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The smallest remnants from the past can provide insight into an otherwise mysterious lifestyle.
Eyed needles made from bone, antler, and ivory appear in the fossil record in southern Siberia about 40,000 years ago. The needles made sewing more efficient and provided warm, well-fitting clothing in cold environments.
However, researchers believe this innovation marks the beginning of a new chapter in human history: fashion and self-expression.
Fast-forward to seventh-century East Anglia in the United Kingdom, where an Anglo-Saxon warrior king was buried alongside magnificent goods in a vast ship. The ship’s timbers, at the famous site of Sutton Hoo, have rotted away, but iron rivets and impressions in the soft earth reveal its span.
Researchers hope to reconstruct the ship. It is not the only ship to be revived centuries ago after it had disappeared from time.
Back to the Future
Using a list of supplies written on a clay tablet, a team of experts in the United Arab Emirates has reconstructed a Bronze Age ship.
Shipbuilders constructed the 18-metre Magan boat using hand tools, reeds, goat hair and animal fat.
The ship probably once transported copper, textiles and semi-precious stones between populations in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.
The ship successfully completed its maiden manned voyage through the Persian Gulf in March and will form part of a maritime history exhibition at the Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi.
We are family
An analysis of ancient DNA collected from graves in Sweden and Denmark suggests an archaic form of the plague could be the cause of a mysterious population decline.
Europe’s first farmers migrated from the eastern Mediterranean around 6,500 years ago, replacing hunter-gatherer groups and introducing a more settled, agricultural lifestyle. But the population was decimated between 5,300 and 4,900 years ago.
Researchers discovered bacteria that cause the plague in the remains of nine graves. The careful burials suggest the team has found the origins of an epidemic.
Archaeologists working in Peru have also discovered a temple and theater that they believe is 4,000 years old. This temple and theater are thousands of years older than Machu Picchu and shed new light on the complex religions of the region.
Wild kingdom
Jacob the African lion has had to overcome many challenges during his ten-year stay in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.
A buffalo gored him, and he was caught in a poacher’s trap and subsequently lost a leg to a steel trap. Remarkably, he also performed the longest documented swim by a lion through crocodile-infested waters.
Thermal cameras captured a perilous one-mile nighttime swim undertaken by Jacob and his brother Tibu in February.
Scientists believe the brothers were searching for lionesses after losing fights to male rivals in the hours leading up to the swim, as they tried to prevent humans from encroaching on their natural habitat.
Defying gravity
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has been docked with the International Space Station for more than a month.
Although astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams far exceeded their expected eight-day stay aboard the space lab, they are still “absolutely confident” that Starliner can bring them home, Wilmore said.
In the meantime, the duo helped with science experiments and maintenance tasks, while NASA and Boeing engineers conducted tests to determine what was causing the Starliner’s booster problems and helium leaks.
In addition, the European Space Agency ESA introduced its long-awaited new rocket, called Ariane 6. The satellite launcher achieved several milestones before an anomaly occurred that ended the flight.
Once upon a time on a planet
Thanks to the freezing temperatures of Siberian permafrost, a 52,000-year-old piece of woolly mammoth skin has been so well preserved that it contains a unique genetic treasure.
The skin contains millions of letters of the genetic code, stored in fossil chromosomes, microscopic thread-like structures that carry DNA.
The genetic fragments, which largely have the same structure as when the mammoth was alive, will provide new insights into the extinct species.
Meanwhile, a prehistoric volcanic eruption preserved some of the most complete specimens of trilobites, insect-like marine creatures, whose fossils contain anatomical details never seen before.
Curiosities
Enrich your mind with these amazing discoveries:
— The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a brand new image of the Penguin and Egg galaxies, which have been locked in a cosmic dance for millions of years.
— Astronomers have discovered a molecule on an exoplanet with glass rain never before seen outside our solar system — and the planet’s atmosphere smells like rotten eggs.
—The most complete dinosaur skeleton found in the UK in more than a century has revealed the existence of a previously unknown species of herbivorous dinosaur that probably roamed in vast herds.
— Scientists have spotted for the first time in Western Australia a bright blue tree frog that looks like it jumped straight out of the ‘Avatar’ movies.
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