Ancient bones reveal Irish aren't Celts

The chance discovery of ancient bones under an Irish pub in the mid-2000s has cast doubt over whether Irish people are actually related to the ancient Celts at all. The police arrived on the scene and discovered that it was not a crime scene but an ancient burial site. After DNA analysis it is turning out to be a hugely significant ancient burial. The three skeletons are the ancestors of modern Irish people and they predate the Celts' arrival on Irish shores by around 1,000 years. Radiocarbon dating found that the ancient bones date back to at least 2,000 BC. Irish DNA existed in Ireland before the Celts ever set foot on the island.

2600 yo mummy Takabuti reveals secrets

Mummy Takabuti was acquired in Thebes by a wealthy man named Thomas Greg from County Down in Northern Ireland in 1834. Greg donated Takabui to the Belfast Natural History Museum. Now, 185 years after she was first unwrapped, a team of experts have gone public with their revelations.

CT analysis on Takabuti reveals that the 20 something sustained a severe wound to the back of her upper chest wall. This likely caused her quick death. The mysterious object in her body cavity was a resin-soaked linen, believed to have been used to pack the wound. Takabuti had 33 teeth instead of 32, a phenomenon occurring in .02 percent of the population. The discovery of her heart is another surprise as in Ancient Egypt the heart would be removed in order to be "weighed" in the afterlife.

Supernova fingered in Devian mass extinction

359 million years ago Earth suffered one of its worst extinction events. The boundary of the Permian and Triassic geological periods marked the demise of around 90% of marine species and 70% of land species. A team of researchers at the University of Illinois think that it might have been caused by a series of supernova explosions no more than 35 light years away. The last mass extinction event happened about 65 million years ago. It finished the dinosaurs and began the rule of mammals. The smoking gun for researchers is the fact that fossils of plants from the K/T extinction event show signs of excess UV exposure. The intense radiation from a close enough supernova blast is capable of stripping away the ozone layer. Plutonium-244 is an element that isn’t naturally produced on Earth, so the only way for it to exist in a layer of sediment is for it to have been put there as the shock-wave of a supernova.

Ichthyosaur's 250m year old meal it's last

In 2010 paleontologists digging in a quarry in southwestern China made a rare discovery. The ichthyosaur's stomach they found contained the undigested remains of a thalattosaur. Researchers speculate that a violent confrontation took place, one which caused the ichthyosaur to fracture it's neck, killing it as it consumed it's prey. These events took place sometime after the end of the Permian era, some 250 million years ago, when land vertebrates started moving back to the sea following a mass extinction event.

Chew Valley Hoard

The 'Chew Valley hoard' contains 1,236 coins of Harold II, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England, and 1,310 coins of William I. Experts say the hoard is "hugely significant" as it doubles the number of Harold coins than all previous known finds combined. It also includes fine examples of coins issued by William I after his coronation on Christmas Day in 1066.

Adam Staples and Lisa Grace made a once in a lifetime discovery while out metal detecting together. They discovered 2,571 silver coins that date back to the time of King Harold II, aka Harold Godwinson. He was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England who died in the Battle of Hastings by an arrow through the eye in 1066. The couple found the coins while searching an unploughed field in north east Somerset.

Harold Godwinson was king for seven months and coins from his reign are rare. Experts believe the coins were buried within two or three years after 1066 and probably before 1072. The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under King Harold Godwinson. It marked the beginning of the Norman conquest of England.

The battle of Hastings was a decisive Norman victory.

Roman sarcophagi

In 2017 two Roman sarcophagi were unearthed close to Rome’s stadium. The marble coffins boast elaborate bas-reliefs and were probably the final resting place of children of a wealthy Roman family. Discovered by chance when an energy company started digging in the area, they date from the third or fourth century AD.

The Ludovisi sarcophagus

Artifacts are routinely found beneath the streets of Rome during construction. In 2015, an operation to repair gas pipes revealed the remains of a 2,000-year-old villa, complete with frescoed walls.

A priceless Roman sarcopagus was identified outside Blenheim Palace.

Argentine police arrest meteorite thieves - Campo del Cielo

In 2015 police in Argentina arrested four men who tried to steal more than a tonne of meteorites in the northern province of Chaco. Highway police say they found more than 200 large pieces of meteorites hidden under the seats of a truck which they had stopped in a random check. Three Argentines and a Paraguayan were arrested. The province of Chaco is world famous for it's meteorites, which are protected under Argentine law. A 37-ton space rock crashed to Earth as part of a meteor shower between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago. It formed a 1,300 sq km (500 sq miles) kilometer crater field known as Campo del Cielo, or Field of the Sky.

El Chaco was discovered with a metal detector in 1967. It is the third-biggest meteorite ever found. Named after the province it fell into, the meteorite is central to the native Moqoit people.

In 1990 an Argentine highway police officer foiled a plot to steal it for sale to a private US collector. Campo del Cielo meteorite is classified in Group I, 6.68% Ni, 0.43% Co, 0.25% P, 87 ppm Ga, 407 ppm Ge, 3.6 ppm Ir.

Almost all of the remaining portion of the meteorite is iron.

