National Geographic Invited Bulgaria's FM to Ballard's Archeological Expedition

The National Geographic magazine has stated their intense interest in Bulgaria's archeological and historical landmarks at a meeting of the senior editors with the country's Foreign Minister Solomon Passy. According to the minister who is in New York for the session of the UN Security Council, Bulgaria's rich history and natural beauty make for a huge potential ideal for projects that National Geographic is interested in.

Proserpine and Midas: Two Unpublished Mythological Dramas

'The compositions published in Mrs. Shelley's lifetime afford but an inadequate conception of the intense sensibility and mental vigour of this extraordinary woman.'

VOYAGES OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS: The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America

My colleague Robert Schoch's previous book VOICES OF THE ROCKS was a state-of-the-art statement on 'catastrophe theory', the idea that in the not so distant past (ca. 12000 BC) the earth was rocked by a tremendous catastrophe (possibly a strike by an asteroid, bolide or comet) that almost instantly annihilated a large proportion of the larger land mammals then roaming the globe -- mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, saber-toothed tigers and many others

Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark

Recent findings about the exotic properties of monatomic gold and the platinum group metals are rediscoveries of an advanced science understood or at least known by the ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Israelite priests.

Early Africa to Asia Route Mapped

Early humans approximately 100,000 years ago traveled from Africa to Asia via a southern route that likely passed along the coasts of what are now Pakistan and India, according to researchers at Oxford University.

Not a shard of truth

Time Magazine carried a headline that aroused curiosity: "Digging for the Baptist." The reference was to an archaeological dig being carried out for the past two years or so in Qumran, near the shore of the Dead Sea.

DO PLANTS KNOW MATH?

For more than three centuries botanists and mathematicians have marveled at the complex and beautiful spiral patterns that form as plants develop. As they generate leaves around a stem, or seeds or flowers in a blossom, plants as diverse as broccoli, pinecones, artichokes and water lilies create intricate spirals that follow a well-known mathematical sequence of numbers.

How Asteroids Trigger Volcanos

Large asteroid impacts have nasty side effects, as any dinosaur could have told you were she not obliterated by one of these calamity combos 65 million years ago. The ground shakes. Fire arcs across the sky and beyond the horizon. Clouds of debris race around the planet and blot the Sun out for months.

Welcome to Hierakonpolis!

The largest site from the Pre- and Protodynastic period (3800-3100 B.C.), Hierakonpolis the City of the Hawk is the most important site for understanding the foundations of Egyptian civilization. Here, nearly 400 miles south of Cairo, archaeological investigation over the past century has confirmed this vast site's central role in the transition from prehistory to history.

Biblical Archeology Review

The Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) educates the public about archaeology and the Bible through magazines, books, visual materials and seminars. Our readers rely on us to present the latest that scholarship has to offer in a fair and accessible manner. BAS serves as an important authority and as an invaluable source of reliable information.

Greece guards sunken treasures

Hidden somewhere in an anonymous Athens office building lies an adventurer's ultimate dream - a modern-day map charting in detail more than 1,000 ancient shipwrecks still submerged in Greek seas.

Ancient travellers used highways, spy photos show

People of the Bronze Age traded and travelled more widely along a network of ancient highways in the the Middle East than previously thought, newly-released satellite images show.

Rama’s bridge is only 3,500 years old: CRS

The Adam’s bridge over Palk Strait, said to be the remains of a bridge built by Lord Rama, dates back to only 3,500 years and not 1.7 million years as claimed earlier.

Sink or swim with Joshi’s ‘civilisation’

Murli Manohar Joshi’s claim of a 9,500-year-old civilisation off the coast of Gujarat rested on a piece of wood. At a meeting of his peer group in Hyderabad last week, Prof. S.R. Rao, an accomplished marine archaeologist, described the “discovery” as “bunkum”, kicking off a controversy that has divided the academic world.

A Theory About Pyramids that Could Change the Way We Write the History of the New World and the Old

When most of the academics trained in the study of the ancient world look at pyramids on different continents, they see proof of humankind's division into distinct, separate civilizations. We see something quite the opposite: compelling evidence of the underlying unity of civilization.

