Ancient Murder Mystery? Stone Age Bodies Discovered in Well

Ancient Murder Mystery? Stone Age Bodies Discovered in Well - More than 8,000 years ago, a 19-year-old woman and a slightly older man fell — or were they pushed? — into a well. Archaeologists have now uncovered the remains, revealing a Stone Age mystery.

No one knows whether the couple fell into the well by accident or whether foul play was involved, but archaeologists say the choice of final resting place closed the water source for good.

"What is clear is that after these unknown individuals fell into the well, it was no longer used for the simple reason that the well water was contaminated and was no longer potable," Toyam Tepper, the excavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement.

The well sits along the western Jezreel Valley near the settlement of Enot Nisanit in Israel. It dates back 8,500 years to the Neolithic or last part of the Stone Age. The builders of the well would have been the first farmers of the Jezreel Valley, Tepper said.

A well this old is a rare find, archaeologists added.

"Wells from this period are unique finds in the archaeology of Israel, and probably also in the prehistoric world in general," Omri Barzilai, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority prehistory branch, said in a statement.

The two oldest wells ever found are both from Cyprus, Barzilai said, and date back to the beginning of animal domestication, about 1,000 years older than the newly discovered well. Apparently, he said, early herders and farmers developed wells as a way to prevent their livestock from lapping up the precious drinking water.

The well is about 26 feet (8 meters) deep, with a top made of stone and a bottom sunk into the bedrock. At its mouth, the well is about 4 feet (1.3 m) wide.

The two skeletons weren't the only artifacts inside the wall. Archaeologists also found flint blades used for harvesting, stone arrowheads and other tools. Over the centuries, animals' bones and charcoal accumulated in the closed well, remnants that will help researchers date the structure more precisely.

"The well that was exposed in the Jezreel Valley reflects the impressive quarrying ability of the site's ancient inhabitants and the extensive knowledge they possessed regarding the local hydrology and geology, which enabled them to quarry the limestone bedrock down to the level of the water table," Tepper said. "No doubt the quarrying of the well was a community effort that lasted a long time." ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Ancient Murder Mystery? Stone Age Bodies Discovered in Well

Well-preserved mammoth carcass found in Siberia

Well-preserved mammoth carcass found in Siberia — A teenage mammoth that once roamed the Siberian tundra in search of fodder and females might have been killed by an Ice Age man on a summer day tens of thousands of years ago, a Russian scientist said Friday.

Prof. Alexei Tikhonov of the Zoology Institute in St. Petersburg announced the finding of the mammoth, which was excavated from the Siberian permafrost in late September near the Sopochnaya Karga cape, 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) northeast of Moscow.

 

Associated Press/Sergei Gorbunov, International Mammoth Committee in Russia, HO - In this handout photo provided by The International Mammoth Committee in Russia on Friday Oct. 5, 2012, the carcass of a 16-year-old mammoth that was possibly killed by humans tens of thousands of years ago and was excavated on the North Siberian Taimyr peninsula in late Sept. 28, 2012. Russian scientists say it's one of the best-preserved bodies of a grown mammoth yet found. (AP Photo/Sergei Gorbunov, International Mammoth Committee in Russia, HO)

The 16-year-old mammoth has been named Jenya, after the 11-year-old Russian boy who found the animal's limbs sticking out of the frozen mud. The mammoth was 2 meters (6 feet 6 inches) tall and weighed 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).

"He was pretty small for his age," Tikhonov told The Associated Press.

But what killed Jenya was not his size but a missing left tusk that made him unfit for fights with other mammoths or human hunters who were settling the Siberian marshes and swamps some 20,000-30,000 years ago, Tikhonov said.

The splits on Jenya's remaining tusk show a "possible human touch," he added.

The examination of Jenya's body has already proved that the massive humps on mammoths seen on Ice Age cave paintings in Spain and France were not extended bones but huge chunks of fat that helped them regulate their body temperatures and survive the long, cold winters, Tikhonov said.

Jenya's hump was relatively big, which means that he died during a short Arctic summer, he said.

Up to 4 meters (13 feet) in height and 10 tons in weight, mammoths migrated across huge areas between Great Britain and North America and were driven to extinction by humans and the changing climate.

Woolly mammoths are thought to have died out around 10,000 years ago, although scientists think small groups of them lived longer in Alaska and on Russia's Wrangel Island off the Siberian coast.

Their bodies have mostly been found in the Siberian permafrost. Siberian cultural myths paint them as primordial creatures who moved underground and helped to create the Earth.

Most of the well-preserved mammoths are calves. Jenya's carcass is the best-preserved one since the 1901 discovery of a giant mammoth near the Beryozovka river in Russia's northeastern Yakutia region, Tikhonov said.

Unfortunately, its DNA has been damaged by low temperatures and is "hardly" suitable for possible cloning, he said.

However, an earlier mammoth discovery might be able to help recreate the Ice Age elephant.

Russia's North-Eastern Federal University said in early September that an international team of researchers had discovered mammoth hair, soft tissues and bone marrow some 328 feet (100 meters) underground during a summer expedition in Yakutia.

