An Ignoble Experiment: Drowned Stone Age fisherman examined with forensic method that could rewrite prehistory

2022/03/01

Drowned Stone Age fisherman examined with forensic method that could rewrite prehistory

Created for ignoble.experiment@arconati.us | Web Version

March 1, 2022

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Top Science News

Ukraine hospitals could run out of oxygen in 24 hours, WHO warns

(Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty images)

Ukrainian hospitals could run out of medical oxygen within the next 24 hours, endangering the lives of thousands of critically ill patients, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine means that trucks carrying the life-saving medical resource are unable to transport it from plants to hospitals across the country, which has seen its active cases of COVID-19 increasing over the past month, according to a U.N. report.

Full Story: Live Science (2/28)

History & Archaeology

Voluptuous 'Venus' of the Ice Age originated in Italy

(Kern, A. & Antl-Weiser, W. Venus. Editon-Lammerhuber, 2008)

An ancient carved statue of a very full-figured woman, known as the Venus of Willendorf, originated far from where it was found in the early 20th century, in Willendorf, Austria. Scientists recently peered inside the voluptuous Ice Age figure for the first time since its discovery and found clues that helped them trace the origins of the stone to a location hundreds of miles away, in northern Italy.

The statue, which measures just 4.3 inches (11 centimeters) tall, dates to about 30,000 years ago during the Paleolithic period (2.6 million to 10,000 years ago). An Ice Age artisan would have carved the figure with flint tools, and researchers with the Natural History Museum of Vienna (NMW) excavated the ochre-painted carving from a bank on the Danube River on Aug. 7, 1908, according to the museum's website.

Full Story: Live Science (3/1)

Drowned Stone Age fisherman examined with forensic method that could rewrite prehistory

(Pedro Andrade)

Human bones dating to the Stone Age found in what is now northern Chile are the remains of a fisherman who died by drowning, scientists have discovered.

The man lived about 5,000 years ago, and he was around 35 to 45 years old when he died. Scientists found the skeleton in a mass burial in the coastal region of Copaca near the Atacama Desert, and the grave held four individuals: three adults (two males and one female) and one child.

Full Story: Live Science (2/28)

Rare gold coin found in Hungary shows assassinated Roman emperor

(Krisztián Balla)

Excavators in Hungary have discovered a "very rare" gold Roman coin that features the face of a murdered Roman emperor.

The third-century coin depicts Emperor Volusianus, who co-ruled the Roman Empire for about two years with his father, until the emperor was assassinated at age 22 by his own soldiers. Because of Volusianus' short reign, coins bearing his face are rare. What's more, the coin's denomination is rare, as is finding gold coins from the Roman period in Hungary, said Máté Varga, an archaeologist at the University of Szeged in Hungary and head of the excavation.

Full Story: Live Science (2/28)

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Scientists uncover the largest crater on Earth under 100,000 years old

(NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.)

A crescent-shaped crater in Northeast China holds the record as the largest impact crater on Earth that formed in the last 100,000 years.

Prior to 2020, the only other impact crater ever discovered in China was found in Xiuyan county of the coastal province of Liaoning, according to a statement from the NASA Earth Observatory. Then, in July 2021, scientists confirmed that a geological structure in the Lesser Xing'an mountain range had formed as a result of a space rock striking Earth. The team published a description of the newfound impact crater that month in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

Full Story: Live Science (2/28)