Archaeology · Archive · The East · Museums · Science

The National Museum of Denmark has held a collection of some five-thousand-year-old clay tablets from Mesopotamia and Syria in storage for about a hundred years

The National Museum of Denmark has held a collection of some five-thousand-year-old clay tablets from Mesopotamia and Syria in storage for about a hundred years. Since the material is cuneiform, nobody took the tablets seriously. Until the Hidden Treasures project of the University of Copenhagen and the

Science · Society · People

Chemist Ariel Fernandez banned from federal funding for 15 years

The US Office of Research Integrity has officially announced a 15-year ban on federal funding for the chemist Ariel Fernandez, a former professor at Rice University. The investigation, begun in 2009 on a tip from his own graduate student, lasted 17 years. Fernandez stands accused of fabricating data in

Observations · Science · Nature

I Have Two Pieces of News for You

I have two pieces of news for you. The first. The age of sharks is determined by the annual rings on their vertebrae. Sharks have a cartilaginous skeleton, but the vertebrae are mineralised with enough calcium to lay down visible annual layers. In a cross-section of a vertebra, concentric

Cinema · Science · People · Nature

On 8 May David Attenborough turns one hundred

On 8 May David Attenborough turns one hundred. No one in history has shown the whole world for so long how life on this planet is put together. At 99 he managed, last year, to make one more film, Ocean, in which for the first time he spoke openly of

Archive · The East · Books · Moscow · Science

The Fundamental Library of INION RAS opens trial access to the largest archive of digitised Chinese newspapers, the Contemporary Chinese Newspaper Full-Text Database, to a reprint database of the social sciences, and to Artron, with its albums and images

The Fundamental Library of INION RAS has opened trial access to the largest archive of digitised Chinese newspapers, the Contemporary Chinese Newspaper Full-Text Database, to a reprint database of the social sciences, and to Artron, with its albums and images on art. Until 30 June all of this may

Archaeology · The East · Science · Nature

Georgia Yields the Earliest Physical Evidence of Bread Wheat Anywhere in the World

On the hills of Shulaveri and Gadachrili in Georgia, archaeologists led by David Lordkipanidze have found charred grains, impressions of ears in mudbricks and seeds of wild goat grass some eight thousand years old. A laboratory at the Weizmann Institute has confirmed the radiocarbon dating: 5800-6000 BC. The point

Observations · Science · Society

On 28 April the Trump administration dismissed the entire US National Science Board with a single letter: 22 scientists who oversaw the National Science Foundation, with its budget of 9 billion dollars a year

On 28 April the Trump administration dismissed the entire US National Science Board with a single letter: 22 scientists who oversaw the National Science Foundation, with its budget of 9 billion dollars a year. The NSF has been without a director since the spring of 2025, and Trump's

Archaeology · Archive · Faith · Books · Moscow · Museums · Science · Education · Ethnography

April's main publications on “Three Sisters”, the Shroud of Turin, Losev and Oxyrhynchus

From the famous Prigov: “Just stepped out of the bath, and already I remember nothing.” A month is built much the same way. So let me propose recalling the main things from April's publications in the digest. 🎭 At the Taganka Theatre, Alexander Zolotovitsky has staged “Three Sisters”, in

Archaeology · Geography · Science

Warsaw archaeologists find ten amber workshops from the 3rd and 4th centuries in Mazovia

Around AD 98, Tacitus writes in the «Germania» that the Baltic Aestii gather amber in the shallows, make no use of it themselves, sell it raw to Roman merchants, and are amazed at the price. The typical Roman view of neighbours as barbarians, mere suppliers of raw material, is being

Archive · Faith · Books · Science · Rome · Saint Petersburg

Twenty-second manuscript of Caedmon's Hymn from the early 9th century found in Rome

Now let us praise the all-ruling keeper of heaven, the Lord's almighty power, his good and wise counsel and the creation of the giver of glory, how he, the eternal sovereign, gave a beginning to every wonder. He made a lofty roof for the children of earth,

Archaeology · Science · Nature

Palynological analysis of pollen in a Roman ship's resin revealed where it was repaired

Among the archaeological methods of which the general public seldom hears, one of the most delicate lies hidden: palynological analysis. The method studies plant pollen. Microscopic grains, measuring a few thousandths of a millimetre, fall from flowering trees and grasses by the billion and settle everywhere: on the ground, in

Archaeology · London · Science · Humour

Hoaxes from Psalmanazar and Piltdown Man to the Sokal affair and bixonomania

Around 1700, a young man of obscure origins was wandering about Europe. He went through several legends before settling on the most advantageous of them, announcing himself a native of the island of Formosa. Under the name of George Psalmanazar he made his way to London, where he found a