Scientists already have deciphered much of the genetic code of the woolly mammoth from balls of mammoth hair found frozen in the Siberian permafrost. Some believe it's possible to recreate the prehistoric animal if they find living cells in the permafrost.

Those who succeed in recreating an extinct animal could claim a "Jurassic Park prize," a concept being developed by the X Prize Foundation that awarded a 2004 prize for the first private spacecraft. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Well-preserved mammoth carcass found in Siberia

Inside France's Empire of the Dead... startling images of the skulls and bones that line catacombs under Paris

Inside France's Empire of the Dead... startling images of the skulls and bones that line catacombs under Paris - More than 6million of Paris's dead are buried under the City of Lights - Much of it is out of bounds, but for some Parisians, the lure of the catacombs is one they cannot resist

You would have to look closely for one of its obscure entrances in the French capital of Paris.

But should you stumble upon one, it reveals an underground world of the dark, dank, narrow tunnels with a fascinating history.

Below the City of Light's 12million residents lie the remains of 6million others - known as France's Empire of the Dead.

The Paris catacombs are a 200-mile network of old caves, tunnels and quarries - and much of it is filled with the skulls and bones of the dead.

Going underground: An explorer roams through the skull and bone-lined walkways of the Paris catacombs

Death on display: The macabre mosaics lining the walls of the underground network are the remains of 6million former Parisians

Much of the catacombs are out of bounds to the public, making it illegal to explore unsupervised.

But nevertheless, it is a powerful draw for a hardcore group of explorers with a thirst for adventure.

A tourist-friendly, legal entrance can be found off Place Denfert-Rochereau in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, near the Montparnasse district.

Here, visitors from all over the world can descend into the city's dark and dank bowels for a whistle-stop tour of a small section of the catacombs.

One visitor told CNN: 'I think people are fascinated with death. They don't know what it's about and you see all these bones stacked up, and the people that have come before us, and it's fascinating. We're trying to find our past and it's crazy and gruesome and fun all at the same time.'

Eerie: These subterranean quarries had been used to store the remains of generations of Parisians in a bid to tackle overcrowding in cemeteries

Tunnel patrol: Much of the catacombs are off-limits to the public and those caught illegally exploring can be fine up to 60 euros

The well-worn trail might be enough to satisfy the tourists, but other Parisians like to go further - and deeper - to explore the network.

The name given to the group of explorers who go into the cave network illegally and unsupervised is Cataphiles.

The top secret groups go deep underground, using hidden entrances all over the city. And they sometimes stay for days at a time, equipped with head lamps and home-made maps.

Street names are etched into the walls to help explorers navigate their way around the underground version of the city and some groups have even been known to throw parties in the tunnels or drink wine.

For catacomb devotees, the silence experienced deep in tunnels cannot be replicated anywhere else.

Still life: Cataphiles seeking out peace and quiet say there is a unique kind of silence to be found in the tunnels

The network has become a draw for Parisians who want to explore the unchartered territory, who are known as Cataphiles

Urban explorer Loic Antoine-Gambeaud told CNN: 'I think it's in the collective imagination. Everybody knows that there is something below Paris; that something goes on that's mysterious. But I don't think many people have even an idea of what the underground is like.'

Those caught exploring unauthorised sections of the network could end up out of pocket. Police tasked with patrolling the tunnels have the power to hand out fines of 60 euros to anyone caught illegally roaming the network.

A by-product of the early development of Paris, the catacombs were subterranean quarries which were established as limestone was extracted deep underground to build the city above.

However, a number of streets collapsed as the quarries weakened parts of the city's foundations. Repairs and reinforcements were made and the network went through several transformations throughout history.

However it wasn't until the 18th century that the catacombs became known as the Empire of the Dead when they became the solution to overcrowding in the city's cemeteries.

Empire of the dead: While much of the 200-mile network is out of bounds, a small section is open to tourists

Hidden network of adventure: The tunnels and quarries are still monitored for safety

The number of dead bodies buried in Paris's cemeteries and beneath its churches was so great that they began breaking through the walls of people's cellars and causing serious health concerns.

So the human remains were transferred to the underground quarries in the early 1780s. There are now more than 6million people underground.

The space was the perfect solution to ease overcrowding in cemeteries but it presented disadvantages elsewhere.

It is the reason there are few tall buildings in Paris; large foundations cannot be built because the catacombs are directly under the city's streets.

The tunnels also played their part in the Second World War. Parisian members of the French Resistance used the winding tunnels

And German soldiers also set up an underground bunker in the catacombs, just below the 6th arrondissement. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Inside France's Empire of the Dead... startling images of the skulls and bones that line catacombs under Paris

Hoard of gold coins found at Israel Crusades site

Hoard of gold coins found at Israel Crusades site - A 1,000-year-old hoard of gold coins has been unearthed at a famous Crusader battleground where Christian and Muslim forces once fought for control of the Holy Land, Israeli archaeologists said on Wednesday.

The treasure was dug up from the ruins of a castle in Arsuf, a strategic stronghold during the religious conflict waged in the 12th and 13th centuries.

