Newsdesk Archive

The truth is out there, and the Sci-Fi Channel is determined to find it, even if that means suing NASA, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army and Air Force for documents related to unidentified flying objects. Sci-Fi, a cable channel that airs fictional programming such as Battlestar Galactica, as well as documentaries that explore the line between fact and science fiction, is part of a group pressuring the federal government to de-classify UFO information. Last year Sci-Fi joined forces with an investigative journalist, a Washington, DC law firm, and former President Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, to gain release of documents relating to an incident it calls "the new Roswell," a UFO sighting in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania in 1965.

The earliest private chapel from Dark Age Britain has been unearthed in the foundations of a Roman "stately home". The fifth century font and baptistry were built into the ornate mosaic floor of an unusual double villa in Wiltshire not long after the Romans left Britain.

Archaeologists are using digital mapping techniques to find out more about day-to-day life in Roman forts. Centre from the Archaelogical Research spokeswoman in Canberra in the ACT, Dr Penelope Allison, is part of a team tracking where pottery and women's jewellery has been found in Roman military camps along the old frontier in Germany.

Scientists have found the oldest known domesticated rice. The handful of 15,000-year-old burnt grains was discovered by archaeologists in Korea. Their age challenges the accepted view that rice cultivation originated in China about 12,000 years ago. The rice is genetically different from the modern food crop, which will allow researchers to trace its evolution.

The battery of the future could be powered by nothing but water, following a breakthrough by two Canadian scientists who have discovered an entirely new way to generate electricity - the first since 1839. Initial applications could be cellphones and other electronic devices that now use rechargeable batteries, but Larry Kostiuk and Daniel Kwok, researchers at the University of Alberta who made the discovery, think that in time it could even be used for full-scale power generation.

They call her "Brazoria Woman." For thousands of years, her bones lay under the coastal plains along the Gulf of Mexico, near Freeport, where she was buried facedown, her body resting on a bed of shells. She lay with her arms placed across her chest, holding on to secrets, cradling knowledge that Texas archaeologists are working to interpret. When they found her, she was in a soil level that suggested she is about 5,000 years old. But an early radiocarbon test on a piece of her skull indicated that she had a different story to tell. The test showed her to be about 13,000 years old. If the older date proves true through retesting, hers will be one of the oldest human skeletons ever found in North America.

As you know, I am appalled by Joan Fletcher's announcement that she had found the mummy of Nefertiti. First of all it has no scientific basis, second she ignored the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) regulations, and third she misled the public. In my last column I quoted a letter from Dr Rosalie David, professor and director of the Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at the School of Sciences in Manchester, in which she stated that Joan Fletcher was not an expert on mummies and that in fact her study was on wigs and hairstyles. I would like now to share with you passages of a letter from George Tassie, an archaeologist who works in the Delta and who wrote in response to the offensive article published by The Times on 22 August 2003 entitled: "How Nefertiti Put a Curse on British Archaeologist".

A keen-eyed archaeologist claims to have found some of the oldest artwork ever - carved faces 200,000 years old. The human images were found in 2001 by Pietro Gaietto on an expedition through the Borzonasca district of Italy. He claims the rock has been sculpted into faces that look in opposite directions; one is bearded with what Gaietto calls an "expressive face".

'Mission in Malta unaccomplished' - an article by Anton Mifsud is now available in the 'Forum' section of the website - just click on the link below to connect.

Kazuo Morimoto made history in the early 1980s when he discovered a large Paleolithic site at Narita, north of Tokyo. Now his attention is balanced between digging up the past and preserving the future -- the future of a once-nomadic tribe in Siberia. "Suddenly I became more interested in people than ancient artifacts," he explains, meeting in Ochanomizu close to Meiji University, where he studied archaeology some 25 years ago. "Now I am concerned with the living as well as the dead."

Enigmatic carvings of bronze axe heads, that are invisible to the naked eye, on one of the weathered stones at Stonehenge have been revealed by laser scanning. The stones, moved into their final positions in one of the world's most famous ancient monuments some 4,300 years ago, would already have been 500 years old when the axes were carved. Bronze tools and weapons were only introduced centuries after the Wiltshire farmers made the giant stone and earth circles using antler picks and cow bone shovels.

A US-Russian space mission has blasted off for the International Space Station (ISS), where veteran astronaut Michael Foale will take up his post as commander. Foale, 46, who was born in Britain but now lives in the United States, will stay on the orbiting outpost for six months with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri.

The bones of legendary outlaw Robin Hood may have been dug up in the mid-18th Century, according to a history buff. Author Richard Rutherford-Moore, who has published two books about Robin Hood, bases the claim on research and a series of experiments with a bow and arrow. According to most Robin Hood legends, the ailing outlaw determined his own burial site by shooting an arrow from his death bed.

Y-chromosome genetic markers show that people first arrived on the North American continent about 14,000 years ago, according to two papers in the American Journal of Human Genetics. This is more recent than previously thought; mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) studies had suggested an entry date of 30,000 years ago. Researchers led by Mark Seielstad, Harvard School of Public Health, identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) called M242 on the Y chromosome that appeared before, but close to, human entry into the New World. Chronologically, M242 falls between two previously identified Y-chromosome mutations: The M45/M75 changes developed in Asia before M242, while the M3 mutation arose later in Native American populations.1 The team used two different methods to date the first appearance of M242 in the Asian population.

The Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) - also known as the 'Edgar Cayce group' - have released the latest edition of their E-mag ANCIENT MYSTERIES. This edition is particularly devoted to the group's search for Atlantis - one of the key parts of Edgar Cayce's writings. There are numerous articles on possible Atlantis sites to read in the E-mag, from Yonaguni to Bimini and the ubiquitous 'Paws of the Sphinx'. The ARE sums up its future direction in this paragraph: With all of the new evidence that has emerged in the past few years, the A.R.E. is making plans to sponsor new research efforts into the search for Atlantis. The organization is now planning several expeditions and dives,especially into areas where the satellite images indicate underwater structures. Three 2003 expeditions have been conducted to Andros. The first expedition examined the underwater circles found off western Andros. The second examined Rebikoff's "e," a strange e-shaped formation in shallow water in extreme northwestern Andros. During this expedition, an underwater "anomaly" was found in North Andros. The third expedition examined this structure as well as visiting the circles at South Bimini.'

Astronomers have seen a large asteroid that they first found 66 years ago and then lost in the depths of space. It is called Hermes and it entered the record books by making a close approach to the Earth, just beyond the Moon. But after only five days, it was lost because of the Sun's glare. Despite searches, it was never seen again. Now scientists have spotted it once more - a faint dot in images taken by an observatory in Arizona. It was soon recognised as lost Hermes by its orbit.

