The cuneiform inscription in a tablet dating from 595BC has been deciphered for the first time — revealing a reference to an official at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, that proves the historical existence of a figure mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah. It is rare evidence in a non-biblical source of a real person, other than kings, featured in the Bible
A fragment of an exploding harpoon used by commercial whalers in the 1800s has been found in a whale caught off Alaska, suggesting the animal may be more than 100 years old. Local government officials say the fragment came from a bomb lance
, manufactured around 1880. Alaska’s Inupiat people found it lodged in a bowhead whale during a traditional subsistence hunt last month
The largest and most valuable collection of ancient Chinese art and artifacts in the world is being entered into the digital universe in Taiwan by museum curators and tech managers intent on freeing it from its physical boundaries. The goal is to make the massive collection available on the Internet. Researchers will be able to find rare documents in an easy-to-use database, teachers will be able to download information and images they can use in course work, and visitors will enjoy vivid exhibitions, films, music, access to favorite works of art and virtual tours
Chinese archaeologists studying ancient rock carvings say they have evidence that modern Chinese script is thousands of years older than previously thought. State media say researchers identified more than 2,000 pictorial symbols dating back 8,000 years, on cliff faces in the north-west of the country. They say many of these symbols bear a strong resemblance to later forms of ancient Chinese characters
A record haul of half a million silver and gold coins from a 17th Century shipwreck may have been found just 40 miles from Land’s End. US treasure hunters said the coins, worth an estimated £253m, were recovered in the Atlantic Ocean. But Odyssey Marine Exploration, who described it as the largest find of its kind, refused to pinpoint the location. US coin expert Dr Lane Brunner said there was evidence the shipwreck was lying off the Cornish coast
Evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin thought the voyage of the Beagle was a magnificent scheme
allowing him to spend time larking round the world
. His delight at the five-year cruise is chronicled in a letter, available online for the first time. The note is one of nearly 5,000 from and to the scientist held in a database at the University of Cambridge. The Darwin Correspondence Project includes summaries of a further 9,000 letters, written from the age of 12
One of the world’s oldest libraries, at the Vatican, is to close for three years for rebuilding, in an unexpected blow to scholars around the world. The decision to shut the library was made without warning. After the library closes for its summer break in mid-July, it will not reopen until September 2010, the Vatican says. The reason is that some buildings constructed only a quarter of a century ago are now considered unsuitable for the safe storage of ancient books
Steve McQueen’s 1963 Ferrari is expected to fetch US$800,000 to US$1.2m at auction in August. Christie’s auctioneers unveiled the metallic-brown Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso on Friday. McQueen bought the car, with beige leather interior, in 1963 and used it as his everyday runaround for 10 years. It’s probably the best example of a Ferrari Lusso that’s out there on the marketplace,
said Christie’s Christopher Sanger. The car will be sold at auction on 16 August at Monterey Jet Centre in California
A Japanese temple building company goes out of business after 1428 years. Kongo Gumi was founded in 578 and was the world’s oldest continuously operating family business
— via kottke.org
The BBC is to open up its vast archive of video and audio in an on-demand trial involving more than 20,000 people in the UK. Full-length programmes, as well as scripts and notes, will be available for download from the BBC’s website. The pilot is part of the BBC’s plans to eventually offer more than a million hours of TV and radio from its archive
For all of his death-defying stunts, Harry Houdini couldn’t escape the Grim Reaper: the unparalleled performer, age 52, expired on Halloween 1926. Many of his trade secrets went with him to the grave — but rumors that Houdini was murdered soon took on a life of their own. Eighty-one years later, Houdini’s great-nephew wants to exhume the escape artist’s body to determine if enemies poisoned his renowned relative for debunking their bogus claims of contact with the dead
Magnificently sophisticated geometric patterns in medieval Islamic architecture indicate their designers achieved a mathematical breakthrough 500 years earlier than Western scholars. By the 15th century, decorative tile patterns on these masterpieces of Islamic architecture reached such complexity that a small number boasted what seem to be quasicrystalline
designs, Harvard University’s Peter Lu and Princeton University’s Paul Steinhardt wrote in the journal Science. Only in the 1970s did British mathematician and cosmologist Roger Penrose become the first to describe these geometric designs in the West. Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry
A coronial inquest in Sydney has been told Indonesian forces involved in the attack on Balibo in 1975 dressed some Australian journalists in army uniform after they were killed. Former East Timorese soldier Fernando Mariz said he was also told the journalists had been shot or stabbed and their bodies dressed in Portuguese Army uniforms for a photo. When Mr Mariz asked why they had been dressed in uniform, the officers replied: In case someone in Australia complains
Around the time that the great pyramids were built in Egypt and Stonehenge was erected in England, a young woman living in what is now Iran lost an eye and was fitted with a prosthetic device. The find supports speculation that such prosthetics were available to a fortunate few in the ancient world. The newly found eye looked like the real thing
French and American researchers have discovered that the stones on the higher levels of the great pyramids of Egypt were built with concrete. Until recently it was hard for geologists to distinguish between natural limestone and the kind that would have been made by reconstituting liquefied lime. They found traces of a rapid chemical reaction which did not allow natural crystallisation. The reaction would be inexplicable if the stones were quarried, but perfectly comprehensible if one accepts that they were cast like concrete
It’s been more than 100 years since the discovery of the 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism, but researchers are only now figuring out how it works. Since its discovery in 1902, the Antikythera Mechanism — with its intricate and baffling system of about 30 geared wheels — has been an enigma… During the last 50 years, researchers have identified various astronomical and calendar functions, including gears that mimic the movement of the sun and moon. But it has taken some of the most advanced technology of the 21st century to decipher during the past year the most advanced technology of the 1st century BC
Researchers at Dresden University believe that sabres from Damascus dating back to 900 AD were formed with help from carbon nanotubes. Sabres from Damascus are made from a type of steel called wootz. But the secret of the swords’ manufacture was lost in the eighteenth century. At high temperatures, impurities in the metal could have catalysed the growth of nanotubes from carbon in the burning wood and leaves used to make the wootz,
Paufler suggests. These tubes could then have filled with cementite to produce the wires in the patterned blades,
he says
Neanderthals may have given the modern humans who replaced them a priceless gift — a gene that helped them develop superior brains. And the only way they could have provided that gift would have been by interbreeding. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides indirect evidence that modern Homo sapiens and so-called Neanderthals interbred at some point when they lived side by side in Europe
Either Lieutenant Colonel John Pine-Coffin has the strangest military career in history or the obituary writers at the Telegraph have been indulging in long lunches. In 1963 he was in Nassau when he was ordered to investigate a party of Cuban exiles that had infiltrated Andros Island, part of the Bahamas. His seaplane landed in thick mud and Pine-Coffin decided that his only chance of reaching dry land was to strip off. On coming ashore, plastered in mud and wearing only a red beret and a pair of flippers, he was confronted by a party of armed Cubans. Mustering as much authority as he could in the circumstances, he informed the group that they were trespassing on British sovereign territory and were surrounded. The following morning, when the Royal Marines arrived to rescue him they were astonished to find him and his radio operator in a clearing standing guard over the Cubans and a pile of surrendered weapons. He was appointed OBE
— via Charlie Stross
The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online has officially launched, bringing 50,000 pages of searchable text and 40,000 images to the public for free. Presented by the University of Cambridge and other collaborators, the site currently contains only half of what will be available by 2009 — via Boing Boing
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