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History / Archeology - Life Sciences - 10.03.2021

Medieval ’birthing girdle’ parchment was worn during labour
Scientists have used proteomic techniques to find evidence of vaginal fluid, along with honey and milk, on a rare manuscript from the late 15th century. There are suggestions that due to the dimensions of the object - long and narrow - they were worn like a chastity belt, to help support the pregnant women both physically and spiritually Sarah Fiddyment Researchers have found direct evidence that a 500-year-old manuscript was worn during childbirth by using "biomolecular analysis" to detect ancient proteins from cervico-vaginal fluid within the weave of the parchment.

History / Archeology - Life Sciences - 10.03.2021

Medieval parchment was worn as ’birthing girdle’ during labour
Scientists have used proteomic techniques to find evidence of vaginal fluid, along with honey and milk, in a rare manuscript from the late 15th century. There are suggestions that due to the dimensions of the object - long and narrow - they were worn like a chastity belt, to help support the pregnant women both physically and spiritually Sarah Fiddyment Researchers have found direct evidence that a 500-year-old manuscript was worn during childbirth by using "biomolecular analysis" to detect ancient proteins from cervico-vaginal fluid within the weave of the parchment.

History / Archeology - Social Sciences - 10.03.2021

Ancient group once considered nomadic stayed local
As far back as the Greek historian Herodotus, a group of people called the Scythians were considered highly mobile warrior nomads. Scythian-era people lived across Eurasia from about 700 BCE to 200 BCE, and have long been considered highly mobile warriors who ranged widely across the steppe grasslands.

Earth Sciences - History / Archeology - 17.02.2021

Stonehenge first stood in Wales
Professor Mike Parker Pearson (UCL Institute of Archaeology) discusses his research which has found a dismantled stone circle in west Wales which was moved to Salisbury Plain and rebuilt as Stonehenge. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose History of the Kings of Britain was written in 1136, the mysterious monoliths at Stonehenge were first spirited there by the wizard Merlin, whose army stole them from a mythical Irish stone circle called the Giants' Dance.

History / Archeology - 11.02.2021

Stonehenge may be dismantled Welsh stone circle
UCL archaeologists have found a dismantled stone circle in west Wales that they believed was moved to Salisbury Plain and rebuilt as Stonehenge. The stunning discovery, published in Antiquity ,  has been secretly documented by filmmakers and is the subject of an exclusive BBC programme , Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed .

Health - History / Archeology - 08.02.2021

1918 Pandemic Second Wave Had Fatal Consequences
In the event of a pandemic, delayed reactions and a decentralized approach by the authorities at the start of a follow-up wave can lead to longer-lasting, more severe and more fatal consequences, researchers from the universities of Zurich and Toronto have found. The interdisciplinary team compared the Spanish flu of 1918 and 1919 in the Canton of Bern with the coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

Law - History / Archeology - 01.02.2021

VUB rediscovers Belgian contribution to peace
In his doctoral research, VUB legal historian Wouter De Rycke investigated the unique but forgotten contribution of the Mons lawyer Louis Bara (1821-1857) to the 19th-century international peace campaign. According to De Rycke, his research offers a glimpse into a rather unknown episode of our history: " In the 19th century, the first internationally organised movement to declare war emerged, a kind of 'NGO' avant la lettre.

History / Archeology - Environment - 27.01.2021

History of the Champagne vineyards revealed
Although the reputation of Champagne is well established, the history of Champagne wines and vineyards is poorly documented. However, a research team led by scientists from the CNRS and the Université de Montpellier at the Institut des sciences de l'évolution de Montpellier 1 has just lifted the veil on this history by analysing the archaeological grape seeds from excavations carried out in Troyes and Reims.

Environment - History / Archeology - 25.01.2021

Climate change in antiquity: mass emigration due to water scarcity
The absence of monsoon rains at the source of the Nile was the cause of migrations and the demise of entire settlements in the late Roman province of Egypt. This demographic development has been compared with environmental data for the first time by professor of ancient history, Sabine Huebner of the University of Basel - leading to a discovery of climate change and its consequences.

Earth Sciences - History / Archeology - 20.01.2021

New Data about the structure of the Pyramid of Cheops
An interview with Prof. Christian Große about his pyramid research Measuring a height of 139 meters (455 ft.), the largest of the three pyramids of Giza is one of the oldest edifices in the world. Yet, even after 4,500 years, this architectural masterpiece still leaves some questions unanswered.