Five years after the Miami Circle was unearthed and saved from the bulldozers, it will be reburied Friday -- a stark concession that officials have been unable to open the archaeological treasure to the public, which paid $26.7 million to preserve it. Prominent archaeologist Robert Carr said the ancient 38-foot-wide stone carving is eroding and must be protected from the elements as several agencies spar over how to prepare the downtown site for public access.

The age of the cave paintings at Chauvet, the Sistine Chapel of palaeolithic art in south eastern France, has become the subject of a war of words between British and French archaeologists. The British claim the French may have exaggerated their age by 18,000 years under official pressure to promote them as the oldest cave paintings in the world.

High-tech lasers have been used to unlock the secrets of Stonehenge. The work at the ancient site in Wiltshire has already uncovered two carvings which are invisible to the naked eye. The carvings of bronze axe heads are between four and six inches long. Similar markings were found at the site in the 1950s, but archaeologists say these are now too badly eroded to be seen.

China's historic first human spaceflight ended safely at 0623 Beijing time on Thursday, when astronaut Yang Liwei landed on the grassy plains of Inner Mongolia, near Siziwang. He was immediately taken by plane to Beijing, after having completed a journey of 600,000 km in the capsule. "I have seen many landing scenes (on videos) before, and I think this one was one of the most successful," Yang said, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

On Monday, archaeologists discovered a grave dating as far back as 2,300-2,500 years ago in northern Phu Tho province, home to the Hung Kings of the Dong Son civilisation, the founders of present-day Viet Nam. The grave was unearthed at the Go De site in Lam Thao district by a group of archaeologists who were working on a project entitled "Hung Temples and relics of the Hung dynasty". Included in the grave, located in the Gia Ninh tribe region, were many possesions of the deceased.

Archeologists on Tuesday presented a 1,200 year-old stone slab with carvings making reference to human sacrifice that was unearthed from inside a temple at the ancient Mayan city of Palenque in southernmost Chiapas state. Like Palenque itself, the two meter (6-feet) long and 60 centimeter (24 inches) wide slab dates back to the Classic period, from 250 to 900 A.D., Arnoldo Gonzalez, head of a team of Mexican scientists who discovered the slab, said at a presentation at the Regional Museum in the Chiapas capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez.

Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder continued their search in southeast Alaska last summer to pinpoint rapidly melting glaciers and ice fields that hold prehistoric human artifacts before exposure triggers their decomposition. For thousands of years, humans hunted on the glaciers and ice fields that cover what is now the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in southeast interior Alaska. During the summer months these ancient ice fields attracted caribou and other animals seeking refuge from insect swarms that blanket Alaska during summer.

The reputation of one of the most creative thinkers in history has come under attack from a Cardiff scientist. A theory of evolution which predates Charles Darwin's 1859 famous book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, has been discovered in a document dated 1794.

The Berry Islands consist of approximately 12 square miles of surface area to the North of Andros Island. Recently an incredible find has been made via satellite imagery of what appears to be an enormous terraformed triangular area under the water off of the Berry Islands. This triangular feature appears to have been artificially created, due to it's unnatural shape. Could this be evidence for a lost civilization? The triangular feature in the photo to the left is estimated to be 24 miles on it's longest side and over 13 miles long on the shorter side. Is this striking triangular feature evidence of terraforming on a cyclopean megalithic scale?

The rocket blasted off from Jiuquan in the Gobi desert China's first manned spacecraft has entered orbit, making it the third country to send a human into space. A Long March 2F rocket blasted off from the Gobi desert launch pad at 0900 (0100GMT), and the Shenzhou V spacecraft was orbiting Earth 10 minutes later. The craft, carrying a single astronaut Yang Liwei, is expected to orbit 14 times, returning to Earth after a flight of about 22 hours.

During the 2003 A.R.E. Search for Atlantis Project, a three-tiered stone formation was unexpectedly discovered off the coast of Andros at Nicholls Town. The structure is about 150 feet wide and 450 yards long. It is comprised of huge blocks of stone, with most of the visible blocks 25 by 30 feet and two-feet thick. While we found the ruins of what appeared to be a ramp leading up the structure from the deeper lagoon on the inside of the formation, two other significant finds were made. The first of these finds was made as we were reviewing video for our documentary on the expeditions. (read more to see photos) While Greg was changing scuba tanks in the boat, Lora videotaped an area of the platform from the surface. However, because she was looking through a small viewfinder on the videocamera, she couldn't see details on the bottom. In our later review of the video, an interesting finding was made. On the surface of one of the large blocks we could clearly see a square indentation 'bored' into the stone. The square indentation was about 5 by 5 inches. It was at least 4-5 inches deep, but had sand in it. Thus, we do not know how deep the square hole actually goes. It looked about the size of a square post hole. We also noted less impressive marks on a few stones but a few of these looked like cut marks.

Was it an asteroid, a meteor - or was it just a plane? A recent photo of a fireball in the sky, taken by a skateboarding teenager, has made news across the globe - but still has scientists mystified. Most assumed that the fireball was a daylight meteor explosion, including the staff at NASA's popular website 'Astronomy Picture of the Day'. The APOD website posted the photograph on October 1st, writing that "a sofa-sized rock came hurtling into the nearby atmosphere of planet Earth and disintegrated...one of the more spectacular meteor images yet recorded."

China is making final preparations for the launch of its first manned space flight. A rocket carrying the Shenzhou V spacecraft could blast off from the Gobi desert launch pad as early as Wednesday morning, if the weather stays favourable. There has been no official word on who will fly the craft, but Hong Kong media said the favourite was Yang Liwei, a 38-year-old from China's north east.

After six months of national and international investigations, Egyptian Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed last Friday referred to trial 31 people involved in a massive antiquities smuggling ring which allegedly removed at least 300 Pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic artefacts from Egypt. The group has also been accused of graft and money laundering. According to Abdel-Wahed, 18 of the accused are in custody while 13 have yet to be apprehended. Nine are foreigners holding Swiss, German, Canadian, Moroccan and Lebanese nationalities.

Prehistoric populations in the American Southwest transported corn over long distances -- and used networks of "farm to market" roads that enabled them to support large cities in areas that were unsuitable for agriculture. New studies of ancient corncobs show that large urban complexes like Chaco Canyon that thrived a thousand years ago in New Mexico imported corn from fertile farmlands that were 50 miles or more from major population centers.