THE INCONSTANT HEAVENS

Only a few years ago astronomers were unanimous in dismissing as preposterous Velikovsky’s contention that the movement of the heavenly bodies is affected by electromagnetic fields. Today creative astronomers are immersed in the study of electromagnetism. The historian finds difficulty in explaining how radical is this change that has challenged three hundred years of cosmological thought and has brought us back to the arguments of William Gilbert (1544-1603) and Johann Kepler (1571-1630)[1].

BIGFOOT SIGHTINGS ON THE INCREASE

If You go down to the woods today, or into the hills, you may find Bigfoot alive and well and living in the wilds of northern Scotland. Geoff Lincoln, of British Hominid Research, claims there is a steady influx of reported sightings of the elusive beast throughout the UK, including several in the North.

The Electric Universe introduces a far richer science that has no rigid disciplinary boundaries.

Instead it encompasses all human experience, arts and endeavour. Holistically, it embraces evidence from ancient civilisations as well as the latest space probes. The result is an astounding concordance between modern plasma physics and the ancient testimony of battling planets.

Lomborg Gets the Galileo Treatment

The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty recently ruled that Bjørn Lomborg's book The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the True State of the Planet constitutes "scientific dishonesty." Far from proving that Lomborg engaged in academic or scientific fraud, however, the report reveals the highly politicized state of environmental science: Lomborg's real sin is environmental incorrectness.

Is this how life on Earth began?

The recent discovery that exotic microbes teem in the rocks hundreds of metres beneath the floor of the Pacific Ocean looks set to fuel the controversy over where and when life began. And it will also considerably boost hopes for life on Mars.

Research suggests that ocean circulation plays less of a role in climate change than previously thou

New research shows that the Gulf Stream has little effect on the contrast in winter temperatures between Europe and eastern North America, dispelling a long-held assumption. Instead, atmospheric circulation, augmented by the Rocky Mountains, plays a larger role, say Dr. Richard Seager of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Dr. David Battisti of the University of Washington, and their colleagues.

ATLANTIS: Viatcheslav Koudriavtsev's Brief on PHD Thesis

Everyone will have heard at one time or another the name of Atlantis mentioned, we can come across it in various contexts. Almost any encyclopaedia is sure to have an article on Atlantis, which usually reads something like this: "Atlantis - according to an ancient Greek myth recorded by Plato, there had once existed a vast island in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Gibraltar, with fertile soil and densely populated, which sank to the bottom of the sea because of an earthquake. Questions of whether Atlantis has ever existed, and if so, why it vanished, today continue to arouse as much controversy among scientists as ever."

In Pursuit of Sacred Science, Part II

[DON'T MISS THIS ONE. IT'S ONE TO BOOKMARK! - Web Editor] As previously demonstrated in Part I of this article series, there are four axes which radiate outward from the "hub" of the summit's main stupa platform in the cardinal directions, representing the four quadrants of the annual "Sun wheel" of the solar cycle. The Sun's symbolic presence is further confirmed by the cruciform shape of the entire summit area, which is a universal symbol across cultures of the crossroads of solar time.

Graham Hancock Responds to Comments by S.R. Rao

RAO's opinion on the Cambay find is just that, an opinion. He has not dived at the site (actually he does not dive and never has). No-one else has dived at the site. No new information has been forthcoming since the original scans and dredges. As such Rao's opinion does no more than echo the opinions voiced last year by most Western scientists and quite a few Indian scientists...

Discovery of pre-Harappan civilisation debunked

Claims of having discovered the world's oldest human settlement in the Gulf of Cambay off the coast of Gujarat were just "bunkum", renowned marine biologist S R Rao has said. Such a "flippant and premature" announcement to the media prior to publishing the data in a peer-reviewed journal "puts credibility of Indian science at stake", Rao said here. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Please see Graham Hancock's Response here: http://www.grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=129566&t=129565 ]

Geologists show Homer got it right

Homer knew his geography, say US researchers. The ancient Greek writer's description of the war fought around Troy is consistent with a new reconstruction of the way the region looked about three millennia ago,

Milk fats revealed in pots 6,000 years old

By grinding up millennia-old pottery, scientists have detected traces of milk some 6,000 years old in Britain, the earliest direct evidence known of human dairy activities.

