news 2017

Researchers have published details of the largest collection of artefacts from an early English coffeehouse ever discovered. Described as an 18th century equivalent of Starbucks, the finds nonetheless suggest that it may have been less like a café, and more like an inn. Coffee houses were important social centres during the 18th century.

Earliest archaeological evidence of intestinal parasitic worms infecting the ancient inhabitants of Greece confirms descriptions found in writings associated with Hippocrates, the early physician and 'father of Western medicine'.

New image brings people face to face with Seventeenth Century Scottish soldier (14 December 2017) The face of one of the Seventeenth Century Scottish soldiers who was imprisoned and died in Durham following the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 has been revealed through a remarkable new digital reconstruction.

Study finds people in areas historically reliant on coal-based industries have more 'negative' personality traits. Psychologists suggest this cognitive die may well have been cast at the dawn of the industrial age.

Study finds people in areas historically reliant on coal-based industries have more 'negative' personality traits. Psychologists suggest this cognitive die may well have been cast at the dawn of the industrial age.

New insights into the life and mysterious death of Jumbo the elephant - a celebrity animal superstar whose story is said to have inspired the film 'Dumbo' - will be revealed in a BBC One documentary hosted by Sir David Attenborough and featuring a University of Nottingham archaeologist on Sunday 10 December.

New Oxford University research has revealed that bones long venerated as relics of the saint, do in fact date from the right historical period. One of the most revered Christian saints, St Nicholas' remains are held in the Basilica di San Nicola, Bari, Southern Puglia, since 1087, where they are buried in a crypt beneath a marble altar, with others preserved in the Chiesa di San Nicolo al Lido in Venice.

A Bristol-led study suggests that developments in precision farming could yield data of great use to archaeological research, and that archaeological data could be valuable for modern farming systems. In a paper published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences , lead researcher Henry Webber , a PhD student in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, surveys the different data types and methodological processes involved in modern precision farming systems and explores 'how potentially interconnected these systems are with the archaeological community'.

You may already be surprised to hear there are iron objects dating back to the Bronze Age, but their meteorite origin is even more astonishing. Though meteorites had already been recognized as one source of this metal, the scientific community couldn't determine whether they accounted for most or simply a few Bronze Age iron artifacts.

The first study to compare ancient and living female bones shows the routine manual labour of women during early agricultural eras was more gruelling than the physical demands of rowing in Cambridge University's famously competitive boat clubs. Researchers von der University of Cambridge und der Anthropologe Ron Pinhasi von der Universität Wien say the findings suggest a "hidden history" of women's work stretching across millennia.

The first study to compare ancient and living female bones shows that women from early agricultural eras had stronger arms than the rowers of Cambridge University's famously competitive boat club. Researchers say the findings suggest a "hidden history" of gruelling manual labour performed by women that stretched across millennia.

Digitised papers publicly available for the first time reveal a wealth of intricate detail about day to day Court life in the Georgian period, and shine a light on the familial relationships of the Hanoverian Monarchs. In Phase II of the Georgian Papers Programme, a further 17,000 papers from the early Georgian period have been digitally scanned and published online, available free for anyone to access at www.royalcollection.org.uk/georgianpapers.

To solve mysteries about ancient works or authenticate heritage objects, specialists often need support from science. Since 1988, AGLAÉ has been installed at the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF, Palais du Louvre). It is the only particle accelerator in the world that is exclusively dedicated to studying heritage objects.

Workshops from a Viking camp dating to the winter of 873-4, have been unearthed by a team of archaeologists from the University of Bristol. The campsite, located in the small Derbyshire village of Repton, has been known since the 1970s, but these new discoveries have found evidence over a much larger area, for workshops and ship repairs.

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet locks away enough water to raise sea level an estimated 53 meters (174 feet), more than any other ice sheet on the planet. It's also thought to be among the most stable, not gaining or losing mass even as ice sheets in West Antarctica and Greenland shrink. New research published on Nov.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017 Georgia in the South Caucasus, not Iran, may be the birthplace of wine. In two archaeological sites there, researchers have discovered wine residue in ceramic jars dating back to 6,000 B.C.E., 600-1,000 years earlier than evidence previously found in Iran. The discovery was made by an international team of scientists; a University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology scholar was lead author of the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Alice Roberts , Professor of Public Engagement in Science answers questions about her new book 'Tamed: 10 Species That Changed Our World' . What is the latest book about? Tamed is about the deep histories of ten familiar species: dogs, apples and wheat; cattle; potatoes and chickens; rice, maize, horses, and finally, humans.

New genetic data bear witness to transatlantic ties severed by slavery and triangular trade. Scientists 1 from the Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse (CNRS/Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier/Paris Descartes University) and Ecological Anthropology and Ethnobiology (CNRS/MNHN) research units have shown that members of Maroon communities in South America - formed over four centuries ago by Africans who escaped slavery - have remarkably preserved their African genetic heritage (98%).

Three major pulses of increased mobility in Europe over the last 10,000 years and a general upward trend in migration have been uncovered in a new study led by researchers from UCL, University of Cambridge and King's College London. The new method, published today in PNAS , allows, for the first time, to directly quantify changes in prehistoric migration rates using ancient genetic data over the last 30,000 years.

Details on oldest known marine navigation tool revealed by scanning technology at WMG, University of Warwick Late fifteenth-century astrolabe - used by mariners to measure the altitude of the sun - recovered from Portuguese explorer ship which sank in 1503 Pioneering scanning analysis and 3D imaging revealed invisible navigational markings, proving the identity of the object Details of the oldest known marine navigation tool, discovered in a shipwreck, have been revealed thanks to state-of-the-art scanning technology at WMG, University of Warwick.