For thousands of years, ancient Aleuts thrived in villages and family groups spread across the western Alaska Peninsula. Their resourceful society relied on sockeye salmon supplemented with birds and marine mammals. Archaeological digs have uncovered intricate carvings suggesting these people consulted shamans to interpret the forces of their salmon-centered world. Then, about 300 B.C., a large earthquake dropped the land nine to 15 feet, altering their lives on a scale almost unthinkable in modern experience.

Ages before English, French and Spanish settlers moved into the area, prehistoric Native Americans lived in the lands north of Lake Maurepas. Those areas, now covered in cypress swamp, are dotted with the remnants of those ancient cultures. Some of those remnants, in the form of earthen mounds, could be hiding clues to what life was like in the area 3,000 to 5,000 years ago.

There is no helpful plaque, but then there cannot be when no one knows for certain where the battle was. Some say Mancetter in Warwickshire, some Castle Dykes, that huge mysterious hill fort near Weedon - both on, or near, Watling Street - though one man, Lewis Spence, says it was in King's Cross Station (under platform 10, if memory serves). But we are two miles to the south-east of Towcester, in that small strange dip in Watling Street, or the A5 as it is now, in that corner of Northamptonshire known as Cuttle Mill...

Italy has begun dismantling an ancient obelisk in preparation for its return to Ethiopia, following a 60-year dispute. The Axum obelisk, which stands in central Rome, was named after the northern Ethiopian city from where it was looted by invading Italian troops in 1937. Over the decades Addis Abba has appealed for the return of the 24-metre high granite monument. The dismantling of the obelisk should be completed later this year ready for shipment to Ethiopia.

A fort of Hadrian's Wall has been discovered by British archaeologists who went in search of it following a Latin inscription along a small bronze cup dating back to the second century found by chance in the Staffordshire countryside (England). The odd finding took place last month, and was outlined by English archaeologist Roger Wilson of the Nottingham University on the side of the 14th International Collection of Archaeological Cinema underway at the Rovereto MART. On the outside border of the cup, the names of four forts on the far borders of Hadrian's Wall, the wall built under emperor Hadrian along the entire island and to the border between the present England and Scotland to prevent barbarians from invading the Roman colony. The names that can be read on the cup are Mais (present city of Bowness), Coggabata (Drumburgh), Uxelodunum (Stanwix) and Cammoglanna (Castlesteads). The problem - said Wilson - is that the Coggabata fort had never been spoken of, nor were any traces of it found.

Working on a site in the Ljubljana marshes, Slovenian archaeologists last year uncovered a wooden wheel some 20 kilometers southeast of Ljubljana. Austrian experts have established that the wheel is between 5,100 and 5,350 years old, which makes it the oldest wooden wheel in the world ever found. Using the radiocarbon method, experts in Vienna established that the wheel found in Slovenia is at least a century older than those found in Switzerland and southern Germany - so far thought to be the oldest. "Near the site where the wheel was found, there is an even older settlement and we first thought the wheel was even older," says the head of the team of the Research Institute of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences.

On the morning of 1 September, when the German archaeological mission of Hildesheim was clearing a dump next to a kiln used to produce glass near the ancient capital of Per-Ramses in the reign of Ramses II, a 5x5cm fragment of diplomatic correspondence came to light. It was part of a cuneiform tablet showing diplomatic correspondence between Egypt and the Hittites, unearthed near the Delta village of Al-Qantir.

Just under the surface of the forest floor, among the twisted tree roots, a young man's body has lain undisturbed for 2000 years. The skeleton of a muscular 30-year-old, who could have been an Iceni warrior, was found buried face down in earth that was part of rich Fen lands and now is behind the fortified fence of an American base. These human remains are only one of five that have so far been unearthed during a dig that has produced remnants of buildings, pottery, animal bones and flint tools, dating to between 2500BC and 410AD.

