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A curious-looking stone inscribed with a mysterious ancient language uncovered by a teacher near Coventry, England, has revealed a rare window to the region’s ancient history. While working in his garden, geography teacher Graham Senior discovered a peculiar rock amidst the overgrown weeds in his flowerbed. Removing it from the surrounding earth revealed a rectangular wedge of sandstone bearing a series of unusual markings along its face. Unable to decipher the strange set of inscriptions along the face of the artifact, Senior reached out to a local archaeologist for assistance with the unique find. Soon, experts were able to determine...

A New Jersey man has been indicted on felony charges following his arrest last month in connection with the 2019 vandalism at the America’s Stonehenge site in Salem. Mark L. Russo, 51, of 1108 Kings Highway in Swedesboro, N.J., faces two counts of burglary and one count of criminal mischief for his alleged role in the carving damage that led to a 15-month investigation involving social media sleuthing to find him. The indictments allege that Russo entered a secured section of the archaeological site on Sept. 28, 2019, with the intention of committing criminal mischief and criminal threatening by “carving...

"... both Irish and Welsh sources portrayed it as a tribal migration of the Irish Dessi or Deisi headed by their own king and, from the Irish viewpoint, a suitable 'expulsion' saga was adduced. The direct line of Irish rulers of Welsh Dyfed went on into the 7th and 8th centuries. An interesting mix arose; by 400 Irish and British were fully differing languages, and additionally Christians from both nations used different scripts (Latin and Ogham) for their memorials. Irish never replaced British in Wales the way it did in Scotland, but relative numerical strengths do not necessarily explain why;...

photo: Rob Knell and Rob Lee The ancestors of modern Scottish people left behind mysterious, carved stones that new research has just determined contain the written language of the Picts, an Iron Age society that existed in Scotland from 300 to 843. The highly stylized rock engravings, found on what are known as the Pictish Stones, had once been thought to be rock art or tied to heraldry. The new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A, instead concludes that the engravings represent the long lost language of the Picts, a confederation of Celtic tribes that...

The Cimbrian flood (or Cymbrian flood) was a large-scale incursion of the North Sea in the region of the Jutland peninsula (Denmark) in the period 120 to 114 BC, resulting in a permanent change of coastline with much land lost. The flood was caused by one or several very strong storm(s). A high number of people living in the affected area of Jutland drowned, and the flooding apparently set off a migration of the Cimbri tribes previously settled there (Lamb 1991)... The Cimbri were a tribe from Northern Europe, who, together with the Proto-Germanic Teutones and the Ambrones threatened the...

Medieval Irish scribes were habitually recording their emotional and physical state as they labored at the task of copying manuscripts. These scribal glosses range from pious prayers ("God bless my hands today" Laon MS 26, f18v) to curses on pens, parchment, and careless work by fellow scribes. ***** One Irish ninth century copy of a Latin grammar, the Institutiones grammaticae by Priscian (c. 500), contains alongside the usual prayers and complaints a curious marginal gloss in ogham script. Ogham script was used by the Irish possibly as early as the fourth century AD, mainly in grave monuments scattered over Ireland...

Cave skeleton is European, 1,300 years old, man says Archaeologist group wants a look at evidence Sunday September 29, 2002 By Rick Steelhammer STAFF WRITER MORGANTOWN — The man who first advanced the theory that markings carved on in a Wyoming County cave are actually characters from an ancient Irish alphabet has found human remains at the site, which tests indicate are European in origin and date back to A.D. 710, he maintains. Robert Pyle of Morgantown says that a DNA analysis of material from the skeleton’s teeth roots was conducted by Brigham Young University. That analysis, he says, shows...

Writing tablets uncovered near Hadrian's Wall detail hundreds of expenses claimed by Roman officials... Five of the translated tablets contain 111 lines detailing entertainment claims at the Roman camp of Vindolanda. The items include ears of grain, hobnails for boots, bread, cereals, hides and pigs. The wooden writing tablets - which date from the 2nd Century - were discovered at Vindolanda, the Roman encampment near Hadrian's Wall in 1973... Professor Tony Birley, who translated the tablets, said they detail hundreds of expense claims and "lavish parties" held for officers... The wooden tablets, which are held at the British Museum in...

from the January 29, 2003 edition The Pinta, Santa Maria, and a Chinese junk? A new book claims the Chinese discovered America in 1421, but historians refute thesis. By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor To the Norsemen, the Japanese, and the Carthaginians; to the Irish, the Africans, and a long list of others who, it is claimed, crossed the oceans to America long before 1492, add one more: the Chinese. They toured up and down both coasts of the Americas, established colonies, made maps, and left behind chickens. That, at least, is the theory posed...

Ogham inscriptions : [600 bc] primitive inscriptions of the old Q-Celt (600 bc) or the newer P-Celt (400 bc) that survive in the British Isles. We have a total of approximately 375 Ogham inscriptions. Ireland has some 316 Ogham inscriptions, Wales has 40 inscriptions, and the Isle of Man has 10 inscriptions. One inscription survived at Silchester in southern England, and a few Pictish Ogham inscriptions have been found in Scotland, as far north as the Shetland Islands. Ogham script often runs upward, in a vertical manner, for it was originally written as notches on wooden staves. Oghams :...