- Home
- The Mission
- Lesson Resources
- Documentaries
- About the 94 Documentaries
- Young Indy Chapters
- Young Indy Volume 1
- Young Indy Volume 2
- Trenches of Hell Documentaries
- Demons of Deception Documentaries
- Phantom Train of Doom Documentaries
- Oganga: The Giver and Taker of Life Documentaries
- Attack of the Hawkmen Documentaries
- Adventures in the Secret Service Documentaries
- Espionage Escapades Documentaries
- Daredevils of the Desert Documentaries
- Young Indy Volume 3
- View All Documentaries
- Search- Topics
- Search- Biographies
- Search- Fine Arts
- Search- Literature
- Search- World War I
- Indy Connections
- The Adventure Logs
- Career Day
- Education Resources
- Projects
- Links
- Using the Site
- Site Search
- Contact
Indyintheclassroom.com is not responsible for content on linked websites.
Below are current event articles that relate to events, topics, and people found in My First Adventure.
Archaeologists May Have A Bone To Pick With Herbivores
Smithsonian.com
8/4/2011
When you see news stories with headlines like “Crocodile Ate Our Human Ancestors,” do you ever wonder how the archaeologists knew that the bones had been chewed by a certain creature? This is harder than it seems because carnivores aren’t the only creatures munching on bones, and herbivores are not the strict vegans we think they are. Herbivores eat bones. They’re not delving in to get the yummy marrow, though. Herbivores chew only on dry bones and only when they’re mineral-deprived; the bones provide essential nutrients, phosphorus and a bit of sodium.
Machu Picchu, Before and After Excavation
Nationalgeographic.com
7/22/2011
The ruins of Machu Picchu are covered in jungle growth in this 1911 photograph taken when Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham first came to the site a century ago this week. Bingham was surprised to find that the ancient Inca sites he visited in Peru, including Machu Picchu, weren't as hidden or deserted as he imagined they would be.
Wormlike Parasite Detected in Ancient Mummies
Nationalgeographic.com
5/31/2011
A tiny, wormlike parasite that plagues people worldwide also infected ancient Africans, new analyses of mummies reveal for the first time.
Neanderthals Made a Last Stand at Subarctic Outpost?
Nationalgeographic.com
5/13/2011
A hardy band of Neanderthals may have made a last stand for their species at a remote outpost in subarctic Russia, a newfound prehistoric "tool kit" suggests. The Ural Mountains site "may be one of the last [refuges] of the Neanderthals, and that would be very exciting," said study leader Ludovic Slimak, an archaeologist at France's Université de Toulouse le Mirail.
Neanderthals' Last Stand Possibly Found
Discovery.com
5/12/2011
A Neanderthal-style toolkit found in the frigid far north of Russia's Ural Mountains dates to 33,000 years ago and may mark the last refuge of Neanderthals before they went extinct, according to a new Science study.
Archaeology of World War II
Archaeology.org
5/1/2011
Between 1939 and 1945, the world was engulfed in a conflict fought on almost every continent and ocean, involving every world power, and ultimately costing more than 50 million people, both soldiers and civilians, their lives. More than a dozen nations, among them the United States, Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R, fought on the side of the Allies, joining forces against the Axis powers—primarily Germany, Italy, and Japan—who, at the apex of their power, controlled or were poised to control large swaths of Europe, Africa, the Pacific Ocean, and East and Southeast Asia. Perhaps the greatest difference between World War II and the wars and conflicts that preceded it was its ubiquity.
Nails Tied to Jesus' Crucifixion Found?
Discovery.com
4/13/2011
Two Roman nails dating back 2,000 years, found in the burial cave of the Jewish high priest who handed Jesus over to the Romans, may be linked to the crucifixion, an Israeli filmmaker has claimed.
Twenty Years of Archaeology at Blue Creek
pasthorizons.com
3/5/2011
In 1992 the Maya Research Program began work at Blue Creek, Belize, expanding over a twenty year period to encompass a multi-disciplinary team of researchers. A yearly summer field project of excavation and survey brings together students and volunteers from around the world, to help advance our understanding of Maya society.