The Windover Bog Site

"Unique" is not a word any writer should use lightly; and truly "unique" archaeological sites are few and far between. I don't mean the oldest sites or the sites with the most golden artifacts, I mean the the kind of sites that the more you learn about them, the more startling and fascinating they become. The Early Middle Archaic Windover Bog site, a pond cemetery on Florida's Atlantic coast near Cape Canaveral, is just one of those sites.

The Trojan War: A Summary

The ancient Greeks traced their history to mythological events and their genealogy to the gods and goddesses. Perhaps the most pivotal event in the early history of ancient Greece was the Trojan War -- the most important record of which is The Iliad of Homer -- which was started, according to the ancient reports, by a conflict among the goddesses.

Online Texts: The Greek View of Life

The following pages are intended to serve as a general introduction to Greek literature and thought, for those, primarily, who do not know Greek. Whatever opinions may be held as to the value of translations, it seems clear that it is only by their means that the majority of modern readers can attain to any knowledge of Greek culture; and as I believe that culture to be still, as it has been in the past, the most valuable element of a liberal education....

Online Texts: Athens from Cleisthenes to Pericles

The history of Athens from Cleisthenes' time to that of Pericles is...the complex story of simultaneous developments on many fronts — the institution of democracy and its subsequent radicalization under Ephialtes and Pericles; Athens's acquisition of an empire during and after her struggle with Persia; the contest with Sparta for mastery of Greece. But the special complexity of this story does not so much consist in the fact that Athens's evolution was multifaceted, comprising, domestically, a transformation of the nature of her government and, externally, the prosecution of a double-edged foreign policy.

Pyramid Rover

Lehner also proposes a ‘third way’ approach to labour issues in ancient times, suggesting that although working on the pyramids was not exactly a voluntary matter, nor was it entirely conscripted and definitely not the work of slaves. He postulates an ‘obligation based’ approach.

Monsters in Ancient Egyptian Art

Whilst almost every student of pharaonic civilization is quite familiar with the dazzling array of bird and animal life illustrated in its art and hieroglyphic writing, there is often considerably less awareness of the monsters or fantastic creatures which also appear over the course of Egypt’s long history. Patrick Houlihan surveys a selection of these imaginary beasts and, briefly explores their respective roles in antiquity.

ST. PAUL IN EPHESUS

St. Paul of Tarsus visited Rome four times from A.D. 44 to 62 to spread the message of Christianity and, while traveling through Anatolia, stopped twice at Ephesus. He caused violent protests when he preached sermons in monotheistic Jewish synagogues in order to spread the word of Christianity in polytheistic Ephesus. St. Paul was killed on his fourth visit to Rome. St. Theoklia, who accompanied him on some of his journeys, later died in Antioch, modern Antakya.

GODS OF YUCATÁN

In the simmering heat of a Yucatán afternoon, the imposing sixteenth-century Franciscan monastery and church of San Miguel at Maní looms over an empty plaza, its congregants taking refuge from the sun in their tidy cement-block homes and businesses. Once an important Maya and Franciscan center, Maní is now a humble hamlet, and its once-thriving monastery looks lonely and out of place.

Can these bones live?

`Burial art' is not unusual in the Christian world. Here and there, it can be found in the crypts of churches - a reminder of death lurking around the corner.

Scientists draining validity from Noah theory

Scientists are seriously challenging a recent, fascinating proposal that Noah's epic story -- setting sail with an ark jam-full of animal couples -- was based on an actual catastrophic flood that suddenly filled the Black Sea 7,500 years ago, forcing people to flee.

History Emerging from the Ice

The world's glaciers are slowly melting, and as they do, artifacts from the near and distant past are emerging from the ice. NPR's Eric Niiler reports on the discovery of archaeological treasure.

