‘Discovery of the Decade’: 1,400-Year-Old Zapotec Tomb Found in Mexico

Archaeologists were deployed following anonymous reports of looting, managing to secure the structure just in time. Dating back to approximately 600 AD, the tomb originates from the zenith of the Zapotec civilization.

President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo confirmed the news on January 23, 2026, highlighting that the discovery resulted from an emergency rescue operation by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Archaeologists were deployed following anonymous reports of looting, managing to secure the structure just in time. Dating back to approximately 600 AD, the tomb originates from the zenith of the Zapotec civilization.

The site’s most striking feature is the colossal owl sculpture guarding the antechamber. While the bird traditionally symbolized night and death in Zapotec cosmology, this specific piece holds a unique secret: its beak opens to reveal the stuccoed face of a high-ranking dignitary, likely the ancestor to whom the mausoleum was dedicated.

A Window into the ‘Cloud People’

The tomb’s interior reads like an open book on the social structure of the Zapotecs, known historically as the “Cloud People.” The threshold is guarded by stone lintels carved with calendrical names—a complex system linking leaders to their birth dates and the deities governing their destiny. Beyond the entrance, the walls are covered in polychrome murals in shades of ochre, red, green, and blue, depicting a solemn funeral procession.

In these frescoes, ancestral figures are shown carrying bags of copal, the sacred resin used to guide souls into the afterlife. The quality of the pigments is so exceptional that technical details have survived intact for fourteen centuries, offering a rare and precious glimpse into the rituals of the elite who ruled this region long before the arrival of Europeans.

Because these fragile scenes are threatened by penetrating plant roots and environmental shifts, an interdisciplinary team from the INAH Oaxaca Center has been urgently mobilized. Specialists are currently working to stabilize the walls and analyze recovered skeletal remains, hoping to finally identify the individuals interred within this palatial complex.

This conservation effort does more than protect priceless heritage from illicit trafficking; it restores a key piece of Mexico’s past. By rescuing the tomb at Huitzo, science is not merely recovering objects, but reviving the memory of a civilization whose social and artistic complexity continues to dazzle the world

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04-02-2026 om 23:48 geschreven door peter  

Overview

The Piri Re’is map, drawn in 1513 by Ottoman admiral‑cartographer Piri Re’is, has resurfaced as one of the early‑modern period’s most debated cartographic artifacts. Rediscovered in 1929 during renovations at Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace, only a third of the original gazelle‑skin parchment survives, showing the western coast of Europe, North Africa, parts of the Atlantic, and a surprisingly detailed stretch of South America’s eastern shoreline. The map’s precision—especially along the Brazilian coast—has sparked scholarly debate over whether it reflects advanced 16th‑century navigation, the reuse of older source material, or something more speculative.

Public domain picture

Discovery and Provenance

Piri Re’is, an Ottoman admiral who also served as a navigator and cartographer, recorded in marginal notes that his map synthesized about 20 earlier charts, ranging from ancient Greek maps to Arab and Portuguese charts, and even a map attributed to Christopher Columbus. The surviving fragment was found hidden behind a wall in the Topkapi Palace, preserved on delicate gazelle skin. “The parchment’s condition suggests it was valued enough to be stored securely, yet it was eventually forgotten until the palace’s 20th‑century restoration,” notes Dr. Leyla Şahin, a historian of Ottoman maritime science at Boğaziçi University.

What Makes the Map Extraordinary

The most striking feature is the accuracy of the South American coastline. The Brazilian shore is rendered with a level of detail that rivals maps produced decades later, prompting speculation that Piri Re’is accessed source material far more precise than the typical Portuguese or Spanish charts of his day. Additionally, the map includes a southern landmass that some early 20th‑century writers, most famously Charles Hapgood, interpreted as an ice‑free Antarctica. Hapgood argued that this depiction could be evidence of a lost civilization possessing global geographic knowledge. Modern cartographers, however, point out that the shape aligns more closely with an exaggerated extension of South America—a distortion common in early portolan charts, which prioritized coastal navigation over accurate inland projection.

Public domain picture

Scholarly Controversies

The Antarctica hypothesis remains the map’s most sensational claim. Proponents cite the landmass’s outline and its apparent lack of separation from South America as clues to a pre‑Ice‑Age, ice‑free continent. Critics counter that geological evidence shows Antarctica has been ice‑covered for at least 34 million years, far predating any known human civilization. Dr. Michael O’Leary of the University of Cambridge argues, “When you overlay a 16th‑century portolan onto a modern globe, the inevitable projection errors can make unrelated coastlines appear connected.”

Beyond Antarctica, fringe theories suggest the map proves ancient global exploration or the survival of advanced knowledge from the Library of Alexandria. Mainstream historians dismiss these ideas as speculative, emphasizing the map’s own admission of composite sourcing. “Piri Re’is was transparent about using multiple, unevenly accurate charts,” says Şahin. “The resulting inconsistencies are expected when you stitch together data from different eras and cultures.”

Implications for Cartographic History

Regardless of the more exotic interpretations, the Piri Re’is map offers valuable insight into Ottoman engagement with worldwide maritime knowledge. Its blend of Mediterranean, Arab, and early Atlantic sources illustrates a sophisticated network of information exchange long before the era of standardized global mapping. The map also underscores the importance of portolan chart traditions, which could achieve remarkable coastal accuracy without modern longitude measurements—a testament to the skill of early navigators. As researchers continue to digitize and compare the surviving fragment with contemporary charts, the map remains a focal point for understanding how early modern empires synthesized and transmitted geographic data across cultural boundaries.

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01-02-2026 om 23:36 geschreven door peter  

Lost tomb of the mysterious 'cloud people' unearthed after 1,400 years in 'discovery of the decade'

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

It has been hailed as 'the most significant archaeological discovery in a decade.'

Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered a 1,400-year-old tomb in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca that had been lost to history.

The stone structure, built by the Zapotec culture, known as Be'ena'a, or 'The Cloud People', is adorned with sculptures, murals and carved symbols that suggest ritual significance.

The Zapotec believed their ancestors descended from the clouds and that, in death, their souls returned to the heavens as spirits.

At the entrance sits a massive carved owl, its open beak revealing the face of a Zapotec lord, a symbol the National Institute of Anthropology and History said represented death and power.

The doorway is framed by a stone threshold and lintel, above which a frieze of engraved slabs displays ancient calendrical names.

Flanking the entrance are carved figures of a man and woman wearing headdresses and holding ritual objects, likely guardians of the tomb.

Inside the burial chamber, preserved sections of a vibrant mural remain intact, showing a procession of figures carrying bundles of copal as they move toward the tomb's entrance.

Archaeologists in Mexicohave uncovered a 1,400-year-old tomb in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca that had been lost to history

At the entrance sits a massive carved owl, its open beak revealing the face of a Zapotec lord

Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, said: 'It is the most important archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico due to its level of preservation and the information it provides.'

The Zapotecs have a history spanning over 2,500 years. 

They established a major pre-Columbian civilization centered at Monte Albán, which featured advanced agriculture and writing.

The Zapotec civilization mysteriously declined in the area around 900 AD.

However, the people did not completely disappear, as there are at least 400,000 living today.

Mexico's Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, said the 'exceptional discovery' of the tomb was due to its preservation. 

She added that it reveals how the Zapotec culture was a social organization with funerary rituals.

'It is a compelling example of Mexico's ancient grandeur, which is now being researched, protected, and shared with society,' she continued.  

The stone structure, built by the Zapotec culture, known as Be'ena'a, or 'The Cloud People', is adorned with sculptures, murals and carved symbols that suggest ritual significance

Pictured is the giant owl above the tomb's entrance

An interdisciplinary team from the INAH Oaxaca Center is currently working to conserve and protect the tomb, focusing on stabilizing the fragile mural painting. Experts say the mural’s condition is delicate due to root growth, insect activity, and sudden shifts in temperature and humidity.

At the same time, researchers are conducting ceramic, iconographic and epigraphic studies, along with physical anthropology analyses, to better understand the rituals, symbols and funerary practices connected to the tomb.

In 2024, archaeologists announced the discovery of tunnels that the ancient Zapotec civilization believed to be the 'entrance to the underworld' had been found beneath a centuries-old church.

Mitla, meaning place of the dead, was a city in southern Mexico known for its association with Pitao Bezelao, the Zapotec god of death.

But the Spanish arrived in the 16th Century and razed the city, building a church on the ruins of its most important temple.

A priest later wrote that 'the back door of hell' lay under the city – huge caverns believed to be the entrance to the Zapotec underworld.

But they were walled up, he said, and later excavations failed to find anything matching the scale of his description – until now.

Using non-invasive techniques, archaeologists recently revealed a series of chambers and tunnels beneath the city.

Five different sets of ruins were probed: the church group, the arroyo group, the adobe group, the south group, and the group of the columns.

Pictured is the face of the Zapotec god inside the owl's mouth

In 2024, archaeologists announced the discovery of tunnels that the ancient Zapotec civilization believed to be the 'entrance to the underworld' had been found beneath a centuries-old church 

Using non-invasive techniques, archaeologists recently revealed a series of chambers and tunnels beneath the city

Marco Vigato, founder of the ARX Project, which is leading the search, said: 'Some of the tunnels and chambers extend to a considerable depth, in excess of 50 feet.

The underground tunnels were revealed using a combination of ground penetrating radar, electric resistivity tomography, and seismic noise tomography. 

The first method uses radar waves to model the subsurface, while the second detects buried structures by measuring the flow of electricity through the earth.

Instead of electricity, the final method measures the speed at which seismic waves move through the ground.

Just how old the tunnels are is yet to be established.

'Natural caves in the area of Mitla have been occupied and partially modified by humans for thousands of years,' Vigato said:

'The earliest evidence of crop domestication in the area of Mitla dates back almost 10,000 years.

'There is no indication at the moment as to the possible age of the tunnels under the church or the other groups of structures at Mitla.

'They may have been created by the Zapotecs, or they could be much older.'

He added: 'The findings from the geophysical scans will have to be confirmed with archaeological methods.

'This could determine the nature of the cavities identified under the site and whether they contain any artifacts of archaeological significance.'

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28-01-2026 om 22:13 geschreven door peter  

The footprints that rewrite the evolution of flight: Ancient tracks suggest birds could be 60 MILLION years older than thought

• READ MORE: Evolution debate reignited after 'missing human link' is found

By SHIVALI BEST, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

A new AI app is helping to rewrite the evolution of flight. 

The app, developed by researchers from the University of Edinburgh, has been used to analyse footprints made by dinosaurs more than 200 million years ago.

The results show that several tracks share 'uncanny' features with both extinct and modern birds. 

According to the researchers, this suggests that birds could have originated 60 million years earlier than we thought. 

'This study is an exciting contribution for paleontology and an objective, data–driven way to classify dinosaur footprints – something that has stumped experts for over a century,' said Professor Steve Brusatte, an author of the study. 

'It opens up exciting new possibilities for understanding how these incredible animals lived and moved, and when major groups like birds first evolved. 

'This computer network might have identified the world's oldest birds, which I think is a fantastic and fruitful use for AI.'

A new AIapp is helping to rewrite the evolution of flight. The app, developed by researchers from the University of Edinburgh, has been used to analyse footprints made by dinosaurs more than 200 million years ago

While dinosaur footprints are an important indicator of our evolution, they've proved difficult to interpret. 

Until now, scientists have largely relied on manual methods, which introduce an element of bias. 

To rectify this issue, the team developed a new AI app dubbed the DinoTracker, which uses advanced algorithms to recognise dinosaur footprints. 

To train the app, the researchers fed it nearly 2,000 fossil footprints alongside millions of variations to mimic changes such as compression and edge displacement. 

Amazingly, tests have revealed that DinoTracker can now identify dinosaur footprints with 90 per cent accuarcy – even for contentious species. 

One of the most interesting discoveries by the app was the resemblance between several dinosaur tracks and those left by birds. 

According to the researchers, this either suggests that birds originated tens of millions of years earlier than thought, or that some dinosaurs had feet that resembled birds by coincidence. 

The researchers also fed the AI app images of footprints from the Isle of Skye in Scotland, which have left scientists baffled. 

One of the most interesting discoveries by the app was the uncanny resemblance between several dinosaur tracks and those left by birds

Its analysis suggests that the tracks may have been left around 170 million years ago by some of the oldest relatives of duck-billed dinosaurs.   

Looking ahead, the researchers hope the tool will help to improve our understand of how dinosaurs lived and moved around the Earth.  

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•  T. rex fossil discovery rewrites dinosaur history and reveals how long they really lived 

Dr Gregor Hartmann of Helmholtz–Zentrum research centre, and co-author of the study, said: 'Our method provides an unbiased way to recognize variation in footprints and test hypotheses about their makers. 

'It's an excellent tool for research, education, and even fieldwork.'

WHAT WAS THE 'CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION'?

Scientists have long speculated that a large oxygen spike during the 'Cambrian Explosion' was key to the development of many animal species. 

The Cambrian Explosion, around 541 million years ago, was a period when a wide variety of animals burst onto the evolutionary scene.

Before about 580 million years ago, most organisms were simple, composed of individual cells occasionally organised into colonies.

Over the following 70 or 80 million years, the rate of evolution accelerated and the diversity of life began to resemble that of today.

It ended with the Cambrian-Ordovician extinction event, approximately 488 million years ago. 

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27-01-2026 om 20:55 geschreven door peter  

Mystery of Egypt's Giza pyramids deepens as hidden megastructure 4,000 feet below is revealed

• READ MORE: I interviewed Joe Rogan's 'worst guest ever'... then a controversial question stopped everything

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Joe Rogan's latest podcast guest delved into controversial scans showing an enormous underground structure beneath the Great Pyramid of Giza, potentially rewriting ancient history.

The scans were conducted by Italian scientist Filippo Biondi and the Khafre Project team using synthetic aperture radar. This satellite imaging technology maps subsurface features by bouncing radio waves off the ground.

More than 200 scans from multiple satellites, including Italy's Cosmo-SkyMed and the US-based Capella Space, showed uniform results suggesting massive pillars about 65 feet in diameter wrapped in spirals and plunging nearly 4,000 feet deep.

Those pillars appear to end in 260-foot cubic chambers beneath all three pyramids and the Sphinx, which Biondi described as 'huge chambers' measuring roughly 260 feet in length and width.

The scans also highlighted shafts descending about 2,000 feet that intersect horizontal corridors roughly 10 feet tall, leading Biondi to speculate the pyramids may not be tombs but ancient power plants or vibration devices for out-of-body experiences.

Rogan echoed the radical implications, saying: 'They're not tombs,' and adding that if the data is accurate, the pyramids may be 'just the tip of the iceberg.'

Biondi dated the underground structures to 18,000 to 20,000 years ago, linking them to Zep Tepi, the mythic 'First Time' when gods first ruled and civilization began.

He also pointed to salt residues from ancient seawater flooding as evidence of a great flood event that could support the theory of a far older civilization beneath Giza.

The researcher team has released a model of the structures hiding below the Giza plateau, which includes three pyramids and the Great Sphinx

Italian scientist Filippo Biondi was the latest guest on the Joe Rogan Experience, where he discussed the scans showing the hidden megastructure 

The Giza complex consists of three pyramids, Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, built 4,500 years ago on a rocky plateau on the west bank of the Nile River in northern Egypt.

However, the Khafre Pyramid team believes the structures are much older and are hiding an underground world built by a lost civilization. 

The key driver of the controversy is the credibility of the technology, which Biondi said he developed through 'top secret projects for the Italian military' and has applied to sites like the Mosul Dam and Italy's Grand Sasso laboratory.

It's patented, peer-reviewed, and built for precision, yet when the scans are applied to Giza, the reaction is fierce. Mainstream archaeologist Dr Zahi Hawass has called the scans 'This is bulls***.'

Biondi admitted that he and Armando Mei, who is part of the team, initially doubted the data, holding the results for six months, suspecting processing artifacts.

'My opinion was that it was not real. I was thinking that maybe it was noise or some artifacts due to our processing procedures,' he said.

Confirmation came from multiple satellite systems and benchmarks, including exact mapping of Italy's Grand Sasso particle collider, which lies about 4,600 feet deep inside a mountain.

Biondi said the consistency across datasets was what ultimately convinced him the findings were real. 

The scans captured enormous shafts descending from the pyramids 

The Giza complex consists of three pyramids, Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, built 4,500 years ago on a rocky plateau on the west bank of the Nile River in northern Egypt

After initially relying only on Italy's Cosmo-SkyMed satellites, the team expanded its analysis to US-based Capella Space satellites and others, seeking confirmation through diversity of sources. 

'Once we had the same results while we were using American satellites… and also other satellites always the same results, we decided to disclose,' he said.

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EXCLUSIVE

•  Chilling new theory about mystery city beneath Egypt's pyramids 

In total, more than 200 scans returned the same structural patterns. 

Rogan pointed out that the technology has already been validated elsewhere, including its ability to precisely map Italy's underground Gran Sasso laboratory, a particle physics facility buried roughly 4,600 feet inside a mountain. '

We know it's accurate, we know it works,' Rogan said, calling resistance to the findings 'confirmation bias.'

Biondi emphasized that his work does not involve penetrating the ground with radar beams, a common online criticism. 

Hawass has used that argument to dismiss the claims, telling the Daily Mail: 'They used topographic radar.

'They claim it reaches more than 1,000 feet down to a city. But any scientist who understands tomographic radar knows it only reaches about 60 feet. Their theory is completely wrong.'

However, Biondi explained that the method analyzes mechanical vibrations naturally present on Earth's surface and reconstructs subsurface features through tomographic inversion. 

'We are not penetrating anything,' he said. 'We are just grabbing the entropy that is on the surface of the earth.'

The scans indicated not only vertical structures but horizontal corridors roughly nine feet tall that connect the shafts and chambers beneath the plateau. 

The scans also captured large rooms at the bottom of the shafts 

After gathering the data, researchers used a special algorithm that turned the information into vertical images of the ground beneath the pyramid, capturing the first look at the hidden structures. Pictured are the eight wells under the pyramid

According to Biondi, existing shafts between the pyramids, currently blocked by debris, may already provide access points to the underground system. 

'Those shafts go down, down, down… and they reach chambers that are below,' he said, estimating depths of about 1,968 feet.

Biondi argued that physical excavation may not even be necessary to confirm the findings. 

He has proposed a project to Egyptian authorities that would focus on clearing debris from existing shafts and deploying robotic drones, rather than digging new tunnels. 

'We want to use machines, not humans,' he said, estimating the cost of such an effort at roughly $20 million.

Rogan repeatedly returned to the scale of the implications. If the data holds up, he said, the pyramids, long considered among humanity's greatest architectural achievements, may be only the visible remnants of something far larger. 

'Those immense structures that have baffled mankind forever are just the tip of the iceberg,' Rogan said.

Biondi agreed, stressing that the measurements are the only subsurface data currently available for the Giza Plateau. 

'What we found is something that has been confirmed by our measurements,' he said. 'At the moment, these are the only data that we have.'

Despite the controversy, Biondi said he welcomes replication by other research groups and remains open to scrutiny. 

'I am happy if somebody can replicate things,' he said. 'If other research groups can replicate the things that I'm showing, I'm happy.'

For now, the scans remain unverified by direct exploration, suspended between radical possibility and entrenched skepticism. 

But as Rogan put it, ignoring the data outright would be a mistake. 'If you're skeptical, we should probably explore it,' he said. 'And if it's wrong, okay. But if it's right, it's a crime not to investigate.'

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26-01-2026 om 21:40 geschreven door peter  

Scientists Intrigued by Unfamiliar Life Form

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25-01-2026 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

A major debate over the construction of the mysterious Neolithic Stonehenge site in the UK may finally have been resolved, after new evidence strongly suggests the stones were carried to the site by humans, not by natural processes.

The work, conducted by Curtin University researchers, discounts the likelihood that glaciers transported the blue stones used to construct the famous megalithic site. Archaeologists have long debated Stonehenge’s construction methods, and the recent paper published by the researchers in Communications Earth & Environment brings valuable new information to the discussion.

Explorations at Stonehenge

Uncertainty about how the site’s enigmatic altar stone arrived at Stonehenge has long fueled scholarly debate. In 2024, Curtin University researchers determined that the altar stone at the site had been transported from Scotland. For the new work, the Curtin University team used a form of mineral fingerprinting to provide new scientific evidence for how the transport occurred. To do so, the team explored rivers surrounding southern England’s Salisbury Plain, seeking mineral grains.

Analyzing these grains at Curtin University’s John de Laeter Centre revealed a geological record of the movement of sediment throughout Britain on a scale of millions of years. Especially crucial were zircon crystals, among Earth’s toughest materials, which are preserved for immense periods of time.

“If glaciers had carried rocks all the way from Scotland or Wales to Stonehenge, they would have left a clear mineral signature on the Salisbury Plain,” said lead author Dr Anthony Clarke from the Timescales of Minerals Systems Group within Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences. “Those rocks would have eroded over time, releasing tiny grains that we could date to understand their ages and where they came from.

“Humans Moved the Stones”

“We looked at the river sands near Stonehenge for some of those grains the glaciers might have carried and we did not find any,” Dr Clarke added. “That makes the alternative explanation—that humans moved the stones—far more plausible.”

While the work suggests that human ingenuity, not natural processes, moved these immense slabs of rock, exactly how that was accomplished remains a mystery.

“Some people say the stones might have been sailed down from Scotland or Wales, or they might have been transported over land using rolling logs, but really we might never know,” Dr Clarke said. “But what we do know is ice almost certainly didn’t move the stones.”

Ongoing Explorations at Stonehenge

“Stonehenge continues to surprise us,” said co-author Professor Chris Kirkland, also from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group at Curtin. “By analysing minerals smaller than a grain of sand, we have been able to test theories that have persisted for more than a century.”

Given the site’s great antiquity, it has remained a focus of archaeological inquiry, although many questions about Stonehenge remain. Fortunately, modern technologies—including the geochemical tools used in the recent work—are helping to provide answers to some of these lingering mysteries over time.

“There are so many questions that can be asked about this iconic monument,” Professor Kirkland says. “For example, why was Stonehenge built in the first place?”

Kirkland points out that the site most likely had multiple purposes, which, in addition to its ritual significance as an ancient temple, likely included serving as a calendar, and even a site for feasts and other gatherings. “So asking and then answering these sorts of questions requires different sorts of data sets, and this study adds an important piece to that bigger picture.”

The paper, “Detrital Zircon-apatite Fingerprinting Challenges Glacial Transport of Stonehenge’s Megaliths,” appeared in Communications Earth & Environment on January 21, 2026.

• Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

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24-01-2026 om 22:47 geschreven door peter  

Hand stencil made almost 68,000 years ago is the oldest cave art ever found

Handprints reveal sharpened fingertips in the Maros region of Sulawesi, Indonesia. 

Ahdi Agus Oktaviana / Maxime Aubert / AP

The reddish hand stencils, though faded and barely visible, were found inside the Liang Metanduno limestone cave on Muna, an island off the larger eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi. One of them was found to be at least 67,800 years old.

The team also identified animal figures inside a cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Maxime Aubert

Indonesian and Australian researchers said the stencils were made by blowing pigment onto a hand pressed against the rock surface, leaving an outline. Fingertips reshaped to appear more pointed suggest that the hands belonged to humans, possibly connected to the ancestors of the first Australians.

The paintings were dated by analyzing mineral crusts that had gradually formed on top of them.

