ancient

Credit: The State Hermitage Museum The dog days of summer are upon us. Or so the ancient Romans named the dies caniculares that followed the rise of the "dog star" Sirius which the ancients believed to signal the oncoming sweltering heat and drought of summer. As succinctly summarized by Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger "summer returns, with its…

Clunky, old tech is costing the US a fortune. According to a recent column in the Wall Street Journal, it would take more than $1.5tn to fix and “costs the US $2.41tn a year in cybersecurity and operational failures, failed development projects, and maintenance of outdated systems”.This “technical debt” lurks beneath the shiny and the new in “an accumulation of quick fixes and outdated systems never intended for their current use, all of which are badly in need of updating”, according to the Journal.And don’t I know…

Remains of a man buried in a rich grave. In the paper, we write the following about K6: “Interestingly, and contrary to expectation, individuals buried together did not have close biological kin relationships. An exception to this pattern is the individual buried at the bottom of grave K in Téviec (K6(16)-tev003), who had closer biological kin links to at least two (sampled of a total of five) of the individuals buried above him, while these were not closely related with each other. This finding corroborates the…

The afterlife could be a lonely place with your loved ones staying behind in the land of the living.In the ancient Coclé culture, which existed in Panama between 200 BCE and 1550 CE, elite individuals didn't have to worry about eternal solitude. The tomb of a young Coclé lord from roughly 1,200 years ago reveals the spine-chilling reality for any surrounding company when a powerful leader dies.In a specific section of the Rio Grande Valley, archaeological evidence from ancient cemeteries suggests that Coclé chiefs and…

Disney Dreamlight Valley is a cozy game with a relaxing vibe, but there's an absolutely shocking amount of things to do on any given day. Whether you're foraging for ingredients, planting and harvesting crops, or just cleaning up the pesky Night Thorns that pop on each day, you'll always have something to be attending to. If you'd like to automate some of that and make the most of your time in the valley, you'll need to build some ancient machines. Here's all of the ancient machines in Disney Dreamlight…

MIT geologists determined the original orientation of many of the bedrock samples collected on Mars by the Perseverance rover, depicted in this image rendering. The findings can give scientists clues to the conditions in which the rocks originally formed. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechMIT geologists unlock the orientation of Martian rocks collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover. The “oriented” samples, the first of their kind from any planet, could shed light on Mars’ ancient magnetic field.As it trundles around an ancient…

A scientist has discovered a unique eleventh-century Islamic astrolabe in Verona, Italy, featuring both Arabic and Hebrew inscriptions. This find illustrates the rich scientific collaboration between Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures in the medieval period, showcasing the astrolabe as a symbol of intercultural exchange and knowledge. Credit: Federica GiganteThe discovery of an Islamic astrolabe from the eleventh century, inscribed in both Arabic and Hebrew, ranks it among the oldest examples ever discovered and one…

This photo provided by researcher Roman Garba shows a heavily weathered flake artifact at the Korolevo I archaeological site in western Ukraine in August 2023. Stone tools found in the area are the earliest evidence of early human presence in Europe, dating back to 1.4 million years ago, according to research published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. Credit: Roman Garba via AP Ancient stone tools found in…

Scientists have discovered a fourth-century Roman temple in Spello, Italy. This significant find challenges the notion of a swift religious shift, revealing a more gradual integration of Christian beliefs alongside enduring pagan traditions. Above is an aerial photograph of the newly-discovered Imperial Cult ruins by Douglas Boin, Ph.D., and his team. Credit: Douglas Boin, Ph.D.Douglas Boin, Ph.D., a history professor at Saint Louis University, unveiled a groundbreaking discovery during the annual meeting of the…

One of the ceramic vases analyzed . Credit: Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos Archaeologists have analyzed chemical residues from ceramic vases at the city of Cotzumalhuapa, Guatemala, revealing physical evidence of tobacco use in Mesoamerica, likely for ritual and therapeutic purposes. Cotzumalhuapa was one of Mesoamerica's greatest cities during the…