Newsdesk Archive

US scientists have managed to measure the mass of a cluster of xenon atoms at just a few billionths of a trillionth of a gram - or a few zeptograms. The record measurement is in the mass range of individual protein molecules, and the detection was made using sensitive scales developed at Caltech. Similar techniques could pave the way for sensitive devices for use in medical and environmental testing.

A Russian scientist claims a beating on the naked buttocks with a cane is the perfect way to cure everything from depression to alcoholism. Dr Sergei Speransky says caning releases endorphins, the body's natural 'happy chemicals', Izvestia reports. He has written a report entitled 'Pain affliction as a method of treatment for addictive behaviour and other manifestations of non-vitalistic activity'. Dr Speransky, a biologist of the Novosibirsk Institute of Medicine, claims corporal punishment helps people overcome addiction and depression.

CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill., March 29, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- In the cold murky depths of a Wisconsin lake lay mysterious rock structures wrapped in Native American folklore and local legend. These ancient underwater manmade structures may be the most significant and controversial North American archeological discovery of the twentieth century. In Archie Eschborn's fascinating new book The Dragon in the Lake, you will follow a small band of amateur archeologists led by Eschborn himself as they reveal new research opening up a new chapter in prehistoric North American history and ending decades of controversy on North America's most sacred and secret native American site. In the book, the author provides compelling new evidence, along with countless professionals, scientists, geologists, researchers, archeologists, anthropologists and divers, who have challenged the status quo of the Wisconsin Historical Society who have clung to their erroneous pronouncements about the fabled "Rock Lake Pyramids" in the first half of the twentieth century.

The Voynich manuscript has flummoxed cryptographers since its discovery in an Italian villa in 1912. Is it an elaborate cipher, an alchemical sourcebook, a treatise on extinct civilizations or a document in ancient Ukrainian with the vowels omitted? The 234-page tract is laced with watercolors of plants, astronomical drawings and naked sylphs, but it is the language that truly confounds scholars. Voynichese symbols resemble no known alphabet, but the word and sentence structure is highly regular: Certain syllables and words occur together frequently.

Many professionals in history-related fields say they're still unhappy with the latest proposal to rewrite laws about who can legally remove historical artifacts from beneath state waters. Identical bills were introduced in the House and Senate, and a House committee adopted a heavily revised substitute version. Both bills are in position for floor votes when the Legislature returns from spring break Tuesday. Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, said he worked in suggestions from the Alabama Historical Commission and noted that divers made several concessions. Ward, the House sponsor, said he will be willing to consider further changes and hopes the proposal will get a floor vote in the House within the next two weeks.

Irish travellers, long derided as anti-social itinerants rather than "true" Gypsies, are an ancient people in their own right, researchers say. Academics preparing for the world's first symposium on the travellers' mysterious past, claim they could even be the last surviving remnants of a pre-Celtic Ireland, with their own distinctive language called "Cant" or "Gammon".

During construction of the new Aliaða customs building, two sarcophagi containing gold necklaces from the Hellenistic period, dating back to 500-400 B.C., were found. Local Aliaða administrator Emir Osman Bulgurlu stated that archeologists were drafting a report on the find and depending on the outcome they would know whether the area would be considered a third degree historic and natural protection site. He added that the findings would be delivered to the Ýzmir Archaeology Museum Directorate.

The man accused of standing at the centre of the greatest forgery ring of our time, perhaps all time, doesn't appear to be holding up so well. In books and movies, criminal masterminds -- the label Israeli police are freely applying to Oded Golan -- are effortlessly suave, or carelessly brutal, confident in the extreme. In real life, this 54-year-old antiquities collector seems as brittle as the Bible-era vases and figurines that fill the display cases in his otherwise modest Tel Aviv apartment.

A plan has been initiated for new excavations in the ancient city of Pedasa, located eight kilometers from Bodrum in the small town of Konacýk, reported the Doðan News Agency. Pedasa was an important Leleg city located near Mt. Gökçeler that enjoyed its heyday between the 11th and sixth centuries B.C. and where a copper needle and various artifacts and jewelry dating back 3,000 years were found last year in a royal tomb.

Don Smith, College of Eastern Utah, San Juan branch: "I think we're becoming more aware that those people were far more familiar with astronomy, science and possibly math than we give them credit for." In a secluded ravine near Blanding, scientists and researchers gather to watch mysterious images forming right before their eyes. Although the rite of Spring, at least on our calendar, slipped in here yesterday almost unnoticed, it's literally in your face in this strange little canyon. We arrived weeks before spring equinox because people studying this place can come here eight different times during the year to watch a series of events. It's a little hike to get down to this site, but once here, you can almost feel what it was like a thousand years ago."

In Libya, again open to U.S. travelers after more than two decades, archaeologists have uncovered spectacular mosaics of the glories of Rome. Helmut Siegert returned to the coast of Libya last year to follow up on a tantalizing discovery. In September 2000, his colleague Marliese Wendowski was excavating what she thought was a large farmhouse when, 12 feet deep in the sandy soil, she came across a floor covered with a stunning glass-and-stone mosaic of an exhausted gladiator staring at a slain opponent. The discovery had come too late in that year's expedition to pursue further, so the University of Hamburg archaeologists reburied the mosaic. "It was well preserved," Ziegert says. "I knew there had to be a lot more."

