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Results 81 - 100 of 383.


History / Archeology - 22.05.2020
Opinion: Historical films may be decaying much faster than we thought
Writing for The Conversation, PhD student Ida R. Ahmad (UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage) explains that precious historical documents are under threat from 'vinegar syndrome', which causes film to decompose. A significant chunk of the world's history is facing an existential threat. US government deeds ,  recordings of Indigenous Australians  and  photographs of English seaside life spanning three decades  are just some of the historical documents recorded on acetate film that are suffering irreversible damage due to what's known as vinegar syndrome.

History / Archeology - Chemistry - 13.04.2020
Molecular and isotopic evidence for milk, meat, and plants in prehistoric eastern African herder food systems
The development of pastoralism is known to have transformed human diets and societies in grasslands worldwide. Cattle-herding has been (and still is) the dominant way of life across the vast East African grasslands for thousands of years. This is indicated by numerous large and highly fragmentary animal bone assemblages found at archaeological sites across the region, which demonstrate the importance of cattle, sheep and goat to these ancient people.

History / Archeology - 09.04.2020
Bristol leads archaeologists on 5,000-year-old egg hunt
Long before Fabergé, ornate ostrich eggs were highly prized by the elites of Mediterranean civilisations during the Bronze and Iron Ages, but to date little has been known about the complex supply chain behind these luxury goods. Examining ostrich eggs from the British Museum's collection, the team, led by Bristol's Dr Tamar Hodos , were able to reveal secrets about their origin and how and where they were made.

History / Archeology - Physics - 08.04.2020
Revolutionary new method for dating pottery sheds new light on prehistoric past
The exciting new method Europe and Africa. Archaeological pottery has been used to date archaeological sites for more than a century, and from the Roman period onwards can offer quite precise dating. But further back in time, for example at the prehistoric sites of the earliest Neolithic farmers, accurate dating becomes more difficult because the kinds of pottery are often less distinctive and there are no coins or historical records to give context.

History / Archeology - Politics - 16.03.2020
Five things to ’dig’ about heritage at Durham
Our researchers are the history detectives, unearthing exciting things from our past and helping us learn from our ancestors. We are also the home to important cultural archives available for study. Here's From finding long a lost medieval chapel fit for a king, to discovering documents from our royal past.

History / Archeology - 29.01.2020
Iron Age ’warrior’ burial uncovered in West Sussex
A richly-furnished grave belonging to an Iron Age 'warrior' buried 2,000 years ago has been uncovered in West Sussex by UCL archaeologists. Iron weapons had been placed inside the grave, including a sword in a highly-decorated scabbard and a spear. The burial was discovered during an excavation commissioned by Linden Homes, who are developing a site on the outskirts of Walberton, near Chichester, to create 175 new homes.

History / Archeology - Materials Science - 19.12.2019
New archaeological discoveries reveal birch bark tar was used in medieval England
Scientists from the University of Bristol and the British Museum, in collaboration with Oxford Archaeology East and Canterbury Archaeological Trust, have, for the first time, identified the use of birch bark tar in medieval England - the use of which was previously thought to be limited to prehistory.

Life Sciences - History / Archeology - 02.12.2019
1940s blood samples reveal historical spread of malaria
DNA from 75-year old eradicated European malaria parasites uncovers the historical spread of one of the two most common forms of the disease, Plasmodium vivax, from Europe to the Americas during the colonial period, finds a new study co-led by UCL. The research published in Molecular Biology and Evolution reports the genome sequence of a malaria parasite sourced from blood-stained medical microscope slides used in 1944 in Spain, one of the last footholds of malaria in Europe.

Life Sciences - History / Archeology - 05.11.2019
3,000-year-old Egyptian wheat genome sequenced for first time
The genome of an ancient Egyptian wheat has been sequenced for the first time by a UCL-led team, revealing historical patterns of crop movement and domestication. The study was carried out by an international research team, which mapped the genetic code from a sample of wheat harvested over 3,000 years ago, that was excavated in 1924 from the Hememiah North Spur site in Egypt.

History / Archeology - 08.10.2019
Oldest surviving fragments of 13th century's most popular story uncovered
Oldest surviving fragments of 13th century’s most popular story uncovered
The oldest surviving pages of the 13th century's most popular story which feature one of medieval European literature's best-known sex scenes have been identified by an academic from the University of Bristol. Le Roman de la Rose or The Romance of the Rose - famously translated and adapted by Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, a century later - is a medieval French poem styled as an allegorical dream vision.