Ancient Greek Wreck Found in Black Sea

Members of a joint U.S.-Bulgarian research expedition discovered the wreck on August 1, 2002 in 275 feet (84 meters) of water off the eastern coast of Bulgaria. Using a three-person submersible vehicle launched from the 180-foot (55-meter) Bulgarian research ship Akademik, the team dove on a target previously identified by sonar on the last day of a 14-day expedition.

Ethiopia’s Historic Ties with Yemen

The antiquity of Ethiopian and Yemeni history is apparent from the fact that traditions in both countries go back twelve centuries to the time of the renowned Queen of Sheba.

Did Indo-European Languages spread before farming?

We hypothesise that a reduction in population density across most of the region during the coldest part of the Younger Dryas (around 12,800-11,400 cal. y.a.) may have been followed by a sudden rebound phase, when climate switched back to warm, moist Holocene conditions over only a few decades. A 'sparse wave' of hunter-gatherers migrating rapidly out of a refugial area (possibly located in southern Europe and/or the Near East) would have made a disproportionate contribution to the genetic and linguistic legacy of the region.

The Secret of El Dorado - programme summary

Today, scientists are busy searching for the biological cocktail that makes barren earth productive. If they can succeed in recreating the Amerindians' terra preta, then a legacy more precious than the gold the Conquistadors sought could spare the rainforest from destruction and help feed people across the developing world.

THE TUNGUSKA METEORITE MYSTERY IS STILL UNVEILED

A very powerful blast took place 94 years ago 70 kilometers far from the settlement of Vanavara in Russia’s Siberian republic of Evenkiya. The power of the explosion was equal to two thousand explosions of Hiroshima A-bomb.

Alternatives to Skepticism

[The Daily Grail] If we do cover 'new paradigm' ideas, then who is to decide what is a genuine 'contender', and what is merely tabloid pap? As editor of TDG, I suppose that should be my decision - but as I doubt my tentatively held beliefs almost continually, I am often unwilling to impose my judgement upon others' research.

Aotearoa tradition spot on

New scientific findings have backed traditional Maori accounts that New Zealand was settled about 30 generations ago.

Archaeologists find Ashok era Buddhist site in Uttaranchal

Archaeologists have excavated a Buddhist site, which could date back to the period of Emperor Ashoka, in Udhamsingh Nagar district of Uttaranchal, a senior police official said on Friday.

Archaeologists skeptical on authenticity of Temple tablet

The discovery of an ancient sandstone tablet with inscriptions attributed to contemporaries of King Joash of Judea claims to provide proof of a parallel Biblical passage describing renovations on the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Israeli archaeology experts say the unknown origin of the tablet and the use of contemporary Hebrew idiom in its inscription, point to a forgery attempt reminiscent of the recently discovered "Jesus box."

Ark of Covenant is in Jerusalem, and I will find it - archeologist

The Ark of the Covenant is probably buried somewhere deep in the hidden catacombs under Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, says a leading Israeli archeologist. “If somebody will ever find the Ark of the Covenant, it will be me,” Dan Bahat told about 50 people yesterday at Sackville’s Faith Baptist Church. “Harrison Ford did it beautifully,” he said. “But I must tell you one thing. I never jumped out of running cars, I never went into a dungeon full of poisonous snakes, and I never fought Nazi Germans.”

Chemistry guides evolution, claims theory

That enduring metaphor for the randomness of evolution, a blind watchmaker that works to no pattern or design, is being challenged by two European chemists. They say that the watchmaker may have been blind, but was guided and constrained by the changing chemistry of the environment, with many inevitable results.

Evolving Slower Gets You the Bigger Piece of the Pie

Evolutionary biologists have long believed that evolving faster, adapting better, and learning more quickly should always be beneficial for a species. In a recent paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig/Germany and from the University of Washington/USA reveal that this is not always the case.

Fickle Evolution: Winged, to Wingless, to Winged

It has been with great surprise that researchers have greeted a paper in the current Nature in which an international team of researchers reports evidence that wingless stick insects have re-evolved wings at least four times in the history of the group.