An Israel Nature and Parks Authority employee shows gold coins, which were unearthed during excavations at a Crusader fortress, near Herzliya July 9, 2012. An ancient jar containing a collection of 108 gold …more coins dating back to the Mamluk era was discovered a week ago during a joint venture by Tel Aviv University and the Nature and Parks Authority aimed at exploring the layers of the almost destroyed fortress on the shores of the Mediterranean sea. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (ISRAEL - Tags: SOCIETY)

The 108 coins - one of the biggest collections of ancient coins discovered in Israel - were found hidden in a ceramic jug beneath a tile floor at the cliff-top coastal ruins, 15 km (9 miles) from Tel Aviv.

"It is a rare find. We don't have a lot of gold that had been circulated by the Crusaders," said Oren Tal, a professor at Tel Aviv University who leads the dig.

Arsuf, which overlooks the Mediterranean sea, was the site of a famous 12th century victory for England's King Richard I - known as Lionheart - over Muslim leader Saladin.

About 80 years later, in 1265, the Muslim army returned under a different general, and lay siege to the city for 40 days. When the outer walls fell, the knights retreated to the castle, which was eventually destroyed.

The stash, Tal believes, belonged to the Knights Hospitaller who inhabited the castle. It may have been payment they were due to pay for leasing the land, or perhaps profits from industrial activities, he said.

The gold coins weigh about 400 grams (14 ounces) in total. Some were minted two centuries earlier in Egypt, and they will be studied over the next six months, Tal said.

"The study of these coins will contribute to our understanding of how large-scale economic interactions were made at the time," he said. ( Reuters )

READ MORE - Hoard of gold coins found at Israel Crusades site

Dinosaur cold-blood theory in doubt

Dinosaur cold-blood theory in doubt - One of the strongest lines of evidence that dinosaurs were cold-blooded, like modern reptiles, has been knocked down.

Prior studies of dinosaur bones uncovered what are known as "lines of arrested growth".

The creatures were presumed to be cold-blooded because modern cold-blooded animals show these same lines.

But scientists reporting in Nature have studied the bones of 41 modern mammal species from around the world, finding every one had these lines as well.

The idea that dinosaurs are cold-blooded, or ectothermic, goes back to the 19th Century. But a number of discoveries 1960s have been challenging that notion.

Because soft tissues such as organs and skin are not preserved (with a few notable exceptions), much of what is known about dinosaurs must be inferred from their bones, and comparisons made with modern animals that can be studied in greater detail.
Lagging behind

Lines of arrested growth, or Lags, occur because organisms tend to suspend their growth and rally their resources during seasonal periods of environmental stress such as cold or dry conditions.

This forms a boundary from one season to the next as growth resumes when conditions are more favourable.

They are familiar in creatures such as molluscs, whose slow annual accumulations can be seen as ridges in their shells.

Lags have also been found in the bones of reptiles and amphibians and have until now been assumed to be limited to ectotherms - cold-blooded animals - that are more subject to the whims of harsh environments.

Meike Koehler of the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology in Barcelona and her colleagues were therefore surprised by what they found.

"Originally this was not a paper that we aimed to do," Dr Koehler told BBC News.

"We were very curious to know how environmental conditions and changes affect bone growth in fossil and extant mammals, to get a good idea about... how they may have coped with these changes in the past."

As the team studied the thigh bones of animals from all over the world - ranging from the Svalbard reindeer in the Arctic to muntjac deer species from South Asia - Lags showed up in every one.

"These lines of arrested growth have been used a lot in dinosaurs, but nobody has ever had a really deep look at mammals," Dr Koehler explained.

David Weishampel, a palaeontologist at the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland called the new work "a wonderful paper" and said it was a welcome addition to the debate.

"I think most (palaeontologists) regard dinosaurs as being [warm-blooded] but there's a lot of waffling in the data that appeared before that wasn't conclusive," he told BBC News.

"It's about time we have a connection between the modern bone histology and fossil bone histology, through a very nice ecological and metabolic comparison."

While Prof Weishampel considers it a closed case, Dr Koehler herself is more reserved about the result.

"I don't think that this debate is really settled," she said. "But this is the first time that you can say that Lags do not say anything about warm- or cold-bloodedness."

She and her team will go on and put the Lags to use in studies of modern animals instead.

"It's like dendrochronology - the rings in trees. You can do skeletal chronology in bones and infer things like longevity, age at maturity, juvenile states - traits which are very, very important to get an idea about the health of a population and whether it is vulnerable.

"It is very good to know now that mammals do show these Lags and we can use them in the same way that we do in amphibians and reptiles to understand the situation of a population." ( bbc.co.uk )

READ MORE - Dinosaur cold-blood theory in doubt

Mysterious structure found on ancient lake

Mysterious structure found on ancient lake — so what is it? — It may be bridge to artificial island, but Wales archaeologists say there is nothing else like it

Archaeologists have unearthed the foundation of what appears to have been a massive, ancient structure, possibly a bridge leading to an artificial island, in what is now southeast Wales. The strange ruin, its discoverers say, is unlike anything found before in the United Kingdom and possibly all of Europe.

"It's a real mystery," said Steve Clarke, chairman and founding member of the Monmouth Archaeological Society, who discovered the structural remains earlier this month in Monmouth, Wales — a town known for its rich archaeological features. "Whatever it is, there's nothing else like it. It may well be unique."

