Good afternoon all,
Today was sooooo busy! Of course one would expect the first day back after a four day to be hectic, but whew! Anyway, here are the news articles for today. :)
Today's Top 5:
1. Childhood 'Toy' Revealed as Ancient Persian Relic (Yahoo News)
2. Thousand-year-old Lombard Warrior Skeleton Discovered Buried with Horse in Italy (Telegraph UK)
3. 'Flawless' Diamond the Size of a Squash Ball Sells for £3million (Daily Mail UK)
4. Researchers Retrieve Authentic Viking DNA from 1,000 Year Old Skeletons (Physorg.com)
5. Five Fisherman Rescued off Kinmen Island (Taiwan) After Boat Sinks (Taiwan Headlines)
Honorable Mention:
1. Rains End Drought in North-eastern Spain (Earth Times)
Today's Top 5:
1. Childhood 'Toy' Revealed as Ancient Persian Relic
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080528/od_afp/lifestylebritainauctionhistory_080528122922
Wed May 28, 8:29 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - An ancient gold cup mysteriously acquired by an English scrap metal dealer is expected to fetch close to a million dollars at auction after languishing for years in a shoe box under its current owner's bed.
Owner John Webber says his grandfather gave him the 5.5-inch (14-centimetre) high mug to play with when he was a child, back in 1945.
He assumed the golden cup, which is decorated with the heads of two women facing in opposite directions, their foreheads garlanded with two knotted snakes, was made from brass.
But he decided to get it valued when he was moving house last year and was told it was actually a rare piece of ancient Persian treasure, beaten out of a single sheet of gold hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
Experts said the method of manufacture and the composition of the gold was "consistent with Achaemenid gold and gold smithing" dating back to the third or fourth century BC.
The Achaemenid empire, the first of the Persian empires to rule over significant portions of Greater Iran, was wiped out by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.
Auction house Duke's, in Dorchester, south-west England, will put the cup under the hammer on June 5, with an estimate of 500,000 pounds (630,000-euro, 988,000-dollars).
Webber, 70, told The Guardian newspaper that his grandfather had a "good eye" for antiques and picked up "all sorts" as he plied his trade in the town of Taunton in south-west England.
"Heaven knows where he got this, he never said," he added, revealing that as a child, he used the cup for target practice with his air gun.
2. Thousand-year-old Lombard Warrior Skeleton Discovered Buried with Horse in Italy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2041811/Thousand-year-old-Lombard-warrior-skeleton-discovered-buried-with-horse-in-Italy.html
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Last Updated: 11:44AM BST 28/05/2008
Italian archaeologists have discovered a perfectly preserved skeleton of a 1400-year-old Lombard warrior, buried with his horse.
The skeleton, which was found in a park at Testona, near Turin, is of a 25-year-old Lombard who died of a fever. Unusually, his horse was buried alongside him.
"This is a very rare find," said Gabriella Pantò, the archaeologist leading the dig. "We have not seen many precedents in Italy. We have seen horses' heads buried with warriors, but this find shows the area is vitally important," she added.
The Lombards were a nomadic tribe of Germans who settled near the Danube and launched an attack on Italy in the sixth century.
Under the leadership of King Alboin, the Lombards stormed across the Alps in the spring of AD568 with an army of around 500,000.
Vicenza, Verona and Brescia were quickly conquered from the Byzantines, who were still suffering from battling the Goths. Lombardy was established across the whole of the north of the country, an empire which lasted for around 100 years.
The dig revealed a Lombard camp had settled at Testona, and the skeleton of a dog was also found nearby. The invaders had built an aqueduct and irrigation system and a series of small wooden huts, without any foundations.
The warrior was also buried with a treasure chest being x-rayed by archaeologists. In addition, a small bag held a pair of pincers, a bronze belt buckle and some armour.
He wore a ring on his left index finger and also had both a knife and a "scramasax", a short sword designed for close combat.
3. 'Flawless' Diamond the Size of a Squash Ball Sells for £3million
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1022528/Flawless-diamond-size-squash-ball-sells-3million.html?ITO=1490
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:27 PM on 28th May 2008
A giant diamond the size of a squash ball was sold at auction yesterday for £3 million. The 101.27-carat stone is the largest colourless gem to be sold in Asia. The diamond, which is internally flawless was sold after patchy bidding.
Set in a tiara, the diamond is one of only four colourless diamonds of over 100 carats to have come up for sale.
The auction was the biggest jewellery sale ever conducted by Christie's in terms of value.
More than £30 million worth of jewellery was sold at the event in Hong Kong.
A Christie's spokesman said the diamond's appearance on the market had "created a sensation".
