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Welcome to History Buff, a blog for history lovers everywhere! History Buff brings news stories about archaeology from around the world together on one site. From finds in ancient Egypt to new discoveries in anthropology, History Buff wants to know.

Michelle Moran
Historical fiction author








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11.30.2008

Jane Austen museum forced to ban fans from scattering human ashes in her garden

By Emily Andrews

JANE AUSTEN, AUTHOR.
Author: Drawing of Jane Austen

The 17th-century cottage, with its quintessentially English garden filled with flower beds and herbs, has long been a place of pilgrimage for devotees of Jane Austen.

Read the rest on the DailyMail.


11.26.2008

Have A Happy Thanksgiving

History Buff is going on vacation until Dec 1, and wishes everyone in the US a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!!!!!


Thracian funeral mould found near Pravets

by Diana Stoykova

An archaeological discovery of a great importance has been during an anti-treasure hunting action.

Read the rest here.


Red color ruled fashion world 15,000 years ago

ZHENGZHOU - The color red, which represents luck, happiness and passion in China, could have been used in clothing 15,000 years ago, Li Zhanyang, a researcher with Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said in an interview with Xinhua on Wednesday.

Read the rest here.


Scythian village and cemetery unearthed in Northeast Hungary

Workers at a business park construction project near the northeast Hungarian town of Nagykálló have unearthed a series of graves and the remains of a Scythian village that enjoyed prosperity in the time of the Roman Empire, reports historical portal mult-kor.hu.

Read the rest here.

11.25.2008

Lovingly restored Lord Admiral Nelson's letter reveals how raisins helped him win the Battle of Trafalgar

By Andy Dolan

He must have known that his audacious naval tactics would give him the upper hand against the Franco-Spanish fleet. But Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson wasn't taking any chances. A newly discovered letter reveals that he also made sure his sailors went into the Battle of Trafalgar with full bellies.
Admiral Nelson
Fruit fan: Admiral Nelson, above, insisted his brave crew had enough raisins

Read the rest on the DailyMail.


Photos reveal Hadrian's history

Aerial picture Iron Age Hillfort
Aerial pictures revealed previously unrecorded historical sites

Archaeologists have uncovered 2,700 previously unrecorded historic features along the length of Hadrian's Wall by studying thousands of aerial pictures.

Read the rest on the BBC.


VN calls for recognition of Thang Long Royal Citadel

VietNamNet Bridge: Viet Nam hopes UNESCO and international friends will recognise the Thang Long Royal Citadel Site as a World Heritage Site before Ha Noi’s 1,000th anniversary, said the chairman of the Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences Do Hoai Nam.

Read the rest here.

11.24.2008

Ancient Chariot Found in Bulgaria

Sweet Chariot
Sweet Chariot

Veselin Toshkov, Associated Press

Archaeologists have unearthed an elaborately decorated 1,800-year-old chariot sheathed in bronze at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Friday.

Read the rest on Discovery.


Hadrian's wall boosted economy for ancient Britons, archaeologists discover

By Patrick Sawer

Far from being a hated symbol of military occupation, Hadrian's Wall was the business opportunity of a lifetime for ancient Britons, archaeologists have discovered.

Read the rest on The Telegraph.

11.23.2008

Painting by famed artist Millais worth £50,000 discovered covered in dust in woman's loft

A painting worth £50,000 has been found behind an old mattress in an attic where it had lain collecting dust for decades.

Portrait of Effie Gray by John Everett Millais
Cash in the attic: The painting by John Everett Millais, a portrait of Effie Gray who later became his wife, was discovered in a woman's loft and is estimated to be worth £50,000

Read the rest here.

11.21.2008

Scots unearth ancient 'treasures'

The Roman Tombstone (Pic: National Museums of Scotland)
A Roman tombstone was among the significant finds

The first Roman tombstone found in Scotland for more than 170 years is among the rare artefacts unearthed by treasure hunters this year.

Read the rest on the BBC.


Massive Prehistoric Fort Emerges From Welsh Woods

Cloaked by time's leafy shroud, the prehistoric settlement of Gaer Fawr lies all but invisible beneath a forest in the lush Welsh countryside. Commanded by warrior chiefs who loomed over the everyday lives of their people, the massive Iron Age fortress once dominated the landscape.

Read the rest on National Geographic.


