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History is full of lost arts and techniques that researchers are still trying to crack, such as deciphering heritage recipes lost in time. Some of those formulas belong to vibrant colors that our ancestors developed millennia ago.
It is easy to see the past as a sepia-toned expanse. Over time, paint has flaked off objects and dyes have faded from decomposing substances.
But civilizations living thousands of years ago were awash in a vibrant array of colors.
Generations of craftsmen worked to achieve brilliant hues, such as the perfect shade of blue. And microscopic traces have revealed that Greek marble statues were once decorated with floral motifs.
Now researchers may have discovered the secret to one of the most cherished colors of all time.
A long time ago
The ancient Greeks and Romans considered Tyrian purple, which first emerged in the Bronze Age, an elite, royal color. But the recipe for the long-lasting pigment, made using Mediterranean sea snails, disappeared with the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
Now researchers have found the precious pigment in pottery fragments containing 3,600-year-old purple dye. The dye came from a Bronze Age workshop at Kolonna on the Greek island of Aegina.
The pigment, found alongside ground-up mollusk shells and stone tools, could still be used to dye fabrics, the researchers say. But they have uncovered a new mystery in the craft process.
We are family
A fossilized ear bone found in a cave in Spain helps tell the story of a Neanderthal child with Down syndrome who was cared for by the youth community.
The child, who lived about 146,000 years ago, likely suffered from severe hearing loss, dizziness and balance problems, and abnormalities in the inner ear indicate that the boy had Down syndrome.
Life for a vulnerable child in the Stone Age would have been difficult as Neanderthals moved from place to place. It was surprising that the child lived until the age of 6, said paleoanthropologist Mercedes Conde-Valverde, an assistant professor at the University of Alcalá in Spain.
“For decades, it has been known that Neanderthals cared for their vulnerable companions,” Conde-Valverde said. “What was not known until now was a case of an individual who had received extra-maternal care from birth, even though it could not have been reciprocal.”
Defying gravity
The spacesuits that NASA astronauts regularly wear and use for spacewalks outside the International Space Station are steadily becoming outdated, but Collins Aerospace and NASA have halted plans to develop new suits.
The announcement came after a coolant leak in NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson’s spacesuit halted plans for a spacewalk this week.
NASA and Boeing are now considering extending the Starliner crew’s stay aboard the space station by three months while they continue to assess problems with the spacecraft.
Meanwhile, the agency has selected SpaceX to design a vehicle that will take the space station out of Earth orbit at the end of the decade, when it ceases operations and crashes into the ocean.
Other worlds
The first in-depth look at a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed the space rock may have had a watery past.
Organic compounds necessary for life were found in the sample, similar to those found at mid-ocean ridges on Earth. Researchers now think Bennu may have split off from an ancient ocean world.
In addition, China’s Chang’e-6 lunar lander has returned to Earth with its valuable stockpile, bringing back the first ever samples from the far side of the moon.
And data from NASA’s retired InSight mission has revealed that Mars is hit by hundreds of basketball-sized space rocks every year. Two impacts the size of football fields even occurred as astronomers watched.
Power of nature
Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula enjoyed 800 years of silence, but that all changed in 2021 when the volcanoes there began to awaken. New research identifying a major source fueling the hotbed of activity suggests the eruptions could continue for years or even decades.
Local communities such as Grindavík, a fishing village of more than 3,000 people close to the iconic Blue Lagoon tourist attraction, may be forced to undertake long-term evacuations in the future.
Although Mount Rainier in Washington state has not erupted in the past 1,000 years, it is still the volcano that most concerns American volcanologists.
Curiosities
Share these new stories with your friends:
– Elite men served as scribes, recording events during the height of ancient Egyptian society – and the administrative roles left unusual marks on their skeletons, including their spines and jaws.
— A new satellite was launched this week to monitor space weather as solar activity increases. This satellite could provide early warnings of solar storms erupting from the sun.
—The anatomy of a fossil of an ancient marine animal puzzled scientists until they realized it was upside down.
– Wood samples, a twig, an animal bone and a stash of old almonds have helped researchers figure out when the Kyrenia, a famous ship from Greece’s Hellenistic period, actually sank.
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