It was put up for sale by an anonymous private individual and bought by a first-time telephone buyer from Hong Kong.
The new owner will have the right to name the diamond.
Francois Curiel, Christie's international director for jewellery, said the crowd at the event was "flabbergasted" by the high prices on display.
He added: "The world record price for the colourless diamond sale was broken...the atmosphere in the room was very excited."
4. Researchers Retrieve Authentic Viking DNA from 1,000-year-old Skeletons
http://www.physorg.com/news131171878.html
28 May 2008
Although “Viking” literally means “pirate,” recent research has indicated that the Vikings were also traders to the fishmongers of Europe. Stereotypically, these Norsemen are usually pictured wearing a horned helmet but in a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE this week, Jørgen Dissing and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, investigated what went under the helmet; the scientists were able to extract authentic DNA from ancient Viking skeletons, avoiding many of the problems of contamination faced by past researchers.
Analysis of DNA from the remains of ancient humans provides valuable insights into such important questions as the origin of genetic diseases, migration patterns of our forefathers and tribal and family patterns.
Unfortunately, severe problems connected with the retrieval and analysis of DNA from ancient organisms (like the scarcity of intact molecules) are further aggravated in the case of ancient humans. This is because of the great risk of contamination with abundant DNA from modern humans. Humans, then, are involved at all steps, from excavation to laboratory analyses. This means that many previous results have subsequently been disputed as attributed to the presence of contaminant DNA, and some researchers even claim that it is impossible to obtain reliable results with ancient human DNA.
Using freshly sampled material from ten Viking skeletons from around AD 1,000, from a non-Christian burial site on the Danish island of Funen, Dissing and colleagues showed that it is indeed possible to retrieve authentic DNA from ancient humans.
Wearing protective suits, the researchers removed the teeth from the jaw at the moment the skeletons were unearthed when they had been untouched for 1,000 years. The subsequent laboratory procedures were also carefully controlled in order to avoid contamination.
Analysis of the Viking DNA showed no evidence of contamination with extraneous DNA, and typing of the endogenous DNA gave reproducible results and showed that these individuals were just as diverse as contemporary humans. A reliable retrieval of authentic DNA opens the way for a valuable use of prehistoric human remains to illuminate the genetic history of past and extant populations.
Citation: Citation: Melchior L, Kivisild T, Lynnerup N, Dissing J (2008) Evidence of Authentic DNA from Danish Viking Age Skeletons Untouched by Humans for 1,000 Years. PLoS ONE 3(5): e2214. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002214 ; http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002214
5. Five Fisherman Rescued off Kinmen Island (Taiwan) After Boat Sinks
http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=121253&CtNode=39
05/28/2008 (CNA)
Taipei, May 28 (CNA) Five fishermen were rescued by a Coast Guard vessel in waters off the outlying island of Kinmen after their fishing boat sprang a leak and sank in the wee hours of Wednesday.
According to the Coast Guard Administration, the seven-ton "Hehsing" vessel set off from Hsinhu Fishing Port in Kinmen at 3: 15 a.m. to fish in nearby waters.
Twenty minutes later, the captain of the boat, Wu Bing-huang, sent out a distress call after noticing that the vessel was taking on large amounts of water about 500 meters from the port.
The coast guard responded immediately by dispatching the "PP2066" patrol vessel, which was operating off Lialuo Port, to the scene.
Another coast guard vessel, the "Tsaihueishun, " which was already near the scene, also responded and picked up the five fisherman who had jumped off the sinking vessel.
Those rescued were Yu Kuo-hsing, Chen Hsiang-shuei, Yu Kuo, Yu Chu, and the vessel's captain. All five are experienced fisherman, ranging in age from 50-70 years.
The crew members said that the "Hehsing" probably sank as a result of years of wear and tear on the aged vessel, which was nearly 30 years old. (By Steve Bercic)
Honorable Mentions:
1.Rains End Drought in North-eastern Spain
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/208256,rains-end-drought-in-north-eastern-spain.html
Posted : Tue, 27 May 2008 14:48:01 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Environment
Barcelona, Spain - Spring rains have ended the worst drought that north-eastern Spain had experienced for 60 years, doubling the level of water in reservoirs to 43 per cent of their capacity, the local authorities said Tuesday. The region of Catalonia nevertheless is maintaining emergency measures to guarantee supplies of drinking water in the Barcelona region, such as building a 62-kilometre piping system to divert water from the river Ebro. Water has also been brought in by tanker ships.
The neighbouring Aragon region opposes the Ebro plan, but Catalonia only intends to cancel the emergency measures if water reservoirs become filled to 58 per cent of their capacity.
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