Clarke and his team discovered the remnants of three giant timber beams placed alongside one another on a floodplain at the edge of an ancient lake that has long since filled with silt. After being set into the ground, the pieces of timber decayed, leaving anaerobic (oxygen-free) clay, which formed after silt filled in the timbers' empty slots, Clarke told LiveScience.

The team initially thought the timber structures were once sleeper beams, or shafts of timber placed in the ground to form the foundations of a house. However, the pieces appear to be too large for that purpose. While a typical sleeper beam would span about 1 foot (30 centimeters) across, these timber beams were over 3 feet wide and at least 50 feet long (or about 1 meter by 15 meters). The archaeologists are still digging and don't yet know how much longer the timbers are. Clarke says the structure's builders appear to have placed whole trees, cut in half lengthwise, into the ground.

"One other thing that is striking, that might be relevant, is that the timbers seem to be lined up with the middle of the lake," Clarke noted, suggesting that the structures may have been part of a causeway to a crannog, or artificial island, constructed in the middle of the lake. "Even so, if it is a path to a crannog, it's huge."

The archaeologists also aren't sure when it was built or even if it came before or after the lake formed, but they say the structure, at its oldest, could date to the Bronze Age around 4,000 years ago. Beneath the beams the researchers found a burnt mound of rock and charcoal fragments, alongside of which they discovered a hearth and trough — scientists believe people in the Bronze Age heated stones in a fire and threw them into a filled trough to boil water.

"The discovery of this unusual site on a housing development near Monmouth is very interesting," a spokesperson for CADW, the Welsh government’s historic environment service, told LiveScience. "We have been monitoring the situation closely. At this point the date and function of the structure represented by these three long trenches is not known, despite a great deal of speculation. Only further excavation can clarify exactly what they represent."

Clarke believes its more likely the structure was built a little later, possibly during the Iron Age, but he says determining a reliable age for the structure will be tricky. Dating the burnt mound, which predates the timber that was placed on top of it, will only give a maximum age for the structure. Dating the clay, on the other hand, will yield an age that is too young because the clay deposited after the timber rotted away.

The archaeologists have already sent off charcoal samples from the burnt mound for chemical analyses and expect results later this month.

"And we now have some charcoal from the bottom of the slots (not from the burnt-mound area)," Clarke said. "Hopefully that will give us a closer date."

The research has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, with work at the site currently in progress. ( Follow LiveScience )

READ MORE - Mysterious structure found on ancient lake

Discovered: The turtle the size of a SmartCar - which would have hunted crocodiles in prehistoric lakes

Discovered: The turtle the size of a SmartCar - which would have hunted crocodiles in prehistoric lakes - Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a children's pool.

Paleontologists from North Carolina State University have found just such a specimen – the fossilised remains of a 60-million-year-old South American giant that lived in what is now Colombia.

The turtle in question is Carbonemys cofrinii, which means 'coal turtle', and it is part of a group of turtles known as pelomedusoides.

The specimen's skull measures 24 centimeters, and the shell, which was recovered nearby and is believed to belong to the same animal - measures 172 centimeters, or about 5 feet 7 inches, long.

Taking a bite out of a croc: The 'coal turtle' would have a large territory based around a lake - and he could tackle small crocodiles with ease

Ironically, that's the same height as Edwin Cadena, the NC State doctoral student who discovered the fossil.

The fossil was named Carbonemys because it was discovered in 2005 in a coal mine that was part of northern Colombia's Cerrejon formation.

Dr. Dan Ksepka, NC State paleontologist and research associate at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, believes that this is because a turtle of this size would need a large territory in order to obtain enough food to survive. Ksepka said: 'It's like having one big snapping turtle living in the middle of a lake.

'That turtle survives because it has eaten all of the major competitors for resources. We found many bite-marked shells at this site that show crocodilians preyed on side-necked turtles.

'None would have bothered an adult Carbonemys, though - in fact smaller crocs would have been easy prey for this behemoth.'

Cadena said: 'We had recovered smaller turtle specimens from the site. But after spending about four days working on uncovering the shell, I realized that this particular turtle was the biggest anyone had found in this area for this time period - and it gave us the first evidence of giantism in freshwater turtles.'

Easily mistaken? Carbonemys cofrinii was about the same size as this green Smartcar

Smaller relatives of Carbonemys existed alongside dinosaurs.

But the giant version appeared five million years after the dinosaurs vanished, during a period when giant varieties of many different reptiles – including Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the largest snake ever discovered – lived in this part of South America.

Researchers believe that a combination of changes in the ecosystem, including fewer predators, a larger habitat area, plentiful food supply and climate changes, worked together to allow these giant species to survive. Carbonemys' habitat would have resembled a much warmer modern-day Orinoco or Amazon River delta.

Giant turtle! Lonely George, the last giant turtle from the Galapagos Islands, is alive and well but possibly the last of his kind - his shell measures 102cms

In addition to the turtle's huge size, the fossil also shows that this particular turtle had massive, powerful jaws that would have enabled the omnivore to eat anything nearby – from mollusxcs to smaller turtles or even crocodiles.

Thus far, only one specimen of this size has been recovered.

