More down-to-earth is Mark Andrew Carpenter’s analysis of a bold new theory linking serpent mounds from around the globe to celestial strikes. It’s a wild hypothesis worthy of consideration, even if over a couple of beers, even if it’s mostly symbolism with a delicious glaze of supernatural thinking. Not everything wondrous on Earth claims its […]

Kim Kardashian has been ordered by a court in Los Angeles to hand over an Ancient Roman sculpture, which prosecutors say was ‘looted, smuggled and illegally exported from Italy’.

Mars hasn’t always been arid and cold, according to Edwin Kite and pals, who released a provocative study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences arguing Mars was once positively damp and rife with insulating clouds. How in sam hill can sun-blocking clouds keep ancient Mars comfy? The answer is quite simple and enough […]

Four remarkable instances of archaeological sleuthing and impactful surprises. Jocelyne LeBlanc covers a recent analysis of a Bronze Age find and its implications for understanding that period. Owen Jarus says a Creepy Sculpture with Human Faces is Even Older Than Experts Thought. And “the world’s earliest wooden monumental sculpture” was 17 feet tall! Sometimes what […]

Lightning strikes are secular miracles. They are irreproducible, happening in different places under different circumstances, yet no one argues their existence, unlike other topics. Not to mention how lightning may have sparked life on Earth by striking the primordial soup. Here’s a fun little piece on fossil fulgurites–they’re seriously nifty–and how finding these treasures can […]

Anthropologists know that 50,000 years ago, the islands of southeast Asia were home to two species of small humans aka “Hobbits.” While there is no decisive evidence to explain their origin, there are indications they were related to Denisovans and Neanderthals, with interbreeding between the three early human species. Work continues to uncover the elusive […]

A propos the very first of the 24 “Other” Questions I [Christopher Alan Plain] Would Ask E.T. we profiled yesterday, Anadolu deals with some of the outstanding “whys” behind elements of the Gizeh monuments’ construction. Some recent research is highlighted. Bruce Bower pushes back the genesis of funeral practices in the Middle East 10,000 years […]