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Ancient skeleton was 'even older' The burial site was in Goat's Hole Cave at Paviland on Gower The Red Lady of Paviland has always been a little coy about her age - but it appears she may be 4,000 years older than previously thought. Scientists say more accurate tests date the earliest human burial found in the UK to just over 29,000 years ago. When discovered in a cave on Gower in the 1820s the bones were thought to be around 18,000 years old, but were later redated to between 25,000 and 26,000. Researchers said it casts a new light...

Marine scientists in Canada and abroad are puzzled by bizarre photographs that appear to show the skeleton of a large mammal jutting out of an iceberg that recently drifted past Newfoundland's east coast. The six pictures show what looks like a brown rib cage and spinal column, slightly bent, sticking out of a crust of ice. But researchers throughout Canada, Greenland and Norway are unable to determine the origin of the skeleton, said Garry Stenson, a marine mammal scientist with the federal Fisheries Department. "It's definitely unusual," Stenson said Monday. "It's not something that I've encountered before." His colleagues have...

Rare skeleton, jewels found in Bolivia pyramid Wed May 2, 2007 9:46PM BST TIWANAKU, Bolivia (Reuters) - Archeologists have uncovered the 1,300-year-old skeleton of a ruler or priest of the ancient Tiwanaku civilization together with precious jewels inside a much-looted pyramid in western Bolivia. The bones are "in very good condition" and belong to either "a ruler or a priest," Roger Angel Cossio, the Bolivian archeologist who made the discovery, told Reuters on Wednesday. He said the tomb -- containing a diadem and fist-sized carved pendant of solid gold -- survived centuries of looting by Spanish invaders and unscrupulous raiders...

Skeleton holds key to origin of man By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 2:24am BST 03/04/2007 A skeleton of a possible hybrid between modern and more ancient humans has been found in China, which challenges the theory that modern man originated in Africa. Most experts believe that our ancestors emerged in Africa more than 150,000 years ago and then migrated around the world. However, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Prof Erik Trinkaus and colleagues provide details of a skeleton found in 2003 from Tianyuan Cave near Beijing. The skeleton is 42,000 to 38,500 years old,...

Researchers Find Ancient Couple in Single Grave The remains of two people were discovered in a grave from the Neolithic age in the Yeosoo area of South Cheolla Province. It is the first time that bones from two people have been unearthed from the same Neolithic grave. Gwangju National Museum chief Cho Hyun-jong who led the excavation of the shell mound grave said that the taller of the two skeletons, at 158 cm, had a shell bracelet on the right arm and belonged to a woman. The gender of the other person who was 165 cm has not yet been...

Skeleton crew digs up the past The skeleton of an Anglo-Saxon lord has been recovered as the hunt for buried treasure continues at a city allotment site. The removal of the seventh Century body follows the discovery of a rare ceremonial brass bowl on the site at Palmerston Road, Woodston, Peterborough. The priceless Coptic bowl, which was made more than 1,300 years ago in the Mediterranean, has led historical experts to conclude they had discovered the grave of an extremely wealthy Anglo-Saxon – probably a prince or a powerful warlord from the ancient kingdom of Mercia. Excavation by archaeologists from...

Shackled skeleton found in Ávila By h.b. Wed, 31 Jan 2007, 14:05 The famous Ávila city walls in recent snow - Photo EFE A skeleton tied up with shackles and chains and thought to date from the Middle Ages has been found in an archaeological dig in Ávila, behind the city’s Church of San Pedro. It’s the second such find in the city, although coming in a different place, and it has led experts to think that death occurred during some form of punishment. Tomorrow, Thursday the latest find will be taken to the Provincial Museum where the skeleton will...

Penon WomanPenon WomanScientists in Britain have identified the oldest skeleton ever found on the American continent in a discovery that raises fresh questions about the accepted theory of how the first people arrived in the New World. The skeleton's perfectly preserved skull belonged to a 26-year-old woman who died during the last ice age on the edge of a giant prehistoric lake which once formed around an area now occupied by the sprawling suburbs of Mexico City. Scientists from Liverpool's John Moores University and Oxford's Research Laboratory of Archaeology have dated the skull to about 13,000 years old, making it...

The skeleton of the fossilised, 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy, will go on display in the US, Ethiopian officials say. After four years of negotiations with the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas, Ethiopia agreed to lend the bones for scientific study until 2013. It is hoped Lucy's 11-leg tour will boost tourism and increase Ethiopia's profile as the "home of all humanity". She will leave her country of origin - and the origin of mankind - in June. As well as Lucy, the travelling exhibition will also include about 190 other Ethiopian artefacts including humankind's earliest...

Although the Republican National Committee chairman this week called her “a prehistoric Democrat,” and Rep. Nancy Pelosi referred to herself as “an Italian-American Catholic grandmother,” archaeologists in Rome today said there is no conclusive connection between Rep. Pelosi and a recently unearthed 3,000-year-old female skeleton. While some Congressional Republicans point out that the House Minority Leader and the 10th century B.C. skeleton have never been seen in public together, archaeologists call that evidence “circumstantial and speculative.” “We would have to take DNA samples to be sure,” said the unnamed researcher, who noted that “just in case, the dig team has...