Pre-elephants may have given birth to myth

RESEARCHERS ON the southern Greek island of Crete have unearthed the fossilized tusk, teeth and bones of a fearsome Deinotherium gigantissimum, an elephantlike creature that reached nearly 15 feet (4.5 meters) tall.

....A large hole in the middle of the elephant’s skull — the nasal cavity for its trunk — could have given rise to the tales of the cyclops, the ferocious mythological giant with one eye that appears in Homer’s “Odyssey” and other stories.

Prehistoric NW Indians hunted fur seals of sustainable basis

Archaeological evidence from prehistoric hunters in Washington and Alaska adds new fuel to the ongoing debate over the belief that humans have a propensity to over-exploit their natural resources, and also indicates that early Indians' harvest of northern fur seals was sustainable. "The research clearly indicates that over-exploitation is not a universal characteristic of subsistence economies," said Michael Etnier, who earned his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Washington last month.

Ruins of 4,300-year-old prehistoric city found in China

Chinese archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a prehistoric city dating back an estimated 4,300 years in southwest Sichuan province, state press said.

Scientists say life moves in fours

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Geoffrey West [says] the number four plays a key role in how all life on earth takes shape. West has been investigating how basic systems common in animals - such as metabolism, heart rate and blood flow - differ among animals of greatly contrasting sizes. He's found four is fundamental in all of the equations that calculate those rates.

Spaceflight in the Mahabharata

The Mahabharata, the largest ancient Indian epos, is at least 2000 years old. It was written down a long time ago before the technology which is described in some parts of it, was (re)invented in our time. Even at the time of the complete literal and close english translation, in the years 1886-1890, by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, published by Pratap Chandra Roy, no aircraft ever flew and the first combustion engine was just invented a few month ago.

Stress relief caused Giant's Causeway

The Giant's Causeway is not the work of men or monsters, but a natural consequence of how lava cools and solidifies, new computer simulations suggest.

Talk of the Town Leads Straight to Discovery

In a cafe in Cyprus, the University of Cincinnati scholar overheard conversations about an ancient tomb. Her interest piqued, she listened intently as the locals described an apparently undisturbed archaeological site. It might be only a tall tale or a local legend, Gisela Walberg thought, but what if...?

Test to determine age in ceramics is not foolproof — or scamproof

Julian Thompson, Chinese art expert for Sotheby's in London, insists that TL testing be seen "as part of the jigsaw of evidence and only viewed in the context of a thorough and critical expert examination."

Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation

Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation is ambitious in its scope but simple in its aims: to make the complete records of Howard Carter's excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun available on these web pages.

Vandals destroy, deface Badlands pictographs

Using charcoal, someone drew over several pictographs in Dry Canyon in the Badlands east of Bend, defacing about five and destroying at least one of the irreplaceable images.

'Oldest star chart' found

The oldest image of a star pattern, that of the famous constellation of Orion, has been recognised on an ivory tablet some 32,500 years old. The tiny sliver of mammoth tusk contains a carving of a man-like figure with arms and legs outstretched in the same pose as the stars of Orion.

Dig Days: Hidden treasures on view

Can you imagine that an Ancient Egyptian physician once fitted a patient with a prosthetic toe? (see Al-Ahram Weekly Issue 599, 15-21 August 2002). It is hard to believe that a person who died 3,000 years ago had a custom-made wooden toe. I considered it important enough to be included in the exhibition the "Hidden Treasures" now open to the public in the basement of the Egyptian Museum [Zahi Hawass]

Egyptologists and the OCT: Slowly getting there?

"In my opinion, the only theory that provides a fully comprehensive explanation for the Pyramid Complex...is the theory that the complex basically represents --in its entirety and simultaneously-- cosmology, cosmic renewal and cosmic governance." [David O'Connor, Stazionen: Beitrage Zur Kult. Agypt.Rainer Stadelmann Gewidmet, Mainz 1998]

Explosive evidence found in a 13th-century shipwreck off the coast of Japan

JAPANESE underwater archaeologists have found evidence of the great invasion fleet sent by Kublai Khan in the 13th century, which tradition says was destroyed by a kamikaze or “divine wind” sent by the Emperor’s deified ancestors to save Japan from its enemies. Only a small proportion of the force was Mongol, the evidence shows: the majority was drawn from conquered China, and used advanced weaponry including shrapnel-filled projectile bombs.