The finding “is pretty extraordinary, because usually rock art is very difficult to date, and it doesn’t date back to anywhere near that old,” said Adam Brumm, a professor of archaeology at Griffith University in Brisbane and a co-author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

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22-01-2026 om 21:05 geschreven door peter  

The world's oldest cave art: Scientists discover 67,000–year–old painting of a red hand in Indonesia – and it could rewrite the origins of human creativity

• READ MORE: Evolution debate reignited after 'missing link' found

By SHIVALI BEST, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

A painting of a red hand found in a cave in Indonesia is believed to be the world's earliest rock art. 

Discovered in a cave on the island of Sulawesi, experts think the stencil was made by our species at least 67,800 years ago. 

This is 15,000 years earlier than the previous discovery in the same region. 

While the stencil was likely based on a human hand, it was altered before being used on the cave wall. 

Its creator had deliberately narrowed the negative outlines of the fingers – creating the impression of a claw–like hand. 

According to researchers from Griffith University, the finding could rewrite the origins or human creativity. 

What's more, its discovery could advance our understanding of exactly how and when Australia – which is just south of Sulawesi – first came to settled.

'It is very likely that the people who made these paintings in Sulawesi were part of the broader population that would later spread through the region and ultimately reach Australia,' explained team lead Dr Adhi Agus Oktaviana. 

A painting of a red hand discovered in a cave in Indonesiais believed to be the world's earliest rock art

Discovered in a cave on the island of Sulawesi, experts think the stencil was made by our species at least 67,800 years ago

Beyond rewriting the origins of human creativity, the findings could also shed light on the settlement of Sahul – the supercontinent that encompassed what is now Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea – which is just south of Sulawesi

The hand stencil was found preserved in limestone caves in southeastern Sulawesi, on the satellite island of Muna. 

Using advanced uranium–series dating techniques, the team analysed microscopic mineral deposits to understand exactly when the stencil was created. 

The results revealed a minimum age of 67,800 years – making it the oldest reliably dated cave art ever discovered. 

An analysis of the stencil itself suggests it was deliberately altered to give the impression of a claw. 

However, the symbolic meaning of this remains unclear.  

'This art could symbolise the idea that humans and animals were closely connected, something we already seem to see in the very early painted art of Sulawesi, with at least one instance of a scene portraying figures that we interpret as representations of part–human, part–animal beings,' Professor Adam Brumm, co–lead author of the study said.

Alongside the hand stencil, the researchers found paintings of a much more recent origin – around 20,000 years.

This suggests the Muna cave was used for making art over an 'exceptionally long period', according to the researchers. 

The hand stencil was found preserved in limestone caves in southeastern Sulawesi, on the satellite island of Muna

Using advanced uranium–series dating techniques, the team analysed microscopic mineral deposits to understand exactly when the stencil was created. The results revealed a minimum age of 67,800 years – making it the oldest reliably dated cave art ever discovered

'It is now evident from our new phase of research that Sulawesi was home to one of the world's richest and most longstanding artistic cultures, one with origins in the earliest history of human occupation of the island at least 67,800 years ago,' said Professor Maxime Aubert, co–lead author of the study.

Beyond rewriting the origins of human creativity, the findings could also shed light on the settlement of Sahul – the supercontinent that encompassed what is now Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea – which is just south of Sulawesi. 

Until now, scientists have been divided on the timing and route for humans' arrival. 

Some have suggested they arrived at least 65,000 years ago, while others are adamant it's more like 50,000 years ago. 

Meanwhile, certain studies indicate a northern route to the New Guinea portion of this landmass via Sulawesi and the 'Spice Islands', while others have put forward a more southerly route directly to the Australian mainland via Timor or adjacent islands. 

The new cave art helps to settle both of these debates – suggesting the first Australians arrived at least 65,000 years ago via the northern route. 

'With the dating of this extremely ancient rock art in Sulawesi, we now have the oldest direct evidence for the presence of modern humans along this northern migration corridor into Sahul,' said the study's co–lead author, Professor Renaud Joannes–Boyau.

CAVE ART: WORKS DATING BACK 40,000 YEARS HAVE BEEN FOUND

The most famous cave art can be found in Spain and France, but it exists throughout the world.

The famed Upper Palaeolithic cave art of Europe dates back to around 21,000 years ago. 

In recent years scholars have recorded cave art found in Indonesia that is believed to be about 40,000 years old - predating the most popular European cave art.

 Hand stencils found in the El Castillo cave in Cantabria, Spain

Expert Shigeru Miyagawa authored a study in 2018 which examined cave art to try to shed light on how human language evolved. 

He said: 'Cave art is everywhere. Every major continent inhabited by homo sapiens has cave art.

'You find it in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia, everywhere - just like the human language.'

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22-01-2026 om 20:49 geschreven door peter  

The grains of sand that solve Stonehenge mystery after 5,000 years: Scientists uncover new evidence the stones were moved by humans – and not glaciers

• READ MORE: Archaeologists discover a lost ring of pits near Stonehenge

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

The 5,000–year–old mystery of Stonehenge may have finally been solved – with the help of a few tiny grains of sand.

While most scientists believe that Stonehenge's massive stones were dragged from Wales and Scotland, a rival theory proposes that the builders had a helping hand.

According to the so–called glacial transport theory, the ice that once covered ancient Britain conveniently carried the stones to the Salisbury Plain.

However, scientists have now found concrete evidence that suggests the megaliths must have been moved by humans.

Using cutting–edge mineral fingerprinting techniques, geologists from Curtin University showed that no glacial material ever reached the Salisbury Plain.

If the rocks were indeed carried by ice, they would have left behind a breadcrumb trail containing millions of microscopic mineral grains.

But when the researchers looked at Wiltshire's sand, they found that none had been moved there during the last ice age, 20,000 to 26,000 years ago.

Lead author Dr Anthony Clarke told the Daily Mail: 'Our findings make glacial transport unlikely and align with existing views that the megaliths were brought from distant sources by Neolithic people using methods like sledges, rollers, and rivers.'

Scientists looked at grains of the minerals zircon (pictured) and apatite, which act as geological clocks by trapping radioactive uranium. If glacial transport is correct, the age of these grains should match the ages of rocks in Wales 

A few tiny grains of sand may have finally solved one of Stonehenge's most enduring mysteries, as scientists find evidence that the stones were transported by people and not by glaciers 

According to the so–called glacial transport theory, the stones that make up Stonehenge were brought to the Salisbury Plain from Wales and Scotland by the movement of massive glaciers 

One of Stonehenge's most baffling features is the fact that its stones appear to originate from the most far–flung reaches of the UK.

While the large standing stones, or sarsens, come from an area just 15 miles (24 km) north of the stone circle, the smaller bluestones and the singular altar stone aren't local.

Geologists have traced the two to five–tonne bluestones back to the Preseli Hills in Wales, while the six–tonne altar stone came from a location at least 460 miles (750 km) away in northern Scotland.

This means that Neolithic people would have needed to transport specifically selected stones over hundreds of miles using nothing more than stone and wooden tools.

For some researchers, this idea seems so unlikely that the glacial transport theory seems like a more reasonable alternative.

If ice did cover the Salisbury Plain sometime in the distant past, it would have left traces that should be visible today.

Many of these big traces, like scratches on the bedrock or carved landforms, are either missing or inconclusive around Stonehenge.

But the ice would have also left behind a microscopic trace that scientists should be able to see.

If the stones were brought from their origin at Craig Rhos–y–Felin in north Pembrokeshire (pictured) by ice, these glaciers should have also carried a huge amount of sand that should be detectable in rivers today 

The dates of the zircon grains in the Salisbury Plain covered almost half the age of Earth, but almost none matched the fingerprint of rocks from the Stonehenge megaliths' origins 

What are the Stonehenge bluestones?

Dr Clarke says: 'If large ice sheets had carried bluestone from Wales or northern Britain to Stonehenge, they would also have delivered huge volumes of sand and gravel debris with very distinctive age fingerprints into the local rivers and soils.'

Importantly, this sand contains two minerals called zircon and apatite that can be used like a 'tiny geological clock'.

When zircon and apatite form, crystallising out of magma, they trap tiny amounts of radioactive uranium that decays into lead at a known rate.

By looking at the ratio of uranium to lead, scientists can work out how long ago an individual grain of sand was formed.

Since some rocks, like the Stonehenge megaliths, are made up of lots of these dateable grains, scientists can use this technique to create a geological 'fingerprint'.

'Because Britain's bedrock has very different ages from place to place, a mineral's age can indicate its source,' says Dr Clarke.

'This means that if glaciers had carried stones to Stonehenge, the rivers of Salisbury Plain, which gather zircon and apatite from across a wide area, should still contain a clear mineral fingerprint of that glacial journey.'

The researchers looked at more than 700 zircon and apatite grains, gathered from the rivers near Stonehenge.

Almost all the apatite dated back to around 65 million years ago, when tectonic activity in the Alps forced liquid through the ground and reset the uranium clock. This shows that it was there for millions of years, and had not been freshly carried to the area by ice 

Despite covering half the age of the Earth from around 2.8 billion years ago to 300 million years ago, almost none matched the fingerprint of the bluestones' source in Wales or the altar stone's source in Scotland.

The majority of the zircon grains came in a tight band from 1.7 to 1.1 billion years ago, when a blanket of loosely compacted sand called the Thanet Formation covered much of southern England.

Meanwhile, all of the apatite grains were dated to around 60 million years ago, which doesn't match any potential rock source in Britain.

This is because the same tectonic forces that built the European Alps squeezed fluids through the chalk and 'reset' the apatite's uranium clock.

Co–author Professor Chris Kirkland told the Daily Mail: 'Salisbury Plain's sediment story looks like recycling and reworking over long timescales, plus a Paleogene "shake–up" recorded in apatite, rather than a landscape built from major glacial imports.'

If ice had carried the bluestones or altar stone to England, the sand should have a clear signal from those points of origin.

'However, the material around Stonehenge doesn't,' says Professor Kirkland.

'So, we conclude Salisbury Plain remained unglaciated during the Pleistocene, making direct glacial transport of the megaliths unlikely.'

This gives strong evidence that the area around Stonehenge was never covered by glaciers, making it extremely unlikely that the rocks were carried to the area by ice rather than by people 

This gives 'strong, testable evidence' that the enormous stones were, in fact, dragged all the way to the Salisbury Plain by hand.

And that might mean we have to give a bit more credit to the ingenuity and determination of our ancient ancestors.

Professor Kirkland says: 'You could propose a coastal movement by boat for the long legs, then final overland hauling using sledges, rollers, prepared trackways, and coordinated labour, especially for the largest stones.

READ MORE

• The tooth that solves the Stonehenge mystery after 5,000 years: Scientists uncover new evidence about how the stones were transported there

'If you think about this, it supports the idea of an advanced connected society in the Neolithic.'

The Stonehenge monument standing today was the final stage of a four part building project that ended 3,500 years ago

Stonehenge is one of the most prominent prehistoric monuments in Britain. The Stonehenge that can be seen today is the final stage that was completed about 3,500 years ago. 

According to the monument's website, Stonehenge was built in four stages:   

First stage: The first version of Stonehenge was a large earthwork or Henge, comprising a ditch, bank and the Aubrey holes, all probably built around 3100 BC. 

The Aubrey  holes are round pits in the chalk, about one metre (3.3 feet) wide and deep, with steep sides and flat bottoms. 

Stonehenge (pictured) is one of the most prominent prehistoric monuments in Britain

They form a circle about 86.6 metres (284 feet) in diameter. 

Excavations revealed cremated human bones in some of the chalk filling, but the holes themselves were likely not made to be used as graves, but as part of a religious ceremony.

After this first stage, Stonehenge was abandoned and left untouched for more than 1,000 years. 

Second stage: The second and most dramatic stage of Stonehenge started around 2150 years BC, when about 82 bluestones from the Preseli mountains in south-west Wales were transported to the site. It's thought that the stones, some of which weigh four tonnes each, were dragged on rollers and sledges to the waters at Milford Haven, where they were loaded onto rafts.

They were carried on water along the south coast of Wales and up the rivers Avon and Frome, before being dragged overland again near Warminster and Wiltshire.

