Dolmen is a word, supposedly of Breton origin although its etymology is not very clear, which means large stone table . They are called antas in Galicia, cromlechs in Cornwall, and in very different ways elsewhere. They are megalithic tombs or chambers made up of two or more megaliths, generally two
A few years ago we talked here about the discovery, on the Kuwaiti island of Failaka, of the remains of a Greek city from the 4th century BC. built in the time of Alexander the Great. The city was inhabited by the Greeks until 150 BC. and it is believed that it was an advanced surveillance post, esp
Sometimes it happens that an old text it can be transcribed but understanding it correctly is already a little more difficult. In fact, it is something that is not limited to past times; anyone who has read or attempted to read Ulysses by James Joyce knows that it is not exactly an easy book. But th
Probably one of the most famous action scenes in film history is the vibrant chariot race by Ben-Hur . It is so spectacular that it can give us an idea of why it was the favorite sport of the Romans , who not only enjoyed watching the races but betting on their favorite charioteers and, sometimes,
One of the archaeological news that opened 2016 was the discovery in Mesopotamia from a set of clay tablets withcuneiform signs . A type of writing that, thanks to the knowledge that has been acquired over decades of discoveries, can be transcribed and, in fact, the translation has recently been p
We already know that they have proliferated like mushrooms to become part of our cities and a frequent weekend destination for family leisure. The shopping centers they are an unavoidable reality that serves to show the way of life of the second half of the 20th century and what we have of the 21st;
The archaeological excavations that are being carried out on the Ionian island of Leucas They brought to light, at the end of 2015, the ruins of an old theater , of considerable size, which until now was not known. The find was made, according to the Greek Reporter, on the Koulmou hill. The theater
One of the most outstanding places in Ancient Greece It is the Mycenaean acropolis of Toricos , a fortified citadel overlooking the natural harbor of Lavrio, in the south of the Attica region. A strategic site not only because of what was collected from the area, which was naturally protected by a s
Whether Neanderthals would have reached latitudes as far north as Scandinavia is a question that has been debated by scientists for many years. The prevailing thesis so far is that they never got there, basically because the weather didnt allow it, it was too cold. But a new study indicates otherwi
A long time ago, in the final stretch of Prehistory, a man was running – or rather, he was barely making his way. between the snows of the Alps, at more than three thousand meters of altitude, fleeing desperately. It was the year 3300 BC and the fugitive was about five feet four inches tall, weighed
The Vordonos Islands (also called Vordonisi) are two small islands located in the Sea of Marmara, about 700 meters off the coast of Maltepe, on the Asian side of Istanbul. They were part of the Prince Islands Archipelago and sank during an earthquake in 1010 AD But under the sea there is an entir
The Urbis Form (also known as Severian Urbis Form listen)) was a gigantic plan of ancient Rome sculpted in marble during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, between 203 and 211 AD. Its original size was 18 by 13 meters , and was made up of 150 marble plates that covered an entire wall of the Tem
What follows sounds like the plot of a classic adventure movie. but it is a real fact. A fact involved, in addition, in a controversy still to be fully clarified. But it has all the elements to be interesting :an exotic place, the discovery of a lost city, a war context, the controversy over the v
The latest archaeological excavations carried out on the island of Crete have revealed that the ancient Minoan city of Knossos was at least three times larger than previously believed. Knossos flourished during the Bronze Age, between 3500 and 1100 BC, and its decline was precipitated by the social
It seems more and more difficult than archaeology offers us a find from the dimension of Troy, the tomb of Tutankhamun or the Chinese terracotta warriors. But there is no shortage of schliemans and carters who do their work in a less mediatic way and achieve results as important for science as those
Cretaceous sediments in an unexplored area of Tunisia have provided researchers with the fossilized remains of a 10-meter-long ancient saltwater crocodile. The new species has been named Machimosaurus Rex and is described in an article recently published in Cretaceous Research. It is a specimen v
An international team of researchers will soon begin the analysis of the cosmic particles collected inside the bent pyramid of Dahshur , in Egypt, with the aim of finding clues about how it was built and at the same time learning more about this 4,600-year-old structure. Mehdi Tayoubi, president of
In the year 409 B.C. Carthaginian troops razed the Greek city of Selinunte , in Sicily, killing or imprisoning its more than 20 thousand residents. A few thousand remained in the city as tributaries of Carthage. Years later, in 250 BC, the entire population was moved to Lilibea, and they would never
The new technologies revolutionize over and over again the methodology of conservation and restoration of all kinds of things, for example from everyday things (vacuum packaging of food) to medical things (freezing of embryos for reuse) passing through cultural things (replacement of books of paper
Everyone knows or has heard of the Nazca Lines, ancient geoglyphs found in Peru. There are hundreds of huge figures traced by the ancient culture of the same name on the ground, and they can only be seen in their entirety from the air. But perhaps what many do not know is that in Europe there is al
Near the Italian town of Foresta in the province of Caserta, and very close to the extinct volcano Roccamonfina, there is an area called Ciampate del Diavolo (literally footprints of the devil ). It is named like this due to a trail of fossilized footprints, divided into three sections, clearly visi
This species is known to be one of the greater skill in the use of tools possesses; especially to feed, for example, by splitting coconuts and other fruits. But they are not the only ones, chimpanzees, for their part, use toothpicks to collect termites. Capuchin monkeys in Brazil individually select
The ravages of pandemics have also had an impact on art. Thus the Black Death gave birth to the 15e century to very codified performances, called Danses macabres. Appearing in France, they will become a recurring theme in European painting illustrating the egalitarian nature of death in the face of
In 1952 the French archaeologist Pierre Cintas, a specialist in Punic archeology and famous, among other things, for having discovered the founding deposit of Carthage, together with Charles Saumagne, discovered the ruins of a Carthaginian city in northeastern Tunisia, near Cape Bon . The following