The paleontologists' findings appear in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. Dr. Carlos Jaramillo from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Dr. Jonathan Bloch from the Florida Museum of Natural History contributed to the work.

The research was funded by grants from the Smithsonian Institute and the National Science Foundation. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Discovered: The turtle the size of a SmartCar - which would have hunted crocodiles in prehistoric lakes

Ancient Mayan workshop for astronomers discovered

Ancient Mayan workshop for astronomers discovered — Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago.

The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later.

In this undated photo made available by National Geographic, conservator Angelyn Bass cleans and stabilizes the surface of a wall of a Maya house that dates to the 9th century A.D. in the Maya city Zultun in northeastern Guatemala. Archaeologists have found the small room where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. Anthony Aveni of Colgate University, along with William Saturno of Boston University and others, are reporting the discovery in the Friday, May 11, 2012 issue of the journal Science. (AP Photo/National Geographic, Tyrone Turner)

Astronomical records were key to the Mayan calendar, which has gotten some attention recently because of doomsday warnings that it predicts the end of the world this December. Experts say it makes no such prediction. The new finding provides a bit of backup: The calculations include a time span longer than 6,000 years that could extend well beyond 2012.

"Why would they go into those numbers if the world is going to come to an end this year?" observed Anthony Aveni of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., an expert on Mayan astronomy. "You could say a number that big at least suggests that time marches on."

Aveni, along with William Saturno of Boston University and others, report the discovery in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

The room, a bit bigger than 6-feet square, is part of a large complex of Mayan ruins in the rain forest at Xultun in northeastern Guatemala. The walls also contain portraits of a seated king and some other figures, but it's clear those have no connection to the astronomical writings, the scientists said.

One wall contains a calendar based on phases of the moon, covering about 13 years. The researchers said they think it might have been used to keep track of which deity was overseeing the moon at particular times.

Aveni said it would allow scribes to predict the appearance of a full moon years in advance, for example. Such record-keeping was key to Mayan astrology and rituals, and maybe would be used to advise the king on when to go to war or how good this year's crops would be, he said.

"'What you have here is astronomy driven by religion," he said.

On an adjacent wall are numbers indicating four time spans from roughly 935 to 6,700 years. It's not clear what they represent, but maybe the scribes were doing calculations that combined observations from important astronomical events like the movements of Mars, Venus and the moon, the researchers said.

Why bother to do that? Maybe the scribes were "geeks ... who just got carried away with doing these kinds of computations and calculations, and probably did them far beyond the needs of ordinary society," Aveni suggested.

Experts unconnected with the discovery said it was a significant advance.

"It's really a wonderful surprise," said Simon Martin, co-curator of an exhibit about the Mayan calendar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

While the results of the scribes' work were known from carvings on monuments, "we've never really been able to identify a working space, or how they actually went about things," Martin said.

The new work gives insight into that, he said, and the fact the room had a stone roof rather than thatching supports previous indications that the scribes enjoyed a high social standing.

"It's a very important discovery. We're only getting a glimpse of it" in the published paper, said John B. Carlson, director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy in College Park, Md.

"This is an intriguing start for this discovery." ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Ancient Mayan workshop for astronomers discovered

2012 technology could unmask his identity - and that of a ghost that roams the site

Extraordinary discovery of 12th century abbot's grave: 2012 technology could unmask his identity - and that of a ghost that roams the site - Carbon dating and pathology to be used on skeleton - Abbot reckoned to be 'portly' because of curvature of the spine - Cistercian monastery supposedly 'haunted' by several ghosts

For something like seven centuries he had lain undisturbed.

He – or at least his remains – survived Henry VIII’s destruction of his abbey in 1537, eluded the grave-robbers that followed, and avoided discovery by Victorian archaeologists.

Even deep excavations and the underpinning of the crumbling building in the 1930s failed to unearth him.

But the abbot who headed Britain’s second richest and most powerful Cistercian monastery may soon be unmasked – along with the identity, perhaps, of one of the site’s ghosts.

Extraordinary discoveries: The abbot in his grave, left, and a ring and the head of a crozier found next to him

Historical: The 12th Century abbot's grave was discovered undisturbed at Furness Abbey in Cumbria two years ago

Two years after his final resting place was uncovered beneath the ruins of Furness Abbey, his secrets – and the treasures he took to his grave – are being scrutinised by 21st century technology and expertise.

With the wonders of carbon dating and modern pathological and archaeological knowledge, specialists are confident they can fill a missing chapter in the history of the Lake District Abbey that inspired Wordsworth and Turner.

The skeleton of a portly figure was discovered almost by fluke when emergency repairs had to be made to the abbey at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.

Cracks had appeared in the ‘mouldered walls’ that featured in Wordsworth’s ‘At Furness Abbey’ verse from his 1805 Prelude, and in some of JWM Turner’s etchings.

They were caused by medieval wooden foundations rotting away. Archaeologists and structural engineers called in to examine them dug down and found an undisturbed, unmarked and unknown grave.

Its significance was immediately apparent. Whoever was buried here had been placed in the presbytery – the most prestigious position in the abbey, usually reserved for those held in greatest esteem.

With the remains were rare medieval jewellery and a silver and gilt crozier, a senior abbot’s staff of office.

