Archaeology

Lord Of The Rings Fans Get Confirmation Of What They Always Hoped: Hobbits Were Real

After the skeletal remains of an 18,000-year-old, Hobbit-sized human were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, some scientists thought that the specimen must have been a pygmy or a microcephalic-- a human with an abnormally small skull. ...

Article - Administrator - Jan 30 2007 - 7:31pm

Huge Settlement Unearthed At Stonehenge Complex

Excavations supported by National Geographic at Durrington Walls in the Stonehenge World Heritage site have revealed an enormous ancient settlement that once housed hundreds of people. Archaeologists believe the houses were constructed and occupied by the ...

Article - Administrator - Jan 30 2007 - 11:36pm

'Terror Bird' Arrived In North America Before Land Bridge, Study Finds

A University of Florida-led study has determined that Titanis walleri, a prehistoric 7-foot-tall flightless “terror bird,” arrived in North America from South America long before a land bridge connected the two continents. UF paleontologist Bruce MacFadde ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 12 2007 - 12:04am

Mummy's Amazing American Maize

The far-reaching influence of Spanish and Portuguese colonisers appears not to have extended to South American agriculture, scientists studying a 1,400-year-old Andean mummy have found. The University of Manchester researchers compared the DNA of ancient ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 13 2007 - 1:47am

Hammer Using Chimps Make Us Wonder Where They Learned It

A University of Calgary archaeologist has found the first prehistoric evidence of chimpanzee technology, adding credence to the theory that some of humanity's behavioral hallmarks were actually inherited by both humans and great apes from a common an ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 13 2007 - 10:39am

Archaeological Remains Point To Location Of Second Temple Of Jerusalem, Says Scholar

While scholars have put forth various assessments for the location of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor says that archaeological remains that have so far been ignored by scholars point to the exact location, which ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 14 2007 - 7:28pm

New DNA Method Helps Explain Extinction Of Woolly Mammoth, Other Ice Age Mammals

What caused the extinction of the woolly rhinoceros ten thousand years ago from an area in Europe covering the coasts of the Arctic Ocean in the north to the coasts of the Mediterranean in the south? What caused the extinction of the mammoth while other i ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 15 2007 - 2:43pm

Birth Rate, Competition Are Major Players In Hominid Extinctions

Modern human mothers are probably happy that they typically have one, maybe two babies at a time, but for early hominids, low birth numbers combined with competition often spelled extinction. "The lineages of primates have some traits that make it ha ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 17 2007 - 12:54am

Hunting Martian Fossils Best Bet For Locating Mars Life

Hunting for traces of life on Mars calls for two radically different strategies, says Arizona State University professor Jack Farmer. Of the two, he says, with today’s exploration technology we can most easily look for evidence for past life, preserved as ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 19 2007 - 1:49am

The Mysterious Case Of Columbus's Silver Ore

Silver-bearing ore found at the settlement founded by Christopher Columbus's second expedition was not mined in the Americas, new research reveals. Aerial view of La Isabela, the settlement established by Christopher Columbus's second expedition ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 21 2007 - 12:17am