Blue Creek is located on the Rio Bravo escarpment in north-western Belize. Despite its modest size, the strategic location at the head of the Rio Hondo afforded its rulers substantial wealth, prestige, and authority. At its peak from 200-600 AD it was a successful city state supporting up to 20,000 inhabitants. Trade and agriculture formed the basis of wealth for Blue Creek leading to a relatively stable social system. However, by 800 AD a major decline is evident with building construction at the core area coming to a halt. By 1100 AD the site was almost completely abandoned.
Egypt Antiquities Missing
Nationalgeographic.com
2/14/2011
Click to watch a video about missing antiquities from the Cairo Museum.
"Lucy" Was No Swinger, Walked Like Us, Fossil Suggests
Nationalgeographic.com
2/10/2011
An unprecedented fossil foot bone appears to confirm that Australopithecus afarensis—the early human ancestors made famous by the "Lucy" skeleton—walked like modern humans, a new study says. Until now it had been unclear just how upright—in a sense, just how human—Lucy really was.
Archaeological Digs
popular-archaeology.com
1/10/2011
There are archaeology field schools and research activities being conducted all over the world. Many excavations are conducted during the summer months; however, some are ongoing throughout the year, and some are being conducted even during the winter months in parts of the world where the climate is favorable.
Humans First Wore Clothing 170,000 Years Ago
Discovery.com
1/6/2011
Humans began to wear clothing 170,000 years ago, concludes a new study that suggests our ancestors first put on clothes after the second-to-last Ice Age, when being nude must have been too cool for comfort. The evidence comes from seemingly very unfashionable lice, since scientists tracked when head lice evolved into clothing/body lice around 170,000 years ago. So lice have been with us since the world's first clothes were made.
A boat, possibly Civil War-era, emerges on Sea Pines' shore
islandpacket.com
1/6/2011
Coastal waters uncovered a potential piece of Civil War-era history discovered last week by a visiting diplomat on a Hilton Head Island beach. Sea Pines resident Sally Peterson was walking on the beach in Sea Pines with her brother, Peter Thomson, and his family, who were visiting for the holidays. Thomson is a Fiji diplomat and the South Pacific island nation's permanent representative to the United Nations.
Secrets of the Colosseum
Smithsonian.com
1/3/2011
The floor of the colosseum, where you might expect to see a smooth ellipse of sand, is instead a bewildering array of masonry walls shaped in concentric rings, whorls and chambers, like a huge thumbprint. The confusion is compounded as you descend a long stairway at the eastern end of the stadium and enter ruins that were hidden beneath a wooden floor during the nearly five centuries the arena was in use, beginning with its inauguration in A.D. 80.
New Type of Ancient Human Found—Descendants Live Today?
Nationalgeographic.com
12/22/2010
A previously unknown kind of human—the Denisovans—likely roamed Asia for thousands of years, probably interbreeding occasionally with humans like you and me, according to a new genetic study.
Mummified Forest Found on Treeless Arctic Island
Nationalgeographic.com
12/17/2010
An ancient mummified forest, complete with well-preserved logs, leaves, and seedpods, has been discovered deep in the Canadian Arctic, scientists say. The dry, frigid site is now surrounded by glaciers and is completely treeless, except for a few bonsai-size dwarf trees.
Archaeology: World's Oldest Ropes Found.
Discovery.com
12/16/2010
Coils of nearly 4,000 year-old rope has turned up in caves on the Red Sea. Discovery News' Rossella Lorenzi digs deep to bring us a new story from ancient Egypt.
Statue 'Cemetery' Found Near Egyptian Tomb
Discovery.com
12/16/2010
Egyptian archaeologists believe they have found a type of cemetery of broken and damaged ancient statues near the northern side of the funerary temple of King Tut's grandfather on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor. A team excavating the site, which has recently yielded many statues, has unearthed two red granite statue fragments. One is part of a larger statue of Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of King Tutankhamun, and features two legs. The other is a 2.73-meter (9-foot) high head of the god Hapi.
Ancient Maya Temples Were Giant Loudspeakers?