The discovery might also shed light, depending on your point of view, on whether the fat abbot might be one of several ghosts said to have been sighted in the ruins.

Experts at Oxford Archaeology North, which led excavations, believe the skeleton is that of a man aged 40 to 50.

Lucky: The discovery of the abbot's grave at the Furness Abbey was almost a complete fluke

Close up: The gilded silver ring found in the grave and a silver and gilt crozier - a senior abbot's staff of office

The curvature of the spine suggests he was obese and perhaps suffering from type-2 diabetes.

That is possibly confirmed by the position of his arms, which lie flanked around his girth rather than crossed over his chest.

Although he could have died as early as the 1150s, English Heritage curator Susan Harrison believes the grave more likely dates from the 1350s to early 1500s.

‘This is a very significant discovery,’ she said. ‘There has been no comparative grave found for the last 50 years in British archaeology.’

The head of the crozier, an ornamental staff carried by high-ranking members of the church, is gilded copper decorated with silver medallions that show the archangel Michael slaying a dragon.

The crook end is decorated with a serpent’s head. A small section of the wooden staff survives – as does part of the cloth the abbot held to prevent his hand tarnishing the crozier.

The ring he wore is gilded silver set with a gemstone of white rock crystal or white sapphire. It is possible that a hollow behind the stone contains a relic – perhaps what the monastery believed to be part of the body of a saint.

Both items are to go on public display at the abbey over the Bank Holiday weekend of May 4 to 7.

In its heyday, Furness Abbey was fabulously wealthy. But after the dissolution of monasteries in the 1530s it was stripped of virtually all its treasures and left to crumble.

English Heritage’s Susan Harrison said that, although the crozier and ring were rare, of more interest was the fact that such an important grave could be excavated and analysed using the most modern techniques to harvest as much information as possible.

Dating the grave could even produce a name for the abbot when matched against historical listings.

And the ghost? ‘I’d like to thoroughly quash all the ghost stories around this and concentrate on reality,’ Miss Harrison said. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - 2012 technology could unmask his identity - and that of a ghost that roams the site

Pompeii's iconic Stabian Baths reopen to the public after three-year restoration

Pompeii's iconic Stabian Baths reopen to the public after three-year restoration - After three years of restoration the Stabian Baths complex in the buried ancient Roman city of Pompeii have finally reopened.

The work has seen the frescoes restored and walkways built to allow visitors to move easily between the men and women section of the baths which date back to the 5th Century BC.

Officials said that the restoration work - which had been interrupted twice after cases of collapse elsewhere in Pompeii had cost more than one million Euros - and that for the first time it allowed access to the women section of the Stabian Baths.

Reopened: The Stabian Baths of Pompeii are one of the world's most famous archaeological sites and Italy's top tourist attraction

At last: The baths were reopened on the occasion of the International Women's Day after a recent renovation

VIP: Women were allowed free entry to the restored baths on International Women's Day

To mark the opening on Thursday's International Women's Day, officials allowed women free access into the section and hundreds of tourists took advantage of the offer as they poured into Pompeii which was buried by an eruption in AD79 by nearby Mt Vesuvius.

Over the centuries the site has thrown up an extraordinary array of discoveries and the well preserved remains have allowed historians and tourists into what life under ancient Rome was like 2,000 years ago - although there have been complaints that parts of the site have fallen into disrepair.

The Stabian Baths complex is the oldest of three thermal bath sites that are situated in Pompei and all are divided into men's and women's sections with each having a apodyterium (changing room), frigidarium (cold bath room), tedpidarium (tepid bath room) and caldarium (hot bath room).

For all to see: A plaster cast of the remains of a citizen of Pompeii is seen in the baths

Feature: A damaged statue at the baths will be once again on show to the general public

There was also a sophisticated toilet system and a gym for use of patrons and pictures from the newly restored women's section showed showed stone slabs which would have been used for massages or relaxing by Roman noble women.

Elsewhere there was a large plunge circular plunge pool which was surrounded by alcoves and murals, with a large domed roof above allowing in light.

Capture that: A tourist take pictures of human remains inside the Thermae Stabianae, the most famous bath

Treasure it: Interior view of the Stabian Baths, where it is hoped the site will be respected by visitors

Heating in the complex was provided via a series of pipes which pumped hot and cold water into channels in the walls and floors of the rooms which were not only a public role but also a central meeting point for Roman society.

Antonio Varone, Pompei's director, said:'We are delighted that we are finally able to open the women's section of the Stabian Baths which has never been seen before by the public. To mark the day we allowed women free access into the site and they were very interested and pleased with what they saw.'

In the land of the living: Tourists visit a room containing the plaster casts of the remains of citizens of Pompeii ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Pompeii's iconic Stabian Baths reopen to the public after three-year restoration

Human origins traced to worm fossil in Canada

Human origins traced to worm fossil in Canada - Paleontologists have traced the origins of humans and other vertebrates to a worm that swam in the oceans half a billion years ago, said a study published Monday.

A new analysis of fossils unearthed in the Canadian Rockies determined that the extinct Pikaia gracilens is the most primitive known member of the chordate family, which today includes fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals.

The research published in the British scientific journal Biological Reviews identified a notochord or rod that would become part of the backbone in vertebrates, and skeletal muscle tissue called myomeres in 114 fossil specimens of the creature.

They also found a vascular system.

"The discovery of myomeres is the smoking gun that we have long been seeking," said the study's lead author, Simon Conway Morris of the Cambridge University.

"Now with myomeres, a nerve chord, a notochord and a vascular system all identified, this study clearly places Pikaia as the planet's most primitive chordate.

"So, next time we put the family photograph on the mantle-piece, there in the background will be Pikaia."

The first specimens of Pikaia were collected by early explorers of the Burgess Shale in 1911. But the animals were overlooked as an ancestor of earthworms or eels.

It was not until the 1970s that Morris suggested the five-centimeter (two inch) long, sideways-flattened, somewhat eel-like animal that likely swam by moving its body in a series of side-to-side curves could be the earliest known member of the chordate family.

"In particular, it was our use of an electron microscope that allowed us to see very fine details of its anatomy," Jean-Bernard Caron, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto and the study's co-author, told AFP.

"It's very humbling to know that swans, snakes, bears, zebras and, incredibly, humans all share a deep history with this tiny creature no longer than my thumb," he said. ( AFP )

READ MORE - Human origins traced to worm fossil in Canada

The Hobbit who helped us find our origins

The Hobbit who helped us find our origins - Chris Stringer on how a series of extraordinary finds has transformed our view of human history – and of the cousins with whom we long shared the planet .

Human beings have come to dominate our planet like no other creature before us. Today, our seven-billion-strong population inhabits most of the surface of the world, secure in its status as the only truly intelligent species on Earth.

Brain power: left to right, Homo erectus, Homo floriensis and Homo sapiens.

Yet if we look even a little way back into the planet’s history, we come to a time – possibly as recently as 50,000 years ago – when there may have been as many as seven distinct types of human, from Africa to Europe to the wilds of Siberia and the remote islands of Indonesia. We, Homo sapiens, are the sole survivor of this menagerie – but for most of human history, we were not alone.

So where did these other “humans” come from? And what happened to them to leave us as the only human denizens of the Earth? In recent years, a slew of exciting discoveries in Africa, Europe and elsewhere has turned the received wisdom on its head. We have learned that the story of our origins is far more interesting – and complicated – than we ever thought.

That story starts with a single species, the probable ancestor of this human family. This was Homo erectus (“Erect Man”, because it walked upright), characterised by a powerfully robust skeleton and a small-brained skull which was thick-walled, long and low, with a glowering brow ridge over the eyes and a chinless lower jaw. Despite these differences from the current model, erectus was an effective tool-maker and hunter, with a body shape more human than ape-like.

Homo erectus emerged in Africa some two million years ago, and rapidly spread across Asia and possibly southern Europe as well (Britain was probably only occupied a million years on, by later human species). It is possible that erectus hung on in Java until as recently as 50,000 years ago, making this species by far the longest-lived of all the humans. And during that time, it begat a whole tribe of descendants. These included Homo antecessor and Heidelberg Man, with the latter giving rise to three recent successors: the Neanderthals (who lived in Europe and the Near East), Homo sapiens (“Wise Man”), and a mysterious third kind of human, the Denisovans, who are known only from a single site in Siberia.

Of our now-extinct cousins, the Neanderthals are by far the best-known. It was believed that they were dim-witted brutes – and, as it happens, our direct ancestors. It turns out that neither was the case. True, the Neanderthals’ societies were probably smaller and simpler than those of Homo sapiens, but they buried their dead, were skilled tool-makers and hunters, and are thought to have used language. Similarly, over the past few decades, they have gone from being regarded as our direct ancestors to a side-branch that we may have helped drive to extinction.

What we have also now discovered – and this came as a real surprise to many scientists – is that humans and Neanderthals actually interbred. Reconstructions of the Neanderthal genome were recently made by a team led by Svante Pääbo, who is based in Germany. The genome was compared with those of living people from various regions. The comparisons suggest that the ancestors of people outside of Africa must have mingled with the Neanderthals some 50,000 years ago; as a consequence, the majority of modern humans are a tiny bit Neanderthal. So, while they disappeared about 30,000 years ago, their DNA did not.

The Neanderthals occupied the western parts of Eurasia until modern humans took over, but when the team which put together their genome turned its attention to the east, it came up with another surprise. Fossils found in the Denisova Cave in Siberia turned out to date from about 50,000 years ago. One finger bone had exceptionally well-preserved DNA, allowing its genome to be reconstructed and compared with those of Neanderthals and various modern humans.

This bone, it turned out, belonged to another group entirely, closer to Neanderthals than modern humans: the Denisovans. Today, there is only one group of people alive who show traces of their DNA – the aboriginal peoples of Australasia, whose ancestors must have interbred with Denisovans living in south-east Asia on their way south.

In short, over the past few hundred thousand years (a mere sliver of time in geological terms), there were perhaps half a dozen kinds of human all alive at the same time, occasionally meeting and very occasionally having cross-species sex.

But there was another, much stranger, human-like species alive as recently as a few thousand years ago – a tiny, mysterious creature whose discovery was one of the most sensational of the last decade. East of the large island of Java is scattered a remote, beautiful, tropical archipelago. Until 2004, it was thought that only modern humans had reached these small Indonesian islands. But in that year, two sensational papers were published in Nature announcing that the remains of a new species had been excavated in Liang Bua Cave on the island of Flores.

This extraordinary little creature, named Homo floresiensis (aka the Hobbit), was only about one metre tall and very small-brained. However, there is evidence that the Hobbits were intelligent: Liang Bua Cave contained evidence of tool-making, butchery of animal carcasses, and fire. What was even more remarkable was the fact that Homo floresiensis survived there until about 17,000 years ago.

So who were these Hobbits, and where did they come from? At first, it was assumed that they were castaways, descendants of Homo erectus who had somehow got to Flores, perhaps by boat. Due to the limited resources available on their new island home, the species then started to shrink (a process known as island dwarfing).

The latest studies of the Hobbit bones, however, have led to the radical idea that these tiny people were in fact descended from something even more primitive than Homo erectus – yet another species, whose ancestors emerged from Africa two million years ago or more, and then evolved in isolation in south-east Asia, finally disappearing only within the last 20 millennia.

So given there were all these forms of “human” over the past million years, what happened to the rest of them to leave us unchallenged? Well, we don’t know when Homo erectus disappeared, unless the Hobbit is its direct descendant. And we have no idea what happened to the Denisovans. But in the case of the Neanderthals, their final demise seems to have been the result of a double whammy: climate change, and the arrival of a competitor – us. We most likely out-competed them for food and other resources, making better tools and being helped through the bad times by our larger and more organised societies.

Whether the arrival of Homo sapiens in Flores was also the final straw that finished off the Hobbit is still unknown; it is possible that a massive volcanic eruption was responsible. But in a final twist to the story, it seems that Africa could have been home to yet another species of human within the last 50,000 years, based on signs of possible ancestral DNA in modern African populations, and fossils found in Nigeria and Congo. Could ancient humans, thought to have been extinct hundreds of thousands of years earlier, have survived in central Africa far longer than anyone suspected? There have been some extraordinary discoveries in the past decade, and we can expect even more in the ones to come. ( telegraph.co.uk )

READ MORE - The Hobbit who helped us find our origins

How Zombie Ants Lose Their Minds

How Zombie Ants Lose Their Minds - New gruesome details have emerged explaining how a parasitic fungus manipulates an unfortunate ant, filling its head with fungal cells and changing its muscles so the ant can grab a leaf in a death grip just when and where the fungus wants it.

Research in a Thai rain forest has shown the fungi, a species of Ophiocordyceps, forces an infected ant to wander drunkenly over the forest's low leaves before clamping its jaws around the main vein on the underside of a leaf in an ant zombie graveyard.

By watching 16 infected ants bite down, the researchers found that their last bites took place around noon, indicating they are synchronized to either the sun or a related cue, like temperature or humidity.

"Synchronized arrival of zombie ants at the graveyards is a remarkable phenomenon. It adds a layer of complexity on what is already an impressive feat," wrote David Hughes, a study researcher from Pennsylvania State University, in an email to LiveScience. "However, although ants bite at noon they don't in fact die until sunset. Likely this strategy ensures (the fungus) has a long cool night ahead of it during which time it can literally burst out of the ant's head to begin the growth of the spore-releasing stalk"

The bizarre sequence that leads up to the ant's death is completely out of step with its normal behavior and appears to be a way for the fungus to get itself to the perfect spot to spread its spores, according to the researchers.

The ants, a species called Camponotus leonardi, live in the canopies of trees, but come to the ground occasionally, where they contract the fungus. Healthy ants travel on trails unlike infected ones, which zigzag in a drunken walk over low vegetation, sometimes falling and convulsing before taking their final bite.

Hughes and colleagues observed a total of 42 infected ants, some of which they dissected. While holding its death grip, the ant's head was filled with fungal cells and the muscles that operated the ant's mandible, or jaw, was atrophied, they found.

"In the context of biting, it allows the mandibles, we feel, to work in one direction and one direction only," Hughes told LiveScience. "Normally, they open and close, but in this case they can only close."

This keeps the dying ant from losing its grip. The fungus also appears to suck all of the calcium out of the muscles, causing a condition similar to rigor mortis, he said.

Fungi have been observed to manipulate the behavior arthropods as well, including crickets, bees, wasps and perhaps even spiders.

"We are quite confident we could see this and similar phenomenon across a broad range of organisms, because it is such a neat evolutionary trick if you are fungus to use the muscles of an animal to transport you to another environment," he wrote. (Many fungi rely on wind or other means to passively disperse their spores.)

More broadly, many parasites -- be they plant, animal or virus -- can alter the behavior of their hosts.

In the most recent study, published in the journal BMC Ecology, Hughes and colleagues observed and examined healthy and infected ants to compare their movements and reveal the physiological effects of the fungus. In a previous study, published in 2009, they found that the fungus manipulates infected ants to take it to ideal places for it to reproduce in the forest understory. As result the dead ants wound up on leaves on the north-northwestern side of plants approximately 9.8 inches (25 centimeters) above the ground. ( LiveScience )

READ MORE - How Zombie Ants Lose Their Minds