Gold collar found in field 'best Iron Age loot in 50 years': report


A British museum employee holds the gold and silver Iron Age necklace (or torc), valued at £350,000

LONDON (AFP) — An amateur treasure hunter hit gold when he found an Iron Age collar worth more than 350,000 pounds (414,000 euros, 520,000 dollars) in a field, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Read the rest here.

11.20.2008

Gyeongbok Palace Ruins Unearthed

Officials of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and reporters on Tuesday tour the remains of part of Gyeongbok Palace unearthed under a road near Gwanghwamun, Seoul. \

Ruins of part of Gyeongbok Palace dating back 600 years ago have been unearthed under a road near Gwanghwamun, the main gate of the palace. The ruins are so well preserved that they are reminiscent of those of Pompeii.

Read the rest here.


Israeli archaeologists unearth Herod family tombs

Photo




By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank (Reuters) - An Israeli archaeologist said on Wednesday he had unearthed what he believed were the 2,000-year-old remains of two tombs which had held a wife and daughter-in-law of the biblical King Herod.

Read the rest here.


Greek archaeologists find 6,500-year-old village

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a 6,500-year-old farming settlement in an antiquities-rich area of central Greece.

Read the rest here.


Remains confirmed as Copernicus

Article from: Agence France-Presse

SCIENTISTS say they have identified remains found in 2005 as those of Nicolas Copernicus, the father of modern astronomy who was born in the 15th century.

Read the rest on The Australian.

11.19.2008

Scientists map DNA of prehistoric animal

This drawing shows a prehistoric woolly mammoth linked to a strand of DNA and emerging from a block of ice.
This drawing shows a prehistoric woolly mammoth linked to a strand of DNA and emerging from a block of ice.

By Azadeh Ansari

(CNN) -- A team of scientists at Penn State University could be one step closer to bringing extinct species back to life. Using next-generation instruments and groundbreaking DNA-reading techniques, scientists have uncovered much of the genetic code of the woolly mammoth, a prehistoric species of elephant.

Read the rest on CNN.

11.18.2008

King Herod Revealed

By Tom Meuller

 Eight miles south of Jerusalem, where the last stunted olive trees and stony cornfields fade into the naked badlands of the Judaean desert, a hill rises abruptly, a steep cone sliced off at the top like a small volcano. This is Herodium, one of the grand architectural creations of Herod the Great, King of Judaea, who raised a low knoll into a towering memorial of snowy stonework and surrounded it with pleasure palaces, splashing pools, and terraced gardens.

Read the rest on National Geographic.


Archaeologists begin Cathedral Square excavation


AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL dig has begun in Peterborough's historic Cathedral Square. An area of the square has been cordoned off while a mechanical digger is used to excavate the site.

Read the rest here.

11.17.2008

Buried in each other's arms: Scientists discover remains of world's most ancient nuclear family

By David Derbyshire

For more than four thousand years since their violent deaths they have lain together - a mother, father and their two boys. They are, say archaeologists, the earliest known example of the nuclear family, carefully buried side by side, perhaps by grieving relatives or friends.

family together
With the children facing their parents, the illustration, top right, shows how the boys aged eight and four were buried with their mother and father

Read the rst on the DailyMail.



Great Pyramid Mystery to Be Solved by Hidden Room?

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

ON TV Unlocking the Great Pyramid airs Sunday, November 23, at 7 p.m. ET on the National Geographic Channel.

A sealed space in Egypt's Great Pyramid may help solve a centuries-old mystery: How did the ancient Egyptians move two million 2.5-ton blocks to build the ancient wonder?

Read the rest on National Geographic.


Ancient Celtic coin cache found in Netherlands

By TOBY STERLING Associated Press Writer

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A hobbyist with a metal detector struck both gold and silver when he uncovered an important cache of ancient Celtic coins in a cornfield in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht.

Read the rest in the Houston Chronicle.


Cynisca of Sparta

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council

A Spartan princesss Cynisca broke the mould by winning a four horse chariot race in 396 BCE. English classicist, Paul Cartledge, introduces us to Cynisca of Sparta and offers us an insight to why she can be considered the first Greek female Olympic winner.

Read the rest on the American Chronicle.


Roman emperor head discovered in a package!

Author: Diana Stoykova

The marble head of a statue of a Roman emperor was delivered in the National History Museum today from "Sofia Airport - Customs".

The head, most probably representing Octavian, was found in a package sent from Haskovo to Western Europe.

Read the rest here.