Astronomy / Space Science - History / Archeology - 14.01.2021

Astronomers document the rise and fall of a rarely observed stellar dance
The sun is the only star in our system. But many of the points of light in our night sky are not as lonely. By some estimates, more than three-quarters of all stars exist as binaries - with one companion - or in even more complex relationships. Stars in close quarters can have dramatic impacts on their neighbors.

History / Archeology - 12.01.2021

New insights from original Domesday survey revealed | University of Oxford
Prof. Stephen Baxter is a world-leading expert on Domesday Book. His research has formed the basis of radio and television documentaries, including on the Domesday survey (BBC2) . He is Clarendon Professor of Medieval History and Barron Fellow in Medieval History at St Peter's College, Oxford ( stephen.baxter@spc.ox.ac.uk ) This new interpretation of Domesday is advanced by Stephen Baxter, 'How and Why was Domesday Made'', English Historical Review , Volume 135, Issue 576 ( published online 22 December, 2020 and freely accessible ).

Health - History / Archeology - 12.01.2021

Archaeologists find skeletons at Binnengasthuis premises
Excavation work in the courtyard at the construction site for the new University Library has been completed. During the dig, the municipality of Amsterdam's Knowledge Centre for Monuments and Archaeology (MenA) conducted extensive archaeological research and skeletal human remains were found. Physical anthropology, a sub-discipline of Archaeology, is the study of the human skeleton in an archaeological context.

Life Sciences - History / Archeology - 23.12.2020

Ancient DNA shines light on Caribbean prehistory
An international team of scientists reveals the genetic makeup of the people who lived in the Caribbean between about 400 and 3,100 years ago-at once settling several archaeologic and anthropologic debates, illuminating present-day ancestries and reaching startling conclusions about Indigenous population sizes when Caribbean cultures were devastated by European colonialism beginning in the 1490s.

History / Archeology - Earth Sciences - 09.12.2020

New evidence: Neandertals buried their dead
Was burial of the dead practiced by Neandertals or is it an innovation specific to our species? There are indications in favour of the first hypothesis but some scientists remain sceptical. For the first time in Europe, however, a multi-disciplinary team led by researchers at the CNRS and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (France) and the University of the Basque Country (Spain) 1 has demonstrated, using a variety of criteria, that a Neandertal child was buried, probably around 41,000 years ago, at the Ferrassie site (Dordogne).

History / Archeology - Environment - 07.12.2020

Archaeologists Explore Secrets of Neolithic Village off Israel’s Coast
UC San Diego archaeologist and Qualcomm Institute (QI) affiliate Thomas Levy and Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa in Haifa, Israel and their teams have completed a combined physical and virtual excavation of a Neolithic underwater settlement off Israel's Carmel coast. The expedition could reveal secrets about prehistoric social evolution, climate and environmental change from more than 8,000 years ago.

History / Archeology - Chemistry - 02.12.2020

African trade routes sketched out by mediaeval beads
An analysis of archaeological glass beads discovered in sub-Saharan West Africa brings to light the full extent of the region's international trade routes between the 7th and 13th centuries. The origin of glass beads dates back to early ancient times. The chemical composition of the beads and their morphological and technical characteristics can reveal where they come from; this information can then be used to reconstruct the trade channels between glass production areas and the sites where the beads were used at different times.

Art and Design - History / Archeology - 27.11.2020

Operation Night Watch: getting closer to Rembrandt despite distancing
The summer of 2019 saw the kick-off of the largest and most multifaceted research project ever to focus on Rembrandt's famous painting The Night Watch. Ever since the museum reopened after its closure earlier this year following coronavirus measures, the team has been working under adapted conditions.

History / Archeology - Campus - 10.11.2020

Hundreds of Copies of Newton’s Principia Found in New Census
In a story of lost and stolen books and scrupulous detective work across continents, a Caltech historian and his former student have unearthed previously uncounted copies of Isaac Newton's groundbreaking science book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica , known more colloquially as the Principia .

History / Archeology - 05.11.2020

Neolithic construction boom led to large-scale mega henges being built across southern Britain
One of the antler picks that were sampled during the research. As these picks were used to dig out the ditches of the henge, they provide a good indication of the date that the monument was constructed. (Credit: Cardiff University) Frantic building activity around 2500 BC resulted in massive ceremonial structures appearing in southern Britain, a study from Cardiff University says.