Nationalgeographic.com
12/16/2010
Centuries before the first speakers and subwoofers, ancient Americans—intentionally or not—may have been turning buildings into giant sound amplifiers and distorters to enthrall or disorient audiences, archaeologists say. Temples at the ancient Maya city of Palenque (map) in central Mexico, for example, might have formed a kind of "unplugged" public-address system, projecting sound across great distances, according to a team led by archaeologist Francisca Zalaquett of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. (See an interactive map of the Maya civilization.)
Neanderthals Fashioned Earliest Tool Made From Human Bone
livescience.com
12/15/2010
The earliest known tool made from human bone has been discovered — and it was apparently crafted by Neanderthals, scientists find. The scientists note that as of yet, they have no way to prove or disprove whether the Neanderthals who made the tool did so intentionally — for instance, for rituals or after cannibalization.
Pompeii skeletons reveal secrets of Roman family life
bbc.co.uk
12/13/2010
Skeletons uncovered in Pompeii in the 1980s have provided scientists with information about how people lived. Among the discoveries are markers of congenital syphilis, long thought to have first reached Europe with Christopher Columbus’ sailors in the fifteenth century.
Prehistoric Dice Boards Found—Oldest Games in Americas?
Nationalgeographic.com
12/10/2010
American Indian casinos aren't exactly new to the game—people were playing dice in the New World as early as 5,000 years ago, preliminary research suggests. Mysterious holes arranged in c shapes—punched into clay floors at the Tlacuachero archaeological site in Mexico's Chiapas state (see map)—may have been dice-game scoreboards, according to archaeologist Barbara Voorhies.
Fate of the Cave Bear
Smithsonian.com
12/2/2010
Hervé Bocherens says his colleagues find his research methods a little "crude." He dissolves 30,000-year-old animal bones in hydrochloric acid strong enough to burn through metal, soaks the bone solution in lye, cooks it at about 200 degrees Fahrenheit and freeze-dries it until what's left is a speck of powder weighing less than one one-hundredth of an ounce. The method may be harsh, but the yield is precious—the chemical biography of a cave bear.
Chinese Noodle Dinner Buried for 2,500 Years
Discovery.com
11/19/2010
Noodles, cakes, porridge, and meat bones dating to around 2,500 years ago were recently unearthed at a Chinese cemetery, according to a paper that will appear in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Painting of Henry VIII's 'Lost' Palace For Sale
Discovery.com
11/4/2010
It was among Henry VIII's grandest undertakings: a castle to outshine the castle of his rival, King Francois I of France. And so it was named "Nonsuch," as in no other palace could ever equal its magnificence. But, after taking eight years to construct, the Nonsuch Palace would end up standing for less than 150 years. In the 1680s, the grand estate fell into disrepair and was lost to history.
High-Level Mummies
Nationalgeographic.com
10/26/2010
A rare undisturbed tomb atop an ancient pyramid in Lima, Peru, has yielded four 1,150-year-old, well-bundled mummies of the Wari culture, archaeologists announced on October 20. The mummies include what appear to be an elite woman and three children, who may have been sacrificed to accompany her into the afterlife, according to Isabel Flores Espinosa, excavation director at the Huaca Pucllana archaeological site.
'Mini-Pompeii' Found in Norway
Discovery.com
10/7/2010
Norwegian archaeologists have unearthed a Neolithic “mini Pompeii” at a campsite near the North Sea, they announced this week. Discovered at Hamresanden, not far from Kristiansand’s airport at Kjevik in southern Norway, the settlement has remained undisturbed for 5,500 years, buried under three feet of sand.
The Origins of Life
Smithsonian.com
10/5/2010
A hilly green campus in Washington, D.C. houses two departments of the Carnegie Institution for Science: the Geophysical Laboratory and the quaintly named Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. When the institution was founded, in 1902, measuring the earth’s magnetic field was a pressing scientific need for makers of nautical maps. Now, the people who work here—people like Bob Hazen—have more fundamental concerns.
A Viking Mystery
Smithsonian.com
10/5/2010
Before construction could begin on new student housing at one of Oxford University’s 38 colleges, St. John’s, archaeologists were summoned to investigate the site in January 2008. After just a few hours of digging, one archaeologist discovered the remains of a 4,000-year-old religious complex—an earthwork enclosure, or henge, built by late Neolithic tribesmen, probably for a sun-worshiping cult. About 400 feet in diameter, the temple was one of the largest of Britain’s prehistoric henges, of which more than 100 have been found.