Copy of Lincoln Letter Consoling War Mom Surfaces

AP: DALLAS — A Texas museum hopes a document found in its archives turns out to be an authentic government copy of Abraham Lincoln's eloquent letter consoling a mother thought to have lost five sons in the Civil War.

Read the rest here.

11.14.2008

Stone Age Temple May Be Birthplace of Civilization


Gevork Nazaryan via Wikimedia Commons: Freestanding T-shaped monoliths within the walls of Gobekli Tepe.

It's more than twice as old as the Pyramids, or even the written word. When it was built, saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths still roamed, and the Ice Age had just ended.


11.13.2008

Huge necropolis unearthed in Sicily

(ANSA) - Palermo, November 11 - Archaeologists working at the ancient Greek city of Himera in northern Sicily have uncovered what they now believe to be the largest Greek necropolis on the island.

Read the rest on Ansa.



Ancient Rome lives again on Google Earth

The glory that was Rome is to rise again. Visitors will once more be able to visit the Colosseum and the Forum of Rome as they were in 320 AD, this time on a computer screen in 3D.

Read the rest on the Times Online.


Lebanon finds 2,900 year old Phoenician remains

Photo

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese and Spanish archaeologists have discovered 2,900-year-old earthenware pottery that ancient Phoenicians used to store the bones of their dead after burning the corpses.

Read the rest here.

11.12.2008

5,000-year-old relics found in Iran


New archeological discoveries are made in Iran on a regular basis. Perhaps, the most important recent discovery in the country was that of an inscription on the southern island of Kharg, confirming the Iranian identity of the Persian Gulf.

The recent discovery of 28 relics dating back to 3,000 BCE has shed light on the previous agricultural situation of southern Iran.

Read the rest here.


Because this is the beginning of something that will someday be history: Pictured: The robot that can pull faces just like a human being

'Jules'
Jules is the first humanoid robot who can realistically mimic a real person's expressions merely by watching their face

Scientists have created the first 'humanoid' robot that can mimic the facial expressions and lip movements of a human being. 'Jules' - a disembodied androgynous robotic head - can automatically copy the movements, which are picked up by a video camera and mapped on to the tiny electronic motors in his skin.

Read the rest on the Daily Mail.


11.11.2008

Darwin's Beagle to sail again: £5m replica will survey oceans with help from NASA craft

Beagle
Vessel of knowledge: The original HMS Beagle on which Charles Darwin sailed. A replica is being built to research the effects of plankton on the world's oceans

By Mark Prigg

It was the ship that carried Charles Darwin to the Galapagos Islands nearly 180 years ago, enabling him to make his breakthrough on the theory of evolution. Now another HMS Beagle will depart on a new voyage of scientific discovery - this time with the help of sat-nav, engines and guidance from space.

Read the rest on DailyMail.


Ancient village discovered in Tucson

Sandy Rathbun reports

In 2004, voters approved bonds to upgrade and expand the wastewater facility at Ina Road and Interstate 10. But before anything new can be built, the state and county require a dig for any archaeological ruins. While digging around the wastewater facility they discovered an Ancient village. Archaeologists from Desert Archaeology say they shouted when they found an ancient village which they estimate is 3,500 years old.

Read the rest here.


Chinese emperor's lavish quarters are restored

AP: Beijing: In between dispatching armies to secure the empire and building China into the richest country in the world, the Qianlong Emperor commissioned a retirement home for himself in the Forbidden City palace.

Read the rest on the International Herald Tribune.


History's Horrors In the Present:Egyptians Protest Doctor's 1,500-Lash Sentence in Saudi Arabia

AP: CAIRO, Egypt — Demonstrators in Cairo demanded Tuesday that Saudi Arabia release an Egyptian doctor sentenced to 15 years in prison and 1,500 lashes after he was convicted of malpractice — reportedly after treating a Saudi princess.

Read the rest here.


4,300-Year-Old Pyramid Found in Egypt

AQQARA, Egypt — A 4,300-year-old pyramid has been discovered in Saqqara, Egypt, the sprawling necropolis and burial site of the rulers of ancient Memphis, Egypt's chief archaeologist said Tuesday.

Read the rest here.


11.10.2008

Iron Age ‘town in the sky’ is revealed

by Sally Williams, Western Mail

FROM the air, its hidden tree-covered slopes give little clue to the settlement that existed there 3,000 years ago. And its position in one of the quietest corners of the nation may seem a million miles away from the bustle of today’s towns and cities.

Read the rest on Wales Online.


