assassins, the slaughter of the Russian royal family shook the world. Now a new book reveals in compelling detail the horrifying final days of the Romanovs. As the light faded, a train halted in the siding near the remote railway station of Lyubinskaya on the Trans-Siberian railway line.

Geologists from the U.S. Smithsonian Institution, which has a permanent base in Panama, say engineers digging to widen the Panama Canal have uncovered more than 500 fossils including teeth and bones of rodents, horses, crocodiles and turtles that lived before a land bridge linked North and South America... Scientists believe the South American and Caribbean tectonic plates collided around 15 million years ago, causing volcanic activity that eventually formed a thin strip of land linking the Americas and separating the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The bridge was probably fully formed, in a way that mammals could walk over it, some...

A 2500 year old Persian treasure dubbed the world's 'first bill of human rights' has been branded a piece of shameless 'propaganda' by German historians. The Cyrus cylinder, which is held by the British Museum, is a legacy of Cyrus the Great - the Persian emperor famed for freeing the Jews of ancient Babylon after conquering the city in 539 BC. A copy of the cylinder, which is covered in cuneiform script supposed to detail the ancient charter of rights, also hangs next to the Security Council Chamber in the United Nations headquarters in New York, where it is held...

A Greek man was arrested for digging tunnels from his home to protected archaeology sites in Megara, west of Athens, in a suspected case of antiquities trafficking, officials said on Saturday. The 44-year-old man allegedly dug a well nearly four metres deep, as well as a tunnel seven metres long leading to three smaller tunnels in an archaeological zone, Athens police said in a statement. The suspect was arrested on Friday and was to stand before an Athens court on Saturday for infringing laws protecting antiquities and national heritage. The man is said to have destroyed some antiquities during his...

The skeleton, dubbed "Escalante Man" in Bureau of Land Management documents, was found last winter off Highway 12 near Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The bones were likely from an American Indian man in his 50s or 60s. The bones were found with a musket, ammunition and a bucket. Researchers said evidence indicates the man died during the mid- to late-19th century... FBI spokesman Juan Becerra said he couldn't comment on the case because it's part of an ongoing investigation... The BLM's Jeanette Matovich, who is trained in bioanthropology, participated in the dig. "The skeleton was completely collapsed in on itself,...

An unexpected sexual curse has been uncovered by archaeologists at Cyprus's old city kingdom of Amathus, on the island's south coast near Limassol, according to a newspaper on Friday. "A curse is inscribed in Greek on a lead tablet and part of it reads: 'May your penis hurt when you make love'," Pierre Aubert, head of Athens Archaeological School in Greece told the English language Cyprus Weekly. He said the tablet showed a man standing holding something in his right hand that looks like an hour glass. The inscription dates back to the 7th century AD when Christianity was well...

Underwater archaeologists are taking to Loch Tay to try to uncover more about a submerged prehistoric woodland. The stumps of about 50 trees were discovered in 2005 - some of them are thought to be about 6,000 years old. The experts are now aiming to find their root system and establish the depth to which the trees are buried. Meanwhile, a campaign has been launched to help restore the reconstructed crannog, an ancient loch dwelling, which attracts thousands of visitors. The Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology will spend the next two weeks inspecting the drowned forest. They will be focusing...

Rihab, Jordan - Excavations are continuing on a hilltop in the rural Jordanian town of Rihab to find additional evidence that supports a recent history-making discovery of what renowned archaeologists believe could be the first church on earth. We believe this is the world's first church, where early Christians took refuge after they escaped Roman persecution in Jerusalem and came here to perform their rituals in secrecy," archaeologist Abdul Qader al-Hosan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Al-Hosan is head of the state-run Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies and doubles as a professor of archaeology at Hashemiyah University. "The evidence we have...

Some 40,000 years ago, Cro-Magnons -- the first people who had a skeleton that looked anatomically modern -- entered Europe, coming from Africa. A group of geneticists, coordinated by Guido Barbujani and David Caramelli of the Universities of Ferrara and Florence, shows that a Cro-Magnoid individual who lived in Southern Italy 28,000 years ago was a modern European, genetically as well as anatomically.

