BOG BUTTER found in a timber vessel in a bog at Shancloon near Caherlistrane, north Galway, could be 2,000 to 2,500 years old, according to a specialist from the National Museum of Ireland.

The butter, weighing almost two stone, was found in a timber keg which may have been hewn from a tree trunk and shaped into a barrel using early Iron Age implements.

The container of bog butter was found in a plot of bog where Ray Moylan from Liss, Headford, was having his annual supply of turf cut by local contractor Declan McDonagh.

Mr Moylan, a part-time bus driver, contacted the Office of Public Works, Headland Archaeology in Galway and the National Museum of Ireland regarding the discovery.

The keg of bog butter was found at a depth of 3-4ft. While the mechanical bucket of the turf cutting machine hit the vessel, it only caused damage to part of the barrel and the butter remained intact.

As he surveyed the find in the Galway bog this week, Padraig Clancy, an assistant keeper with the National Museum of Ireland, said it could be anything up to 2,500 years old. ....

Mike Huckabee continues to spark speculation about whether he will get into the 2012 presidential race, but for now, the former Arkansas governor is getting into the educational cartoon field.

Huckabee has launched a new educational company called Learn Our History that aims to get kids excited about studying the nation's past. 

The company's first product is an animated film series – available LearnOurHistory.com – that follows the adventures of the Time Travel Academy, a group of young friends who use a homemade time machine to travel back in time to relive America's history.

"America's youth aren't excited about our past because they're being taught history in a way that minimizes what has made America a beacon of hope around the world for over 200 years," Huckabee, a Fox News host, said in a statement. 

The first volume in the series highlights the Reagan era, where the characters experience the 1980 presidential election and President Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech in Berlin.

The cartoon features some amusing and sometimes alarming retrospective of how things went down. In a clip, the teenagers encounter on the streets of Washington a dark-skinned mugger clad in a "Disco" muscle shirt and armed with a knife, demanding money. Other scenes of violence unfold before Reagan appears like a white knight with a message of hope and optimism..... ...

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Forty years after they were famously leaked by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971, the Pentagon Papers will be officially released next month at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library.

The National Archives announced this week that it "has identified, inventoried, and prepared for public access the Vietnam Task Force study, United States-Vietnam Relations 1945-1967, informally known as 'the Pentagon Papers'."  As a result, 3.7 cubic feet of previously restricted textual materials will be made officially available at the Nixon Library on June 13, the Archives said in a May 10 Federal Register notice.

While any release of historical records is welcome, the official "disclosure" of the Pentagon Papers is in fact a sign of disarray in the government secrecy system.  The fact that portions of the half-century old Papers remained classified until this year is a reminder that classification today is often completely untethered from genuine national security concerns.

On March 28, 2011 the National Declassification Center announced "the great news that the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has declassified the information of interest to them" in the Papers, clearing the way for next month's public release.

Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old wine pot in Henan province.

A Western Han dynasty ancient tomb group was accidentally found at a construction site in Puyang city, China's Henan province, on April 10.

During the excavation, archaeologists discovered an airtight copper pot covered in rust. They found the pot had a liquid weighing about half a kilogram in it, reports People Daily Online.

They are now sampling the liquid....

Bloodstained mattresses were left strewn around, while a rotten stench hung heavily in the air.

This was Hitler’s Berlin bunker as victorious Allied troops descended on the German capital through the eyes of a young South Wales soldier.

Stephen Moore-Haines, now a 90-year-old World War II veteran, still has the Nazi iron cross he picked up from the famous site of the Fuhrer’s death.

The medal, with the inscription “sur treue dienfte” (for true service) on the back, was in the blood-soaked passageway leading to the room where Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945.

Father-of-three Mr Moore-Haines, who lives in Barry, served was with the 11th Hussars and entered the Fuhrerbunker shortly after Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun had committed suicide.

It was an incredible wartime journey. In 1939 he was a probationer constable with Cardiff police, a ‘reserved occupation’ which meant he was exempt form conscription. However, as the war worsened he was called up and saw active service, ending in Hitler’s bunker....

Researchers have long debated how long Neandertals stuck around after modern humans invaded their home territories in Europe and Asia around 40,000 years ago. Some say as long as 10,000 years; others think Neandertals went extinct almost immediately. A new radiocarbon dating study of a Neandertal site in Russia concludes that the latter scenario is most likely, and that Neandertals and modern humans were probably like ships in the night. But don’t expect this to be the last word on this contentious subject.

Neandertals and modern humans likely encountered one another at least twice during prehistory. The first time was at least 80,000 years ago in the Near East, as evidenced by findings of both Neandertal and modern human bones in caves in Israel. But the moderns, who came up from Africa, apparently did not venture any farther than the Near East at that time, possibly due to competition from the Neandertals who were then occupying much of Europe and Asia.