Perhaps the most amazing suppression of all is the excavation of an Egyptian tomb by the Smithsonian itself in Arizona. A lengthy front page story of the Phoenix Gazzete on 5 April 1909 (article below), gave a highly detailed report of the discovery and excavation of a rock-cut vault by an expedition led by a Professor S.A. Jordan of the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian, however, claims to have absolutely no knowledge of the discovery or its discoverers. The World Explorers Club decided to check on this story by calling the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., though we felt there was little chance of getting any real information. After speaking briefly to an operator we were transferred to a Smithsonian staff archaeologist, and a woman's voice came on the phone and identified herself. I told her that I was investigating a story from a 1909 Phoenix newspaper article about the Smithsonian Institution's having excavated rock-cut vaults in the Grand Canyon where Egyptian artefacts had been discovered, and whether the Smithsonian Institution could give me any more information on the subject. "Well, the first thing I can tell you, before we go any further," she said, "is that no Egyptian artefacts of any kind have ever been found in North or South America. Therefore, I can tell you that the Smithsonian Institute has never been involved in any such excavations." She was quite helpful and polite but, in the end, knew nothing. Neither she nor anyone else with whom I spoke could find any record of the discovery or either G.E. Kinkaid and Professor S.A. Jordan. While it cannot be discounted that the entire story is an elaborate newspaper hoax, the fact that it was on the front page, named the prestigious Smithsonian Institution, and gave a highly detailed story that went on for several pages, lends a great deal to its credibility. It is hard to believe such a story could have come out of thin air. Is the Smithsonian Institution covering up an archaeological discovery of immense importance? If this story is true it would radically change the current view that there was no transoceanic contact in pre-Columbian times, and that all American Indians, on both continents, are descended from Ice Age explorers who came across the Bering Strait. Is the idea that ancient Egyptians came to the Arizona area in the ancient past so objectionable and preposterous that it must be covered up? Perhaps the Smithsonian Institution is more interested in maintaining the status quo than rocking the boat with astonishing new discoveries that overturn previously accepted academic teachings. Historian and linguist Carl Hart, editor of WORLD EXPLORER, then obtained a hiker's map of the Grand Canyon from a bookstore in Chicago. Poring over the map, we were amazed to see that much of the area on the north side of the canyon has Egyptian names. The area around Ninety-four Mile Creek and Trinity Creek had areas (rock formations, apparently) with names like Tower of Set, Tower of Ra, Horus Temple, Osiris Temple, and Isis Temple. In the Haunted Canyon area were such names as the Cheops Pyramid, the Buddha Cloister, Buddha Temple, Manu Temple and Shiva Temple. Was there any relationship between these places and the alleged Egyptian discoveries in the Grand Canyon? We called a state archaeologist at the Grand Canyon, and were told that the early explorers had just liked Egyptian and Hindu names, but that it was true that this area was off limits to hikers or other visitors, "because of dangerous caves." Indeed, this entire area with the Egyptian and Hindu place names in the Grand Canyon is a forbidden zone - no one is allowed into this large area. We could only conclude that this was the area where the vaults were located. Yet today, this area is curiously off-limits to all hikers and even, in large part, park personnel. I believe that the discerning reader will see that if only a small part of the "Smithsoniangate" evidence is true, then our most hallowed archaeological institution has been actively involved in suppressing evidence for advanced American cultures, evidence for ancient voyages of various cultures to North America, evidence for anomalistic giants and other oddball artefacts, and evidence that tends to disprove the official dogma that is now the history of North America. The Smithsonian's Board of Regents still refuses to open its meetings to the news media or the public. If Americans were ever allowed inside the 'nation's attic', as the Smithsonian has been called, what skeletons might they find? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By David Hatcher Childress -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From The Front Page of THE PHOENIX GAZETTE of April 5th, 1909 The latest news of the progress of the explorations of what is now regarded by scientists as not only the oldest archeological discovery in the United States, but one of the most valuable in the world, which was mentioned some time ago in the Gazette, was brought to the city yesterday by G.E. Kinkaid, the explorer who found the great underground citadel of the Grand Canyon during a trip from Green River, Wyoming, down the Colorado, in a wooden boat, to Yuma, several months ago. According to the story related to the Gazette by Mr. Kinkaid, the archaelogists of the Smithsonian Institute, which is financing the expeditions, have made discoveries which almost conclusively prove that the race which inhabited this mysterious cavern, hewn in solid rock by human hands, was of oriental origin, possibly from Egypt, tracing back to Ramses. If their theories are borne out by the translation of the tablets engraved with heiroglyphics, the mystery of the prehistoric peoples of North America, their ancient arts, who they were and whence they came, will be solved. Egypt and the Nile, and Arizona and the Colorado will be linked by a historical chain running back to ages which staggers the wildest fancy of the fictionist. A Thorough Examination Under the direction of Prof. S. A. Jordan, the Smithsonian Institute is now prosecuting the most thorough explorations, which will be continued until the last link in the chain is forged. Nearly a mile underground, about 1480 feet below the surface, the long main passage has been delved into, to find another mammoth chamber from which radiates scores of passageways, like the spokes of a wheel. Several hundred rooms have been discovered, reached by passageways running from the main passage, one of them having been explored for 854 feet and another 634 feet. The recent finds include articles which have never been known as native to this country, and doubtless they had their origin in the orient. War weapons, copper instruments, sharp-edged and hard as steel, indicate the high state of civilization reached by these strange people. So interested have the scientists become that preparations are being made to equip the camp for extensive studies, and the force will be increased to thirty or forty persons. Mr. Kinkaid's Report Mr. Kinkaid was the first white child born in Idaho and has been an explorer and hunter all his life, thirty years having been in the service of the Smithsonian Institute. Even briefly recounted, his history sounds fabulous, almost grotesque. "First, I would impress that the cavern is nearly inaccessible. The entrance is 1,486 feet down the sheer canyon wall. It is located on government land and no visitor will be allowed there under penalty of trespass. The scientists wish to work unmolested, without fear of archeological discoveries being disturbed by curio or relic hunters. A trip there would be fruitless, and the visitor would be sent on his way. The story of how I found the cavern has been related, but in a paragraph: I was journeying down the Colorado river in a boat, alone, looking for mineral. Some forty-two miles up the river from the El Tovar Crystal canyon, I saw on the east wall, stains in the sedimentary formation about 2,000 feet above the river bed. There was no trail to this point, but I finally reached it with great difficulty. Above a shelf which hid it from view from the river, was the mouth of the cave. There are steps leading from this entrance some thirty yards to what was, at the time the cavern was inhabited, the level of the river. When I saw the chisel marks on the wall inside the entrance, I became interested, securing my gun and went in. During that trip I went back several hundred feet along the main passage till I came to the crypt in which I discovered the mummies. One of these I stood up and photographed by flashlight. I gathered a number of relics, which I carried down the Colorado to Yuma, from whence I shipped them to Washington with details of the discovery. Following this, the explorations were undertaken. The Passages "The main passageway is about 12 feet wide, narrowing to nine feet toward the farther end. About 57 feet from the entrance, the first side-passages branch off to the right and left, along which, on both sides, are a number of rooms about the size of ordinary living rooms of today, though some are 30 by 40 feet square. These are entered by oval-shaped doors and are ventilated by round air spaces through the walls into the passages. The walls are about three feet six inches in thickness. The passages are chiseled or hewn as straight as could be laid out by an engineer. The ceilings of many of the rooms converge to a center. The side-passages near the entrance run at a sharp angle from the main hall, but toward the rear they gradually reach a right angle in direction. The Shrine "Over a hundred feet from the entrance is the cross-hall, several hundred feet long, in which are found the idol, or image, of the people's god, sitting cross-legged, with a lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of the face is oriental, and the carving this cavern. The idol almost resembles Buddha, though the scientists are not certain as to what religious worship it represents. Taking into consideration everything found thus far, it is possible that this worship most resembles the ancient people of Tibet. Surrounding this idol are smaller images, some very beautiful in form; others crooked-necked and distorted shapes, symbolical, probably, of good and evil. There are two large cactus with protruding arms, one on each side of the dais on which the god squats. All this is carved out of hard rock resembling marble. In the opposite corner of this cross-hall were found tools of all descriptions, made of copper. These people undoubtedly knew the lost art of hardening this metal, which has been sought by chemicals for centureis without result. On a bench running around the workroom was some charcoal and other material probably used in the process. There is also slag and stuff similar to matte, showing that these ancients smelted ores, but so far no trace of where or how this was done has been discovered, nor the origin of the ore. "Among the other finds are vases or urns and cups of copper and gold, made very artistic in design. The pottery work includes enameled ware and glazed vessels. Another passageway leads to granaries such as are found in the oriental temples. They contain seeds of varous kinds. One very large storehouse has not yet been entered, as it is twelve feet high and can be reached only from above. Two copper hooks extend on the edge, which indicates that some sort of ladder was attached. These granaries are rounded, as the materials of which they are constructed, I think, is a ver hard cement. A gray metal is also found in this cavern, which puzzles the scientists, for its identity has not been established. It resembles platinum. Strewn promiscuously over the floor everywhere are what people call "cats eyse', a yellow stone of no great value. Each one is engraved with the head of the Malay type. The Hieroglyphics "On all the urns, or walls over doorways , and tablets of stone which were found by the image are the mysterious hieroglyphics, the key to which the Smithsonian Institute hopes yet to discover. The engraving on the tables probably has something to do with the religion of the people. Similar hieroglyphics have been found in southern Arizona. Among the pictorial writings, only two animals are found. One is of prehistoric type. The Crypt "The tomb or crypt in which the mummies were found is one of the largest of the chambers, the walls slanting back at an angle of about 35 degrees. On these are tiers of mummies, each one occupying a separate hewn shelf. At the head of each is a small bench, on which is found copper cups and pieces of broken swords. Some of the mummies are covered with clay, and all are wrapped in a bark fabric. The urns or cups on the lower tiers are crude, while as the higher shelves are reached, the urns are finer in design, showing a later stage of civilization. It is worthy of note that all the mummies examined so far have proved to be male, no children or females being buried here. This leads to the belief that this exterior section was the warriors' barracks. "Among the discoveries no bones of animals have been found, no skins, no clothing, no bedding. Many of the rooms are bare but for water vessels. One room, about 40 by 700 feet, was probably the main dining hall, for cooking utensils are found here. What these people lived on is a problem, though it is presumed that they came south in the winter and farmed in the valleys, going back north in the summer. Upwards of 50,000 people could have lived in the caverns comfortably. One theory is that the present Indian tribes found in Arizona are descendants of the serfs or slaves of the people which inhabited the cave. Undoubtedly a good many thousands of years before the Christian era, a people lived here which reached a high stage of civilization. The chronology of human history is full of gaps. Professor Jordan is much enthused over the discoveries and believes that the find will prove of incalculable value in archeological work. "One thing I have not spoken of, may be of interest. There is one chamber of the passageway to which is not ventilated, and when we approached it a deadly, snaky smell struck us. Our light would not penetrate the gloom, and until stronger ones are available we will not know what the chamber contains. Some say snakes, but other boo-hoo this idea and think it may contain a deadly gas or chemicals used by the ancients. No sounds are heard, but it smells snaky just the same. The whole underground installation gives one of shaky nerves the creeps. The gloom is like a weight on one's shoulders, and our flashlights and candles only make the darkness blacker. Imagination can revel in conjectures and ungodly daydreams back through the ages that have elapsed till the mind reels dizzily in space." An Indian Legend In connection with this story, it is notable that among the Hopi Indians the tradition is told that their ancestors once lived in an underworld in the Grand Canyon till dissension arose between the good and the bad, the people of one heart and the people of two hearts. Machetto, who was their chief, counseled them to leave the underworld, but there was no way out. The chief then caused a tree to grow up and pierce the roof of the underworld, and then the people of one heart climbed out. They tarried by Paisisvai (Red River), which is the Colorado, and grew grain and corn. They sent out a message to the Temple of the Sun, asking the blessing of peace, good will and rain for people of one heart. That messenger never returned, but today at the Hopi villages at sundown can be seen the old men of the tribe out on the housetops gazing toward the sun, looking for the messenger. When he returns, their lands and ancient dwelling place will be restored to them. That is the tradition. Among the engravings of animals in the cave is seen the image of a heart over the spot where it is located. The legend was learned by W.E. Rollins, the artist, during a year spent with the Hopi Indians. There are two theories of the origin of the Egyptians. One is that they came from Asia; another that the racial cradle was in the upper Nile region. Heeren, an Egyptologist, believed in the Indian origin of the Egyptians. The discoveries in the Grand Canyon may throw further light on human evolution and prehistoric ages.