The final stage of the journey was mainly by water, down the river Wylye to Salisbury, then the Salisbury Avon to west Amesbury. 

The journey spanned nearly 240 miles, and once at the site, the stones were set up in the centre to form an incomplete double circle. 

During the same period, the original entrance was widened and a pair of Heel Stones were erected. The nearer part of the Avenue, connecting Stonehenge with the River Avon, was built aligned with the midsummer sunrise. 

Third stage: The third stage of Stonehenge, which took place about 2000 years BC, saw the arrival of the sarsen stones (a type of sandstone), which were larger than the bluestones.

They were likely brought from the Marlborough Downs (40 kilometres, or 25 miles, north of Stonehenge). 

The largest of the sarsen stones transported to Stonehenge weighs 50 tonnes, and transportation by water would not have been possible, so it's suspected that they were transported using sledges and ropes. 

Calculations have shown that it would have taken 500 men using leather ropes to pull one stone, with an extra 100 men needed to lay the rollers in front of the sledge.

These stones were arranged in an outer circle with a continuous run of lintels - horizontal supports. 

Inside the circle, five trilithons - structures consisting of two upright stones and a third across the top as a lintel - were placed in a horseshoe arrangement, which can still be seen today. 

Final stage: The fourth and final stage took place just after 1500 years BC, when the smaller bluestones were rearranged in the horseshoe and circle that can be seen today.

The original number of stones in the bluestone circle was probably around 60, but these have since been removed or broken up. Some remain as stumps below ground level. 

Source: Stonehenge.co.uk 

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22-01-2026 om 17:27 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Giants Could Be a Whole New Kind of Life That No Longer Exists

By Mike McRae

Prototaxites doesn't compare with any other life form we know of. 

(Loron et al., Science, 2025)

Ever since their discovery more than 165 years ago, massive fossilized structures left by an organism known as Prototaxites have proven impossible to categorize.

Researchers in the UK have suggested in a recently published study that there's a very good reason these oddities don't fit neatly on the tree of life – they belong to a branch all of their own, with no modern equivalent.

Some 400 million years ago, the swamps of the late Silurian period would have sprouted a mix of horsetails, ferns, and other prototype plants that look positively alien today.

Related: 

• Stunning Grand Canyon Fossils Reveal Evolution's Weird Experiments

Among them stretched 8-meter (26-foot) tall towers that defy easy identification. Wide and branchless, these organisms may have been a form of algae or ancient conifer, researchers suspect, based on what little evidence remains.

Fossils found on the shores of Gaspé Bay in Quebec, Canada, were initially considered by geologist John William Dawson to be the remains of rotting trees, leading to his naming it 'first conifer' back in the 1850s.

Though the name stuck, confusion over the fossil's classification continued until National Museum of Natural History paleontologist Francis Hueber confirmed in 2001 that Prototaxites was indeed most likely an enormous fungus.

That conclusion was backed up years later in 2017 by a subsequent analysis of a fossil fragment assumed to be from the peripheral region of a smaller Prototaxites species named P. taiti.

The 2017 study claimed to identify textures that resembled the fertile structures of today's Ascomycota fungi.

Not everybody is convinced, however, given the possibility that the distinct fragments might not have even been connected.

Related: 

• Newly Discovered Organism Could Represent a Whole New Branch in The Tree of Life

"In the books and books of anatomy written about living fungi, we never find structures like that," University of Edinburgh paleobotanist Alexander Hetherington told Erik Stokstad at Science Magazine.

Hetherington co-led a study on three different P. taiti fragments, concluding there's insufficient evidence to conclude Prototaxites is a fungus at all.

Through a review of microscopic anatomy and chemical analysis of its tubular structures, the team of researchers systematically eliminated each and every candidate group, leaving no modern organism with which it might share some kind of ancestral relationship.

Fungi? Rejected thanks to the unique way its anatomy connects.

A plant or algae? Not likely given its chemical composition.

A mix of the two, such as a lichen? Not with that anatomy.

Some bizarre animal? Cell walls say no chance.

"Based on this investigation we are unable to assign Prototaxites to any extant lineage, reinforcing its uniqueness," the researchers claim.

"We conclude that the morphology and molecular fingerprint of P. taiti is clearly distinct from that of the fungi and other organisms preserved alongside it in the [Devonian deposit], and we suggest that it is best considered a member of a previously undescribed, entirely extinct group of eukaryotes."

Related: 

• Complex Life May Be a Billion Years Older Than We Thought

What might have happened to this long-dead group of organisms is anybody's guess. Further reviews may even return the mystifying group back to its box among ancient fungi.

Without similar specimens to relate them to, Prototaxites may simply remain a fossil anomaly – a reminder that evolution is a constant experiment, one littered with far more failures than we may ever have realized.

• This research was published in Science.
• An earlier version of this article was published in March 2025 before the research was peer-reviewed.

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22-01-2026 om 17:00 geschreven door peter  

Scientists have discovered an entirely new form of LIFE – and it stood at 26ft tall

• READ MORE: Bizarre creature with elongated head caught on doorbell camera

By SHIVALI BEST, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

Scientists have discovered a new form of life, which once stood at a whopping 26ft (eight metres) tall.

Called 'prototaxites', this lifeform lived on Earth around 410 million years ago, before becoming extinct 360 million years ago. 

Until now, it was thought to be a form of fungus. 

However, a new fossil analysis by scientists from National Museums Scotland suggests that prototaxites were neither a fungus nor a plant.

Instead, experts say they belonged to an 'entirely extinct evolutionary branch of life'.

'It's really exciting to make a major step forward in the debate over prototaxites, which has been going on for around 165 years,' said Dr Sandy Hetherington, co–lead author of the study. 

'They are life, but not as we now know it, displaying anatomical and chemical characteristics distinct from fungal or plant life, and therefore belonging to an entirely extinct evolutionary branch of life.

'Even from a site as loaded with palaeontological significance as Rhynie, these are remarkable specimens and it's great to add them to the national collection in the wake of this exciting research.'

Scientists have discovered a new form of life, which once stood at a whopping 26ft (eight metres) tall (artist's impression)

A new fossil analysis by scientists from National Museums Scotland suggests that prototaxites was neither a fungus nor a plant

'It is one of the world's oldest, fossilised, terrestrial ecosystems and because of the quality of preservation and the diversity of its organisms, we can pioneer novel approaches such as machine learning on fossil molecular data.

'There is a lot of other material from the Rhynie chert already in museum collections for comparative studies, which can add important context to scientific results.'

In their new study, the researchers analysed both the chemistry and anatomy of the fossil to understand which group it fits into.

Their results back up the theory that prototaxites were an entirely different form of life, no longer found on Earth.

'As previous researchers have excluded prototaxites from other groups of large complex life, we concluded that prototaxites belonged to a separate and now entirely extinct lineage of complex life,' explained Laura Cooper, co–first author of the study. 

'Prototaxites, therefore, represents an independent experiment that life made in building large, complex organisms, which we can only know about through exceptionally preserved fossils.'

In their new study, the researchers analysed both the chemistry and anatomy of the fossil to understand which group it fits into. Their results back up the theory that prototaxites were an entirely different form of life, no longer found on Earth

The fossil was found in the Rhynie chert – a sedimentary deposit near Rhynie, Aberdeenshire

The fossil has now been added to the collections of National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh.

Dr Nick Fraser, keeper of natural sciences at National Museums Scotland, said: 'We're delighted to add these new specimens to our ever–growing natural science collections which document Scotland's extraordinary place in the story of our natural world over billions of years to the present day.

'This study shows the value of museum collections in cutting–edge research as specimens collected over time are, cared for and made available for study for direct comparison or through the use of new technologies.'

WHAT ARE THE OLDEST FUNGI EVER DISCOVERED?

For many years, fungi were grouped with, or mistaken for plants. 

Not until 1969 were they officially granted their own 'kingdom', alongside animals and plants, though their distinct characteristics had been recognised long before that.

Yeast, mildew and molds are all fungi, as are many forms of large, mushroom-looking organisms that grow in moist forest environments and absorb nutrients from dead or living organic matter. 

Unlike plants, fungi do not photosynthesise, and their cell walls are devoid of cellulose.

Geologists studying lava samples taken from a drill site in South Africa discovered fossilised gas bubbles, which contained what could be the first fossil traces (pictured) of the branch of life to which humans belong ever unearthed

Geologists studying lava samples taken from a drill site in South Africa discovered fossilised gas bubbles 800 metres (2,600 feet) underground.

In April 2017, they revealed that they are believed to contain the oldest fungi ever found.

Researchers were examining samples taken from drill-holes of rocks buried deep underground, when they found the 2.4 billion-year-old microscopic creatures. 

They are believed to be the oldest fungi ever found by around 1.2 billion years.

Earth itself is about 4.6 billion years old.

Earth itself is about 4.6 billion years old and the previous earliest examples of eukaryotes - the 'superkingdom' of life that includes plants, animals and fungi, but not bacteria - dates to 1.9 billion years ago. The fossils have slender filaments bundled together like brooms (pictured)

They could be the earliest evidence of eukaryotes - the 'superkingdom' of life that includes plants, animals and fungi, but not bacteria.

The previous earliest examples of eukaryotes - the 'superkingdom' of life that includes plants, animals and fungi, but not bacteria - dates to 1.9 billion years ago. That makes this sample 500 million years older.

It was believed that fungi first emerged on land, but the newly-found organisms lived and thrived under an ancient ocean seabed.

And the dating of the find suggests that not only did these fungus-like creatures live in a dark and cavernous world devoid of light, but they also lacked oxygen.

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22-01-2026 om 16:36 geschreven door peter  

Moses & the Feathered Serpent: Did the Hebrew Lawgiver Secretly Inspire a Mexican Myth?

Moses, the ancient Hebrew Lawgiver, is certainly never associated with Mexico in any traditional texts, either religious or not, in either the Old or New Worlds. So when a Vermont pastor named Ethan Smith proposed in an 1825 book that Moses may have provided the basis for the Mexican legends of Quetzalcóatl, the famous “Feathered Serpent”, it seemed a radical theory to say the least. 

He writes: “Though their ancient ‘legislator’ is called by a name importing the serpent of green feathers; yet he was an ancient man, a white man and bearded; called by Montezuma, a saint, who led them to this country, and taught them many things … Who could this be but Moses, the ancient legislator in Israel?”

The following is an excerpt from the new book Moses in Mexico, which explores this hypothesis.

The Aguada Fénix Connection

Hundreds of previously-unknown ancient settlements have been discovered recently in Mexico, and their apparent antiquity has forced archaeologists to rethink how civilization evolved in the New World. Hiding under a dense jungle canopy, the ruins of once-massive monumental stone constructions were detected using a sophisticated new survey technique called LiDAR. Who had built these structures, and when? The largest and most mysterious was called Aguada Fénix, the “Reservoir of the Phoenix”. It appeared to be oriented towards the rising sun on certain days of the year in February and October.

Aguada Fénix, 2009, by Takeshi Inomata.

(Takeshi Inomata/CC BY-SA 4.0)

In a 2020 Nature article, Takeshi Inomata and his team explain how they found these sites:

“We describe an airborne LiDAR survey and excavations of the previously unknown site of Aguada Fénix (Tabasco, Mexico) with an artificial plateau, which measures 1,400 m in length and 10 to 15 m in height and has 9 causeways radiating out from it. We dated this construction to between 1000 and 800 BCE, while charcoal samples from the earliest deposits yielded dates of 1250–1050 BCE. To our knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region.”

LiDAR image of the ancient Maya site of Aguada Fénix, ~1000 BCE. The sprawling platform stands between 33 and 50 feet tall and measures almost a mile long.

(Takeshi Inomata)

Meanwhile, a 2023 study of the settlements’ solar alignments revealed:

“the distribution pattern of dates marked by solar alignments indicates their subsistence-related ritual significance … and represent the earliest evidence of the use of the 260-day calendar.”

