Discovery News: Archaeorama News

Research To Begin On Prehistoric Man Trapped In Cave

This is Altamura Man, a prehistoric human being that lays encrusted like a piece of coral in an underground cavern in southern Italy.

How he ended up there is still a mystery. Most likely, he fell down, wasn’t able to get out, and died of starvation right in the cave.

Discovered by a group of speleologists in 1993, Altamura Man is one of the oldest complete skeletons of a European.

Obviously, the finding has a huge potential when it comes to research. However, the cave's remoteness and the fossil's condition have meant that since the discovery, Altamura Man has remained undisturbed.

Now Italian authorities have announced that an in-depth research on the prehistoric creature is about to begin.

“We are going to radiocarbon dating the remains. Then, the research will concentrate on DNA mapping,” Ruggiero Martines, the regional cultural heritage superintendent, said.

The first results are expected by the end of the year. Meanwhile, you can just click here to find out more about the prehistoric man.

Or you can embark on a virtual exploration of the cave thanks to this quicktime video by Progetto Sarastro

Iraq's Ancient Tablets Get Virtual Makeover

A technology normally used in reconstructive surgery to create prosthetic limbs is now being applied to create reproductions of Iraq's precious and fragile cuneiform clay tablets.

Sponsored by the Italian ministry of Foreign Affairs, the innovative project involves rapid prototyping. Using a previously built 3D model, the technology builds up layers of thermoplastic material and creates a perfect replica of the original.

Here is the full story and here is my video at the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA), where the process is tested.

The Romanovs: The Final Chapter

It’s a question that has been asked for decades: Did anyone survive the massacre of the last Tsar’s family?

No.

Ending one of the 20th century's most enduring mysteries, the final answer came straight from scientific tests.

DNA analysis confirmed that bone fragments dug up in Russia last year belong to Tsar Nicholas II's two missing children -- Crown Prince Alexei, who was 13 at the time of his death, and his sister, the Grand Duchess Maria, 19.

"We received full confirmation that they do belong to the Tsar's children," Eduard Rossel, the governor of Sverdlovsk region, where the royal family was killed, told journalists.

"Now we have the whole family," he said.

The Tsar Nicholas II, his German-born wife Alexandra, their four daughters and hemophiliac son Alexei were murdered along with their doctor and three servants in 1918.

Those who did not die outright were finished off by bayonets. Their bodies were doused in acid and finally dumped in a pit.

The story of the Romanovs' execution - the dull bayonet stabbings, the shots that ricocheted off their diamond lined corsets - alimented an endlessly hyped myth.

"I have a box full of letters by fraudulent Grand Dukes and Gran Duchesses, swearing they had miracolously escaped the Bolshevisks' bullets and bayonets," Nicholas Romanov, the great-great grandson of the "Iron tsar" Nicholas I, once told me.

The most famous claimer, dramatized in a 1956 romantic film starring Ingrid Bergman, was Anna Anderson, who nineteen months after the tsar murder, emerged in Berlin claiming she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia -- a claim she mantained until her death in 1984.

DNA tests revealed she was born in Poland, named Franziska Schanzkowska.

Here is a YouTube slideshow with plenty of photos of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.

I'll be brave. I'll write about the Shroud of Turin

Anytime I report on the Turin shroud I end up under fire. My latest article is no exception. I've been inundated with choleric emails from upset readers, atheists, and skeptics. I was served the same plate of angry notes when I reported on studies that pointed in the opposite direction.

I think that anytime something is written about a subject that people hold dear, passionate reactions will ensue. But, in my experience -- and I have been reporting on shroud research for the past 15 years -- no other topic has received such violent reactions as the Turin shroud has.

I'm going to be brave and write about the Turin shroud again. As those who read the article will know, the BBC aired last Saturday a controversial documentary. Indeed, Shroud of Turin – A Conflict of Evidence has stirred new doubts about the radiocarbon testing.

Based on information about C-14 dating that wasn't available 20 years ago, a new hypothesis formulated by John Jackson, the director of the Turin Shroud Center in Colorado, suggests that a mere two percent contamination could skew results by 1,300 years.

Unlike many other individuals involved in the ongoing debate over the shroud, Christopher Ramsey, director of England's Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, which carried out the tests in 1988, seems to make every attempt at keeping an open mind. He believed the new theory was worth investigating. In the BBC documentary, he even called for the scientific community to revisit the subject.

Here are some key points from the documentary -- courtesy of Performance Films, Ltd.

John Jackson suggests that the shroud might over time have been contaminated with carbon monoxide, which is naturally enriched in radiocarbon.

To test his theory, Jackson took some modern linen samples and submitted them to all the possible conditions that the shroud itself could have been exposed to: extreme heat, ultraviolet light, handling, water, and so on.

Jackson's hypothesis was worth investigating, according to Ramsey.

Initial tests show that in normal conditions there is no contamination at the level needed to alter radiocarbon dates at all. According to Ramsey, the original medieval date is still most likely to be correct, based on current evidence.

Ramsey believes it is necessary to test whether there is anything in the specific storage conditions of the shroud that might affect its dating.

Ramsey said: ‘Further research on the Turin shroud is certainly needed. It is important that we continue to investigate anything that might have affected the accuracy of the original radiocarbon tests. It is equally important that other experts critically assess and reinterpret all the evidence, which may point to an earlier date.’

Shroud of Turin Goes Digital

As promised, here is an update on the Turin shroud -- and a video too.