Today at sunset Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Secretary-General Zahi Hawass, French Cultural Attaché Denis Louche and senior French and Egyptian officials and archaeologists are schudled to attend the opening of the special exhibition "Champollion, Legrain... Treading the Land of Egypt" at the centennial hall of the Egyptian Museum. The exhibition has come to Cairo after six months in the capital of the French Alps, Grenoble, where it marked the centenary of Egyptologist George Legrain's famous discovery of the Karnak Cachet. It also coincides with the ninth International Congress of Egyptologists. Through the achievements of the eminent French Egyptologists Legrain and Jean François Champollion Cairenes will experience a fresh glimpse of the magic and mystery of ancient Egypt. The exhibition will stay at the Egyptian Museum for two months.

A plan has been initiated for new excavations in the ancient city of Pedasa, located eight kilometers from Bodrum in the small town of Konacýk, reported the Doðan News Agency. Pedasa was an important Leleg city located near Mt. Gökçeler that enjoyed its heyday between the 11th and sixth centuries B.C. and where a copper needle and various artifacts and jewelry dating back 3,000 years were found last year in a royal tomb.

Inside Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, the bones of the hobbit rested undisturbed for 18,000 years. But no longer. In what is being called a true case of scientific skullduggery, the remains of the newly discovered human species have suffered irreparable damage since entering the care of paleontologists. The damage to the bones of this diminutive being -- named Homo floresiensis and nicknamed hobbit by scientists -- is so extensive that it will limit scholarly research on the species, say members of the Indonesian Center for Archaeology-based discovery team.

The first remains of ancient Egyptian seagoing ships ever to be recovered have been found in two caves on Egypt's Red Sea coast, according to a team at Boston University in the US. The team also found fragments of pottery at the site, which could help resolve controversies about the extent of ancient Egyptian trade voyages. But details of the newly disclosed finds remain sketchy. Kathryn Bard, who co-led the dig with Italian archaeologists in December 2004, has revealed to the Boston University weekly community newsletter that the team found a range of items - including timbers and riggings - inside the man-made caves, located at the coastal Pharaonic site of Wadi Gawasis.

Washington - Scientists who had to break a dinosaur bone to remove it from its sandstone location say they have recovered 70-million-year-old soft tissue from inside the bone. The find included what appear to be blood vessels, and possibly even cells, from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The material is currently being studied, and if scientists can isolate proteins from the material they may be able to learn new details of how dinosaurs lived, lead researcher Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina State University said.

SIEM REAP, Cambodia Hidden among stands of bamboo far from the throngs of tourists who clamber over the grand temples of Angkor, bas-reliefs in rose and gray sandstone stand in solitary splendor. The gods and demons and half-human, half-animal figures revered by the Angkor civilization were carved at Mount Kulen by anonymous artists, and like countless other artworks disappeared into nature when the empire collapsed 500 years ago. Now, like much else at Angkor, the carvings are symbols, not only of the mystique of the past, but also of the greed

Abu Dhabi,Excavations of a human settlement in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) dating back to around 7,000 years ago reveal that the area - now a desert - was once lush green with vegetation and plentiful supply of water, reports Xinhua. The flint tools and remains of small buildings in Al Ain in Abu Dhabi dating back to the Neolithic period will help in understanding the early history of the emirates, Peter Hellyer, executive director of Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey (ADIAS), was quoted as saying by the Gulf News daily. According to the ADIAS, during the Neolithic period, the climate in the UAE was much wetter than today, and the plains may have been lakes.

An Egyptian-Canadian mission unearthed a Fort from the Old Kingdom in Fairuz area in South Sinai. The mission, which is represented by experts from Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities and Toronto University, was conducting digging operations in Sahl El Markha site, 160 kilometers south of Suez, on the Western Coast of Sinai. Dr. Mohamad Abdel Maqsoud, director-general of the Lower Egypt and Sinai monuments, said the unearthed stone fort rose three to Four metres high. "The Fort was discovered inside turquoise and copper mines in the area.

A coin which rewrote the history of the Roman Empire is going on public display today, just 10 miles from the muddy field where it was dug up. The 1,700-year-old find, part of a hoard discovered by a metal detecting enthusiast near Oxford in April, 2003, proved the existence of Domitianus, dubbed the forgotten emperor. The discovery, which stunned archaeologists when it was made public last year, is returning to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford where it will eventually form a centrepiece to a new gallery to be devoted to money.

Donatella Lippi calls it a "terrible problem". She and other researchers who have spent the past 10 months prising open the tombs of one of Europe's most illustrious families, the Medicis of Florence, have got more than they bargained for. They have found the remains of eight children they cannot place on the family tree. Worse still, some of the bodies appear to have been switched around or muddled up over the centuries. The resulting confusion is making yet more difficult an already immense and challenging undertaking that is shining light into the recesses of the Renaissance.

Archaeologists working in the extreme desert terrain of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have moved a step closer to unraveling the mystery of a 40-century-old civilization. They unearthed 163 tombs containing mummies during their ongoing and long excavation at the mysterious Xiaohe tomb complex.

ATHENS (AFP) - The mysterious Margianan civilisation which flowered in the desert of what is now Turkmenistan some 4,000 years ago was the cradle of the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, Greco-Russian archeologist Victor Sarigiannidis claimed here. He said the theory would provoke controversy amongst his fellow archeologists, but said his excavations around the site of Gonur Tepe have uncovered temples and evidence of sacrifices that would consistent with a Zoroastrian cult.

PHNOM PENH, March 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Cambodia's soldiers uncovered 154 miniature Buddhas coated with gold, silver and brass last weekin a plot in Stung Treng province, local media reported on Tuesday. The artifacts were buried in a plot owned by a relative of one of the soldiers in Stung Treng district, which had been overgrown with forest, The Cambodia Daily reported. Ten of them are plated with gold, 51 with silver and 93 with brass and vary in height from about 10 cm to the size of a human thumbprint.