These discoveries have forced a rethinking of the history of the New World. Where and when did civilization truly begin? At what point do we see the most accelerated cultural development? Was there a linear trajectory of development, or did it experience any burst of particular magnitude at any point that cannot be explained via standard cultural mechanisms? 

There is yet another peculiarity about Aguada Fénix, the largest and earliest Maya structure: its orientation is skewed slightly south of east. While this does not immediately appear to connect with any obvious astronomical occurrence, such as the equinoxes, solstices, or minor or major lunar standstills - it is the same angle of orientation as observed at Tell-El Amarna, the ancient city of Pharaoh Akhenaten in Egypt (specifically between the Small Aten Temple and the Royal Wadi east of the city). Along this angle for twice a year in February and October the king could watch the Aten sun disk rise directly through the Royal Wadi, forming a symbol for the akhet (a hieroglyph that represented the sun rising between two mountains).

We therefore have not only massive stone buildings, which would have required a substantial amount of organized labor to complete, dating from the very earliest years of Mesoamerica culture, but they seem to share specific solar alignments that were used by Akhenaten in Egypt. What is going on here? What inspired a group of hunters and gatherers to suddenly construct the largest religious structures in the region’s history, oriented towards sunrises along the same angle as Akhenaten’s architecture in Egypt, and dating from not long after his historical period? Could it be that Akhenaten-Moses once visited Mesoamerica in the distant past? Could Moses have come to Mexico?

Sunrise over the jungles of Mexico, at the Maya site of Yaxuna, Yucatan. Observing sunrises on certain days in February and October were key aspects of the early 260-day calendar, which may have originated at the Egyptian site of Amarna.

(By author.)

Akhenaten was Moses … And Quetzalcóatl?

My first book Moses Restored (2017) argued how the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten became the Hebrew Lawgiver Moses. It was the first complete biography of this astounding human being. It aimed to show how he continued his religious revolution, by taking the Israelites out of Egypt to Canaan, and laying the foundation for what would become the Judaism we know today. 

The history of his kingship was concealed in the early chapters of the Book of Exodus, creating a “Moses mystery” that cried out for a solution. Fitting Moses to Akhenaten solves this mystery, along with so many others, and perhaps only one glaring enigma remains: his death. The Torah ends, as does Moses Restored, with the death of its central character Moses, just outside the boundaries of the Promised Land of Israel, as narrated in the book of Deuteronomy 34: 5-7:

“And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He (the Lord) buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.”

• Is There Scientific Evidence for the Exodus?
• Mythical Metropolises: Pithom, Piramesses, and the Israelite Exodus of Egypt

Akhenaten wears a crown he developed himself, based on the Atef crown of Osiris. It is festooned with sun discs and protective uraei cobras wearing ostrich feathers, literal feathered serpents! Could these motifs have prefigured the Feathered Serpent of Mexico? He burns incense before the sunrise, similar to some Maya priests today. (Plate VIII, Davies, N. de G., The Rock Tombs of El Amarna: Part II, The Tombs of Panehesy and Meryra II, London, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1905).

The book Moses in Mexico continues the amazing story of Moses. What, you ask? Continues the story? Didn’t Moses die? What’s going on?  How can his story continue? Well, as will soon become apparent, the death of Moses is as mysterious as his origins. First, as the verse above makes clear, no human buried Moses, but the Lord himself did it. Second, no human knows the location of his grave. Third, despite Moses being of advanced years, his eyes were not weak nor was his strength gone. This seems to suggest that he was not ready to die.

View from the Small Aten Temple at Amarna, the ancient city built by Akhenaten around 1350 BCE, looking east towards the desert cliffs and the distinctive opening to the Royal Wadi, which archaeologists theorize represented the first half of the akhet symbol, the glyph for mountain, djw. Twice a year in February and October the sun appears to rise through the valley opening, completing the akhet symbol and forming a solar hierophany.

(By author. ADDED: The akhet hieroglyph, 2023. By Mazapan3210.)

We therefore have three aspects of the supposed “death” of Moses that immediately seem to cast doubt upon it. These unusual aspects have not gone unnoticed, and several scholars have brought into question whether Moses died as depicted in the Bible or if he actually lived on. Could the Bible be hiding yet another Moses mystery for us to rediscover? I believe the answer is yes, and Moses in Mexico represents the explanation for that answer. It chronicles the final stage of Moses’ life, which I believe brought him to the shores of the New World, specifically Mexico.

It was there, I believe, that he became the mythical hero remembered so fondly across Mesoamerica: the Feathered Serpent, Quetzalcóatl. It was there that his two previous lives, that of a rebellious Pharaoh of Egypt and a renegade Israelite leader and judge, collided to create a new manifestation of his previous likes and interests. It was there that his presence over three millennia ago created such an impact that memories of it rippled out across time and space, creating a strange Pan-Mesoamerican cultural form that retained its basic shape across thousands of miles and years, and has continued to baffle scholars to this day.

• 4 Completely Different Versions of the Story of Moses
• Has the Biblical Moses Been Identified in Secular Egyptian Records?

AI-generated image of a hypothetical Pharaoh Akhenaten in Mexican graffiti style.

(By author.)

What initiated this sweeping and bold new cultural program in Mexico after 1250 BCE, a program which saw the origins of so many of its diagnostic features, such as: intricate creation cosmologies, urban plans, monumental stone architecture oriented towards sunrises, the priesthood, writing, divine kingship, and even acts of revolution such as the mutilation and decapitation of idols and statues? I believe that it was Moses, who lived in the decades before 1250 BCE.

I believe that by understanding that Akhenaten became Moses, we can understand how Moses became Quetzalcóatl. Without understanding his youth and kingship, obscured in the Bible but nevertheless manifested in hundreds of tiny clues, we cannot understand how or why Moses would have desired to become the Feathered Serpent. 

Ultimately, the idea of the historical Moses becoming the historical Quetzalcóatl has never been properly scrutinized because the character of Moses himself has never been properly scrutinized. Scholars have yet to paint in the details of his youth and adult life, before he became the desert exile in Midian. These details are infuriatingly sparse in the Bible. However, if we understand that the Bible was trying to conceal the fact that Moses had once been a King of Egypt (to avoid unwanted future questions), and that Akhenaten had lived on to become Moses, then we can begin to clearly see how he may have carried on to become Quetzalcóatl, bringer of civilization to the New World.

For instance, Quetzalcóatl has been called the Lord of Dawn, he combined serpent imagery with that of birds, feathers and flight, and was remembered as a lawgiver and bringer of civilization to the New World. Comparing this to Moses certainly yields interesting connections, since Moses was associated with giving the Law as well as serpent imagery, most famously regarding the Bronze Serpent he set up in the desert. But was Moses called the Lord of the Dawn? No. Was he associated with bird imagery? Not particularly.

The author and his sister Jennifer Stephenson in front of the Maya Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent at Chichén Itzá, Mexico. Mexican architecture is replete with depictions of feathered serpents, as well as solar hierophanies.

(By author.)

However, if Moses is connected to his former life as Akhenaten, then these aspects all assume powerful meanings. First, Akhenaten worshiped one lord called the Aten, the sun disk, called the “Lord of the Dawn”. Second, Akhenaten was strongly associated with bird imagery, as I have chronicled in a previous article called “Akhenaten the Bird King”. Third, I suggested in another article that Akhenaten was attempting to portray himself as a “new Osiris”, having discarded and outlawed the worship of the god of the dead. 

Osiris, in Egyptian mythology, was Egypt’s first king, who once travelled the world bringing its peoples civilization and knowledge. He taught agriculture and law, arts and crafts, stone architecture, writing and religion. He was murdered by his jealous brother Set, resurrected by his sister and wife Isis as Egypt’s first mummy, and finally became the god of the Dead. It is therefore not surprising that Akhenaten, who once considered himself a “new Osiris” would have ultimately wished to travel across the ocean, to the west, to parts unknown, bringing and teaching knowledge and the civilizing arts to whomever he encountered.

It will be difficult at times to clearly see the trajectories of ideas from Akhenaten to Moses to Quetzalcóatl. The attributes of Quetzalcóatl in particular are difficult to quantify and classify because they have been much distorted through history, and there are no ancient written sources from Mesoamerica that clearly outline his life and to which we may turn for a single, unbiased account. 

Rather, the information concerning Quetzalcóatl comes to us as fragments of memories and shards of stories, from Spanish-influenced codices and enigmatic stone architecture devoid of writing and lacking exact context or meaning. While these challenges appear daunting, they are not insurmountable. The fact that I have already connected Akhenaten to Moses will only help to bolster my argument that he ultimately became Quetzalcóatl. 

By understanding that he was, at heart, a man of change, who constantly shifted and evolved his ideas of God, we can better understand how he could have adopted the persona of the Feathered Serpent. Just as the snake sheds its skin, so too did Akhenaten shed his many guises. First, as a youth when he shed his given name of Amenhotep IV, adopting a strange name that he seems to have invented himself: Akhenaten, “Shining Spirit of the Aten”. During his reign, he shed several older names of the Aten, becoming more and more abstract in his naming of his one God.

Six AI-generated images of the same person, Pharaoh Akhenaten, at six distinct stages of his life.

(By author.)

When he disappeared from Egypt after seventeen years on the throne, I believe he did not die as is popularly assumed, but shed his Egyptian past all together to become a new persona, Moses. Finally, decades later, when he had succeeded in bringing the Israelites to the Promised Land, I suggest he shed his persona once again, and adopted yet another new guise. 

This one fused his beloved uraeus cobra, protective serpent that sat above the brow of every Egyptian king, with the feathers of his three favorite birds: the bennu bird of immortality (the Phoenix to later Greeks), the hawk of Ra-Horakhty, and the akh northern bald ibis. By combining serpents with birds, an idea already being developed in Egypt at that time (for example, in the tomb of Tutankhamun), I believe he created a powerful new image which would have left an indelible mark in the consciousness of New World populations for millennia: the Feathered Serpent.

Relief of Osiris from the Temple of Seti I, Abydos, Egypt. According to Egyptian mythology, Egypt’s first king Osiris sailed around the world spreading knowledge, exactly like the Feathered Serpent was believed to have later done.

(By author)

Possible Origin of the Feathered Serpent Myth:

In the guise of the Feathered Serpent, Moses could attempt to teach the peoples of the New World everything he knew, finally becoming the New Osiris he had always dreamt of becoming in his youth. By piecing together the vague and distant memories of Quetzalcóatl discernible from the Spanish codices along with physical clues from the archaeological record, we can begin to form a picture of what the historical Quetzalcóatl may have once been like when he arrived on the shores of Mexico from a distant land to the East. 

Remarkably, he comes across exactly like how I would expect Akhenaten-Moses to come across: as a focused, intense religious leader, a king, a high priest, who was chaste, moral, ethical, just and wise, who taught reading, writing, the calendar, and how to live a holy and respectful life following divine laws. He also likely had a paradoxical dark side that called for periodic capital punishment and sacrifice when his religious edicts were not obeyed.

LEFT: Detail of the side of Tutankhamun’s golden throne showing the winged cobra motif common in royal New Kingdom art of the time. By Yveke, 2009. RIGHT: The image of the uraeus (i.e. protective cobra of the king) was common at Amarna, where they were often shown wearing sun disks and ostrich feathers, making them quite literally feathered serpents. They demonstrate that Akhenaten loved this blended magical motif for many years before he used it in Mexico.

(Left; Yveke/CC BY-SA 2.0, RIGHT: (Plate X, ‘Panehesy decorated by the King’, Davies, N. de G., The Rock Tombs of El Amarna: Part II, The Tombs of Panehesy and Meryra II, (London, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1905).

Moving beyond simple parallelism, connecting Akhenaten to Moses and ultimately to Quetzalcóatl requires an understanding of their temporal contexts. For example, Elliot Smith, the pastor who connected Moses to Quetzalcóatl two centuries ago, exclusively used parallelism. He argued that Native Americans were descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, who migrated to North America circa 720 BCE, after their defeat by the Assyrian Empire. This contradicted his argument that Moses was actually Quetzalcóatl, because Moses lived centuries before the Assyrian defeat. Smith was forced to conclude that only the memories of Moses were transferred to the Feathered Serpent myth encountered by the migrating Israelites, as it could not have been based on the historical Moses.