Trampling Skews Artifact Dates by Thousands of Years?
Nationalgeographic.com
9/29/2010
Around the world, the hooves of water buffaloes, goats, and other large animals may have propelled countless Stone Age artifacts back in time, at least as far as archaeologists are concerned. In wet areas, wild or domestic animals' heavy footfalls can push stone artifacts deep into the ground, making them seem older than they really are—in some cases, thousands of years older—according to a new study.
Harriet Tubman's Amazing Grace
Smithsonian.com
9/1/2010
An 8- by 5-inch 19th-century hymnal, bound in faded paperboard and cloth, bears its owner’s name handwritten on the inside cover. The well-worn book of hymns belonged to one of American history’s most legendary heroines: Harriet Tubman.
Reading the Writing on Pompeii’s Walls
Smithsonian.com
7/27/2010
Rebecca Benefiel stepped into the tiny dark room on the first floor of the House of Maius Castricius. Mosquitoes whined. Huge moths flapped around her head. And – much higher on the ick meter—her flashlight revealed a desiccated corpse that looked as if it was struggling to rise from the floor. Nonetheless, she moved closer to the walls and searched for aberrations in the stucco. She soon found what she was looking for: a string of names and a cluster of numbers, part of the vibrant graffiti chitchat carried on by the citizens of Pompeii before Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79 and buried their city in a light pumice stone called lapilli.
The Great Escape From Slavery of Ellen and William Craft
Smithsonian.com
6/17/2010
Most runaway slaves fled to freedom in the dead of night, often pursued by barking bloodhounds. A few fugitives, such as Henry “Box” Brown who mailed himself north in a wooden crate, devised clever ruses or stowed away on ships and wagons. One of the most ingenious escapes was that of a married couple from Georgia, Ellen and William Craft, who traveled in first-class trains, dined with a steamboat captain and stayed in the best hotels during their escape to Philadelphia and freedom in 1848.
Decapitated Gladiators Found in England?
Discovery.com
6/14/2010
The lives of Roman gladiators and the wide reach of the bloody games throughout the empire is coming more into focus thanks to the discovery of a possible gladiator graveyard in Britain. Jorge Ribas talks to the excavation's field officer.
Leonardo da Vinci – Paleontology Pioneer
Smithsonian.com
6/11/2010
Although he’s been dead for nearly 500 years, Leonardo da Vinci is still remembered as the quintessential Renaissance man, a polymath whose curiosity and creativity ranged widely among the arts and sciences. One of his interests was the study of fossils. In a new paper in the journal Palaios, Andrea Baucon shows that he was a pioneer in the study of both “body fossils,” or the remains of once-living organisms, and of “trace fossils,” such as the footprints, burrows and coprolites organisms left behind.
Oldest leather shoe steps out after 5,500 years
News.yahoo.com
6/6/2010
About 5,500 years ago someone in the mountains of Armenia put his best foot forward in what is now the oldest leather shoe ever found.
From the Castle: Becoming Us
Smithsonian.com
3/1/2010
Why do our wisdom teeth often cause problems, and why do we have relatively hairless skin? The answers come from our distant past. Anyone with Internet access will soon be able to solve such mysteries in the Smithsonian’s compelling Web site, “Human Origins: What Does It Mean to Be Human?”
The Human Family's Earliest Ancestors
Smithsonian.com
3/1/2010
Tim White is standing with a group of restless men atop a ridge in the Afar desert of Ethiopia. A few of them are pacing back and forth, straining to see if they can spot fragments of beige bone in the reddish-brown rubble below, as eager to start their search as children at an Easter egg hunt.
Sugar Masters in a New World
Smithsonian.com
2/1/2010
Until the discovery of the New World in the late 15th century, Europeans hungered for sugar. So precious was the commodity that a medieval burgher could only afford to consume one teaspoon of the sweet granules per year. And even in Europe’s early Renaissance courts, the wealthy and powerful regarded the refined sweetener as a delicious extravagance. When Queen Isabella of Castile sought a Christmas present for her daughters, she chose a small box brimming with sugar.
Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx
Smithsonian.com
2/1/2010
When Mark Lehner was a teenager in the late 1960s, his parents introduced him to the writings of the famed clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. During one of his trances, Cayce, who died in 1945, saw that refugees from the lost city of Atlantis buried their secrets in a hall of records under the Sphinx and that the hall would be discovered before the end of the 20th century.
Temple to cat god found in Egypt
news.bbc.co.uk
1/19/2010
Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 2,000-year-old temple in Alexandria dedicated to a cat goddess. The temple is the first trace of the royal quarters of the Ptolemaic dynasty to be revealed in Alexandria. The find confirms the Greek dynasty of Egyptians continued the worship of ancient animal deities. Many more ruins of the ancient capital of Hellenistic Egypt lie preserved under the modern city, yet to be unearthed, archaeologists say.
Century-Old Butter Found in Antarctica
Discovery.com
12/16/2009
Two blocks of butter have been found intact after nearly a century in an Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12 expedition, a report said. Television New Zealand reported that conservators found the two blocks of New Zealand butter in bags in stables attached to the expedition Hut at Cape Evans in Antarctica.
Ancient Lost Army Found?
Discovery.com
11/9/2009
Has the lost army of Cambyses II been found? The Persian army of 50,000 soldiers supposedly perished in a sandstorm in ancient Egypt 2500 years ago. Researchers have located a valley of bones they think may belong to the fabled army.
Five Roman-Era Shipwrecks Found Off Italy
Discovery.com
7/24/2009
A team of archaeologists has discovered a trove of five Roman-era shipwrecks deep under the sea off a small Mediterranean island. The find of well-preserved ships, made possible by sonar technology and the use of remotely operated vehicles, includes cargo of largely intact clay vases and pots transporting wine, olive oil, fish sauce and other goods.
King Tut Explorer's Photos, Treasures Revealed
Discovery.com
7/16/2009
Lord Carnarvon, the man who funded the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun and died five months later in mysterious circumstances before he could actually see the mummy's face, was a superstitious man who wore the same lucky bow tie all his life.
Specially trained dogs to be used in Port Angeles archaeological survey
peninsuladailynews.com
7/11/2009
The city's archaeologist, Derek Beery, intends to employ specially trained dogs to sniff for human remains at least a century old for his ongoing waterfront archaeological survey. He is drafting requests for proposals for dogs and handlers schooled in "canine forensics," he said.
Lod mosaic to be re-exposed
mfa.gov
7/1/2009
The 1,700 year old mosaic floor, one of the most amazing and largest in Israel, is being exposed by the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the Municipality of Lod and residents of the city.
Blue Paint Traces Found on Elgin Marbles
Discovery.com
6/25/2009
The Elgin Marbles, the subject of one of the oldest international cultural disputes, were originally coated with shades of blue, a new imaging technique has found. Some of the 17 figures and 56 panels from a giant frieze that once decorated the Parthenon have revealed traces of an ancient pigment known as Egyptian blue.
Bone Flute Is Oldest Instrument, Study Says
Nationalgeographic.com
6/24/2009
A vulture-bone flute discovered in a European cave is likely the world's oldest recognizable musical instrument and pushes back humanity's musical roots, a new study says. Found with fragments of mammoth-ivory flutes, the 40,000-year-old artifact also adds to evidence that music may have given the first European modern humans a strategic advantage over Neanderthals, researchers say.
DNA test to discover Tutankhamun's parentage
Googlenews
6/2/2009
Egyptian researchers are using DNA tests to discover the lineage of pharaoh king Tutankhamun, whose ancestry remains a mystery to Egyptologists, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Monday.
Billion-Pixel Pictures Allow Ultra-Zooming for Science
Nationalgeographic.com
5/27/2009
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a thousand-megapixel picture worth? Such "gigapixel" pictures allow viewers to zoom in from say, a panoramic view of President Obama's inauguration to the solemn expression on his face—as in one of the new technology's most famous applications.
"MISSING LINK" PHOTOS: New Fossil Links Humans, Lemurs?