Then, shortly before 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens—possibly now armed with more sophisticated technology and adaptive skills—began the massive migration that would take our species to pretty much everywhere on the globe, including the territories in Europe and Asia that were already occupied by Neandertals.

Recent genetic studies suggest that Neandertals and moderns interbred the first time but not the second. That has led some researchers to suspect that they were not neighbors for very long during the more recent overlap, especially in Europe. Some scientists, however, say that Neandertals hung on in “refugia” like southern Spain and Gibraltar until as late as 32,000 years ago. (All dates in this story are in calibrated radiocarbon years.)....

Egyptian authorities put another archaeological site on the country’s tourist map yesterday by opening a visitor center at Madinet Madi in the Fayoum region south of Cairo.

Founded during the reigns of Amenemhat III (about 1859-1813 B.C.) and Amenemhat IV (about 1814-1805 B.C.) of the 12th Dynasty, Madinet Madi contains the ruins of the only Middle Kingdom temple in Egypt.

Approached by a paved processional way lined by lions and sphinxes, the temple was dedicated to the cobra-headed goddess Renenutet, and the crocodile-headed god, Sobek of Scedet, patron god of the region.

Now almost forgotten by tourists, the site was swarming with pilgrims in ancient times.

Indeed, 10 Coptic churches dating from the 5th to 7th centuries and the remains of a Ptolemaic temple dedicated to the crocodile god were unearthed in the past decades by renowned Egyptologist Edda Bresciani of Pisa University, who has been excavating the area since 1978.

Discovered more than 10 years ago, the temple featured a unique barrel-vaulted structure which was used for the incubation of crocodile eggs. According to Bresciani, the structure was basically a nursery for sacred crocodiles. Her team found dozens of eggs in different stages of maturation in a hole covered with a layer of sand. In the adjacent room, the archaeologist found a perfectly preserved pool....

Switzerland's Museum of Basel will this week return to Egypt a limestone stele dating from over four thousand years ago - the first ancient treasure to be given back by another country since the revolt that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak in February.

The 51-centimetre stele depicts its owner hunting and is from Egypt's Old Kingdom period (c. 2649-2134 BC), Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement.

Steles are upright stone slabs or column typically bearing a commemorative inscription or relief design, often serving as a gravestone.

The Museum of Basel is returing the artefact to Egypt amid a repatriation campaign spearheaded by Egypt's antiquities minister Zahi Hawass.

 One of Egypt's most renowned archaeologists, Hawass became a minister earlier this this year. As long ago as in 2002 when headed the Supreme Council of Antiquities, he threatened to cut scientific and research ties with any museums, universities or other institutions that held stolen Egyptian antiquities....

Archeologists and several B.C. First Nations are keeping a close eye on a remarkable discovery in the North Okanagan near Vernon, B.C.

Workers expanding an orchard discovered a skull last month and further investigation turned up three more sets of human remains.

Provincial archeology branch official Eric Forgeng says the bones have not been dated but there’s no question they are from a First Nations burial site.

He says wear on the teeth is consistent with ancient diets that included a lot of gritty food, causing a distinctive pattern....

Historian Douglas Brinkley discusses the collection of never before seen handwritten note cards recently discovered by the Ronald Reagan Presidential library.

[The cards include hundreds of his jokes.  Click on the Source link to see the cards and Brinkley talking about them.]

Unidentified ship that sank off the Dorset coast around 1600 is most important discovery since the 'Mary Rose' 

The remains of the ship, known simply as the Swash Channel Wreck, were preserved for centuries under the seabed in six metres of water off the Dorset coast. But now its ornately carved timbers, the earliest still in existence in Britain, are literally being eaten away.

The sand that protected it has been shifted by changing currents and tides, leaving the 40m vessel's timbers exposed to bacteria and the tunnelling of aquatic shipworms. Tests on the timbers and artefacts trace the ship's history back to Europe in the early 1600s, where it was probably engaged in the beginnings of international trade with the Far East.

A Bournemouth University marine archaeology team has been studying the wreck since 2006. But they are now so concerned at its deterioration that they have decided to raise and preserve part of the hull next month ....

The artifacts — terra cotta floor tiles, an irrigation channel, bowls, beads and other evidence of 18th century mission life and the Chumash tribe that preceded it — may impede efforts to develop the parcel. 

When archeologist John Foster started peeling the asphalt from a parking lot in downtown Ventura, he knew he wouldn't have to dig deep to find a cache of long-buried relics.

He just didn't realize how many he'd find and from how many different eras.
 