A new cemetery containing a number of rock-carved tombs of senior temple officials from the Old Kingdom (2400-2100 BC) has recently been discovered in Sakkara. The excavation team from the French Institute of Eastern Antiquities made the find while working at the western side of south Sakkara.

Next months guest author, Jane Sellers, has kindly sent us an article introducing her brilliant 'The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt' which will be discussed on the Mysteries Message Board next month. Images to accompany the essay will be appearing online very soon. Please click the link below to read Jane's essay and then pay a visit to the Bookshop and get your copy ready for next months discussion.

Scientists are focussing the search for alien life on a small number of possibly hospitable planets and solar systems. University of Arizona astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull has compiled a shortlist of 30 possibly habitable planets and stars - and the leading contender is a middle-aged sun called Gem 37. Turbull created the list for NASA'S Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), a new space telescope project that will search for habitable planets after it's launch in about 10 years time. Gem 37 came out on top because of its similarity to our own sun. "The closer we look, the more we realize how (most) other stars are different from the sun," Turnbull was quoted as saying in an interview with NEW SCIENTIST magazine.

Household items, including stone and bone vessels, dating back 4,000 years have been unearthed at the Xihetan Ruins, in northwest China's Gansu Province. Prof. Zhao Congcang with the Archaeology Department of the Northwest China University announced that the first phase dig at the Xihetan Ruins had been completed. Within the excavated area of 11,000 square meters, 53 household items, 536 pits in a variety of shapes and sizes, and many stone and bone vessels had been discovered.

If you are a parent with young children, you have probably encountered the Blopen, a kind of lung-powered airbrush for art projects. It is a plastic tube that produces a fine spray of ink out one end when the child blows on the other.Ancient people used a Blopen of sorts as well, blowing pigment through a tube or pipe when they made their cave paintings. Often the outline of a hand was painted, created by placing one hand on the cave wall, holding the tube in the other and blowing pigment over the first. It is not known precisely what these "negative hands," as they are known, say about the beliefs of the people who painted them. But they do say something about their handedness. If the left hand is dominant, for example, the painter would be expected to hold the tube in that hand and leave the outline of a right hand on the wall.

Experts are scratching their heads about a series of rock markings discovered in north Northumberland. The markings - including a heart shape and one resembling a human footprint - are being investigated by archaeologists on rocks near Wooler. The Newcastle University team, who were alerted to the carvings by a local farm-hand, have said they are baffled as to what they mean or who created them.

Thousands of aboriginal bones are still being held in Britain's Victorian collections but at the moment, national institutions like the Natural History Museum, can't return them to Australia without a change in the law. Aborigines from Australia and Tasmania have been asking for the bones of their ancestors to be returned for burial. But scientists here are concerned that if these bones go back, their value for scientific research will be lost forever.

On September 19th, 2003 writer Seppo Saraspää was looking for lichen for his draft reindeer in Nanguniemi in Inari. While climbing on the rocks his eye was caught by something unexpected. At first glance it looked like a snake or a woman's hair holder. Saraspää decided to have a closer look. What he had found was in fact a silver neck-ring. Saraspää looked around and concluded that the ring had fallen down from the small cave above. He peeked inside the cave and noticed that there was still something else left, yet he decided to leave the treasure untouched. Saraspää contacted immediately Tarmo Jomppanen, the director of Sámi Museum Siida, and delivered him the ring that he had found.

An ancient warrior "sleeping" underground for more than 2,000 years has been "woken up" by the noise from a road renovation site in downtown Chengdu City, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. Construction workers discovered some bronze artifacts while they were reconstructing the Wenmiao West Street of the city on Sept. 22.

We may be living in a small Universe where space is curved in on itself, rather like a football, say researchers in this week's Nature journal. More precisely, we may inhabit a dodecahedral cosmos. It is, according to the scientists, the best way to account for the latest satellite observations.

China's CCTV state television says government plans to launch its first manned space vehicle on October 15. The Shenzhou V spacecraft is expected to orbit earth one or more times before returning. Exactly who will be China's first humans in space is yet to be announced, but there are reports that fourteen astronauts are training at the launch pad in Jiuquan, western Gansu Province. The Chinese word for spacemen is "yuhangyuan." If successful, China will be the third Earth nation to put humans in space. The first were the Soviet Union and United States.

Siberian scientists say they have a discovery on their hands which raises the possibility that the local legend of the yeti - the abominable snowman - is more than mere fiction. According to Russian TV, the well-preserved furry limb of a mystery creature was found some 3,500 metres up in the permafrost of the Altay mountains, in Russia's remote Siberia region.

An Australian archaeologist has put forward her theory on the origin of the "Maltese Clapham Junction", and it has nothing to do with the usual Atlantis theories. Claudia Sagona of Birmingham University has suggested that the site may simply be a relic of stone age agriculture. Malta is famed for its megalithic temples - believed by some to be the oldest stone building enterprise in the world - and also the "Maltese Clapham Junction" where it appears that cart ruts lead off into the ocean. Many alternative researchers believe that the ruts show that there was a civilisation nearby that is now beneath the waves.

New findings by the University of Colorado at Boulder indicate tiny footpaths traveled by Costa Rican people 1,500 years ago were precursors to wide, deep and ritualistic roadways 500 years later leading to and from cemeteries and villages. During the past two years, a team of graduate students, NASA archaeologists and remote sensing specialists led by Professor Payson Sheets spent much of their time mapping the small footpaths, many of which are invisible on the ground but visible by satellites. The team noticed portions of some footpaths were worn up to 3 meters deep by people who had trod them over the centuries approaching some of the cemeteries.

A virtual exhibition, which shows how the Elgin Marbles would look if they were reunited, has opened in London. Marbles Reunited shows those sculptures removed from Greece 200 years ago by Lord Elgin next to those which remained in Athens.

It is not yet decided who will be China's first man in space China's premier Wen Jiabao has said the country would launch its first manned space flight "very soon". Mr Wen told reporters that no date had been decided for the launch of the Shenzhou V spacecraft.

Three years ago when Paulina Zelitsky and Paul Weinzweig, co-owners of Advanced Digital Communications, saw the first side scan sonar images of the deep water structures off the western tip of Cuba, some underwater objects were dark as metals sometimes show up on magnetometers. I asked Paul if any more data supported the initial cesium magnetometer data which implied there might be metal coatings on some of the megalithic structures.

Archaeologists could soon unveil the social structure of a mysterious Bronze Age civilization from northern Italy, according to ongoing anthropological and archaeological research. The study centers on a large necropolis discovered in the Casinalbo village near Modena. Dating between 1500 and 1200 B.C., it consisted of more than 2,000 tombs belonging to the people of the "terramare" , prehistoric flat-topped mounds left by a Bronze Age pile-dwelling settlement built on dry land.

An extensive archaeological excavation has unearthed a lost city that is believed to be one of the crowning jewels in the ancient civilization of the Maya. For six years, researchers have deciphered hieroglyphics and scrutinized palaces in Guatemala's remote Piedras Negras, near the Mexican border. The study shows a city that began as an agricultural center as early as 400 B.C. and disintegrated under royal power struggles around 1,400 years later, around the same time the entire Mayan civilization began to collapse.

Malin Space Science Systems has revealed a new image of the Face on Mars. This is the fourth such image that MSSS has acquired and posted to its website since the "definitive" overhead photo released in 2001. The new image shows a portion of the "headdress" and the western ("simian") half of the Face, which includes the "eye" and rectilinear "teardrop" features. One may reasonably ask why MSSS appears so interested in the Face. Dr. Mike Malin, operator of the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) aboard the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter, is infamous among Cydonia-watchers for his attempts to debunk notions of artificiality at Cydonia.

Archaeologists believe they may have stumbled upon a major Stone Age site - on the route of a new bypass. The site dates back between 250,000 and 300,000 years and may even provide evidence of one of the earliest uses of fire. Archaeologists discovered a range of items at the location in Harnham, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, including 44 "very rare" flint hand axes - the earliest form of tool used by man.

VISITORS to the Egyptian Galleries at the British Museum are often impressed by the crisp lines and clarity of hieroglyphic inscriptions up to 5,000 years old, and the delicate detail on images of Pharaohs and their exotic deities. The crispness is due to the hardness of much of the stone used in Ancient Egypt, including red granite from Aswan, purple porphyry, quartzite and various marbles. Some types were so prized that the Roman Emperors had them shipped to adorn their capital, as with the giant columns of the Pantheon, from a source between the Nile and the Red Sea.

About the size of a football field: The impact crater left behind A team of geologists believes it has found the incoming space rock's impact crater, and dating suggests its formation coincided with the celestial vision said to have converted a future Roman emperor to Christianity. It was just before a decisive battle for control of Rome and the empire that Constantine saw a blazing light cross the sky and attributed his subsequent victory to divine help from a Christian God.

A Greek admiral is realizing a dream to build the world's only replica of the Minoan ships that some 3,500 years ago helped the ancient civilization win dominance over the seas and travel as far as Asia and Africa. Since no wreck of a Minoan ship has ever been found, Apostolos Kourtis has had to start from scratch, relying on ancient drawings and using the same methods as the Minoans who lived on the Mediterranean island of Crete from around 3000 B.C.

Egyptian police have caught a man trying to sell a 2,500 year-old mummy to pay off a loan he took to buy a tractor, the Al-Wafd newspaper reported Friday. The suspect is a pick-up truck driver who had bought the 160-centimetre (62-inch) mummy for the equivalent of 7,000 dollars from a man who discovered it in the Western desert three months ago, the daily said.

The tortoises on the slopes of Alcedo Volcano in the Galapagos Islands have the signature of an ancient eruption written in their DNA, scientists say. The animals have comparatively little genetic diversity compared with other tortoise groups on the archipelago. This suggests a dramatic reduction in their numbers occurred in the past.