"Las Víboras" fragment found in Campo del Cielo

Campo del Cielo meteorite, El Chaco fragment

:Campo del Cielo meteorite, El Chaco fragment

Emperors from the Principate

Toronto based designer Daniel Voshart made colorized, photorealistic portraits of 54 emperors from the Principate.Roman emperors Augustus and Maximinus Thrax.

Roman ‘hand of god’ found near Hadrian’s Wall

The hand is made of 2.3 kilos of solid bronze – and was almost certainly an offering to a military deity for giving the Romans victory in the largest military combat operation ever carried out in Britain, before or since. The Roman invasion of Caledonia was launched in 208 by Roman emperor Septimius Severus. The invasion lasted until late 210 when the emperor became ill and died. Some 50,000 Romans were in the invasion force. Found in 2018, it's likely the bronze hand was ritually buried after the conflict. The hand is associated with a Roman god called Jupiter Dolichenus.

Juukan Gorge - Rio Tinto = $135m

Two 46,000-year-old heritage sites in the Juukan Gorge were destroyed by mining company Rio Tinto. After being approved for destruction in 2013, significant archaeological discoveries were made at the site in 2014. The destruction was one of the worst violations of an important archaeological site in recent memory. Experts compared the blast to the destruction of artifacts by the Islamic State. Once gone they are lost forever.

A decision by Rio Tinto Group to destroy Juukan Gorge delivered about $135 million in extra value to its iron ore division, according to the miner’s top executive. Rio rejected three other options that would have avoided damaging the two rock shelters in Western Australia in order to access about 8 million tons of high-value ore, Chief Executive Officer Jean-Sebastien Jacques said. “The destruction of the rockshelters has triggered some reflection in our company.” He is under increasing pressure to resign.

99 myo struggle captured in amber

A 99-million-year-old encounter between one of the earliest known ants and its prey, an extinct relative of the cockroach was preserved in amber. The ant grasps the victim’s neck between two sharp mandibles and a hornlike protrusion on its head.

Metal detectorist lands silver coin hoard in Suffolk

One theory suggests the coins were buried by a wealthy landowner who had gone off to fight in the Civil War.

Luke Mahoney, 40, discovered 1,061 silver coins on land belonging to The Lindsey Rose pub in Lindsey, Suffolk. The coins date to the 15th to 17th centuries.The earliest coin is an Elizabeth I era shilling dating to 1573-78, while it also contained a number of Charles I half crowns from 1641-43.

Alaska's Okmok volcano fingered after Caesar's murder

Cold, famine and unrest in ancient Rome and Egypt came after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. New research suggests that the megaeruption of an Alaskan volcano may be to blame. An inexplicable cooling event in the Mediterranean region during this crux in the history of Western civilization came from volcanic ash from the remote Okmok volcano in Alaska's Aleutian Island Chain. According to the ice core tests, the volcano experienced a two-year megaeruption that began in early 43 BCE, one that filled Earth's atmosphere with enough smoke and ash to significantly impact climate.

The researchers' extensive analysis of climate during this ancient era demonstrates that the years after the Okmok eruption were some of the coldest in the northern hemisphere over the past 2,500 years. The researchers' climate models indicate that temperatures were roughly seven degrees Celsius below normal during the summer and autumn after the eruption in 43 BCE.

The eruption is regarded as one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the past 2,500 years.

Ancient treasure looted from Jerez de la Frontera

A man from Cadiz is facing up to three years in prison after looting ancient treasure near Jerez de la Frontera. Police became aware when the finder began posting photos of his loot online. The treasure included Phoenician gold jewellery estimated by experts to date back to 1,200 BC. A huge collection emerged when police searched the man’s home in Villamartín. Cops said the suspect’s activities were intricately planned and frequent. The suspect had received fines for similar crimes. Treasure hunting has been illegal in Spain since the mid 1980s.

Treasure trove of Sarmatian jewellery unearthed in Russia

In 2015 a trove of ancient jewellery was found in the grave of a woman dating to the first century AD. She was a Sarmatian - a group of people who worshipped fire and whose unmatched skills in warfare was seen as the inspiration for the Amazons of Greek mythology. Sarmatian women were feared as much as much as men. The discovery of the intact burial mound in Russia was described as 'priceless' by archaeologists.

Sarmatian cataphracts during Dacian Wars as depicted on Trajan's Column.

The Sarmatians were nomadic people who migrated from central Asia to the Ural mountains between the 6th and 4th century BC. They were fierce warriors who fought on horseback. Their archery skills were famed throughout the ancient world. As well as gold and silver jewellery, experts found more than 100 iron arrowheads in the grave, as well as a horse harness.

Next to the skull were gold earrings.

The noblewoman's grave and treasures are in a group of at least 29 burial mounds that came to light during the construction of an airport serving Rostov-on-Don. Archaeologist Roman Mimokhod said: 'Most of the burials on this site are plundered and, of course, it is great luck to find an intact one.'

Gold vial

A 'hiding place' in the grave contained a collection of knives and an unfinished sword with brooches on its handle. One of the most unusual things about the finds is that items in the burial were dated from the first century BC to the first century AD. At her feet there were fragments of a bronze bucket with the image of the Gorgon's head.

A Sarmatian diadem, found at the Khokhlach kurgan near Novocherkassk (1st century AD, Hermitage Museum).