Digging down 5 feet, Foster and his crew have found shell beads, a stone bowl used for mixing pigment and lots of cattle bones — leftovers from the tanning and tallow-rendering that brought cash into Mission San Buenaventura. They've also plucked out empty champagne and wine bottles, shards of porcelain dishes and gas lamps from the elegant hotel that occupied the site after Ventura became a bustling commercial center in the 1880s.

The corner lot, bounded by a thrift store and a French restaurant, is in a neighborhood rich with history. It's just a block from the mission church founded by Junipero Serra in 1782. Nearby excavations have uncovered a museum's worth of artifacts, from a centuries-old lavanderia — laundry — to remains of the Chumash tribe, which was nearly wiped out by European diseases.

But it's been years since the last big discovery — and even in a downtown that likes to call itself "historic," there's no consensus about what to do with the history that's underfoot.
 
 

As the world's leading authority on beads manufactured from shells by California's Chumash Indians, UCLA archaeologist Jeanne Arnold was stumped by a series of anomalous artifacts excavated at former settlements on the Channel Islands. Pierced with more than one hole, often at unconventional angles or too close to the edges, the oddly configured multi-hole beads differ considerably from the smooth, round, precisely drilled beauties that served as currency among the Chumash prior to the arrival of Europeans in Southern California. 

After closer analysis, however, she now believes the shell artifacts, which are nearly 250 years old, provide a rare window into a little-known world: the efforts of young apprentices, possibly children, among traditional peoples.  

The rugged Channel Islands, located 60 miles west of Malibu, were home to more than 3,000 Chumash people who operated North America's largest and most spectacular shell-working enterprise. Santa Cruz Island, which has an abundant outcropping of flint suitable for drilling tools, served as the center of these activities, which date back more than 1,000 years.

Islanders made shell ornaments, decorative beads and pendants, and most extensively of all, shell beads that served as currency. The group's monopoly on currency-making made the islands the "mint" for Chumash transactions in Central and Southern California, Arnold said. Chumash-made beads have been found as far away as northern Nevada and the Four Corners area of the Southwest.

In the past 15 years, archaeology crews working under Arnold's supervision have unearthed roughly 320 unconventional shell beads amid thousands of standard beads at the sites of two former villages on Santa Cruz's coast. Previously dismissed either as mistakes or attempts at innovations by journeyman bead-makers, these tiny white beads actually reflect a range of production errors at the hands of novices, Arnold argues. 

Shortly after the White House announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a raid conducted by the U.S. military inside of Pakistan, conspiracy theories trickled their way through online communities, forums and blogs. They eventually found their way into the mainstream and were debated on the pages of publications like Slate, the Washington Post and ABC News.

Was Osama really killed? If so, where are the pictures? And why the hasty burial at sea? The Obama administration’s refusal to release photographic evidence of bin Laden’s demise and the changing narrative of how the raid played out only fueled the conspiracy theorists, eventually dubbed “Deathers”.

But no matter how crazy they may seem, conspiracy theories will always be around. Why? Because once in a blue moon, they actually turn out to be true.

Below are five times in history where the “alternate storylines,” so to speak, turned out to be correct.

Paintings depicting horses and human hands made by prehistoric humans around 25,000 years ago have been discovered in a cave in northern Spain, regional officials said on Wednesday.

The red paintings, found by chance by archaeologists looking for signs of ancient settlements, were made around the same time as the Altamira Cave paintings -- some of the world's best prehistoric paintings discovered in northern Spain in 1879.

"It was a chance finding," archaeologist Diego Garate told Reuters.

"Although they were difficult to spot because they are badly deteriorated, our experienced eye helped us to identify them."

Experts will further explore the caves for evidence of prehistoric utensils or tools, officials said.

The first homo sapiens arrived in small groups in northern Spain around 35,000 years ago.

They cohabited for a time with the last of the Neanderthals and then developed a significant culture known as the Upper Palaeolithic, producing stone blade tools and decorating cave walls....

Germans across the country commemorated the 66th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe on Sunday, with a pan-European performance of a choral symphony in Berlin.

A 1,250-strong choir of singers from across Europe performed "War Requiem" by British composer Benjamin Britten. First performed in May 1962, the masterpiece blends traditional Latin music with the war poetry of Wilfred Owen, a British soldier who died toward the end of World War I.

The War Requiem features three solos, symbolically written for a Russian soprano, and English tenor and a German baritone.

Submarine yard

Meanwhile in the northern city of Bremen, officials opened Germany's largest bomb-proof World War II submarine yard as a historic site.

Work on the Valentin Yard, the centerpiece of a 4-square-kilometer (1.5-square-mile) base, began in 1943. British forces heavily bombed it in March 1945 and the Nazis abandoned the project before completion....

[Tom Brokaw tells the story of Gerald Ford's friendship for a black football player in the thirties when both played for Michigan and how this friendship led to Ford's getting a statue in the Capitol.]