Almaty · Archaeology · Observations · Science
A colossal new study changes our picture of how power was organised among the Scythians. According to a collective paper recently published in Science Advances, high status among the early nomads of Eurasia was inherited along family lines rather than won anew by each generation. The researchers analysed whole-genome
Archaeology · Archive · Books · Science
For the First Time in History, One of the Charred Herculaneum Scrolls Has Been Read in Full. An international team of engineers and scholars led by the University of Kentucky has virtually unrolled a papyrus from the Villa of the Papyri, the library that perished together with Herculaneum in the
Archaeology · Art · Observations · Heritage · Science · Nature
John Keats feared he might cease to be before his pen had gleaned his teeming brain, «before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain». Our concern is rather that, amid the informational din, the important things of the month should not get lost. Hence the regular digest: the
Science · Humour
The word "banderole" was borrowed from French. Banderole, "pennant, little ribbon", goes back to the Italian banderuola, "little flag". Bandera comes from the Italian word bandiera, "banner, flag". Banderuola and bandiera go back to the Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to
Geography · Science · Nature
An Asteroid Fell into the North Sea, 130 km off the Yorkshire Coast. The dispute over the origin of the Silverpit crater went on for more than twenty years after its discovery. Scholars split into several camps: the first saw the trace of an asteroid, the second the shifting of
Archaeology · Science · Nature
One dog is under a year old, a mottled female; the other is a puppy no more than three months old. The finds are about 1,100 years old. Mummification occurs of its own accord in the dry climate of the region, but what interested the scholars was the context
Books · Science · Society · People
The theoretical physicist and co-creator of loop quantum gravity Carlo Rovelli has published a book not about physics but about the looming danger of nuclear catastrophe. The book is called "85 Seconds to Midnight: A Physicist's Case Against Rearmament". The title refers to the Doomsday
Archaeology · Heritage · Science
Ancient human DNA has been extracted from cave walls in Spain and Portugal for the first time. Quite so: no bones, teeth or cultural layer were needed to obtain the DNA. From 24 panels in 11 caves, 54 samples were taken, and 5 of them yielded human mitochondrial DNA. The
Archaeology · Science · Nature · Ethnography
The terms “invasive” and “non-native” carry fatal legal consequences for biological species. These labels, in essence, open the way to measures up to and including the complete destruction of populations. In science this is called eradication. What mostly comes to mind are examples of the total eradication of species
Archaeology · Science
Near Bulford, five kilometres from Stonehenge, traces of a structure some five thousand years old have been found. Two post holes, one might say, and one would hardly have blamed anyone for paying them no attention, yet they were found, 120 metres apart and about a metre deep. But Phil
NB! · Science · Palaeontology · Nature
Archaeology · Science · Nature
A team of researchers from Oxford, let us call the collective MacLeod and colleagues, has found traces of the plague bacillus about 5,500 years old in the DNA of the hunter-gatherers of the Baikal region. This is the earliest outbreak of plague recorded in archaeological material. The Plague