Chart of Meissen porcelain marks for dating plates and figurines

Anyone who likes to rummage through flea markets and old mezzanine lofts may find this chart of Meissen porcelain marks useful. If you happen to be lucky enough to turn up a rare plate or figurine, you will at least know which period it belongs to. A seemingly negligible change in the angle and thickness of the swords can add a couple of hundred years to your find: the chart marks the years in which the design of the mark changed.

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Mutations in rice and maize needed for domestication arose long before farming

When ancient farmers domesticated plants, they relied on variation that already existed in wild species. Useful mutations were rare in the wild ancestors of cultivated plants, but people spent millennia selecting plants with the desired traits, and the frequency of those mutations rose. The chief trait of domesticated rice is

Martin McDonagh directs Wild Horse Nine, about CIA agents on Easter Island

I read that Martin McDonagh, the author of "In Bruges", "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" and "The Banshees of Inisherin", has made a new film, Wild Horse Nine. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play the CIA agents Chris and Lee. In 1973 they have

Neanderthal wooden spears and a club found at Abric Romaní near Barcelona

Researchers of the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution have published the first full analysis of the wooden finds from the Neanderthal site of Abric Romaní. The site lies beneath a rock shelter in the town of Capellades, not far from Barcelona. Neanderthals lived here from roughly 62,

Old photograph of a shop sign reading “Universal Store Kaztorg”, with a mounted camel and people in warm clothing at the entrance.

The first department store opened in Perovsk, later known as Kyzylorda

The first department store in Perovsk, also known as Ak-Mechet and Kyzylorda

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Mutations in rice and maize needed for domestication arose long before farming

Martin McDonagh directs Wild Horse Nine, about CIA agents on Easter Island

Neanderthal wooden spears and a club found at Abric Romaní near Barcelona

The first department store opened in Perovsk, later known as Kyzylorda