This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 10, 2009
The dig will uncover more of the enormous pit that surrounds the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor.
The first excavation of the site lasted six years betweeen 1978 and 1984, during which 1,087 clay soldiers were discovered. A second excavation started in 1985 but was cut short after a year.
Altogether, archaeologists believe there may be as many as 8,000 life-size clay figures in the pits, as well as chariots and hundreds of horses. No two figures are alike,
Source: Lee P. Ruddin
June 9, 2009
Historians from the Centre for First World War Studies at Birmingham University are planning to publish the longest known memoir later this year.
Written by lance corporal Geoffrey Husbands, the 250,000-word manuscript gives detailed information on political, social, psychological and other aspects of the war not normally examined in such depth in other shorter memoirs.
Captain Alexander Stewart’s 260-page diary, “Somme: The Experiences of a Very Unimportant Officer,” w
Source: AP
June 9, 2009
But how did an innocuous Civil War-era memo bearing Abraham Lincoln's signature end up in the state archives of Hawaii, which was still a kingdom at the time? State researchers are trying to find out.
The memo dated Sept. 22, 1862, orders the secretary of state at the time to affix the U.S. seal to a separate piece of paper, a proclamation dated the same day.
Hawaii records indicate they've had the memo — but not the proclamation — for at least 74 years.
Source: www.sun-sentinel.com (South Florida)
June 8, 2009
Treasure Coast amateur fossil collector James Kennedy appears to have made an unprecedented archaeological discovery that might help confirm a human presence here up to 13,000 years ago.
A 15-inch-long prehistoric bone fragment found near Vero Beach contains a crude engraving of a mammoth or mastodon on it, said Dr. Barbara Purdy, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Florida.
The only comparable images are found in European cave paintings, she said in
Source: The Times (UK)
June 9, 2009
A prehistoric complex, including two 6,000-year-old tombs, has been discovered by archaeologists in Hampshire.
The Neolithic tombs, which until now had gone unnoticed under farmland despite being just 15 miles from Stonehenge, are some of the oldest monuments to have been found in Britain.
Archaeologists say they will hold valuable clues about how people lived at the time and what their environment was like.
The discovery is also close to Cranborne Chase
Source: Science Daily
June 9, 2009
More than 100 feet deep in Lake Huron, on a wide stoney ridge that 9,000 years ago was a land bridge, University of Michigan researchers have found the first archeological evidence of human activity preserved beneath the Great Lakes.
The researchers located what they believe to be caribou-hunting structures and camps used by the early hunters of the period.
A paper about the findings is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Co-authors are O'
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 9, 2009
Thousands of stolen Italian artefacts, including ancient Etruscan treasures, medieval papal letters and even a book preface handwritten by Mussolini, have been discovered piled up in the Illinois home of an antique dealer, according to the FBI.
The secret collection of John Sisto ran to some 3,500 items and was discovered by relatives after his death in 2007, squirrelled away in hundreds of boxes stacked five feet high at his home in Berwyn.
Nearly half the items were
Source: BBC
June 9, 2009
A hoard of gold coins found by a builder in the cellar of an Oxfordshire flat has sold at auction for £76,360.
The 400-year-old coins, minted during James I's reign, were valued by auctioneers at about £50,000 and were found in Chipping Norton 30 years ago.
They were bought by private buyers and trade dealers in a specialist coin auction in London.
The coins were known as Unites, signifying James I's intention to unify England and Scotland, and were worth
Source: BBC
June 9, 2009
A sketchbook of some 32 drawings by Pablo Picasso worth about 8m euros ($11m; £6.8m) has been stolen from a museum in Paris, police have said.
The theft from the Picasso Museum was discovered on Tuesday afternoon but the exact time and circumstances have yet to be determined.
Initial investigations showed the sketchbook was held in an unlocked display case on the first floor.
Police sources told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the theft would pr
Source: The Times (UK)
June 10, 2009
MI5 and KGB files have at last revealed the identity of the agent who passed Britain’s atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union — and triggered the Cold War.
For ten years a Soviet spy codenamed “Eric” fed Britain’s nuclear secrets to Moscow, paving the way for the Cold War. The KGB treasured him as its “main source” of atomic intelligence; MI5 suspected him, trailed him, opened his letters and monitored his every move. But he was never caught.
