Michelle Moran's Blog, page 108

Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx

When Mark Lehner was a teenager in the late 1960s, his parents introduced him to the writings of the famed clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. During one of his trances, Cayce, who died in 1945, saw that refugees from the lost city of Atlantis buried their secrets in a hall of records under the Sphinx and that the hall would be discovered before the end of the 20th century.

Read the rest in Smithsonian Magazine.

Chemical analyses uncover secrets of an ancient amphora

A team of chemists from the University of Valencia (UV) has confirmed that the substance used to hermetically seal an amphora found among remains at Lixus, in Morocco, was pine resin. The scientists also studied the metallic fragments inside the 2,000-year-old vessel, which could be fragments of material used for iron-working.

Read the rest on Eurekalert.

Early queen's skeleton 'found in German cathedral'

Eadgyth's bones are thought to have been moved to this tomb in 1510

Remains of one of the earliest members of the English royal family may have been unearthed in a German cathedral, a Bristol University research team says. They believe a near-complete female skeleton, aged 30 to 40, found wrapped in silk in a lead coffin in Magdeburg Cathedral is that of Queen Eadgyth. The granddaughter of Alfred the Great, she married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, in 929. She...

Viking Shipwrecks Face Ruin as Odd "Worms" Invade

by James Owen

The dreaded wood-eating shipworm is invading northern Europe's Baltic Sea. The animal threatens to munch through thousands of Viking vessels and other historic shipwrecks, scientists warn.

Read the rest on National Geographic.

Mound of Ash Reveals Shrine to Zeus

By Bruce Bower

Excavations at the Sanctuary of Zeus atop Greece's Mount Lykaion have revealed that ritual activities occurred there for roughly 1,500 years, from the height of classic Greek civilization around 3,400 years ago until just before Roman conquest in 146.

Read the rest on Discovery.

Roman Statue Re-Discovered

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© europics.at

A priceless ancient Roman statue has been discovered being used to decorate a flower bed in a housing estate.

Read the rest on the Croatian Times.

Most British men are descended from ancient farmers

By Ian Sample

Most men in Britain are descended from the first farmers to migrate across Europe from the Near East 10,000 years ago, scientists say.

Read the rest on The Guardian.

Temple to cat god found in Egypt

The temple was filled with statues of Bastet, a once fearsome lion-headed goddess whose image changed over time to a domesticated cat

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 2,000-year-old temple in Alexandria dedicated to a cat goddess. The temple is the first trace of the royal quarters of the Ptolemaic dynasty to be revealed in Alexandria.

Read the rest on the BBC.

Mystery Visitor Fails to Show Up at Edgar Allan Poe Grave

AP: BALTIMORE — Is this tradition "nevermore"?

A mysterious visitor who left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each year on the writer's birthday failed to show early Tuesday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago.

Read the rest here.

'Priceless' Amber Room of the Tsars, looted and hidden by the Nazis, is 'found' by Russian treasure hunter

Foreign dignitaries admire a replica of the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg. A Russian treasure hunter claims he has found the original Amber Room in Kaliningrad

The Amber Room of the Tsars - one of the greatest missing treasures of WW2 that was looted by the Nazis during their invasion of the Soviet Union - may have been found.

Read the rest on the Daily Mail.