First truly artificial organism engineered

The world's first truly artificial organism has been engineered by researchers in California. The bacterium makes an amino acid that no other organism uses to build proteins.

Fluke or fake?

An astonishing 95,000 people visited the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) between 16 November and 29 December 2002 to view the so-called ossuary of James, brother of Jesus Christ. The exhibit had been hurriedly restored after being seriously damaged in transit from Jerusalem.

Monster Squid Grips Racing Yacht?

A French yacht taking part in the Jules Verne round-the-world sailing trophy was gripped by a giant squid for about an hour in the mid-Atlantic, its skipper announced by radio-link.

Pharaonic statues found in north Sudan

Granite statues and stelas of pharaohs who ruled from northern Sudan some 2,600 years ago, including the last "black pharaohs," have been found by a team of French and Swiss archeologists, a statement said Sunday.

Relics of pyramid uncovered in Mexico City's historic downtown

Part of the base of a pre-Hispanic pyramid was uncovered in Mexico City's historic downtown during reconstruction work on the areas' manifold colonial structures, city officials said Monday.

Relocation tensions grow over China dam

Chinese authorities mishandled the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people being moved to make way for the giant Three Gorges Dam, an environmentalist group charged Monday.

Speed of Gravity Results 'Incorrect,' Physicist Says

Physicists leveled heavy criticism Thursday on a report from last week that claimed the speed of gravity had been determined by observation and was equal to the speed of light. One physicist called the interpretation of the finding "nonsense". Others were more diplomatic.

THE ANGLE OF CONTENTION

Since the publication of Keeper of Genesis in 1996, the main thrust of the criticism against the dating of the ‘First Time’ to 10,500 BC (other than the less convincing argument that there was no ‘civilisation’ in Egypt at that epoch to observe and record the position of the stars) was a persistent litany from critics that there was an alleged ‘unacceptable’ variance between the angle of the line joining apexes of the First and Third Pyramids made with the meridian....

The Irish Times: Home News: Calendar features items found in pipeline excavations

Bord Gais has published a calendar highlighting some of the significant archaeological discoveries made during construction of the pipeline carrying natural gas to Galway and Limerick. The 318km pipeline from Scotland comes ashore at Gormanston in Co Meath, where one of the most interesting finds was made last summer, a prehistoric dug-out canoe which had become buried in the seabed.

U of C holds key to lost Mayan city

The lost city of Naachtun -- mysteriously abandoned at the height of its powers -- beckoned Reese-Taylor, one of only a handful of archeologists in the past 80 years to visit the site.

Unearthed: the humble origins of world diplomacy

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of an invasion of the Middle East by one of the world's first superpowers, which destroyed much of the region 33 centuries ago.

Ancient Cargo Details Black Sea Trade

Writers in antiquity tell of dried fish, a staple of the ancient Greek diet, being imported from great distances. Now there's evidence of just how far from Crimea, in what is now Ukraine.

Postglacial Flooding of the Bering Land Bridge

The land bridge animation is based on the best available digital information, and reveals large-scale patterns of shifting coastlines and environments as the land bridge evolved. Bathymetry and elevation are color-coded in 1000 calendar-year time steps.

Earth’s capture of the moon c.2000bc

How Earth gained such a large moon is still one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. I propose past planetary chaos involving Earth, Mars and Venus resulted in the capture of the moon in orbit around the Earth c.2000 BC. This chaotic ‘capture’ of the moon paralleling a “Dark Age” as proposed by archaeologists.

[And Essay by GrahamHancock.com Reader, Gary Gilligan]

The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians

The idea of some sect ‘making up’ the Jesus story may seem strange today, but this is because we no longer think of myths in the same way as did our ancestors. To us myths are irrelevant fantasies, but the ancients regarded them as profound allegories encoding mystical teachings. Mythical motifs represented philosophical principles. They were an archetypal vocabulary with which to think. Creating new myths was a way of exploring new ideas. Reworking old myths and syncretising them to create new ones was a major preoccupation of Pagan, Jewish and Christian Gnostics.

