Ancient remains including a 3,000 year-old stone circle and presumed place of sacrifice have been discovered near Vitemölla on Österlen in the far south of Sweden. The site extends over two hectares and is older and bigger than the region’s celebrated Ale’s Stones.
The site, presumed to date from the bronze age, is reported to be probably the largest stone circle in the whole of northern Europe.
Source: thelocal.se
Volcanoes were active on the Moon’s surface soon after it was formed, a new study in the journal Nature suggests.
Precision dating of a lunar rock that fell to Earth shows our satellite must have had lava erupting across its vast plains 4.35 billion years ago.
This is hundreds of millions of years earlier than had been indicated by the rocks collected by Apollo astronauts.
Source: bbc.co.uk
Remains of a bus-sized prehistoric “monster” reptile found on a remote Arctic island may be a new species never before recorded by science, researchers said Tuesday.
Initial excavation of a site on the Svalbard islands in August yielded the remains, teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae of a reptile estimated to measure nearly 40 feet long, said Joern Harald Hurum of the University of Oslo.
“It seems the monster is a new species,” he told The Associated Press.
Source: wired.com
Ancient written texts from the Middle East may reveal that the use of biological weapons dates back more than 3300 years, according to a new review.
The historical documents hint that the Hittites – whose empire stretched from modern-day Turkey to northern Syria – sent diseased rams to their enemies to weaken them with tularemia, a devastating bacterial infection that remains a potential bioterror threat even today, says the review.
Source: newscientist.com
Many of history’s most famous shipwrecks, tombs and relics are still missing. Jennifer Saranow on the growing high-tech hunt for them.
With as many as 1,500 active satellites orbiting the Earth and the human population approaching seven billion, you’d think that everything of value on the planet would have been discovered by now.
Source: wsj.com