After three years of research, the Pompeii that Mount Vesuvius did not bury is coming to light, according to Italian archaeologists. Hidden in layers beneath the town overwhelmed by lava and ash by the most famous eruption in history, the ancient settlement dates back to the third century B.C.

Egypt retrieved seven monumental statues from Italy that were seized by authorities in an Italian woman's house. Moreover, Egypt retrieved a mummy of falcon-shaped god Horus that was handed by a German to the Egyptian Consulate in Hamburg. The German had inherited the eagle from his grandfather. Meanwhile, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni highlighted that retrieving these pieces of antiquities were the result of cooperation between culture, foreign and justice ministries with the Italian authorities which had implemented a judicial ruling in favor of Egypt to retrieve its seven statues.

An international ring of antique smugglers peddling in priceless artefacts has been busted in Egypt. State prosecutor Maher Abdel Wahed said on Thursday that the gang had smuggled at least 300 Pharaonic and other artefacts to Europe before Egyptian investigators caught up with them.

Questions resulting from the identification by Dr Joann Fletcher of the so-called mummy of Queen Nefertiti in the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings has caused repercussions in the British press, including unjustified faultfinding with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). On 22 August 2003, The Times published an article claiming that Dr Fletcher was a "victim" of a sensitive issue. It continued: "The dispute has thrown British Egyptology into turmoil, with British archaeologists accusing the Egyptian government of taking revenge on Britain for occupying Egypt in the 19th century, for invading Iraq and for refusing to give back the Rosetta Stone." A British Egyptologist who requested anonymity complained to The Times that the new guidelines issued by the SCA had laid restrictions which meant some people were not getting permits. This suggestion of discrimination is totally unjustified. There are more than 300 foreign expeditions currently working in Egypt, and they all follow the same guidelines. We grant concessions to any scholar affiliated to a scientific or educational institution, and it has long been the accepted code of ethics that any discovery made during excavations should first be reported to the SCA.

Boulder, Colorado - Save a lot of room in your Mars picture book. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a you-haven't-seen-anything-yet spacecraft. Set for liftoff in August 2005, the MRO will scrutinize the red planet like no previous orbiter and become the cornerstone of a futuristic interplanetary Internet.

Titan - Saturn's major moon - may have a surface of oily lakes or oceans, according to the latest radar research. The giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico has transmitted a beam of radio waves towards Titan, and detected a faint echo over two hours later. Analysis of the dim signal suggests the presence of craters filled with oily oceans or lakes beneath the clouds.

THE remains of what is believed to be a Roman fort dating back almost 2,000 years have been discovered beneath fields in Great Urswick. Archaeologist Steve Dickinson, of Trinity Gardens, Ulverston, predicted the presence of the site in a report he wrote about Urswick church last year. He said he suspected there were remains of a permanent Roman military base in the area because of the large amounts of unusual sandstone masonry that kept appearing in Urswick.

Given the recent announcement of archaeological work beneath the Giza Plateau, I thought this might be of interest (John G - web-editor) SINCE its emergence as a science, archaeology has wrestled with a paradox: discovery involves destruction, and investigation requires intrusion. An archaeological dig cannot be undone. Once a layer has been stripped away, any information not recorded is lost. Most archaeologists have had the experience of trying to discover something new about a site that has been completely excavated, only to find that the question they wanted to ask had not occurred to the original diggers. So knowing what lies beneath the surface before the trowel hits the soil has long been the dream of many an archaeologist. As well as saving time in determining where to dig, it would enable archaeologists to answer questions with a minimum of destruction, and potentially none at all. This dream is slowly becoming a reality, as a result of improvements in non-destructive surveying techniques. Archaeology has never been a wealthy discipline, but by borrowing tools developed for more well-endowed professions, archaeologists are developing X-ray vision, or, to be precise, infra-red, microwave and magnetic vision, which are even better.

The origins of England's tallest chalk hill figure, the Long Man of Wilmington, have puzzled historians and archaeologists for generations. Carved into a steep slope on the South Downs in Sussex, the imposing figure has been claimed as an Anglo Saxon warrior, a Roman folly and an Iron Age fertility symbol. But according to a team of researchers, the Long Man may be a relatively recent addition to the landscape. Tests carried out this summer have produced compelling evidence that it dates from the mid-16th century.

New Zealand scientists have been given approval to drill up to two kilometres under Antarctica to study changes in the continent's ice sheet. The five-year $33 million project will compare core samples from periods when the Earth's climate was warmer than today in an attempt to improve predictions on future ice sheet behaviour. Drilling is scheduled to begin on Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf in 2004 or 2005. (Let's hope they find some pot-sherds! John G, web-editor)

The identity of the Universe's dark matter may finally have been discovered. In what seems to be the most convincing claim for dark matter so far, researchers in England and France say gamma rays coming from the centre of our galaxy show hallmarks of these ghostly particles. The research has only just been made public, so the team is still waiting for a response from other dark matter experts. But though the researchers are cautious, there is no hiding their excitement. "I've dropped everything else to work on this," says Dan Hooper of the University of Oxford. "We're really excited," adds his colleague Céline Boehm, also of Oxford. "I'm cautious but it's surprising everything fits so well."

The mosaics at one of Britain's most important Roman sites could be at risk unless £1m is raised by a public appeal. A spokesman for Fishbourne Roman Palace, near Chichester in West Sussex, has said parts of the building have fallen into such a state of disrepair that the mosaics are now under threat.

Archaelogists have found about 3,000 artifacts, mostly tiles and potsherds, which are believed to be the traces of an ancient civilisation dating back as early as the 6th century, right in the heart of Ha Noi. These artifacts were unearthed at a 1.4ha site near Hoang Dieu street resulting from site clearance for a new National Assembly building. The search on the site lasting nearly a year, has found traces of a 62m-long and 27m-wide palace foundation, which archaeologists say is possibly more than 1,000 years old.

A forensic expert in the US believes he has some of the strongest evidence yet that the Bigfoot, or sasquatch, creature exists. The creatures are real enough to those who say they have spotted them - but most scientists remain sceptical about their existence. Investigator Jimmy Chilcutt of the Conroe Police Department in Texas, who specialises in finger and footprints, has said he believes he is certain around six footprints found - claimed to have been made by Bigfoot - are genuine.

ExoMars would put a rover on the surface of the planet Three European consortia have won contracts to design a mission to Mars that should launch from Earth in 2009. The ExoMars probe will put a rover on the surface of the Red Planet to look for signs of current or past life.

A unique headless statuette of Queen Nefertiti's daughter, which has never been seen in public, has been saved for the nation by a lottery grant, it emerged yesterday. Queen Nefertiti was the bride and co-ruler of Egypt, in the 14th century BC, with the pharaoh Akhenatan and the mother of Tutankhamun.

