Shards from famed astronomer’s garden show secret alchemy lab details

Tycho Brahe is best known as a Danish Renaissance astronomer. But he was also a bit of an alchemist, and a first-ever analysis on shards found at his former home from the 1500s has shed some light on just what he was up to in his basement lab.Continue … Continue reading Shards from famed astronomer’s garden show secret alchemy lab details

Shards from famed astronomer’s garden show secret alchemy lab details

Tycho Brahe is best known as a Danish Renaissance astronomer. But he was also a bit of an alchemist, and a first-ever analysis on shards found at his former home from the 1500s has shed some light on just what he was up to in his basement lab.Continue … Continue reading Shards from famed astronomer’s garden show secret alchemy lab details

Climate change may have led to ‘Mad Max’-style scenes in ancient Andes

As temperatures climb, so does violence. At least that’s the conclusion reached by researchers looking at how ancient cultures in the south central Andes responded to climate change about 1,000 years ago. It may be an important cautionary tale.Continue… Continue reading Climate change may have led to ‘Mad Max’-style scenes in ancient Andes

Wealthy ancient Romans may have smelled like 20th-century hippies

Thanks to finding bits of bone, tools, and other aspects of human existence, archeologists have been able to reconstruct much of what life looked like in various times and locations around the globe. But in terms of how things smelled all those years a… Continue reading Wealthy ancient Romans may have smelled like 20th-century hippies

Busted! Evidence of ritualistic drug use found at Bronze Age site

Mandrake, henbane, thorn apple. The names alone conjure up images of witch’s brews and secret rituals. In fact, new evidence points to the fact that plants like these were likely used about 3,000 years ago on the Spanish island of Menorca, to induce ha… Continue reading Busted! Evidence of ritualistic drug use found at Bronze Age site

Oldest surviving straws hint at ancient culture of communal beer drinking

A set of lengthy silver and gold tubes dug up from a famous grave in the the Caucuses have been found to represent the oldest surviving drinking straws, with the scientists behind the discovery believing they were used for communal beer consumption. Th… Continue reading Oldest surviving straws hint at ancient culture of communal beer drinking

Oldest archeological evidence of clothes making found in Moroccan cave

A new study is presenting archeological evidence of the oldest known bone tools used for making clothes. The tools, found in a cave in Morocco, suggest humans were skinning animals for fur to wear as clothes up to 120,000 years ago.Continue ReadingCate… Continue reading Oldest archeological evidence of clothes making found in Moroccan cave

AI tool offers clues to mystery of who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls

A new method of handwriting analysis developed by researchers from the University of Groningen is offering fresh clues as to who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. Testing the machine learning tool on one of the most famous ancient scrolls has revealed not on… Continue reading AI tool offers clues to mystery of who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls