A smudged red disk painted on a cave wall in northern Spain has been dated to more than 40,800 years ago using a technique that measures the radioactive uranium in the calcite patina covering the painting. The new dates suggest that these paintings are almost 10,000 years older than cave paintings in central France. Alistair Pike of the University of Bristol thinks the painter could have been one of the first modern humans to reach the Iberian Peninsula, estimated to have arrived 42,000 years ago, although he adds that Neanderthals lived in the area for 200,000 years. “There is a very good chance that this is Neanderthal,” he said.

Excavators from Wilfrid Laurier University are working at the War of 1812 site of Fort Erie, Ontario, where they have found traces of an earthwork constructed by American troops that had captured the British fort. They have also uncovered traces of a small building along the earthwork, which was probably used as an officers’ mess. “They were so well-entrenched here, it was impossible to dislodge them,” said archaeologist John Triggs.

Researchers thought that a World War II-era plane discovered in the Baltic Sea may be a rare JU87 Stuka dive bomber, but after examining some of the parts recovered by German military divers, they have identified it as a larger JU88. “It looked just like the Stuka in the underwater pictures – everything that we had brought up had been pieces that were used in the JU87 – so there was no reason to doubt it. But this find is perhaps historically even more important,” said Captain Sebastian Bangert of the German Military Historical Museum. The JU88 was used as a dive bomber, but it also served as a tactical bomber and was flown at night.

Scientists at the University of Oxford have tested skeletal fragments found in a stone box in an ancient church in Bulgaria. An inscription on the box claimed that the bones belonged to the first-century Christian figure John the Baptist. “We got some dates that are very interesting indeed. They suggest that the human bone is all from the same person, it’s from a male, and it has a very high likelihood of an origin in the Near East,” said researcher Thomas Higham. Animal bones were also found in the small sarcophagus.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Friday, June 15, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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