The contents of ancient pottery could help archaeologists resolve some longstanding disputes in the world of antiquities, thanks to scientists at Britain's University of Bristol. The researchers have developed the first direct method for dating pottery by examining animal fats preserved inside the ceramic walls. Archaeologists have long dated sites by the visual appearance of pottery fragments found around the site. The new analytical technique will allow archaeologists to more accurately determine the age of pottery and, by extension, the age of associated artifacts and sites. The research builds on recent work that has shed light on the types and uses of commodities contained within the vessels.

The Smart 1 spacecraft has fired up its innovative solar-electric engine. Mission controllers sent instructions to the lunar probe to start its ion drive as they checked out the health of all Smart's onboard systems.

A unique Roman "souvenir" of the building of Hadrian's Wall has been discovered. The bronze pan, dating from the second century AD, when the Romans built the dividing wall across the north of England, was found in the Staffordshire moorlands. Archaeologists are excited because the names of four forts located at the western end of Hadrian's Wall - Bowes, Drumburgh, Stanwix and Castlesteads - are engraved on the vessel.

Lost civilizations have always fascinated mankind, and there are many myths around the globe describing such hidden or destroyed empires. But one of these has a name so legendary, that in the last two millennia, whole libraries have been written on the subject, and even its name has a mysterious sound attached to it: Atlantis! How do we have to interpret the story? Was the great Plato just philosophising? Or was there really an advanced civilization thousands of years before the Egyptians came on stage? Throughout the centuries we have been literally flooded with theories (interesting choice of words) and Atlantis has been placed almost everywhere on earth, from the island Santorini over Sundaland and Yonaguni, to a chain of islands making a connection with the New World. But centuries of persistent claims, theories and on-going discussions about the location of Atlantis in the Atlantic zone of the Canary Archipelago leave me no other option than to conclude that, even though in the last few decades this theory has often been completely ignored, it was worth another look...

BRITISH scientists say there is convincing evidence that a significant proportion of the population possess psychic powers. The British Association for the Advancement of Science was told an increasing number of experiments support the theory of a human "sixth sense" - an ability which may have its roots in our past, when the ability to sense the presence of a predator was a matter of life or death.

Spanish officials say archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Roman amphitheater, the third largest known. The amphitheater, in Spain's southern city of Cordoba, is 178-meters in width at its widest point. It is the third largest after the Coliseum in Rome and the amphitheater in the ancient Tunisian city of Carthage.

'Friends of America's Past' has posted an official transcript of the oral arguments presented on September 10, 2003. Please follow the link for the full text.

An array of stone figurines, which are believed to be some 2,000 years old, have been found in central China's Henan Province. The figurines, with a maximum height of 30 centimeters, were discovered by a farmer named Ma Qingguang in Macifan village in Neihuang county when he was digging holes in his field to trap mice Friday.

BHUBANESHWAR, India: Hundreds of people fled their homes when a meteor struck their village in eastern India, injuring three people and destroying two houses, a state minister said Sunday. The fireball hit the village of Sudusudia in Orissa state on Saturday evening, said B. B. Harichandan, the state revenue minister. "One person has sustained burn injuries and two houses have been burned down. The injured has been hospitalized,'' the minister said.

Findings by a Texas State University-San Marcos professor at an archaeological site in Belize have pushed back the date for the rise of the Maya civilization to 300 years earlier than previously believed. Anthropology professor James J. Garber has worked at the site, known as Blackman Eddy, each summer since 1990. Although smaller than many other Maya ruins, it was a major cultural center in the Upper Belize Valley.

A team of British and Egyptian archaeologists are excavating beneath the three Pyramids of Giza to find more about the mystery of the Pyramids and their builders. "The British team, which hails from the University of Birmingham, is using the latest and most up-to-date equipment to seek the mystery of the Pyramids," said Zahi Hawwas, Secretary General of the Higher Council for Antiquities in Egypt. The team is employing a special radar that would help create an archaelogical map of the subterranean region beneath the three Pyramids in Giza, Hawwas added.

Moscow State University professor Dmitry Goltsov has recently announced the sensational possibility of time travel. Cosmologists discovered a new dimension that prejudiced Einstein's theory of relativity. The three-dimensional model is not actual anymore. Cosmologists believe, one may travel in time through black holes with the help of a time machine. The machine will be moving from one black hole to another, which will allow it to travel either to the relative future or the relative past. It will be easy to return to our times too. Yet, it is not known, to which extent the theory is correct - the time machine has not been invented yet. The time machine has been a very popular subject for science fiction writers for decades. Yet, it is generally believed that the idea is absolutely unreal, on one has ever dreamed about it seriously. (source: Pravda)

The first solo European mission to the Moon is well on its way. The Smart 1 probe blasted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 2314 GMT. Forty-two minutes later, ground controllers said the spacecraft had been released successfully from its Ariane 5 rocket launcher and was on its correct course.

A 50,000-year record of mammals consumed by early humans in southwestern France indicates there was no major difference in the prey hunted by Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon, according to a new study. The paper, published in the online Journal of Archaeological Science, counters the idea proposed by some scientists that Cro-Magnon, who were physically similar to modern man, supplanted Neanderthals because they were more skilled hunters as a result of some evolutionary physical or mental advantage.

The discovery of a stone tablet detailing diplomatic ties between the ancient Egyptians and Hittites in the 13th Century BC could be the key to the lost archives of Ramses II, according to archaeologists. Discovered at Qantir 120 kilometres north-east of Cairo, the tablet dates back to the time of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses II (1298-1235 BC) and confirms his capital, Pi-Ramses, was in the Nile Delta.

It may be the answer generations of experts on the ancient world have been looking for. New research claims that the fabled ancient civilisation of Atlantis is located close to Cyprus. After nearly 10 years of research using ocean mapping technology and accounts from ancient texts, an American explorer says he has evidence that Atlantis lies beneath the deep blue waters off the southern tip of the island.

A box of gadgetry little bigger than a television will be hurled into space this weekend on a mission to explain where the moon came from. After studying rocks brought back by six manned Apollo missions and three unmanned Russian probes in the 1960s and '70s, scientists theorised the moon formed 4.5 billion years ago after a Mars-sized planet collided with Earth. Lighter rocks were thrown into orbit, forming the moon. But Bernard Foing, the European Space Agency's project scientist, said it was still just a theory.

Thousands of stars stripped from a nearby dwarf galaxy are streaming through our own Milky Way, according to astronomers. These "alien" stars could at times be close to our Sun, they say. The interlopers were spotted on a new survey of the entire sky.