What is thought to be the UK's only space impact crater has been mapped in detail in 3D for the first time. The so-called Silverpit structure lies several hundred metres under the floor of the North Sea, about 130km (80 miles) east of the Yorkshire coast. The new pictures show a spectacular set of rings sweeping out around a 3km-wide (1.8 miles) central hole. Researchers report their description and interpretation of the images in the Geological Society of America Bulletin.

team coordinated by Tura Beach archaeologist Dr Judith Cameron has discovered and preserved the oldest complete shroud found in Southeast Asia, dating back some 2,300 years to the Bronze Age Dongson culture. The cloth was found in a wooden boat-shaped coffin covered by thick black mud in a canal in the Red River plains area of Vietnam in December last year. In what has been hailed as a major find, team leader Professor Peter Bellwood of the Australian National University said that the boat coffin - unearthed at Dong Xa, 50km southeast of Hanoi - was possibly also the oldest in Southeast Asia.

XI'AN, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese archaeologists found ruins of a 2,700-year-old village in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The ruins date from the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th Century B.C to 771 B.C.) Sections of a row of houses in the ruins are well preserved, said Yang Yachang, a researcher with the provincial archaeology research institute. A lot of stone knives and pottery utensils were found in the houses, which were built on a base of pounded earth. Archaeologists also found millet and bean seeds in the houses.

A rare coin with the words "The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost" in ancient Arabic has been uncovered in an archaeological excavation in a Jaffa market, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Thursday. The Crusader-era half-drachma coin, which was found in 12th century building, includes other classic Christian motifs such as the cross, and an Egyptian blessing.

A protest organized to demand the National Taiwan University (NTU) return cultural artifacts and human remains that had been excavated from the Peinan archeological site in Taitung ended peacefully yesterday when the school agreed to speed up the return process. About 400 residents from eastern Taitung County staged a demonstration outside the Legislative Yuan to protest against what they called the Ministry of Education's "conniving" with NTU to "commandeer" the historic artifacts. Displeased with the agreement reached between the ministry, the NTU and the National Museum of Prehistory yesterday morning, protesters then proceeded to the university to vent their anger by throwing betel nuts at its front gate, which was being blocked by security guards.

A grubby green cousin of the world's most famous chessmen is puzzling archaeologists. The little knight on horseback, recently found by an amateur using a metal detector on farmland in north Nottinghamshire, is startlingly similar to chesspieces found hundreds of miles away in 1831, on a beach on the isle of Lewis. The find is being announced today at a British Museum conference to mark the government's agreement to keep funding a scheme to encourage the reporting of all finds. Not being of great commercial value, but of immense historic importance, the knight is the sort of find that might not previously have been reported.

Customs die hard, nowhere more than in Egypt. Archaeological documents show that from as early as the Old Kingdom up to modern times, an endemic and persistent distrust in medicine and justice, as practiced in the land, often led the Egyptians to address their requests for health and legal redress directly to their dead relatives and the gods. Later, when monotheistic religions prevailed, they were addressed to saints whose extraordinary powers had become firmly rooted in popular belief.

On a coastal flood plain etched by rivers flowing through swamps and alongside fields of maize and beans, the people archaeologists call the Olmecs lived in a society of emergent complexity. It was more than 3,000 years ago, along the Gulf of Mexico around Veracruz. The Olmecs moved a veritable mountain of earth to create a plateau above the plain, and there planted a city, the ruins of which are known today as San Lorenzo.

Neanderthals had strong, yet high-pitched, voices that the stocky hominins used for both singing and speaking, says a UK researcher. The theory suggests that Neanderthals, who once lived in Europe from around 200,000 to 35,000 BC, were intelligent and socially complex. It also indicates that although Neanderthals were likely to have represented a unique species, they had more in common with modern humans than previously thought.

For centuries, the magnificent rock temple at Mahabalipuram near Chennai has stood as an eternal reminder of the architectural skill of its builders. It now emerges that there could be more than one temple - offshore and onshore. It's still early days before passing a judgment but excavations around the temple conducted jointly by the Indian Navy and the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) reveal that there could be some truth to the area being referred to as the "Land of the Seven Pagodas". The findings of the exploration "have been promising and are being minutely analysed by ASI professionals" and will be presented at the second International Seminar on Marine Archeology to be held in Delhi on March 18-19, the Indian Navy Deputy Chief, Vice Admiral Sureesh Mehta, told reporters.

The secret behind Italian Renaissance painters' brilliant palettes

Ancient Icelandic sagas may be full of treachery, death and destruction, but the real villain behind all the foment could well have been climate change. According to a Canadian scientist, there's a direct link between changes in regional temperatures and the thematic content of the sagas. The research is based on newly reconstructed temperature records gained from ocean sediment cores collected off the coast of Vestfirdir, the northwest peninsula of Iceland by scientists from the University of Colorado. Analysis of mollusc shells within these cores has provided an astounding, almost weekly, record of temperature changes in the region. "The difficult social periods in the sagas and other histories correspond to periods when cooler winters were coupled with what were some of the coldest summers of the last 2,000 years," says Dr. William Patterson, an associate professor of geology at the University of Saskatchewan who is leading the research linking seasonal climate change and Norse sagas.

Archaeologists in northwest China's Qinghai province claimed that a 5,000-year-old stone knife with designs of constellations will extend China's history of astronomical observation by 1,000 years. The finely-polished stone knife, six centimeters long and threecentimeters wide, was unearthed at the Laomao Ruins, a New Stone Age site nine kilometers west of Lamao Village in Qinghai.