Conversely, I argue that yes, it actually was the historical Moses who traveled to the New World and became the Feathered Serpent, in the decades before 1250 BCE. No one has yet put forward any cogent argument that explains how Moses could have become Quetzalcóatl, and more importantly, why he would have wanted to become the Feathered Serpent. I believe it is only by understanding his past as Akhenaten - the “Bird King” who was protected by fiery serpents and wings and who cast himself as a “New Osiris” - that we can truly understand his final stage of life: the bearded Feathered Serpent who sailed across the Ocean.

Moses in Mexico argues that Moses in the Torah and the Bible did not die as depicted, but lived on, unbeknownst to the Israelites, who had assumed he had died. He lived on to bring ethics, rules, and religion to the peoples of the New World, creating yet another entirely unique and astounding new persona. These clues lie scattered across Mesoamerican jungles and ruins, throughout Spanish codices and Maya records, and within the deep memories of the people who still call that wonderful land home. Others lie buried in the sands of Amarna, or even hiding in plain sight in church stained glass windows, which so often feature Moses’ bizarre “feathered” serpent.

Who was this most inexplicable creature of myth and history, an aged prophet with a monstrous visage that needed concealment, a sage wizard and magician associated with the dawning sun and the wind, bringer of culture and religion, writing and law, who was wiser and more wonderful than any person in memory? Does a historical seed lie buried at the heart of the strange and twisted tree that is Quetzalcóatl mythology? Could a real human being have journeyed from “across the sea” (ch’aqa palow), as the Maya legends claim, bestowed culture upon the people, and then returned to the east, to “his father the Sun”, over three thousand years ago?

AI-generated image of King Quetzalcóatl in 13th century BCE Mexico.

(By author.)

If so, then he must have been an intellectually-towering individual, a man of immense insight and wisdom, ambition and drive, religious passion and devotional zeal. Placing a headdress of resplendent green quetzal feathers upon his head, incense smoke curling around his head, there can be no better candidate for the original Quetzalcóatl than Moses himself, Pharaoh Akhenaten.

• This article is an an excerpt from the new book Moses in Mexico)
• Top image: Montage (by author) of Akhenaten, Moses, and the Feathered Serpent, first priest-king of ancient Mexico. LEFT: Statue of Akhenaten from Karnak, 1355 BCE (By José-Manuel Benito Álvarez/CC BY-SA 2.5), CENTER: Moses Showing the Ten Commandments (By Gustave Doré, 1865/Public Domain), RIGHT: an AI-generated image of Moses as Quetzalcóatl in Mexico in the 13th-century BCE.

By Jonathon Perrin

Jonathon Perrin is the author of five books on Amazon.  His newest is Moses in Mexico (2025). A sequel to Moses Restored (2017), it examines the provocative theory that Moses sailed to the New World over three thousand years ago to become the Feathered Serpent of myth and legend. Visit www.jonathonperrin.com for more.

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18-01-2026 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

Prehistoric discoveries beneath a US lake found to be older than Egypt's Great Pyramid

• MORE:  The five unsolved mysteries of 2025 that captivated the world

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

A new prehistoric discovery in a Wisconsin lake has revealed the existence of an advanced culture in America during the same time as the ancient Egyptians. 

Researchers unearthed six previously undiscovered canoes from Lake Mendota, including one that archeologists said was approximately 5,200 years old - older than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is at least 4,500 years old.

Overall, 16 ancient 'dugout' boats have been found during excavations of the lake since 2021, all carved from individual tree trunks using fire and simple tools like stones and shells.

Testing the wood to see how much of a naturally radioactive element has decayed over time revealed that the canoes were built between 1300AD and 3000BC.

The discovery suggests a previously unknown civilization thriving in the area for thousands of years, engaging in trade, fishing and possibly spiritual journeys along a sophisticated travel network throughout the present-day Midwest.

Researchers from the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) said the new findings rewrite what we know about history in North America, revealing that humans on the continent lived and developed into organized communities much earlier than previously thought.

The canoes, found 30 feet below the surface, were found in clusters near natural paths, suggesting the lake was a busy spot for generations.

The oldest boat recovered from Lake Mendota places the ancient ancestors of a group known as the Ho-Chunk on the same timeline as some of the Egyptians in terms of showing how long ago human boat-making skills were developed worldwide. 

The boats in Lake Mendota are known as dugout canoes because each was constructed out of a single tree trunk

A new excavation of the Wisconsin lake discovered six previously unseen canoes, including one that is believed to be older than the Egyptian pyramids

So far, only two of the 16 canoes located in Lake Mendota have been taken out of the water and are nearing the end of a multi-year preservation process, including a 14-foot-long boat that's approximately 3,000 years old. 

These ancient dugout vessels were mostly made from tough hardwoods such as red and white oak, including the oldest, dating back to the time of the Egyptians, and were carved from the trunk of a red oak.

The WHS team noted that using oak was unusual because red oak typically absorbs water through the tree's open pores, which could make boats heavier or less buoyant.

However, it's believed their mysterious builders may have prepared trees to form natural blockages, called tyloses, in the wood that seal it against water, rot and improve floating.

Archaeologists suspected that the native people of the area selected stressed or damaged trees, or intentionally wounded them while growing, to produce these more resistant tree trunks. 

Maritime archaeologist Tamara Thomsen said: 'Archaeology is kind of like putting together pieces of a puzzle, and the more pieces you can find, the better you can start to form a picture of what was going on and why during a period of history.'

'We can't go back in time to get answers to our questions, but we can examine the available data alongside knowledge from First Nations and cultural history to form theories to answer our questions.'

The canoes were found with rocks meticulously placed on top, while below the surface, which experts speculated was done to ensure the boats did not warp during the winter months.

The discovery of ancient boats in Wisconsin has rewritten the timeline of sophisticated civilizations living in North America

Archeologists have pulled two of the 16 canoes from the lake and are working on preserving them for a future museum exhibition

Archaeologists have been investigating Lake Mendota since 2021 

Read More

• Discovery at Pompeii confirms long-lost secret that built the Roman Empire 

While the Ho-Chunk tribe once lived in the area surrounding Lake Mendota, the Paleo-Indian people were the earliest inhabitants, arriving around 12,000 years ago. 

The Ho-Chunk tribe migrated there no earlier than 800AD.

This discovery of ancient canoes in Lake Mendota has been deeply significant to the Ho-Chunk people because it proved their ancestors lived in this region for thousands of years, strengthening their ongoing cultural and spiritual connection to the waters and lands.

The Ho-Chunk view the nearby Lake Wingra, which this ancient community likely traveled across by canoe, as holding profound spiritual importance, with one of its springs seen as a sacred gateway to another realm.

Dr Amy Rosebrough, state archaeologist for WHS, said: 'One of its springs, with its white clay bottom, is viewed as a portal to the spirit world. For generations, the Ho-Chunk have honored this place through ceremonies of remembrance.' 

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13-01-2026 om 21:02 geschreven door peter  

Hidden Geometry in Khufu’s Subterranean Chamber: What Was Its True Significance?

Niels Bjerre J…

Visitors descending into the depths beneath the Great Pyramid encounter what appears to be an abandoned, roughly-hewn cavern, dismissed by scholars as an unfinished burial chamber that ancient builders left behind. But what if this crude appearance was intentional? What if the so-called "subterranean chamber" holds the key to understanding the entire pyramid's purpose? New geometric analysis reveals that this neglected space, 30 meters below the desert surface, contains sophisticated mathematical proportions that connect the physical world to the divine - a stone testament to the earth god Geb and the first rung on King Khufu's ladder to the heavens. The ancient Egyptians, it seems, were far more deliberate in their designs than modern archaeology has given them credit for.

Pythagorean Pyramid

It is well-known that Pythagoras’ ancient Greek equation for right triangles:  a²+ b²= c² , is older than ancient Greece. We also know that in Khufu’s pyramid the height equals the radius of a circle that has the circumference of the sum of the pyramid’s four sides added. That is, if we use the value 22/7 for p (pi), usually ascribed to Archimedes.

The much neglected subterranean chamber in Khufu’s pyramid reveals more ancient geometry.

It is quite understandable why the subterranean chamber in Khufu’s pyramid was thought to be unfinished and abandoned as burial chamber. (John & Morton Edgar photo from: Great Pyramid Passages and Chambers, Vol. I, 1910.)

In the interpretation of this author, the subterranean “unfinished cave” was neither unfinished nor abandoned; on the contrary, it was designed to fit perfectly into a system in which the vertically arranged chambers are meant to be rungs of a ladder to the sky for the deceased King Khufu’s spirit.

Each chamber can be seen as representing, or honoring, one of the five famous nature element gods from nearby Heliopolis. Earth, ‘water’ (rain & mist), and air gods define the three known chambers. The subterranean chamber likely honors the earth god Geb and his most massive material - stone. Naturally it would be good to find evidence that points to this. 

In this respect, the chamber’s form, dimensions and connection with the upper chambers are truly fascinating to study. 

This old photo of the cleared chamber shows the flat elevated plateau in the west end and its sloping front. (John and Morton Edgar: Great Pyramid Passages and Chambers, Vol. I,1910.)

‘Earth’ in the Subterranean Chamber
The drawing below shows how a short square wooden pipe, placed vertically in the well, with water hoisted up and poured onto the chamber floor, would create a scenery matching what the Greek historian Herodotus was told when he visited Egypt two thousand years after Khufu lived: that the king lay buried under his pyramid, on an island surrounded by water coming from a canal. Suddenly it all gives meaning - the blind canal, the water well and the “island”. It was a staged symbolic tableau.

A short wooden pipe is all that is needed to turn the chamber into a burial chamber reflecting Herodotus’ description. (Author provided)

Square 
In later ages and cultures the quadrangle, especially the quadrat (square), and the number four have been earth element symbols. 
Since the Heliopolitan nature elements and the later Greek elements appear to be rather similar,  perhaps it is not impossible that the Egyptian Earth-god Geb’s element predates the later earth element in square/quadrat and number 4 symbolism. It is worth checking.

 

A hexagon inscribed in the Queen’s chamber – which I believe was Tefnut’s rain and mist (water) chamber, constructed with the depressed floor as a low basin for water. (Author provided)

Queen’s Chamber and “6” 
A hexagon can be inscribed vertically in the Queen’s chamber (likewise traditionally regarded as unfinished), the middle of which is exactly in 1/6 of the pyramid’s altitude. The side walls have six layers. Apparently they took that form and number serious. I refer to my earlier Ancient Origins article “A Watery Solution to the Enigmas of Khufu Pyramid’s Queen’s Chamber” for details.

The elevated – most ‘earth’ filled - part of the chamber is near-to quadratic.
This and following illustrations are based on Maragioglio & Rinaldi’s fine survey drawings.
(Maragioglio & Rinaldi: L’architettura delle  Piramidi Menfite, parte IV, tavole, 1965) (Author provided)

Quadrat
The Maragioglio & Rinaldi fine survey drawing (with my indication of a sarcophagus) depicts the most 
‘Earth filled’ – western part of the chamber as a square, just a little too short to the eastern side to be a perfect quadrat.  Photos like the ones in the start of this article reveal that the plateau’s side slopes slightly outwards-downwards, so its difficult to define bottom ‘edge’ must be a little longer to the east than the top edge. The whole mass of bedrock should be included in our 3D vision of the block of Earth in this chamber’s west end. It is all inside the quadrat.

Once you spot the square it is almost impossible to ignore it again, accurate quadrat or not. 

The Number 4
Maragioglio and Rinaldi measured the chamber width to be 8.36 m at the west wall. In the ancient Egyptian unit the royal cubit (=0.5236 meter) this distance is very close to 16 cubit = 8.3776 meter. Less than 2 centimeter difference. The Edgar brothers mentioned (1910) that the rough surfaces in this chamber made precise measuring difficult. 