ANCIENT MYSTERIES ARTICLE

Every time...anomalies are discovered...there are always those scientists who insist these formations are natural. The Bimini Wall or Road was claimed to be natural. The unexpected, underwater, Japanese Pyramid was also supposed to be inartificial. Here, too, in Costa Rica, rational-thinkers abound with ideas on how the [spherical stones] were formed. One concept is 'ejecta,' from when the Talamancas were an active volcanic range, cooled as it fell to Earth. Another idea is moving, glacial, ice sheets crushed and pushed all that was underneath much the way we would work a ball of clay with our hands.

Did the Chinese discover America?

In his new book, "1421: The Year China Discovered America" (William Morrow), Gavin Menzies claims that a massive Chinese fleet of huge junks and support ships made a two-year circumnavigation of the globe, with extensive exploration of the Americas, nearly a century before Magellan and Columbus.

Ancient tablet echoes Bible passage

Israeli geologists said Monday they have examined a stone tablet detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon that, if authenticated, would be a rare piece of physical evidence confirming biblical narrative. The find — whose origin is murky — is about the size of a legal pad, with a 15-line inscription in ancient Hebrew that strongly resembles descriptions in the Bible’s Book of Kings.

Bacterial Babble

Now scientists have discovered that bacteria talk to one another constantly, often cooperating in the construction of intricate communities, known as biofilms, that allow them to thrive in ways they never could as single-celled individuals.

Chariots of the Gods -- The Series

Chariots of the Gods - The Series is based on the books of Erich von Däniken who more than twenty years ago first presented his theory of extraterrestrial contact with the ancient world - a theory so incredible yet so logical that it has become part of a wide ranging debate that continues stronger today. His examination of ancient ruins, forgotten texts, and other archeological anomalies points to evidence of extraterrestrial intervention in human history.

Georgian skull's link to our past

The remains of seven individuals have been found at Dmanisi - the most recent this summer - but what made this discovery so special was that it did not look like the skull of any human ever found outside Africa before.

Making Waves Over Noah’s Flood

Scientists are seriously challenging a recent, fascinating proposal that Noah's epic story - setting sail with an ark jam-full of animal couples - was based on an actual catastrophic flood that suddenly filled the Black Sea 7,500 years ago, forcing people to flee.

New crater revives Moon mystery

A mysterious flash on the Moon caught on camera 50 years ago is still provoking disagreements about its origin. Astronomer Bonnie Buratti says her new results show that the flash was caused by a 20-metre asteroid hitting the Moon.

Oldest Complex Life Form Found in Newfoundland

The newly discovered fossilized ediacarans were unearthed iendiatcarn Newfoundland, Canada, and grew to around two meters (six feet) long. They lived just after Snowball Earth, an ice age that may have engulfed the entire planet

Tests on DNA after 'big cat' killing

A post mortem examination on a dog believed to have been killed by a panther-like animal in west Wales has confirmed that it was killed by a large predator...The dog was seen being attacked by a large cat, and was then joined by what was thought to have been its cub.

The emperors and the assassins

So paranoid was Emperor Qin Shihuang of the first dynasty of China that he sought immortality to survive his own death, forecast by seers to be delivered by the hands of a murderer...Qin, who had come to the pre-unification throne at the age of 13, under the name King Zheng, was attracted to the strange superstitions swirling through the misty mountains of the Shandong peninsula, on the coast of the Yellow Sea, where there was rumoured to be an island containing the elixir of everlasting life.

Voyages of the Pyramid Builders

Is it a mere coincidence that pyramids are found across our globe? Did cultures ranging across vast spaces in geography and time, such as the ancient Egyptians; early Buddhists; the Maya, Inca, Toltec, and Aztec civilizations of the Americas; the Celts of the British Isles; and even the Mississippi Indians of pre-Columbian Illinois, simply dream the same dreams and envision the same structures?