AN Australian archaeologist has drafted a damning letter describing extensive damage to the bones of the "Hobbit", the 18,000-year-old hominid remains found on an Indonesian island. But his Indonesian counterpart has refused to send it, fearing a scientific backlash. The letter, written by Mike Morwood of the University of New England in Armidale, NSW, accuses a prominent Indonesian paleoanthropologist of causing the damage.

The Delhi Iron Pillar, which has withstood corrosion for over 1,600 years, continues to attract the attention of archaeologists and scientists who want to undertake a systematic study to unfold the secret behind its strength. A panel of scientists from across the country has recommended that the Government allow research on the pillar, a symbol of Indian metallurgical excellence, to ascertain its age, as well as for conservation of its underground part and the passive film that has preserved it through the ages.

Two brothers in the Medici dynasty of Renaissance Italy likely were not the long-rumored victims of murder, a new analysis of their centuries-old bones has concluded. Despite the tremendous wealth and power of the Florence-based family, one that produced popes and intellectuals, commissioned art by Michelangelo and protected Galileo from persecution, the two teenagers and their mother instead may have succumbed to a disease that killed without regard to fame or fortune: malaria.

Scientists on Kenya's first scientific dinosaur expedition have unearthed hundreds of bones in an area previously known for the discovery of ancient human remains. Kenyan and US palaeontologists conducting the dig said they found more than 200 dinosaur specimens, including three from large carnivorous theropods thought to be related to the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex, in north-western Kenya. The bones date to the Mesozoic era more than 200-million-years ago and are the first concrete evidence that dinosaurs inhabited what is now Kenya before early humans who lived there tens of millions of years later, they said.

The centuries-long tussle for prestige between England and Scotland may be about to end in victory for the clans, with new archaeological evidence suggesting that the first national leader of the British Isles was a Scot. The remains of a mysterious figure found in an Iron Age chariot burial under the A1M motorway was of "exceptional significance" according to academics, who have also unearthed the leftovers of one of Britain's biggest feasts at his funeral site in Yorkshire.

Lord Winston says science risks being tainted by commercial interests, in the same week the government claimed it was essential to the UK's economic success. Launching National Science Week at London's Dana Centre, the fertility expert said these concerns were not being addressed properly by ministers. The government has pledged £10bn to science over the next three years. But critics have complained that most of the money will go to research in money-spinning areas like biotech.

VANCOUVER, Washington (CNN) -- Scientists were flying over the crater of Mount St. Helens on Wednesday to locate the origins of a plume of ash and steam that spewed nearly seven miles high into the air Tuesday night. They said the "small" explosion is not necessarily a harbinger of a larger or more destructive eruption.

Divers have discovered a submerged hoard of Bronze Age artefacts off the Devon coast, it emerged today. The haul, found off Salcombe and believed to have come from an ancient shipwreck, is being studied at the British Museum. Some of the artefacts discovered off the Devon coast It includes swords and rapiers, an axe head, an adze, a cauldron handle and a gold bracelet, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said. The swords are among the earliest found in north-west Europe.

A main building of the Asuka Kiyomiharanomiya Palace in Asukamura, Nara Prefecture, believed to have been used by Emperor Tenmu and his successor Empress Jito in the late seventh century, has been found to be asymmetrical in structure, the Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archeological Institute announced Tuesday. The remains, believed to be those of the palace's main building, were discovered in March last year. The palace dates to 672-694. The remains of the palace showed that the main building was connected to a subsidiary building via a corridor, while a roofed corridor ran from the main building toward the west.

TEHRAN -- Archaeologists have found a pair of silver earrings in a grave of a woman in the 5200-year-old Burnt City which disproves the theory that the inhabitants of the city never used earrings, the director of the Iranian archaeological team working in the region said on Tuesday. A skeleton of a woman with one circular silver earring on each side of her skull was unearthed during the last days of the excavations at the cemetery of the Burnt City, Mansur Sajjadi added.

The finds have been discovered by archaeologists from the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council, who are working in conjunction with Clegg's Ltd on behalf of the County Council at Walden House on George Street. The excavations have unearthed archaeology which spans an enormous period of time, from the Bronze Age to the 19th century, but the bulk of the remains are from the 12th to 14th centuries. Archaeologists found many large pits that may have been dug to extract sand and gravel, as well as a large oven and

Geologists have called for a taskforce to be set up to consider emergency management in the event of a massive volcanic eruption, or super-eruption. The recommendation comes in a report timed to coincide with a BBC TV drama that depicts a fictional super-eruption at Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, US. Experts say such an event would have a colossal impact on a global scale.

The iron mass that smashed into Arizona some 49,000 years ago to create Meteor Crater was just the crumbled remains of a far larger rock body. What is more, this shower of debris was moving much slower than researchers had previously thought. The re-assessment is the work of Drs Jay Melosh and Gareth Collins.

The discovery of 2,000-year-old artifacts on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is prompting archaeologists to rethink their theories about the early presence of Native Americans in North Carolina. The artifacts include spear points and pottery fragments. Their location indicate that small bands of roaming Indians made a seasonal home on ground that later became the site of the nation's first state university, said Steve Davis, associate director of UNC's Research Laboratories of Archeology. "They were living as bands of hunters and gatherers, moving seasonally as different resources became available," Davis said. "They were mostly gathering nut crops, wild seeds, and greens. And they were hunting. Probably their primary source of protein was the white-tailed deer."

