In a quiet patch of forest about a mile east of Monticello, 13 Washington & Lee University students are uncovering the story of a figure largely forgotten since the days of Thomas Jefferson. As part of a six-week course, the students are excavating thousands of tiny artifacts that illustrate the life of Edmund Bacon, who [...]
Until recently, evidence for dinosaurs in the northeastern United States was sparse, but over 900 theropod, sauropod, ankylosaur and ornithopod fossilized footprints have now been found just a short drive from the nation’s capital, according to new studies. The finds, which also include tracks for pterosaurs, a dino-era mammal and other vertebrates, suggest that Maryland [...]
A Neanderthal-eat-Neanderthal world may have spread a mad cow-like disease that weakened and reduced populations of the large Eurasian human, thereby contributing to its extinction, according to a new theory based on cannibalism that took place in more recent history. Aside from illustrating that consumption of one’s own species isn’t exactly a healthy way to [...]
Stone Age paddy fields tended by the world’s earliest known rice farmers have been uncovered in a swamp in China, scientists say. The researchers found the land was deliberately managed for rice growing. Fire was used to clear scrub, while flood-prevention measures helped keep brackish water from getting into the fields. The discovery shows rice [...]
Agriculture was taking root in South America almost as early as the first farmers were breaking ground in the Middle East, new research indicates. New evidence indicates that squash was being grown nearly 10,000 years ago in what is now Peru. Read (AP via MSNBC)
Paleontologists have discovered a new small gliding reptile in 220 million-year-old sediments of a quarry on the Virginia-North Carolina border. The new creature is named Mecistotrachelos apeoros, meaning “soaring, long-necked” and is about the size of a blue jay from head to tail. The Triassic Period reptile probably fed on insects, scuttling up tree trunks [...]
A drought that has bared parts of the bed of Florida’s largest lake has exposed human bone fragments, pottery and even boats — and archaeologists are trying to evaluate the artifacts before water levels rise again. Archaeologists said there have been no large-scale digs in Lake Okeechobee; most of the finds have been easily spotted [...]
Researchers have found chicken bones of Polynesian origin at a site in what is now Chile. Radiocarbon dating of chicken bones at the site on the Arauco Peninsula in south central Chile indicated a range of A.D. 1321 to 1407, well before the Spanish arrival in the Americas. The researchers were able to obtain DNA [...]
The Old West is said to be dotted with ghost towns, shells of once-thriving communities abandoned because of blight, economic necessity or just changing times. In rural Maryland, towns have vanished so completely that not even the husks remain. There are dozens of lost villages in Carroll County alone – communities that exist only in [...]
House buyers today usually peruse properties with a checklist of desired features in mind. This aspect of human behavior has apparently not changed much over the millennia, according to a new study that found prehistoric cave dwellers in Britain did exactly the same thing when choosing their homes. The recently released three-year-long survey of approximately [...]
Slowly, but surely, Chesapeake Bay water levels are rising, apparently accelerated by climate change. As the bay eats away at tracts of land on Hooper’s Island and other low-lying areas, it is engulfing a number of old gravesites. To the outrage and sorrow of historians and surviving relatives, the rising water is evicting the dead, [...]
New fossil evidence shows prehistoric people from southern Peru up to the Bahamas were cultivating varieties of chilies millennia before Columbus’ arrival brought the spice to world cuisine. The earliest traces so far are from southwestern Ecuador, where families fired up meals with homegrown peppers about 6,100 years ago. Read(AP via the Discovery Channel)
U.S. army archaeologists believe they have located a very early English settlement known as “Henrytowne,” which they say historical accounts and artifacts suggest was contemporaneous with Jamestown — America’s first permanent English colony. While Jamestown, founded in 1607, probably predates Henrytowne by at least a few years, the newly identified Virginia Beach Cape Henry site [...]
Seeds and plant remains preserved in a well at America’s first permanent English settlement suggest the Jamestown colonists were not just gentlemen with few wilderness survival skills, as they are often portrayed, but tried to live off the land by gathering berries and nuts. At least one tobacco seed, possibly representing the earliest known evidence [...]
The brazen looting of ancient native-American artifacts, Civil War mementos, and other valuable relics is reaching epidemic proportions. Looters are taking mementos and other valuable relics at the rate of $500 million a year. Read (Christian Science Monitor)
A T. rex-sized, meat-eating dinosaur found in Argentina may have hunted in packs, according to palaeontologists. Read (BBC)
A Smithsonian official said the complex is crumbling, and the museums and National Zoo need major repairs. The museum and zoo have been free for 160 years, but Congressman Jim Moran has proposed charging a $1 admission fee to raise money to make some of the repairs. Read (Washington Post)
Trying categories in OPML Editor after updating wordpress to ver 2 Categories worked now!! Now, can I successfully edit a post? Editing worked. Now, can I change the post category?? I can add a category, but it doesn’t appear that I can remove a category.
Simulations provide more evidence that hominids may have adapted cooperative behaviours to avoid being eaten by animals. Read (New Scientist)
A French caver discovered prehistoric cave art believed to date back 27,000 years. Read (BBC)