700-year-old coins found in field

Scanned images of the coins
The coins would have been a "couple of days' wages" for someone.

Three 700-year-old coins which were found in a field have been declared treasure by a coroner at Flint. The silver pennies date back to between 1307 and 1314, to the reigns of both Edward I and his son Edward II.

Read the rest on the BBC.


More on the 2,000-year-old gold earring found in Jerusalem


AP – This undated photo made available by the Israeli Antiquities Authority on Monday.

JERUSALEM – The Israel Antiquities Authority says archeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old gold earring beneath a parking lot next to the walls of Jerusalem's old city.

Read the rest on Yahoo.


A 2,000 Year Old Gold Earring, Inlaid with Precious Stones, was Discovered in Excavations in Jerusalem

In archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out at the behest of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem, a rare and impressive Hebrew seal was discovered that dates to the latter part of the First Temple period. The seal was found in a building that is currently being uncovered, which dates to the seventh century BCE – to the time when the kings Manasseh and Josiah reigned.

Read the rest here.

11.09.2008

LEGACY BOOKS in Plano Texas

If you're a book lover living in Plano Texas (north of Dallas), there's excellent news for you. Legacy Books has just opened its doors, and it promises to be one of the best indie bookstores in the country!! If you don't believe me, check out their website, or better yet, hustle over and check out the store yourself! The grand opening was this Friday, and though I couldn't be there (pesky Cleopatra's Daughter deadline ;) I heard it was a blast!!!!!


Cash Hidden in Ohio House Walls Becomes Contractor's Nightmare

AP: CLEVELAND — A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication.

Read the rest here.

11.08.2008

Mystery of the screaming mummy

By Kathryn Knight

It was a blood-curdling discovery. The mummy of a young man with his hands and feed bound, his face contorted in an eternal scream of pain. But who was he and how did he die? On a scorching hot day at the end of June 1886, Gaston Maspero, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, was unwrapping the mummies of the 40 kings and queens found a few years earlier in an astonishing hidden cache near the Valley of the Kings.

Screaming mummy
Unexpected: Alongside the remains of great Egyptian pharoahs lay the body of a young man, his face locked in an eternal blood-curdling scream, in a plain, undecorated coffin

Read the rest on the Daily Mail.



Temple’s treasures wiped out

T.S. Subramanian
PHOTOS: S. THANTHONI

EFFACED LEGACY: (Clockwise from top left): The prakara wall of the Vyagrapurisvara temple at Tiruppulivanam sans its frescoes that were sandblasted recently; one of the Chola frescoes as it existed, in a file image provided by the Archaeological Survey of India; pillars with sculptures at the temple, also sandblasted and disfigured.

CHENNAI: A 1,200-year-old Siva temple of the Pallava period at Tiruppulivanam village in Kanchipuram district, Tamil Nadu, has been wiped clean of its beautiful Chola-period paintings.

Read the rest on The Hindu.

11.07.2008

Dig unearths treasures of Byzantine era and before

Effie-Michelle Metallidis


The Turkish minister of culture and tourism, Ertugrul Gunay, examines the excavation work and archaeological finds at the site of the Marmaray project in Yenikapi, Istanbul.
Sinan Gul / Anadolu Ajansi

Above ground, the Istanbul suburb of Yenikapi is a normal, modern-day bustling port on the Marmaris Sea. But beneath the waters, its newly discovered treasures are rewriting the history books.

Read the rest here.


Jennie Jerome

jennie jerome winstone churchill's mother
Lady Randy was well known for her lifestyle and lovers

By Glenys Roberts

She is said to have had more than 200 lovers, some of them younger than her own son. Strikingly beautiful, with amber eyes, dark-brown hair, full breasts and an irrepressible lust for life, Jennie Jerome was irresistible to men.

Read the rest on the DailyMail.

11.06.2008

Ancient Chinese Mysteries Solved by Cave Rocks

AP: WASHINGTON — A stalagmite rising from the floor of a cave in China is providing clues to the end of several dynasties in Chinese history. Slowly built from the minerals in dripping water over 1,810 years, chemicals in the stone tell a tale of strong and weak cycles of the monsoon, the life-giving rains that water crops to feed millions of people.

Read the rest here.


Bronze Age village discovered in NW Romania

BUCHAREST, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A village established in the Bronze Age has been recently discovered near Zalau town, northwestern Romania, the official Agerpres news agency reported on Wednesday.

Read the rest here.

11.05.2008

Five-year-old discovers Ice Age woolly rhino at first fossil hunt

Emelia Fawbert
Little Emelia Fawbert discovered this impressive 50,000-year-old rhino bone

A five-year-old girl has unearthed the vertebra of an Ice Age woolly rhinoceros during a fossil hunt with her family. Emelia Fawbert found the remains of the animal that roamed the area 50,000 years ago at the Cotswold Water Park near Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

Read the rest on the DailyMail.


Caesar's British Landing Site Pinned Down

By Harvey Leifert, Natural History Magazine

When Julius Caesar arrived off the coast of Britain with his hundred-ship force in August, 55 b.c., he was greeted by a host of defenders poised to hurl spears down on his invading army from the towering Dover cliffs. Seeking a better landing site, he sailed on a strong afternoon current and landed his troops at a beach seven miles away, according to his own account.

Read the rest on LiveScience.

11.04.2008

Oldest Hebrew Text Is Evidence for Bible Stories?


A 3,000-year-old pottery shard with five lines of text (above) is the oldest Hebrew writing ever found, archaeologists said in October 2008. The text, found on a hilltop above the valley where David is said to have battled Goliath, could give historical support for stories in the Bible. Copyright 2008 by David Willner for Foundation Stone

Mati Milstein in Elah Valley, Israel
for National Geographic News

What may be the oldest known Hebrew text, found on a hilltop above the valley where David is said to have battled Goliath, could lend historical support to some Bible stories, archaeologists say.

Read the rest on NationalGeographic.


Ancient Grave May Have Belonged to Shaman

By Michael Balter
ScienceNOW Daily News

Before there were priests or doctors, people seeking solace or treatment for an illness often called in a shaman, an intermediary between the human and spirit worlds. Archaeologists working in Israel now claim that a 12,000-year-old grave of a woman buried with various animal and human body parts is that of an early shaman. If true, it could mean that shamanism arose during a critical period in human cultural evolution.

Read the rest on ScienceNow.


Voting Day in the US



See You all Tomorrow. Happy Voting!

11.03.2008

Frozen mice cloned - are woolly mammoths next?

Photo

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Japanese scientists have cloned mice whose bodies were frozen for as long 16 years and said on Monday it may be possible to use the technique to resurrect mammoths and other extinct species.

Read the rest here.



Shipwreck hunters find 1870 schooner

An underwater photo reveals the 'deadeyes' used to hold ropes on the Riverside, which left Kelleys Island on Friday, Oct. 13, 1893, with a cargo of stone bound for New York.
( DAVID VANZANDT )


The images are blurred shapes of dark and light and they have undefined lines and portions shaded out. But even to the untrained eye the photos that emerged from the sidescan sonar that pierced into the waters of Lake Erie were unmistakably boats.

Read the rest on the ToledoBlade.


French dig exposes underside of Tyre

French dig exposes underside of Tyre











By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff

TYRE: A French excavations team from the Universite de Lyon has wrapped up phase I of works in the southern port city of Tyre, the head of the Directorate General of Antiquities (DGA) in the South told The Daily Star on Friday. "Excavations are centered in two main sites inside Tyre's Al-Mina ancient ruins area," Ali Badawi said.

Read the rest on the DailyStar.


Leonardo codex to be dismantled

(ANSA) - The world's top Leonardo Da Vinci expert on Tuesday spoke out in favour of dismantling a 12-volume collection of work by the Renaissance genius.

Read the rest here.


Bronze-Age house unearthed

Traces of a 3,000-year-old later Bronze Age round house have been found on the site of the new Bognor Regis Community College. A large extraction pit, containing a large amount of prehistoric pottery, was also uncovered in this area. The haul included the complete base of a pottery vessel.

Read the rest here.

11.02.2008

Unearthed First World War manuals reveal the everyday challenges of life in the trenches



'Exceptional' Roman coins hoard

Some of the Roman coins
The coins were found in two pottery vessels, buried 3m apart.

One of the largest deposits of Roman coins ever recorded in Wales, has been declared treasure trove. Nearly 6,000 copper alloy coins were found buried in two pots in a field at Sully, Vale of Glamorgan by a local metal detector enthusiast in April.

Read the rest on the BBC.


History's Horrors In the Present: Amnesty International Denounces Stoning Death of 13-Year-Old Somali Girl

AP: MOGADISHU, Somalia — A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.

Read the rest here.