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Egyptian government Monday unveiled plans for the delicate task of moving a granite statue of the Pharaoh Ramses II, 3,200 years old and weighing 83 tons, from central Cairo to a new site near the Pyramids.

A group of divers have discovered a submerged hoard of Bronze Age artefacts off Salcombe, Devon. The find includes swords and rapiers, palstave axe heads, an adze, a cauldron handle, and a gold bracelet. The artefacts have been reported to English Heritage and declared to the Receiver of Wreck at the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, as it is believed that these relics come from an ancient shipwreck. The artefacts are currently being studied at the British Museum, which also holds the finds from the nearby 'Moor Sands' Bronze Age wreck site.

The University of Manchester's Field Archaeology Centre is to continue its successful 'Dig Manchester' project, which gives local communities the opportunity to sample archaeology in their own area, after receiving £500,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). 'Dig Manchester' began with an excavation of Moston Old Hall, and brought together the University, the city, the local community, schools and businesses in an exemplary partnership, as well as a local 'champion' in the form of Councillor Paul Murphy. Robina McNeil, director of the Greater Manchester Archaeology Unit commented: "The idea was to involve the local community from school children to senior citizens in a local dig, to not only uncover some history, but to bring about a sense of community and pride.

A three-dimensional X-ray scan of Tutankhamun's mummy found no evidence to support theories he was murdered but failed to solve the 3,000-year-old mystery of how the young Egyptian pharaoh died. Some members of the investigative team say he may have died from an infected thigh wound, but others doubt this, saying that injury may have been inflicted later by archaeologists, according to the team's five-page report released on Tuesday. Either way, the team's chairman says the case should now be closed and the tomb of the king who died in 1352 BC, aged about 19, should not be disturbed again.

King Tutankhamun was not murdered and may have died of complications from a broken leg, say researchers who hope the pharaoh will now be left alone. A CT scan on the Egyptian king's 3,400 year-old mummified body indicates that he may have suffered the fracture shortly before his death, aged 19. Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said the research suggests the boy king died after the wound became infected.

The European spacecraft Rosetta has pictured both the Earth and the Moon. The probe swung by its home planet on Friday to help build up speed as it gets ready to sweep out towards Jupiter and meet up with a comet in 2014. The Earth flyby - the first of three in the coming years - allowed scientists and engineers the opportunity to test Rosetta's systems and instruments.

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard," King Solomon advised in the Book of Proverbs Chapter Six, "consider her ways and be wise". Humans have always looked at the little beasts - so efficient, so purposeful and yet so different from us - and puzzled over what they have to tell us. The cultural historian Charlotte Sleigh, author of Ant (Reaktion Books 2003) says that in every age we have re-interpreted the mysteries of the ant colony to suit our own ideas.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A rocket launched to collect information on the aurora's appearance and movement flew for five minutes before crashing in the mountains north of Fairbanks. The 70-foot (21-meter) Black Brant XII rocket was launched Sunday from the Poker Flat Research Range. It should have flown for 40 minutes, said Greg Walker, the range manager. Walker said range staff searching by air and on ground with snowmobiles found the rocket based on its final global positioning system transmissions.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A strange and powerful burst of radio waves from near the center of our galaxy may have come from a previously unknown type of space object, U.S. astronomers reported on Wednesday. Other experts nicknamed the mysterious source a "burper" and said there would be a race to scan for similar radio bursts. "We hit the jackpot," said Scott Hyman, a professor of physics at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, who led the study.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Archaeologists studying human origins in eastern Ethiopia have discovered 12 fossils that appear to be older than the famous fossil "Lucy," the team leader said on Saturday. "The discovery of 12 early hominid fossÿil specimens estimated to be between 3.8 to 4 million years old will be important in terms of understanding the early phases of human evolution before Lucy," Ethiopian archeologist Yohannes Haile Selassie told a news conference. "It is hoped that the new discoveries will allow scientists to connect the dots, furthering our knowledge of the time period in human evolution," he added.

Ancient man saved the world from a new Ice Age. That is the startling conclusion of climate researchers who say man-made global warming is not a modern phenomenon and has been going on for thousands of years. Prehistoric farmers who slashed down trees and laid out the first rice paddies and wheatfields triggered major alterations to levels of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, they say.

The meaning of Ice Age art has been endlessly debated, but evidence is increasing that some was religiously motivated, says Paul Bahn At least 70,000 years ago, our ancestors began to adorn their bodies with beads, pendants and perhaps tattoos; by 35,000 years ago, they had begun to paint and engrave animals, people and abstract motifs on cave walls, like those in Lascaux, France, and Altamira in Spain. They sculpted voluptuous figurines in ivory or stone, such as the Venus of Willendorf.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Scientists working at the Copan archaeological site in western Honduras said Sunday they have unearthed the 1,450-year-old remains of 69 people, as well as 30 previously undiscovered ancient Mayan buildings. Copan, about 200 miles west of Tegucigalpa, the capital, flourished between A.D. 250 and 900, part of a vast Mayan empire which stretched across parts of modern-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador (news - web sites) and Honduras. The site was eventually abandoned, due at least in part to overpopulation, historians believe.

French archeologist solves mystery of ancient Mesopotamian city purpose-built in desert for metallurgical industry.

Archaeologists excavating Norwich market before refurbishment work begins have uncovered the foundations of the medieval Market Cross. An original cross was built in 1411 and stood 60ft tall, dominating the market.