The Turin Shroud: Testing A New Hypothesis

A BBC documentary, to be aired on Easter Sunday, is going to reopen the debate around the dating of the Turin shroud, one of the most controversial relics in Christendom.

Venerated by many Catholics as the proof that Christ was resurrected from the grave, the shroud was dismissed as a brilliant, medieval fake twenty years ago, following radiocarbon dating.

Indeed, in 1988, three reputable laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Arizona, concluded that the cloth on which the smudged outline of the body of a man is indelibly impressed, was a medieval fake dating from 1260 to 1390, and not the burial cloth wrapped around the body of Christ.

Since then, the shroud has been at the centre of increasing debates over the validity of the carbon-14 tests.

The latest claim, based on microchemical tests, suggested that the sample used for the 1988 dating was taken not from the shroud, but from a rewoven area of the linen.

The documentary will investigate “a new hypothesis that could explain how a genuinely old linen could produce a much younger date in certain conditions,” according to a press release by Performance Films, the UK based film production house behind the documentary.

Performance Films said: “Professor Christopher Ramsey of the Oxford Laboratory that did the original C14 test is collaborating on experiments to test the hypothesis. The results of this collaboration will be revealed in the film.” Of course.

I talked to David Rolfe, the director of documentary, in the attempt to discover more about this new hypothesis. Here's an excerpt of the conversation.

Much, much more to come next week. Stay tuned.

How to Find A Real Viking Man

Take a trip to the North West of England. To be more precise, travel along the north Wirral coastline. Once there, look for those men whose surname is Forshaw, Rigby, Rimmer or Robinson and you'll have your Viking man.

You can’t go wrong, according to a new study by the University of Nottingham, the University of Leicester and University College London.

Published by Molecular Biology and Evolution, the study combined an investigation into ancient surnames and DNA testing on the male Y-chromosome, which is passed along the paternal line from generation to generation with very little change.

The researchers examined 100 male volunteers, whose surnames were chosen from tax lists dating back to the time of Henry XIII in 1545.

It emerged that the blood of the Norse Vikings is still coursing through the veins of 50 per cent of the men living in parts of northwest England.

They are the descendands of the Norsemen who, led by the Norwegian Viking Ingimund, landed on the northwest coast in 902 AD after they were expelled from Dublin.

In this region, place names still reflect the Viking past.  Aigburth, Formby, Crosby, Toxteth, Croxteth are all Viking names. Even the football team Tranmere is Viking.

Scientists Crack Renaissance Murder Mysteries

Pico della Mirandola (left) and Poliziano

Two great cold cases of the Renaissance have been solved.

Italian scientists say they can prove that Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Agnolo Ambrogini, better known as Poliziano, were given a lethal dose of arsenic.

Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano, two of the geniuses at the 15th century court of Lorenzo de' Medici, died within a few weeks of each other in 1494.

Pico the philosopher, celebrated for his prodigious memory, died at only 31, Poliziano the poet at 40.

Rumours about poisoning spread quickly. Another theory was that they died from syphilis, which killed thousands in Europe at the end of the 15th century.

Now, more than 500 years after their mysterious deaths, DNA analysis on the exhumed remains has established beyond doubt that Pico and Poliziano were poisoned.

Clear evidence of poisoning comes from high levels of arsenic, especially in Pico’s tissues and nails, the Italian news agency Adnkronos reports.

The murder was ordered by Piero dei Medici, the son of Lorenzo “The Magnificent”, according to Silvano Vinceti, head of Italy's National Committee for the Valuation of Historical and Cultural and Environmental Assets.

"Combining the results of our analyses with historical documents that have only recently come to light, it seems that Piero de Medici is the person most likely to have ordered the assassination,'' he told the news agency Ansa . ''However, the person who actually carried out Pico's murder was probably Cristoforo da Calamaggiore, his secretary."

The analysis have also revealed how the writers looked like. Pico's skeleton suggests he was a robust man well over six feet tall. He suffered from a hammer toe and inflamed joints and had an extremely large head. His cranial capacity was 1,768 cubic centimetres, compared to an average capacity of 1,450 cubic centimetres.

On the contrary, Poliziano was just five foot tall, had a pronounced nose and some problems with his neck.

Coldest of Cold Cases

I’m finally back after a bad flu. Luckly, it wasn’t like the one that supposedly struck Francesco dei Medici and his wife Bianca Cappello 420 years ago. Remember the Medici trial?

The big issue there was: “poison or not poison”.

Did Francesco, the founder of the Uffizi gallery, and Bianca really die from malaria, or were they poisoned with arsenic by Ferdinando, Francesco’s brother?

Well, the verdict has finally come. It looks like this will remain one of the coldest of cold cases.

Forget the speculations of the “prosecutor” Donatella Lippi, professor of medical history at the University of Florence. Forget the questioning of the “public defender” Gino Fornaciari, professor of forensic anthropology at the University of Pisa.

After much debate, the “judge” Piero Pruneti, editor of the journal Archeologia Viva, declared that further investigation is needed.

“We do not have enough evidence for a judgement. The case is not closed,” he said.

Basically, the final evidence would come only if Bianca’s mummified body is found.

Extensive analysis on her body could finally tell whether the Medici couple was the victim of what seems to be the “perfect murder.”

Following the search for Bianca’s body will be one of my next adventures. Meanwhile, here is a video on the mock trial.