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Below are current event articles that relate to events, topics, and people found in My First Adventure.
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.