The green eyes stare out unblinkingly from the beaded mask. The woman's dark eyebrows and terracotta face look as fresh as they ever did. Yet the figure covered in turquoise beads and swaddled in black linen, nestling in a wooden sarcophagus, is believed to be 2,500 years old. Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, yesterday proudly unveiled what he described as probably one of the best-preserved mummies ever. He stood among the treasures that were uncovered by accident by an Australian team of archaeologists in Saqqara, the burial site of Memphis, once the capital of ancient Egypt.

The famous skeleton from Indonesia nicknamed the "Hobbit" does not belong to a modern human pygmy with a brain disease, as some scientists argue. That is one of the main outcomes of a detailed examination of the creature's braincase, published in Science. The authors say their study of the Hobbit's brain supports the idea it is a new, dwarf species of human. However, others contend the report does little to quash their theory it was actually a small, diseased person. The remains of the small hominid from the Indonesian island of Flores were unveiled last year to worldwide acclaim. The 18,000-year-old bones were unearthed at a site called Liang Bua, one of numerous limestone caves on Flores, and were designated LB1 and assigned to a human species new to science: Homo floresiensis

An important archaeological discovery has led experts to believe Ryton-on-Dunsmore was home to a high-ranking Iron Age family more than 2,000 years ago. Scientists have found the first-ever complete example of an Iron Age kiln, which they believe a prehistoric family may have used to turn smelt iron into tools or jewellery. The clay oven was unearthed on the site of a £3 million safety improvement scheme on the A45, near the junction with the A445.

Ha Noi, Feb. 28 (VNA) - Interesting discoveries about the Bao An Pagoda relating to the Tran dynasty (13th-14th centuries) made during recent excavations and research have been made public by the Viet Nam History Museum, Ha Noi's Cultural and Information Service and the Office of the Steering Board for Celebration of the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long-Ha Noi. According to history books, Bao An Pagoda, built during the Tran dynasty on the left bank of Thien Duc river in Trung village of Duong Quang commune, Gia Lam district, Ha Noi, played an important role in the development of Thang Long-Ha Noi. The pagoda was once a major centre for Viet Nam's Buddhism and was one of only two Buddhist research institutes in northern Viet Nam but the Bao An today is just a small structure located next to a crowded residential quarter. However, local people still talk about how big the pagoda was in the past, with hundreds of structures and with the main building covering 1,000 sq.m on a small hill to the west of the existing pagoda.

The permanent committee of Egyptian archaeology agreed in its latest meeting under Supreme Council of Antiquities SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawas on carrying out an integrated project for protecting and restoring the capital of ancient Delta in Tel Basta, Sharkeya governorate. The project will be implemented with a total cost of LE 50 million over two years, according to the Lower Egypt and Sinai Archaeology Department general manager Mohammed Abdul Maksoud, noting that the project is one of the most tremendous projects to be carried out by the SCA in collaboration with the German archaeological mission in Egypt.

Two thousand years ago, a mysterious and little known civilisation ruled the northern coast of Peru. Its people were called the Moche. They built huge and bizarre pyramids that still dominate the surrounding landscape; some well over 30m (100ft) tall. They are so heavily eroded, they look like natural features; only close up can you see they are made up of millions of adobe mud bricks. These pyramids are known as "huacas", meaning "sacred site" in the local Indian dialect. Several contain rich collections of murals; others house the tombs of Moche leaders.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- NASA scientists said an infrared telescope peered deep into stardust and spotted hidden galaxies more than 11 billion light-years from Earth. In a journal article this week, the scientists describe how the Spitzer Space Telescope was used to find the galaxies, the most luminous in the universe. The galaxies shine with light equivalent to 10 trillion suns but are too far away and too drenched in cosmic dust to be seen -- until now.

A cellular enzyme appears to play a crucial role in the manufacture of a protein needed for long-term memory, according to a team of researchers led by scientists at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

One of Germany's most acclaimed archaeological finds - a 3,600-year-old disc depicting the stars and the planets - is at the centre of a dispute following claims that it is a modern forgery. According to Germany's museum establishment, the Sky Disc of Nebra is the oldest depiction of the heavens discovered and offers an insight into the Bronze Age mind. But the authenticity of the disc has been challenged by one of the country's leading archaeologists, Peter Schauer of Regensburg University. He told a court in Halle that the artefact was nothing more than an amateurish forgery.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Australian archaeologists have discovered one of the best preserved ancient Egyptian mummies dating from about 2,600 years ago, Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities said Monday. The Australian team digging near the Saqqara pyramids, 15 miles south of Cairo, found three coffins last week dating from the 26th Dynasty (664-525 BC), Hawass told Reuters.

Indian divers have found more evidence of an ancient port city, apparently revealed by December's tsunami. Stone structures that are "clearly man-made" were seen on the seabed off the south coast, archaeologists say. They could be part of the mythical city of Mahabalipuram, which legend says was so beautiful that the gods sent a flood that engulfed six of its seven temples. Other relics were revealed when the powerful waves washed away sand as they smashed into the Tamil Nadu coast.

LIMA, Peru -- Archaeologists have discovered a group of giant figures scraped into the hills of Peru's southern coastal desert that are believed to predate the country's famed Nazca lines. About 50 figures were etched into the earth over an area roughly 90 square miles near the city of Palpa, 220 miles southeast of Lima, El Comercio newspaper reported. The drawings -- which include human figures as well as animals such as birds, monkeys, and felines -- are believed to be created by members of the Paracas culture sometime between 600 and 100 B.C., Johny Islas, the director of the Andean Institute of Archaeological Studies, told the newspaper.