Presuming 16 cubit was the intended size, you may reflect on that 16 is a square number (4x4). 4 is even a square number itself (2x2) as well as the number of sides in a square. 
Furthermore, in the vertical section 4x4 cubit squares – four of them – strongly indicate that the king’s built-in sarcophagus was placed on a flat plateau a quarter of the chamber width (4 cubit) below the ceiling.

In comparison to the nice quadrate 16 cubit width the Queen’s chamber measures precisely 10x11 cubit and the King’s chamber precisely 10x20 cubit. 

The length of the subterrber is close toanean cham 27 cubit (north and south walls measured to be 14.06 and 14.08 meter – c. 26¹⁷/₂₀ cubit).

In the vertical section squares 4x4 cubit seem to define the plateau’s level. (Author provided).

Diagonal: not ‘the divine proportion’, but a ‘half-divine’ one

Let us for a moment visualize this burial chamber split into two sections. The earth square part, and the rest.
The diagonally turned well may hint to an interesting explanation to the size of the chamber’s eastern part. Namely the diagonal understood with the symbolism we know from later ages. So perhaps this symbolism originated in ancient Egypt?

Left: An old tarot card showing how the compass is the architect’s tool for transforming heavenly circle-wisdom into square buildings. Jacques Viéville tarot deck, c. 1650 (By the way: notice the building has five floors!). Right: Square and compass freemason’s logo from the Copenhagen loge building.

Much later the Italian renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) listed in his Quattro Libri dell’ Archittura several especially beautiful proportions for rectangles - among them the rectangle with one side length the size of the square’s diagonal. This new side length is easily drawn on paper with the help of a compass. Or constructed on a building site with a rope. Thinking about why he found it beautiful, the circle was regarded heavenly and the quadrat material, so the combination symbolically expressed divine-human collaboration (which was to become an ideal for freemasonry, reflected in their square-compass logo).

Today the format is used in A-format paper: A1, A2, A3, A4…

A square with sides 5.93 m has a diagonal as long as the chamber’s north-south width. Notice the diagonally turned well that almost urges us to think in diagonals. The square that defines this eastern part of the chamber has side lengths that combines square/earth and circle/heaven – extremely well-planned If it was intended to be a symbolic platform for the king’s spirit to ascent from.

Now take the chamber width and turn it with the help of a compass to become diagonal of a smaller square. This new square is near to fittting the space between the chamber’s western part and the east wall. Not exactly, it is a little bit larger, but look at the drawing with two such squares to fill the A-format space and all diagonals drawn: the diagonals seem to rather precisely define the well’s sides. This can hardly be a coincidence. 

Might we then actually have a confirmation from the diagonally turned well that the ancient Egyptians saw the diagonal-defined square as a combination of both earth and sky, or earth and sun?

A symbolic explanation for the two different square formats combined in the subterranean chamber - quadrat in west, A-format in east - is that the chamber held two functions: 1) the west part containing the whole quarry-resembling mass of bedrock was meant to be caring for the king’s physical corpse, and 2) the east part had the purpose of servicing his spirit’s coming and going.

Here I have tried to separate the two square formats that seem to be intersecting a bit.

(Author provided).

The circle-section I have drawn shows how the 16 cubit long diagonal matches a quadrat width of 5.93 meter, or c. 11⅓ cubit (a quadrat’s diagonal is  = 1.4142 times bigger than its sides). 
It seems however that they planned the east part square with whole-digit measures, 11 cubit. If you look at the pyramid chambers from above in a transparent view, such a whole number quadrate drawn in the middle is near to coincide with the subterranean west-part quadrate’s east side, and it coincides exactly with the King’s chamber’s north wall and the Queen’s chamber’s south wall. Suddenly there is a visual connection between the waterfilled east part of the subterranean chamber and the likewise watercovered floor of the Queen’s chamber. They have the same 11 cubit length.
Somehow a whole-number 11 cubit quadrate seems to have been central for the planning of how the three chambers were distributed around the central well. 

What is the explanation for why the central quadrate does not have the exact size we had figured out? I do not know. Maybe, in Egyptian understanding, squares created with the help of heaverly circles does not even have to be exact A-formats. Or is it because they did not calculate in decimals but in fractions, and probably did not know square roots? 
The assumption seems right, however, that the eastern part of the subterranean chamber is central for helping the king’s spirit to move from one level to the next on his ascent to heaven and back.

 

The well is placed in the middle of the three known chambers. Notice how the Queens chamber (Tefnut’s watery chamber) has the same east-west length as the area in the subterranean chamber that was covered with water.

From Underworld to Sky
All in all it is satisfying that the search for earth square and number 4 symbolism in the subterranean chamber was succesfull. It even gave us the diagonal A-format in the eastern part, and the thereby defined square was apparently central for the layout of all the known chambers. 
This quadrate layout seems to have facilitated the king’s spirit’s ascent to the other chambers, and further to the sky. Perhaps the well was even seen as a portal to the sun barque’s nightly journey through the underworld. It is all connected!

• Top image: The Great Pyramid, Inset; The restored Subterranean Chamber.   
• Source: Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities (inset; Supreme Council of Antiquities)

By Niels Bjerre Jorgensen

{ 

12-01-2026 om 23:59 geschreven door peter  

Today, the same bizarre treatise first obtained by Baresch in the seventeenth century is known throughout the world as the Voynich Manuscript, and despite the efforts of many since Baresch’s time who have sought to decode it, the document still refuses to give up its secrets. After more than a century of scrutiny, no one has convincingly explained who wrote it, what it says, or even whether its text carries any real meaning at all.

However, new research may finally offer scholars a fresh perspective on this confounding mystery. According to a recent peer-reviewed study, while the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript endures, a new theory strengthens the possibility that the text in a document often referred to as “the most mysterious book in the world” may have once served as a cipher system.

The hypothesis, detailed by researcher and science journalist Michael A. Greshko in the journal Cryptologia, indicates that the famous manuscript bears qualities that seemingly match the technological capabilities of scholars in the Middle Ages, potentially helping to reframe questions about the manuscript that have long perplexed researchers.

The Enduring Enigma of the Voynich Manuscript

Over the years, a range of theories has emerged as to what the purpose behind the Voynich Manuscript may be. One involves the notion that the manuscript could represent glossolalia—the purported phenomenon of speaking unknown languages, generally within the context of religious worship—or even more simply, purely unintelligible words that might have served as part of some form of fraudulent medieval operation.

Other theories hold that the Voynich Manuscript may represent an artificial language which does nonetheless conveys some sort of meaning, or that the language in the manuscript may be a legitimate unknown earlier language that its unknown author attempted to document.

However, another possibility involves the possible use of a cipher—one which may incorporate elements of a well-known language such as Italian, German, or even a “dead” language like Latin that is still widely known.

A portion of the famous Voynich Manuscript, which conveys information related to the healing properties of bathing in medicinal springs. The complete information conveyed in this portion of the text, as with the broader manuscript, remains undeciphered

(Image Credit: Public Domain).

For Greshko, the notion of the Voynich Manuscript as a ciphertext seemed the most appealing, since this approach offers potential avenues toward unraveling its more unusual properties with languages that would have been in use and potentially known to its prospective author(s) in the 15th century. Ultimately, Greshko’s efforts toward unraveling the mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript (VMS) culminated in a fundamental question.

“Is it possible to make a substitution cipher—the most advanced type of cipher available in early 15th-century Europe—that can often create VMS-like ciphertext?” Greshko asks in his recent Cryptologia paper.

Finding answers to this query led Greshko to the development of a method his study calls the “Naibbe cipher,” named after a medieval Italian card game. As opposed to trying to decode the manuscript outright, as has been attempted countless times in the past, Greshko’s cipher works in reverse by transforming ordinary Latin or Italian text into strings of glyph-like symbols resembling the manuscript’s unique language, known to scholars as “Voynichese.”

The system outlined by Greshko employs the substitution of short letter fragments with structured lookup tables, and then, going beyond the use of text alone, introduces elements of randomness with the use of objects that were widely available in 15th-century Europe, such as dice and playing cards.

Intriguingly, the resulting use of the Naibbe cipher produces outputs that Greshko says mirror several of the Voynich Manuscript’s idiosyncrasies, such as patterns in symbol frequency, similarities to typical word lengths that appear in the original text, and positional behaviors that can be associated with certain glyphs in the manuscript.

Additionally, Greshko’s method appears to preserve partial traces of the underlying language, albeit through the recurrence of micro-sequences, and even though no single glyph can be cleanly mapped onto any specific plaintext letters.

Cipher Hypothesis Remains Viable

For Greshko, all this taken together strengthens the case for the cipher hypothesis, and strongly points to the use of a sophisticated method that would have significantly exceeded conventional substitution ciphers of the period.

Still, Greshko says alternatives cannot be ruled out, such as the notion that the manuscript actually could represent some kind of unknown language—whether that be a language that is now lost to history, which the author of the Voynich manuscript sought to preserve, or possibly some form of invented writing system that might have served a unique purpose.

Greshko also concedes that “in its current form, the Naibbe cipher fails in several major ways,” adding that due to its current limitations, “the Naibbe cipher invites future analysis to address whether and how modifications to the cipher’s general structure can achieve a more complete replication of VMS properties.”

Nonetheless, what Greshko’s work fundamentally succeeds in demonstrating is that a hand-executable cipher—one the likes of which could have been achieved centuries ago when the Voynich Manuscript is believed to have been produced—can indeed reproduce many of its statistical traits. This potentially important work helps to refine questions that will no doubt benefit future efforts toward unraveling “the world’s most mysterious book” by helping to narrow the range of plausible explanations.

Further, the new study provides a clearer framework for understanding how such a baffling text might have been constructed, and why it continues to defy simple explanation more than 500 years after it was written.

Greshko’s paper, “The Naibbe cipher: a substitution cipher that encrypts Latin and Italian as Voynich Manuscript-like ciphertext,” appeared in Cryptologia on November 26, 2025.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

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06-01-2026 om 23:06 geschreven door peter  

Is this humankind's earliest ancestor? Scientists argue a 7 million-year-old ape-like animal was the first to walk on two legs

• READ MORE:  Cube-shaped skull found in Mexico challenges human history

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

It’s considered to be one of the most decisive steps in human evolution.

Now, scientists believe they have pinpointed when our ancestors made the transition from walking on all fours to standing on two legs.

An ape-like animal that lived in Africa seven million years ago is the best contender for humankind’s earliest ancestor, they say, as fresh analysis has revealed its bones were adapted to walking upright.

The fossilised remains of the species, called Sahelanthropus tchadensis, were first unearthed in the desert region of Chad, in north-central Africa, more than two decades ago.

The anatomy of the skull suggested that it likely sat directly on top of the spine – the first indication it may have walked upright.

But new analysis of the limbs confirms the species could move around on two legs, as the bones contain a feature only found in bipedal groups.

Scott Williams, an associate professor in New York University’s Department of Anthropology, led the study.

‘Our analysis of these fossils offers direct evidence that Sahelanthropus could walk on two legs, demonstrating that bipedalism evolved early in our lineage and from an ancestor that looked most similar to today’s chimpanzees and bonobos,’ he said.

Cast of the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis - a species discovered in the early 2000s which scientists now say may be our earliest ancestor

The iliofemoral ligament shown in humans (far left). The red arrows indicate the femoral tubercle, the point of attachment for this crucial ligament. The dark grey image represents the same bone in the Sahelanthropus species, with an overlay (far right) indicating it has the same features as modern-day humans, who walk upright

For their new study the researchers identified the presence of the femoral tubercle, a part of the body that is vital for walking upright, in the fossilised remains.

This is the point of attachment for the largest and most powerful ligament in the human body – the iliofemoral ligament – which connects the pelvis to the femur and prevents the body from bending backwards too much when standing up and walking.

