The story of the 1951 annual Explorers Club dinner is famous, at least among explorers, paleontologists and connoisseurs of exotic cuisine. In brief, mammoth was served. A club member and journalist reported on the menu shortly afterward in The Christian… Continue Reading
The BBC recently posted a piece that looks at a procative new anthropological theory – that the emotion and conventions surrounding romantic love developed in homo sapiens in order to discourage infanticide: “In many primates today, a mother with a… Continue Reading
In August of 2012, an 11-year-old boy made a gruesome discovery in a frozen bluff overlooking the Arctic Ocean. While exploring the foggy coast of Yenisei Bay, about 2000 kilometers south of the North Pole, he came upon the leg… Continue Reading
Most of us think of Europe as the ancestral home of white people. But a new study shows that pale skin, as well as other traits such as tallness and the ability to digest milk as adults, arrived in most… Continue Reading
The carved stone block is about the size of an occasional table. It has held its secrets for two millenniums. Whoever engraved its enigmatic symbols was apparently depicting the ancient Jewish temples. But what makes the stone such a rare… Continue Reading
. The Herculaneum papyri survived only because all the moisture was seared out of them—uncharred papyrus scrolls in non-desert climates have long since rotted away. In each scroll, the tightly wrapped layers of the fibrous pith of the papyrus plant… Continue Reading
A dictionary of the extinct language of ancient Mesopotamia has been completed after 90 years of work. Assyrian and Babylonian – dialects of the language collectively known as Akkadian – have not been spoken for almost 2,000 years. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-13715296
The “Grand Pompeii Project,” was created to preserve Pompeii’s “intricate mosaic tiles, bathhouses and even graffiti.” As part of the initiative, six newly restored villas reopened to the public last week, reports Jareen Imam for CNN. The villas offer a peek into the past at the Unesco… Continue Reading
Several years ago Charles Fréger set out to document the many costumes used all over Europe for pagan rituals, visiting 18 countries on his journey to pin down the archetype of the “Wild Man” that transcends any one culture. The… Continue Reading
A copper knife handle depicting a couple having sex and an animal bone carved into the shape of a penis with wings are among thousands of artefacts unearthed across Britain by amateur treasure hunters. The erotic art is part of… Continue Reading