The beads, which date to the 26th Dynasty (664-525 B.C.), had been fashioned into what is called a "net overlay" and placed atop a linen-wrapped mummy inside a wooden, person-shaped coffin. Such coffins were particularly beloved by Egyptians, who believed they would serve as a substitute body after death. The overlay looks a bit like colorful chain mail, and needs extensive restoration work. But the beads are pristine and gorgeous. (More often archaeologists find bits and pieces of netting with broken or faded beads.) "This overlay is not only very well preserved, its color is well preserved and the style of it is fairly unusual," Silverman said. "Put those all together, and this thing is pretty spectacular." The mummy was a male, and that's about all that is known. Penn archaeologists speculate that his coffin was made of cedar or a soft wood such as acacia, and that because of its workmanship and size, about 61/2 feet long and 2 feet wide, he was fairly well-to-do in life.

Archaeologists working on a dig at an Augustinian priory in Taunton have discovered a range of finds, including skeletons, which have helped to cast light on the key role the building played in the history of the town. The dig, at the corner of Priory Avenue and Gyffarde Street, is being carried out before a block of flats is built. It was already known that parts of the priory were under the site of the flats, but the dig team were particularly pleased to discover the priory's church, which was built about 1250. As well as discovering some entombed skeletons, the archaeologists also found parts of the ornate columns, walls and fragments of a stained glass window.

Moscow - A legendary collection of gold objects from ancient Troy that was seized by Soviet troops in Berlin in 1945 should become Russian government property, a top cultural official said in an interview published on Saturday. Anatoly Vilkov, deputy chief of the Russian agency that preserves the nation's cultural legacy, stopped short of ruling out the possibility the objects could return under certain conditions. The gold collection - named after Hermann Schliemann, the amateur German archaeologist who excavated it - will be made Russian federal property after it is inventoried, Vilkov said, according to Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. The gold then could be exhibited in Germany. "In line with the law on transferred valuables, everything that the Soviet Union took as compensation, which includes Schliemann's gold as well, is not subject to return," Vilkov was quoted as saying.

An unknown stronghold wall has been discovered in the coastal city of Varna, the regional historical museum officials announced Friday. The wall has been found during a private building construction on the Khan Krum Street. The exact age of the find has not been specified yet. Most of the details, found nearby - column, capital, terracotta pieces, altars and pulpits fragments - were dated back to VIth century by specialists. The discovery puts the ancient town of Odesus in a completely new light, Alexander Milchev, an archaeologist at the museum said.The find speaks of a completely new fortification period in Odesus, according to Minchev.

TEHRAN -- Local farmers working in the Kovar region near Shiraz in Fars Province recently discovered fragments of ancient stones buried under the ground. The artifacts date back to the Achaemenid era and are probably parts of a monument. According to Ali Hashemi, the director of the Association of Pars Enthusiasts, experts of the group rushed to the region as soon as they heard about the discovery. Many important finds from the Achaemenid and Sassanid eras have been made in the region. Azizollah Rezai, an expert of the Fars Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department, also said that no archaeological excavation has yet been carried out at the site, but the patterns on the stones show that they belong to the Achaemenid era.

A significant Indian archaeological site has been uncovered on the banks of the Duwamish River exactly where Sound Transit plans to build columns to carry its elevated light rail line across the river. Archaeologists hired to survey likely spots in advance of construction have discovered more than 900 artifacts in just several small digs so far, including fire-cracked rocks, stone tools, animal bones, shells and evidence of a structure with a hearth. The site is believed to be more than several hundred years old, going back to a time before white people arrived in the Northwest. University of Washington professor Julie Stein, a geoarchaeologist who has been hired to analyze the geology of the site, called the find "miraculous."

CAIRO -- An Australian archeological team working in Egypt has unearthed three ancient wooden coffins in the past two months. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni told reporters Saturday that the coffins, which he described as "wonderfully beautiful," were uncovered in Sakkara, 10 kilometers south of Cairo. He said the coffins, shaped like human bodies, go back to the 26th Pharaoh Dynasty that ruled from 672 BC to 525 BC. The minister added the coffins contained mummies wrapped up in cloth and decorated with colorful beads. Hosni said that other ancient artifacts were found near the coffins, including statues of Pharaoh gods.

A palaeontologist has come up with a novel way of studying historical manuscripts, by treating them as fossils from an extinct species. John Cisne, writing in Science magazine, says manuscripts from the Middle Ages have a lot in common with animal populations.

Three new moons discovered around Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft have been given provisional names. The discoveries were made last year, not long after Cassini had arrived in orbit around the ringed planet. Two moons detected in August have been given the names Methone and Pallene, while another found in October has been provisionally named Polydeuces.

Astronomers have discovered an object that appears to be an invisible galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter. The team, led by Cardiff University, UK, claims it is the first such object to be detected. A dark galaxy is an area in the Universe containing a large amount of mass that rotates like a galaxy, but contains no stars.

In Al-Gurna where several excavation missions are probing for more Ancient Egyptian treasures under the sand, a team from the Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology has stumbled on a major Coptic trove buried under the remains of a sixth-century monastery located in front of a Middle Kingdom tomb. Excavators unearthed two papyri books with Coptic text along with a set of parchments placed between two wooden labels as well as Coptic ostraca, pottery fragments and textiles. "It is a very important discovery, equal to the Naga Hammadi scrolls" found in 1945 in an Ancient Egyptian cave inhabited by Copts during the Roman era, said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Part of a network of "world heritage" catacombs that archaeologists had thought was lost under a stretch of road close to Mount St Joseph, in Mosta has been rediscovered during works to upgrade the road system. The area where the 2,000-year-old catacombs are located is known as Ta' Bistra. The catacombs network - once used as a burial ground - is cut into a ridge or terrace in the landscape and is about 100 metres long, most of which runs under a field. The terrace is 3.7 metres high. The whole network was recorded and drawn by Charles Zammit in 1933. But by then the site had long been looted because the Knights of St John used to issue licences for treasure hunting.