Previous studies have also unearthed a ‘natural twist’ in the fossilised femur – the thigh bone – which helps legs to point forward.

Meanwhile 3D analysis has indicated gluteal – buttock – muscles similar to those in our early ancestors that keep hips stable and aid in standing, walking and running.

The team argue their new discovery, along with previous findings, mean the ancient species had the ability to walk upright.

‘Sahelanthropus was essentially a bipedal ape that possessed a chimpanzee-sized brain and likely spent a significant portion of its time in trees, foraging and seeking safety,’ Dr Williams said.

‘Despite its superficial appearance, Sahelanthropus was adapted to using bipedal posture and movement on the ground.’

This discovery makes the species the oldest known member of the human lineage since we split evolutionarily from chimpanzees.

An artist's impression of what Sahelanthropus may have looked like. Dr Williams said it likely looked most similar to today's chimpanzees and bonobos

The skull, ulna (forearm bone) and femur (thigh bone) of (left to right): a chimpanzee, Sahelanthropus and another human ancestor, Australopithecus

The fossilised remains of the species were first unearthed in the desert region of Chad, in north-central Africa, more than two decades ago 

Humans and monkeys only diverged around eight to 19 million years ago, so the findings suggest that early humans became bipedal very soon after this split.

As part of the study the team compared the remains to those of other early human ancestors as well as living apes.

They found that Sahelanthropus had a relatively long thigh bone relative to a bone found in the forearm – further evidence that it walked on two legs.

They said that apes have long arms and short legs, while humans and our ancestors have relatively long legs.

Writing in the journal Science Advances they explained that bipedalism is a ‘key adaptation’ that differentiates hominins – humans and our extinct relatives – from living and fossil apes.

‘Sahelanthropus is interpreted here as an African ape-like early hominin that demonstrates some of the earliest adaptations to bipedalism,’ they wrote.

They said they believe the evolution of walking upright was a ‘process rather than an event’, in which bipedal behaviour gradually increased over time.

This means the species may have had the ability to walk on two legs on land, but also to swing through the trees like a monkey.

Other experts have previously cast doubt on the idea that Sahelanthropus is a human forebearer.

When the species was first discovered in 2001 Milford Wolpoff, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, called them into question.

READ MORE

• Humans just got even OLDER: Ancient skull pushes back our origins by 400,000 years - making Homo sapiens more than one million years old

In a letter to the journal Nature, Professor Wolpoff argued that Sahelanthropus is ‘not on the line directly leading to humans’.

He pointed to scars on the skull left by neck muscles, claiming they showed the species walked on all fours with its head horizontal to its spine.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

05-01-2026 om 18:06 geschreven door peter  

10 Weird Archaeological Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

Archaeology isn’t just about dusty ruins and ancient pottery—it’s full of bizarre discoveries that challenge what we think we know about the past. From mysterious artifacts to unusual burial practices, here are 10 of the strangest archaeological facts ever uncovered!

1. The Ancient Egyptians Used Honey to Treat Wounds 

Over 4,000 years ago, Egyptian doctors used honey as an antiseptic to prevent infections. They believed it had magical healing properties, but modern science confirms they were onto something—honey is naturally antibacterial and still used in medicine today!

AI-generated image (provided by author).

• Few Non-visitors Are Aware of the 3,500-Year-Old Obelisk in NY's Central Park
• The Great Vampire Epidemic: A Bizarre Chapter in History

2. The Romans Had Heated Floors Over 2,000 Years Ago 

While people in medieval Europe shivered in their castles, the ancient Romans were enjoying underfloor heating! They built a system called hypocaust, where hot air from a furnace flowed beneath raised floors—basically, ancient central heating.

AI-generated image (provided by author).

3. The Mystery of the Screaming Mummies 

Some mummies have been found with terrifying, open-mouthed expressions, leading to myths of cursed souls trapped in eternal screams. But archaeologists say this happens because the jaw drops open after death—still creepy though!

AI-generated image (provided by author).

4. The 5,000-Year-Old "Chewing Gum" 

Archaeologists in Sweden found a piece of ancient chewing gum made from birch bark tar, complete with human teeth marks! It’s believed Stone Age people chewed it for fun, to clean their teeth, or as medicine—kind of like prehistoric bubble gum.

• Archaeologists Excavating In Pompeii Find Ancestral Pizza Revealed in Fresco
• The Secret of Gobekli Tepe: Cosmic Equinox and Sacred Marriage - Part 1

5. The "Vampire" Burials of Medieval Europe 

Graves from the Middle Ages reveal skeletons with stakes through their hearts, rocks in their mouths, or even decapitated heads. These were suspected vampires, buried in ways to prevent them from rising from the dead.

AI-generated image (provided by author).

6. The 2,000-Year-Old Fast Food Joint 

In Pompeii, archaeologists found a well-preserved street food stall (thermopolium) with painted menus showing the food they served. Turns out, fast food isn’t a modern idea—Romans were grabbing quick bites over 2,000 years ago!

An ancient Roman fast food counter that was unearthed in Pompeii last year will open to the public. (Luigi Spina / AFP).

7. The Alien-Like Elongated Skulls  

Ancient skulls with unnaturally long shapes have been found worldwide, from South America to Asia. Some believe they’re proof of alien contact, but archaeologists explain they were intentionally reshaped using tight bindings, possibly as a status symbol.

One of the elongated skulls found in the Mayan cenote in Mexico. (Bradley Russell / National Geographic).

8. The Lost City of the Monkey God 

Deep in the Honduran jungle, explorers uncovered ruins of a mysterious, forgotten civilization, which legends call "The White City" or "City of the Monkey God." Even weirder? Many of the researchers got sick after excavation, leading to rumors of an ancient curse.

AI-generated image (provided by author).

9. The 2,000-Year-Old Roman Concrete That Won’t Break 

Ancient Roman concrete is stronger than modern concrete, especially in seawater. Scientists discovered it gets stronger over time due to a chemical reaction with seawater, making it almost indestructible—unlike today’s crumbling bridges!

AI-generated image (provided by author).

10. The 10,000-Year-Old Carvings of "Giants" 

At Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, archaeologists found huge stone pillars covered in carvings of strange, humanoid figures. Built over 6,000 years before the Egyptian pyramids, the site has led some to speculate about lost civilizations—or even ancient giants!

Archaeological site of Göbeklitepe in Turkey.

(Wikimedia Commons).

Final Thoughts

Archaeology is full of mysteries, and every discovery raises new questions about our past. From vampire burials to unbreakable Roman concrete, history is weirder than we ever imagined! Which fact surprised you the most?

• Top image: Orlando Hollywood Studios, ‘The Great Movie Ride’ featuring Indiana Jones finding the Ark of the Covenant.

• Source: Jared/CC BY-SA 2.0.

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

04-01-2026 om 23:14 geschreven door peter  

The research team behind the discovery said the cremation site also hints at potentially spiritually complex ritual practices surrounding fire and death that had not previously been identified during this ancient period.

“Not only is this the earliest cremation in Africa, it was such a spectacle that we have to rethink how we view group labor and ritual in these ancient hunter-gatherer communities,” explained Jessica Thompson, an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University, and leader of a long-term research project at the site of the discovery.

Date of Discovery Rivals Oldest Known Human Cremation Site

According to a statement announcing the unexpected discovery of ancient, cremated human remains, evidence of intentionally burned human remains appears as early as 40,000 years ago in Australia. However, “intentionally built” structures made of combustible materials don’t appear until about 10,000 years before present.

According to researchers, the previously discovered ancient pyre at the Xaasaa Na’ Upward Sun River archaeological site in Alaska, which contained the remains of a small child, was dated to sometime around 11,500 years ago. Conversely, the oldest known funerary cremation site in Africa, dated to a comparatively recent 3,500, was likely built by Pastoral Neolithic herders who were much more organized than the ancient hunter-gatherers associated with the discovery.

“Cremation is more common among ancient food-producing societies, who generally possess more complex technology and engage in more elaborate mortuary rituals than earlier hunter-gatherers,” the researchers explain.

Remains of a Single Individual Discovered in the Pyre

In the 1950s, archaeologists determined that the ancient cremation site, dubbed Hora 1, was a hunter-gatherer burial ground. However, those scientists didn’t know when those burials occurred. Decades later, Thompson’s team unearthed evidence that it was used by ancient humans as far back as 21,000 years ago, with the site’s burials seemingly dating to between 16,000 and 8,000 years before present. Notably, all the bodies buried during this period were interred in a complete state.

The Hora 1 site photographed from the air.

Image credit: Jacob Davis.

In collaboration with the Malawi Department of Museums and Monuments, the latest effort analyzed a separate set of bones from what they described as a “highly fragmented individual.” 170 separate bones were examined, mostly originating from the woman’s arms and legs. The researchers say the bones suggest the woman was between 18 and 60 years old and slightly under 5 feet tall.

After a closer analysis of the cremated remains, the researchers determined that the body was likely cremated before decomposition, most likely within a few days of the woman’s death. The researchers also found cut marks on the bones, suggesting that the flesh had been removed before incineration.

Study team member Elizabeth Sawchuk, a Curator of Human Evolution at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and a bioarchaeologist, said they were surprised to find no teeth or skull bone fragments in the cremated remains. Sawchuk said that because those body parts are historically preserved during cremations, the team believed they may have been removed “prior to burning.”

Researchers found cut marks on the bone fragments recovered from the ancient funeral pyre.

Image credit: Jessica Thompson.

Labor Intensive Cremation Hints at Its Purpose

When discussing the unusual nature of an organized cremation by African hunter-gatherers almost 10,000 years ago, Jessica Cerezo-Román, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma and the study’s lead author, noted the significant amount of labor and time required to complete an effective cremation.

“Cremation is very rare among ancient and modern hunter-gatherers, at least partially because pyres require a huge amount of labor, time, and fuel to transform a body into fragmented and calcined bone and ash,” Professor Cerezo-Román explained.

For example, the team estimated that ancient humans would have had to gather at least 30 kilograms of deadwood and grass, a figure they said points to a significant communal effort. An analysis of ash sediments and bone fragments also suggests that participants actively disturbed the fire throughout the burning, including regularly adding more fuel to maintain the high temperatures needed. The team estimated the fire reached temperatures above  500°C.

Cerezo-Román said the job of removing and preparing the body may sound “gruesome,” but also noted that these practices may have been associated with social memory, remembrance of a loved one, or an ancestral veneration. The professor also pointed out that a growing body of evidence suggests ancient hunter-gatherers in Malawi performed cremations that included the posthumous “removal, curation, and secondary reburial of body parts,” maybe as tokens of the deceased.

In the study’s conclusion, the team notes that stone tools discovered at the site may have been funerary objects added during or after the cremation. They also note that no other individuals were cremated, suggesting that the site was considered significant.

“The history of large fires in this location, the effort associated with the cremation, and the subsequent burning events reflect a deep-rooted tradition at the site linked to ritual behavior and memory-making tied to a place that was clearly a local landmark,” they explained.

As far as the woman who was cremated when others at the site were buried, the researchers said that is still an open question.

“Why was this one woman cremated when the other burials at the site were not treated that way?” Thompson asked.

The study “Earliest Evidence for Intentional Cremation of Human Remains in Africa” was published in Science Advances.

• Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

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{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

03-01-2026 om 18:21 geschreven door peter  

10 Groundbreaking Human Evolution Discoveries From 2025

Gary Manners

The year 2025 has delivered extraordinary revelations about our ancient past, fundamentally reshaping our understanding of human evolution and challenging long-held assumptions about how modern humans emerged. From revolutionary fossil discoveries spanning multiple continents to groundbreaking genetic studies revealing hidden chapters in our ancestry, these ten findings demonstrate that the story of humanity is far more complex than the simple linear progression scientists once envisioned. These discoveries paint a vivid picture of a "bushy tree" of evolution where multiple human species coexisted, interbred, and ultimately contributed to the rich genetic tapestry that defines us today.

• Scientists Discover New Human Ancestor Species in Ethiopia
• