Aux origines

Atlas Obscura on Slate is a new travel blog. Like us on Facebook, Tumblr, or follow us on Twitter @atlasobscura. It was a legend. No trace of the city had ever been found, and it appeared only in a few rare inscriptions and ancient texts.

What’s the point of the humanities? Of studying philosophy, history, literature and “soft” sciences like psychology and poly sci? The Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, consisting of academic, corporate, political and entertainment big shots, tries to answer this question in a big new report to Congress. The report is intended to counter plunging enrollment in and support for the humanities, which are increasingly viewed as “luxuries that employment-minded students can ill afford,” as The New York Times put it.

 

A recent study of the mitochondrial DNA of the Cepaea nemoralis land snail, a snail curiously common only between Ireland and the Pyrenees region of Southern France, has led researchers to conclude the possibility that ancient Mesolithic people carried the fauna with them in a migration from the French region to Ireland about 8,000 years ago.

 

Twenty-six thousand years ago in the Czech Republic, one of our ice-age ancestors selected a hunk of mammoth ivory and carved this enigmatic portrait of a woman - the oldest ever found.

Several early photos of the Sphinx, the top one identified as follows: Henri Béchard (active 1870s & 80s); ‘Le Sphinx Armachis, Caire’ (The Sphinx Armachis, Cairo), about 1880; Albumen print; 21 x 27cm. (National Media Museum).

La mostra evoca, nel titolo, il riferimento al "vento" che muove le pale eoliche che ormai da anni segnano il paesaggio del Subappennino Daunio e che, al tempo stesso, ha rappresentato causa, in qualche modo "forzata", tuttavia propulsiva di una stagione nuova e forse decisiva, della ricerca scientifica condotta attraverso lo strumento dell'archeologia preventiva. E' stato infatti possibile indagare, con risultati straordinari, ambiti territoriali impervi e mai interessati da scavi archeologici, che hanno rivelato palinsesti culturali e sistemi insediativi di assoluto rilievo per la preistoria mediterranea.

 

Japan's ancient 'Kofun' burial mounds: Fusion of traditional archaeology with cutting edge information technology to uncover the mysteries of ancient civilizations.

Scientists completed the first sequence of the Neanderthal genome in 2010, finding genetic evidence suggesting ancestors of modern humans successfully interbred with Neanderthals.

Scratched and exhausted, Damian Evans pushed through dense Cambodian jungle into a clearing where mountain villagers long ago attempted to grow rice, stepping onto a weed-covered mound.

A new study suggests that the pygmy right whale is the last living relative of an ancient group of whales long believed to be extinct.

By pulling the latest data from the ESA's Planck Mission project, a physics professor from the University of Washington has created an auditory representation of the Big Bang.

The Solutrean hypothesis is a controversial proposal that peoples from Europe may have been among the earliest settlers in the Americas, as evidenced by similarities in stone tool technology of the Solutrean culture from prehistoric Europe to that of the later Clovis tool-making culture found in the Americas. It was first proposed in 1998. Its key proponents include Dennis Stanford, of the Smithsonian Institution, and Bruce Bradley, of the University of Exeter.

 250 million years ago, a mammal forerunner and an amphibian shared a burrow. Scientists from South Africa, Australia and France have discovered a world first association while scanning a 250 million year old fossilized burrow from the Karoo Basin of South Africa.

250 million years ago, a mammal forerunner and an amphibian shared a burrow. Scientists from South Africa, Australia and France have discovered a world first association while scanning a 250 million year old fossilized burrow from the Karoo Basin of South Africa.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-oddest-couple-amphibian-mammal-forerunner.html#jCp250 million years ago, a mammal forerunner and an amphibian shared a burrow. Scientists from South Africa, Australia and France have discovered a world first association while scanning a 250 million year old fossilized burrow from the Karoo Basin of South Africa.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-oddest-couple-amphibian-mammal-forerunner.html#jCp

Any children that were born as a result of the pairing most likely died fairly quickly, and without a chance to impact the human genome.

Les premiers Homo sapiens en Asie, il y a 60 000 ans, après l'éruption du volcan Toba. C'est ce que démontre une étude génétique et achéologique publiée dans les PNAS par les professeurs Mellars et Richards.

It is likely some of the most widespread and oldest art in the United States. Pieces of rock art dot the Appalachian Mountains, and research by University of Tennessee, Knoxville, anthropology professor Jan Simek finds each engraving or drawing is strategically placed to reveal a cosmological puzzle. 

A colorful, well-preserved "mural tomb," where a military commander and his wife were likely buried nearly 1,500 years ago, has been uncovered in China.

The pharaoh Sneferu was a prolific pyramid builder of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt.

Caveman was buried like a woman, leading scientists to question his sexual orientation.