Land-ice Bridge, New Research Suggests -- Research by a Valparaiso University geography professor and his students on the creation of Kankakee Sand Islands of Northwest Indiana is lending support to evidence that the first humans to settle the Americas came from Europe, a discovery that overturns decades of classroom lessons that nomadic tribes from Asia crossed a Bering Strait land-ice bridge. Valparaiso is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research. Dr. Ron Janke began studying the origins of the Kankakee Sand Islands – a series of hundreds of small, moon-shaped dunes that stretch from the southern tips of Lake...

Pausanias, a travel writer of the ancient world, described this course for horse races, its starting mechanisms, turning points and altars in much detail in the 2nd century AD... Another - previously unheeded - written source from the 11th century AD goes so far as to state the size and dimensions of the enclosure: "The olympiad has a course for horse races that [has a length of] 8 stadia. Each of the long sides is 3 stadia and 1 plethron long, while the width to the starting gates measures 1 stadion and 4 plethra, [a total of] 4800 feet. Near...

Two Mexican mummies had ulcers when they were alive. Remnants of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori were discovered in gastric tissue from the mummies, human remains believed to predate Columbus' discovery of the New World... "Our results show that H. pylori infections occurred around 1350 A.D. in the area we now know as Mexico," Lopez-Vidal said. Her research team included colleagues at the National Autonomous University of Mexico... The mummies for this research were recovered in a funeral cave of La Ventana, in the Chihuahua State desert, and in a cave in the state of Durango.

Y chromosome study sheds light on Athapaskan migration to southwest US A large-scale genetic study of native North Americans offers new insights into the migration of a small group of Athapaskan natives from their subarctic home in northwest North America to the southwestern United States. The migration, which left no known archaeological trace, is believed to have occurred about 500 years ago. The study, led by researchers at the University of Illinois, is detailed this month in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. It relied on a genetic analysis of the Y chromosome and so offers a window on the...

Cavemen and their relatives in the same village after 3,000 years Uwe Lange meets a recreation of one of his Bronze Age ancestors Roger Boyes in Berlin The good news for two villagers in the Söse valley of Germany yesterday was that they have discovered their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents — give or take a generation or two. The bad news is that their long-lost ancestors may have grilled and eaten other members of their clan. Every family has its skeletons in the cave, though, so Manfred Hucht-hausen, 58, a teacher, and 48-year-old surveyor Uwe Lange remained in celebratory mood. Thanks to...

A Cambodian official says 40 troops from Thailand entered Cambodia Tuesday in the latest flare-up of a territorial dispute over an 11th century Hindu temple. Hang Soth, the Cambodian official who manages the Preah Vihear temple, said the troops crossed the border hours after three Thai activists were arrested for illegally entering Cambodia to reach the ruins. The activists have since been released to Thai authorities. Thai military officials deny their troops crossed the border into Cambodia. They say their troops have been deployed to the nearby area.

Before heading inland, paleo-Indians probably hugged the American coastline, congregating around freshwater rivers, Adovasio said. At the time, much of the world's water was locked up in glaciers, causing ocean levels to be lower and exposing more of the continental shelf. As the earth warmed and water levels rose, evidence of such settlements fell deeper and deeper below water... Dredging and storms have turned up tantalizing clues -- spearheads, bone tools -- that such sites are just waiting to be found in the Gulf of Mexico, said C. Andrew Hemmings, a University of Texas at Austin archaeologist who is leading...

"A Defense Department DNA identification lab has helped bring to a close a near-century-old mystery, laying to rest a search for the remains of two children executed alongside the rest of the family of Russia’s last czar." "Now, the lab has again helped the Russian government by identifying the remains of those two children, found last year in a shallow grave about 70 feet from the larger gravesite."

A ghostly figure, supposedly the spirit of a dead soldier from a key battle in the English Civil War, has been captured on film by a group of paranormal enthusiasts. The spirit of a dead soldier from the Battle of Naseby has supposedly been captured on film by a group of paranormal enthusiasts The Northampton Paranormal Group caught the figure on camera during a visit to the site of the Battle of Naseby, a field between the villages of Clipston and Naseby in Northamptonshire, last month. The visit coincided with the 363rd Anniversary of the Battle of Naseby. Members said...

(IsraelNN.com) A lifeguard diving at the Yavne-Yam antiquities site next to Palmachim beach, south of Tel-Aviv, unearthed a rare marble discus that was used 2,500 years ago to protect sea-going vessels from the evil eye. To date, only four such items have been found in the world – two of them here in Israel, one recovered from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast at Carmel in addition to the one at Yavne-Yam. The ancient white marble discus, which dates back to 400-500 BCE, was discovered by David Shalom, who handed it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Dror Planer, of...

Sailors and scientists have been mapping ocean currents for centuries, but it turns out they’ve missed something big. How big? The entire ocean is striped with 100-mile-wide bands of slow-moving water that extend right down to the seafloor, according to a recent study.

For decades, the proud seal of New York City, with its depiction of a sailor and a Manhattan Indian, of beavers and flour barrels and the sails of a windmill, has celebrated 1625 as the year the city was founded. There’s just one problem: Most historians say the year has hardly any historical significance. The first settlers arrived in what would become part of New York City on a Dutch ship as early as 1623; some say 1624. The Dutch “purchased” Manhattan in 1626. The first charter was granted in 1653. And the most notable event of 1625? Dutch settlers...

The director of MRI and radiology at Kadlec Medicl Center watched a TV documentary years ago about efforts to read the ancient scrolls and the story stuck with him. This week, Iuliano is using his expertise to scan fragments of the charred scrolls in hopes of discovering what they say... The papyrus scrolls were discovered more than 200 years ago in a villa in what was the Roman town of Herculaneum. The town was buried along with the more famous city of Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted. The scrolls make up the only surviving library from antiquity, Iuliano said. Scholars have...

Archeologists claim Essenes never wrote Dead Sea Scrolls By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz CorrespondentLast Update: 30/07/2004 09:23 Located on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, Qumran is famous throughout the world as the place where the Essenes, who have been widely described in studies, conferences and exhibitions as a type of Jewish "monk," are said to have lived and written the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, based on findings soon to be published, Israeli archaeologists now argue that Qumran "lacks any uniqueness." The latest research joins a growing school of thought attempting to explode the "Qumran myth" by stating that not...

Judas 'gospel' is pure fiction Rev. Sam Luptak Jr. New Castle News, 4-12-06 Today, we remember the arrest, trial and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. While Christ went willingly to the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, his arrest came as a result of one of the greatest betrayals in history. One of Jesus' disciples, a member of his inner circle, betrayed him with a kiss. For this action, Judas Iscariot was forever condemned as a traitor. For centuries, that has been the story that we have all known and accepted — until a few...

Diamond synchatron to use x-rays to examine Dead Sea Scrolls By Nic Fleming and Roger Highfield Last Updated: 5:01pm BST 12/09/2007 Secrets contained in fragile documents such as the Dead Sea Scrolls are to be revealed using one of the most powerful light sources in the Universe. British Association Festival of Science: Full coverage British scientists are using a giant instrument - in essence an extremely powerful torch and microscope combined - to read parchments that are too brittle to unroll or unfold. Part of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their discovery enhanced knowledge of Christianity and Judaism The Diamond synchatron...

Of the 800 or so caves created here from the 5th to 14th centuries, nearly half had some form of decoration. What survives adds up to a developmental timeline of Buddhist art in China... But of course much of it has not survived. By the 11th century Dunhuang's fortunes were in decline. Sea trade had cut into Silk Road traffic. Regional wars left the town isolated. Monks, possibly panicked by rumors of an Islamic invasion, sealed up tens of thousands of manuscript scrolls in a small cave. The invasion didn't happen, but the books, many of them already ancient, stayed...

Locals stumbled upon the remains while clearing the ground to build a new market in the picturesque town of Copacabana, a tourist hotspot on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Many of the unearthed tombs, textiles, clay pots and jewelry belonged to the well-documented Tiwanaku and Inca cultures that populated the area hundreds of years ago. But some relics go back as far as 3,000 years, when a little-known religious tradition called Yayamama is thought to have flourished in the Andes... The sculptures, which also feature two-headed snakes and geometric shapes, are still revered by local indigenous groups. The Yayamama built...