This is fairly big news, so I’m surprised to see it getting minimal coverage. The final, missing pieces of a key manuscript of the Egyptian Book of the Dead have been found at last. Although there isn’t a single Book of the Dead, the papyrus in question belonged to Amenhotep, chief builder of the temple [...]
I never doubted it for a minute. Historical revisionists have been saying for years that Marco Polo’s famed Travels were a tissue of lies compiled from other sources. Hans Ulrich Vogel, a Sinologist from the University of Tübingen (where Pope Benedict once held the chair of dogmatic theology), has accomplished a staggering act of scholarship that [...]
A major discovery at Furness Abbey, in the Lake District in England, may have revealed the long-lost remains of an abbot, along with his crosier and jewelry. Furness was a powerful, wealthy Cistercian monastery until Henry VIII seized control of the church, dissolved the monasteries, and looted their treasures, leaving the grand edifices to rot. The picturesque ruins were made [...]
The St. Cuthbert Gospel is the oldest surviving European book, and thus one of the most important volumes in the world. The Gospel is a Latin pocket edition of John that was originally placed in the Cuthbert’s tomb some time after his death in 687. The book most likely did not belong to Cuthbert, but was created [...]
Giant earthen mounds in the shape of an orca, a giant condor, a duck, and a caiman have been discovered on the plains of Peru. These huge structures, ranging in length from 5 to 400 meters, are found in North America, but are uncommon in South America. Dr. Robert Benfer of the University of Missouri believes [...]
It’s that time of the year again, but maybe you can take comfort from the fact that people have paid taxes since the first nomads set down roots, built some huts, and decided that someone should really hire a guy to cart away all these leftover woolly mammoth bones, and then maybe send him off [...]
St. Francis Xavier Church in Newtowne, Maryland is among the oldest Catholic churches America. The current chapel dates to 1731, but that wasn’t the first chapel. Jesuits began their work in Newtowne Neck in 1640, and in honor of the church’s 350th anniversary, Fr. Brian Sanderfoot wants to find the remains of the original chapel, which was [...]
When I was asked to come up with a header for this blog, I submitted two ideas to Patheos: a robotic riff on Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, and an image of an astrolabe. Unable to choose between the two, I suggested that the art department just combine them, and the striking image above was born. I first encountered [...]
Until I got an Ancestry.com account for my mom, I was fairly tepid on the subject of genealogy. She had done a fair bit of shoe-leather genealogy, finding the usual array of birth and death certificates, marriage licences, arrest reports, trial transcripts, and … well, let’s just leave that there. Anyway, Ancestry is an amazing piece of work, [...]
Five 18th century artifacts, discovered over a period of 40 years in Amsterdam, at last have been identified as personal telescopes. Two of the them were found in a privy pit. The devices–representing the very cutting edge of 18th century technology–were hand-carved from bone and fitted with a pair of lenses. How such high-end tech got [...]
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