ROME - Archaeologists said Tuesday they have dug up a woman skeleton dating to the 10th century B.C. in an ancient necropolis in the heart of Rome. The well-preserved skeleton appears to be that of a woman aged about 30, said Anna De Santis, one of the archaeologists who took part in the excavations under the Caesar's Forum, part of the sprawling complex of the Imperial Forums in central Rome. An amber necklace and four pins were also found near the 5.25 foot-long skeleton, she said. The bones, dug up Monday, would likely be put on display in a museum...

Mammoth skeleton found in Siberia By James Rodgers BBC News, Moscow It is rare to find mammoth remains in such good condition Fishermen in Siberia have discovered the complete skeleton of a mammoth - a find which Russian experts have described as very rare. The remains appeared when flood waters receded in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region. The mammoth's backbone, skull, teeth and tusks all survived intact. It appears to have died aged about 50. Mammoths lived in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America between about 1.6 million years ago and 10,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene epoch. Alexander Kerzhayev, deputy director...

EXPERTS FIND RARE ROMANI DNA IN NORWICH ANGLO SAXON SKELETON By Sarah Morley 12/05/2006 The recent discovery of Romani DNA in an Anglo Saxon skeleton has made experts re-think the nature of the city's early population. Picture courtesy Sophie Cabot. © HEART Experts from Norfolk Archaeology Unit based at Norwich Castle have discovered a rare form of mitochondrial DNA identified as Romani in a skeleton discovered during excavations in a large area of Norwich for the expansion of the castle mall. The DNA was found in an 11th century young adult male skeleton, and with the first recorded arrival of...

Ancient American Skeleton Has European DNA Link[Original headline: Sinkhole Skeleton Skeleton’s DNA Could Shed Light on American Migrations] Vanlue, Ohio [AP] — The discovery of prehistoric tools from an Ohio cave is one of several finds that has scientists questioning the identity of settlers thought to have moved in 11,000 years ago. A just completed excavation of Sheriden Cave in Wyandot County, 100 miles southwest of Cleveland, revealed tools made from flaked stone and bone. The items are scheduled to go on display next year at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Kent State University archaeologist Kenneth Tankersley, who led...

UD anthropologist finds signs of evolution in ancient skeleton Karen Rosenberg, chairperson and associate professor of anthropology at UD 10:03 a.m., March 2, 2006--Recent analysis of a Stone Age skeleton shows that human brain size relative to body size had increased dramatically from ancestors by the Middle Pleistocene, about 260,000 years ago, Karen Rosenberg, chairperson and associate professor of anthropology at the University of Delaware, said. Rosenberg, who analyzed the fossil with Lü Zuné of Peking University in Beijing and Chris B. Ruff, director of the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine...

CESANA, Italy - Zach Lund, the top slider on the U.S. skeleton team, was banned from the Turin Olympics on Friday for taking a common hair-restoration pill that can be used to mask steroids. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Lund should serve a one-year suspension, retroactive to Nov. 10 and enforced immediately. Lund told CAS that he was misled by the Web site for the governing body of his sport, which listed finasteride both as a "prohibited substance" and a "specified substance." Lund told CAS he failed to check the prohibited list in 2005. The CAS panel...

Archeologists Unearth 1,300 Skeletons Jan 24, 2006 A large medieval cemetery containing around 1,300 skeletons has been discovered in the central English city of Leicester, archaeologists said Tuesday. The bones were found during a dig before the site is developed as part of a 350 million-pound ($630 million) shopping mall. University of Leicester archaeologists say the find promises to shed new light on the way people lived and died in the Middle Ages. "We think, probably outside London, this must be one of the largest parish graveyards ever excavated," said Richard Buckley, director of University of Leicester Archaeology Services. "Archaeology...

The Japan Times, March 9, 1997Descendant of Stone Age skeleton found LONDON (Reuter) British scientists Saturday celebrated their feat of tracing a living descendant of a 9,000-year-old skeleton and establishing the world's oldest known family tree. In an astonishing piece of detective work, they matched mitochondrial DNA material extracted from the tooth cavity of Britain's oldest complete skeleton with that of a 42-year-old history teacher, Adrian Targett. The genetic material showed without doubt that Targett is a direct descendant through his mother's line of the skeleton known as Cheddar Man, which was found in 1903 in caves in Cheddar Gorge...

BreakPoint with Charles Colson January 4, 2005 Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. On Election Day, initiatives defining marriage as one man and one woman passed overwhelmingly in all eleven states that had them on the ballot. But this victory isn’t necessarily permanent. Unless we continue to make a compelling case for the sanctity of marriage, public opinion is quite likely to drift in the other direction. And it’s going to be increasingly difficult to make that case unless we deal with some of the skeletons in our own closet. Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, a...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez urged Venezuelan parents not to dress their children in costumes for Halloween, calling it a U.S. custom that has no place in the South American country's cultural traditions. Speaking during his weekly radio and television show Sunday, Chavez called Halloween a "gringa," or North American, custom. "Families go and begin to disguise their children as witches," Chavez said. "That is contrary to our ways." Chavez said he was urging Venezuelans to reflect on the subject. In recent years it has become common to see Venezuelan parents holding parties for children dressed as ghouls,...