Sardinian scientists say they’ve identified the plant used in antiquity to induce a “sardonic grin” in condemned men before they were put to death. “The Punics were convinced that death was the start of a new life, to be greeted with a smile,” said Mauro Ballero of Cagliari University. Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities is […]

An ivory carving of a female figure is being called the oldest known sculpture of the human form in today’s edition of Nature. The figurine was discovered in fragments in Germany’s Hohle Fels cave last September, and is thought to be between 35,000 and 40,000 years old.   Nicholas Conard of the University of Tubingen, and […]