Today, 70 years later, wi
Source: AP
June 9, 2009
A group of Baltic Sea divers say they have found the wreck of a Soviet submarine that sank with a crew of 50 during World War II.
One of the divers, Marten Zetterstrom, says the S-class submarine was located near the Aland Islands between Sweden and Finland.
Zetterstrom says all crew members died when the vessel exploded in 1940, probably after hitting a mine.
Source: AP
June 8, 2009
Archaeologists have pulled a 400-year-old slate tablet from what they think was an original well at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, a historic preservation group announced Monday.
The slate is covered with faint inscriptions of local birds, flowers, a tree and caricatures of men, along with letters and numbers, according to Preservation Virginia, which jointly operates the dig site with the National Park Service. It was found May 11 at the center
Source: Oakland Tribune
June 5, 2009
Construction crews working on a sidewalk on Dennison Street near the Oakland estuary Friday morning unearthed what is believed to be a human skull, possibly a remnant from an American Indian burial site, Oakland police said.
The skull was found about 10:15 a.m. about 3 feet below ground when the construction crew started digging to remove two sections of sidewalk on a contract job for AT&T to replace an underground cable, police said.
The construction site is adjac
Source: The Inependent Mail (South Carolina)
June 5, 2009
State archaeologists working in the Pee Dee River on Friday found two cannons used in the Civil War.
Chris Amer, deputy state archaeologist and head of the Underwater Archaeology Division at the University of South Carolina, teamed up with the Pee Dee Research and Recovery Team, state archaeologist and USC research associate professor Jon Leader, representatives from Francis Marion and East Carolina universities and students plan to raise the five-ton cannons used aboard the C.S.S.
Source: The Moscow Times
June 9, 2009
The only way to fight a real battle against the falsification of history -- something that President Dmitry Medvedev has made a priority after creating a special commission to handle this issue -- is to keep government archives as open as possible for historians. Unfortunately, the government is doing the exact opposite, depriving historians access to the most sensitive and important historical documents. Among other things, this is a violation of the Constitution.
Medvedev's commi
Source: BBC
June 8, 2009
It's 200 years since the British-born "father of the American revolution" died. His words also helped shape modern Britain and France and yet few people know much about him at all.
There are statues of him in Paris and New Jersey and a monument to him in New York - though we still haven't reached a situation where, as French leader Napoleon Bonaparte said: "A statue of gold should be erected to him in every city in the universe."
Yet no high-level c
Source: AP
June 8, 2009
Crews on Monday began digging up an unmarked grave believed to be holding victims of the Spanish Civil War, in the country's first such court-ordered exhumation.
The Association for the Recovery of Historic Memory said volunteers were digging up part of a cemetery in the northwestern town of Santa Marta de Tera in search of the bodies of four men believed to have been assassinated by a right-wing militia at the beginning of the 1936-39 war.
The excavation was the first
Source: Vox
June 4, 2009
World industrial production, trade, and stock markets are diving faster now than during 1929-30. Fortunately, the policy response to date is much better. The update shows that trade and stock markets have shown some improvement without reversing the overall conclusion -- today's crisis is at least as bad as the Great Depression.Editor’s note: The 6 April 2009 Vox column by Barry Eichengreen and Kevin O’Rourke shattered all Vox readership records, with 30,000 views in less than 48
Source: BBC
June 8, 2009
The Royal Mint is issuing a limited edition £5 coin to mark 500 years since Henry VIII ascended to the throne.
A few of the "coins fit for a king" are cast in platinum, with a hefty price tag of £4,400. For ordinary subjects, there are cupro-nickel ones for £9.99.
Featuring the robust figure of Henry himself, they carry the words Rosa Sine Spina, meaning "rose without a thorn", which featured on coins in 1509.
All of the coins show the
Source: CNN
June 8, 2009
Former first lady Laura Bush said Monday she knows why former Vice President Dick Cheney feels the need to attack President Obama's policies, and publicly defend his own administration's legacy.
"I think that's [Cheney's] right as a citizen of the U.S., and I think he also feels obligated, and so I understand why he wants to speak out," Laura Bush said in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America broadcast Monday. "On the other hand, George feels like as a former pre