Nationalgeographic.com
5/19/2009
Meet "Ida," the small "missing link" found in Germany that's created a big media splash and will likely continue to make waves among those who study human origins.
Ancient Gem-Studded Teeth Show Skill of Early Dentists
www.nationalgeographic.com
5/18/2009
The glittering "grills" of some hip-hop stars aren't exactly unprecedented. Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to add bling to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, a new study says.
Cache of mummies unearthed at Egypt's Lahun pyramid
News.yahoo.com
4/26/2009
Archaeologists have unearthed a cache of pharaonic-era mummies in brightly painted wooden coffins near Egypt's little-known Lahun pyramid, the site head said on Sunday.
The Dinosaur Fossil Wars
Smithsonian.com
3/28/2009
Buried beneath a barren stretch of South Dakota badland, the deceased appeared small for its species. As Ron Frithiof, an Austin, Texas, real-estate developer turned dinosaur prospector, dug cautiously around it in a rugged expanse of backcountry, he was growing increasingly confident that he and his partners were uncovering a once-in-a-lifetime find.
Mass Grave of 19th Century Immigrants Found
Discovery.com
3/25/2009
Researchers may have discovered a mass grave for nearly five dozen 19th-century Irish immigrants who died of cholera weeks after traveling to Pennsylvania to build a railroad. Historians at Immaculata University have known for years about the 57 immigrants who died in August 1832 but could not find the grave.
Africans Came with Columbus to New World
News.yahoo.com
3/20/2009
Teeth from exhumed skeletons of crew members Christopher Columbus left on the island of Hispaniola more than 500 years ago reveal the presence of at least one African in the New World as a contemporary of the explorer, it was announced.
Teeth Of Columbus' Crew Flesh Out Tale Of New World Discovery
Sciencedaily.com
3/20/2009
ScienceDaily— The adage that dead men tell no tales has long been disproved by archaeology. Now, however, science is taking interrogation of the dead to new heights. In a study that promises fresh and perhaps personal insight into some of the earliest European visitors to the New World, a team or researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is extracting the chemical details of life history from the teeth of crew members Christopher Columbus left on the island of Hispaniola after his second voyage to America in 1493-94.
Screaming Mummies!
Archaeology.org
3/11/2009
For well over a century, the contorted features of ancient mummies have led to speculation of untold pain and horrible deaths. The examples quoted above are from the examination of Egyptian mummies more than 120 years ago. Today, similar descriptions can still be found in television programs and academic writings. "Is this the face of a queen? What kind of terrible end did she meet?" and "a terrible head wound, an agonized scream," intones the narrator of "Secrets of Egypt's Lost Queen," a 2007 documentary.
Digging up the Past at a Richmond Jail
Smithsonian.com
3/1/2009
Archaeologists knew that Robert Lumpkin's slave jail stood in one of the lowest parts of Richmond, Virginia—a sunken spot known as Shockoe Bottom. From the 1830s to the Civil War, when Richmond was the largest American slave-trading hub outside of New Orleans, "the devil's half acre," as Lumpkin's complex was called, sat amid a swampy cluster of tobacco warehouses, gallows and African-American cemeteries.
The Tomb of Queen Sesheshet
Smithsonian.com
2/3/2009
"Let's start from the beginning," Abdel Hakim Karar suggests as he scampers up the north side of an archaeological dig of sun-bleached pink stone and gravel. When you make your living unearthing the royal riches of ancient Egypt, the beginning is a very distant place indeed – more than four millennia away, during the time of the 6th dynasty. We are standing on the rim of the necropolis of King Teti at Saqqara, where Karar and his team of archaeologists are excavating the tomb of Queen Sesheshet, Teti's mother. The tomb, and the once five-story-high pyramid that accommodates it, was until recently a dump for the sand and detritus of surrounding digs.
One Woman's Journey to Save Child Slaves
Smithsonian.com
1/12/2009
Jared Greenberg didn't expect Somaly Mam to meet him at the airport in Phnom Penh. After all, she was an award-winning human rights activist, the head of a multinational organization. He was an idealistic college graduate who'd foolishly promised to raise her a million dollars the week before.