History / Archeology - 25.09.2019
First evidence for early baby bottles used to feed animal milk to prehistoric babies
A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has found the first evidence that prehistoric babies were fed animal milk using the equivalent of modern-day baby bottles. Possible infant feeding vessels, made from clay, first appear in Europe in the Neolithic (at around 5,000 BC), becoming more commonplace throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages.

History / Archeology - 21.08.2019
New light on contested identity of medieval skeleton found at Prague Castle
Used as a propaganda tool by the Nazis and Soviets during the Second World War and Cold War, the remains of a 10th century male, unearthed beneath Prague Castle in 1928, have been the subject of continued debate and archaeological manipulation. The mysterious skeleton and associated grave goods, including a sword and two knives, were identified as Viking by the Nazis, as a Slavonic warrior by the Soviets and became part of the Czech independence movement in more recent years.

History / Archeology - Chemistry - 16.05.2019
Reveals what was on the menu for medieval peasants
Scientists from the University of Bristol have uncovered, for the first time, definitive evidence that determines what types of food medieval peasants ate and how they managed their animals. Using chemical analysis of pottery fragments and animal bones found at one of England's earliest medieval villages, combined with detailed examination of a range of historical documents and accounts, the research has revealed the daily diet of peasants in the Middle Ages.

Innovation - History / Archeology - 16.04.2019
Research helps show how technology behind the V&A’s Cast Courts underpins the modern world
Sussex research helps show how technology behind the V&A's Cast Courts underpins the modern world Research conducted by a University of Sussex teaching fellow has proved fundamental to the recently restored Cast Courts at the Victoria and Albert Museum, revealing how the developments pioneered by a Victorian manufacturer are relevant today.

History / Archeology - Earth Sciences - 13.03.2019
Prehistoric Britons rack up food miles for feasts near Stonehenge
Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of the earliest large-scale celebrations in Britain - with people and animals travelling hundreds of miles for prehistoric feasting rituals. The study, led by Dr Richard Madgwick of Cardiff University, is the most comprehensive to date and examined the bones of 131 pigs, the prime feasting animals, from four Late Neolithic (c.

Life Sciences - History / Archeology - 14.02.2019
Explains how rabbits adapted to survive myxomatosis
An unprecedented study of rabbit DNA spanning 150 years and thousands of miles has revealed the genetic basis for the animal's fightback - and ultimate triumph, against the deadly myxoma virus. The revelation of how rabbits evolved genetic resistance to myxomatosis through natural selection, comes as part of an international research collaboration, nearly seventy years after the lethal disease decimated species' populations of Australia, Britain and France.

History / Archeology - Life Sciences - 31.01.2019
Fresh clues to the life and times of the first known humans
Oxford University scientists have played a key role in new research identifying the earliest evidence of some of the first known humans - Denisovans and Neanderthals, in Southern Siberia. Professor Tom Higham and his team at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the University of Oxford worked in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team from the UK, Russia, Australia, Canada and Germany, on the detailed investigation over the course of five years, to date the archaeological site of Denisova cave.

Life Sciences - History / Archeology - 30.01.2019
Ancient Mongolian skull is the earliest modern human yet found in the region
A much debated ancient human skull from Mongolia has been dated and genetically analysed, showing that it is the earliest modern human yet found in the region, according to new research from the University of Oxford. The study published used Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis and revealed that the only Pleistocene hominin fossil discovered in Mongolia, initially called Mongolanthropus, is in reality a modern human who lived approximately 34 - 35 thousand years ago.

History / Archeology - Earth Sciences - 16.01.2019
New insights into what Neolithic people ate in southeastern Europe
New research, led by the University of Bristol, has shed new light on the eating habits of Neolithic people living in southeastern Europe using food residues from pottery extracts dating back more than 8,000 years. With the dawn of the Neolithic age, farming became established across Europe and people turned their back on aquatic resources, a food source more typical of the earlier Mesolithic period, instead preferring to eat meat and dairy products from domesticated animals.

History / Archeology - Earth Sciences - 16.11.2018
Laser technology uncovers medieval secrets locked in Alpine ice core
A new study has found ground-breaking evidence from an ice core in the Swiss-Italian Alps that proves the 7 th century switch from gold to silver currencies in western Europe actually occurred a quarter of a century earlier than previously thought. The findings, from the University of Nottingham and which are published in the journal Antiquity , will have major implications on the history of the European monetary system, and what we thought we knew about trade and the economy during this period.