Since the discovery of a 160,000-year old human-like skull in Ethiopia in 2002, scientists have been refocusing their interest on questions relating to the evolution of Homo sapiens. Where and when did modern humans first appear and what were their routes of dispersal? The only way to solve this puzzle, say scientists, is to uncover human remains in archeological layers older than those found in Ethiopia - dating to between 150,000 to 250,000 years ago. However, no accurately dated well-preserved hominid fossils from this period have been discovered.

An amateur archaeologist using a 30-year-old metal detector has discovered a rare golden necklace from the iron age buried in a local farmer's field. The delicately twisted torc, designed for a well-to-do member of a tribe in the area now covered by north Nottinghamshire, is expected to be valued at more than £100,000. Maurice Richardson, 55, a self-employed tree surgeon from Newark, reported the find to the local coroner after initially thinking his soil-covered discovery was scrap metal. It was only when he dug down and scraped one end, that he realised it was much more valuable.

The skeleton of a giant panda has been found in a 4,000-year-old tomb in central China. Wu Xianzhu from the Hubei Provincial Archaeology Research Institute says the giant panda was most likely part of a burial ritual. Wu says pigs and dogs have been used in burials as funerary objects since the early New Stone Age, dating back about 8,000 years. "Burying the giant pandas with the dead shows that ancient people had close contact with the creatures," he said. The Number 77 tomb is the only tomb to have been found with panda remains. "When the tomb was first excavated in 2001, the animal remains found were believed to be the bone of the lower jaw of a pig. But with further research, archaeologists decided that the bone belonged to a giant panda," Wu said.

Invaluable pieces of mosaics, which have adorned the Hagia Sophia Museum's dome for over 1,500 years are being stored without any protection between the Hagia Sofia and Hagia Irene. The pieces dropped due to condensation and restoration work but have not been stored properly. Experts are dismayed that pieces of mosaics portraying the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ and Christian saints are being stored unprotected in boxes. Art historians criticize their continued storage despite the public outcry and say it is gross negligence and insensitiveness to leave them where they are. Saying that the Hagia Sophia is suffering serious problems from the mismanagement of its restoration, Professor Semavi Eyice says that the scandal is a national shame for Turkey. The monument has been called the "Eighth Wonder of the World", but pieces of its mosaics are being treated like rubbish, and Eyice has called on officials to take action. Professor Said Basaran, Chair of Istanbul University's Cultural Heritage Conservation and Restoration Department has said that the abandoned pieces are as valuable as the ones decorating the dome and that the mosaics should be transferred to a secure place.

The world looked on helplessly four years ago as Islamic zealots destroyed two enormous standing Buddha statues overlooking Afghanistan's Bamian Valley, but recent explorations at the ancient site have led researchers to conclude that all may not have been lost. A third, much larger statue -- a 1,000-foot-long sleeping Buddha -- may still be buried nearby. Inspired by the writings of a Chinese pilgrim almost 1,400 years ago, Afghanistan's foremost archaeologist is leading a dig within view of the cliff walls where the two Buddhas once stood. The initial goal is to find the ancient monastery that the Chinese traveler Xuanzang described around A.D. 630, and then the gigantic reclining Buddha that he said was inside its walls.

LUMPKIN, Ga. - From more than 40 feet atop Mound A at the Singer-Moye Mounds south of Lumpkin, Ga., visitors can look down on a plaza area that must have been full of activity more than 600 years ago when Native Americans had a town here close to Pataula Creek. Several smaller mounds built for earth lodges or ceremonial purposes are clearly visible from the lofty point.

Archeologists in Egypt uncovered the remains of twenty ancient people late last year. Some of the dead were family members who had been buried together. The archeologists say the twenty people lived thousands of years ago during what is called the Greco-Roman period. That is when Greece, and later Rome, ruled ancient Egypt.

The world-renowned statue Hermes with the Infant Dionysos has been equipped with innovative seismic protective devices that will help the 7-foot-high marble statue of the Greek god withstand powerful earthquakes. The protective devices, called Friction Pendulum bearings, were custom made for the statue based on analysis and tests conducted at the University at Buffalo's earthquake engineering laboratory. More than 2,000 years old and generally regarded as an original of the famous Greek sculptor Praxiteles, the Hermes statue, located at Archaeological Museum of Olympia in Greece, is one of few works of art in the world equipped with devices to protect it against damage from major earthquakes.

A recent excavation of 400,000-year-old stone tools in Britain suggests that two groups of early humans could have competed with each other for food and turf. In the past, anthropologists have argued that only one group of ancient humans lived in Britain, and that these hominids created and used both axes and flake knives, which were made by flaking off small particles from a larger rock, or by breaking off a large flake that was then used as the tool.

RENO, Nev. -- An archaeologist whose research topics have ranged from Neanderthal hunters in France to the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierra Nevada is the winner of a top research award typically reserved for more narrowly defined sciences. Donald Grayson, an anthropology professor at the University of Washington for 30 years, is the first archaeologist to win the Desert Research Institute's Nevada Medal in the 18-year-history of the silver medallion and its $20,000 prize. Past winners have been botanists, chemists, physicists, scientific experts in air quality, water clarity and the evolution of desert landforms. "Most people stick to one topic or one area. I'm just curious about lots of things. I let my career chase around after questions that interest me," Grayson said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Seattle.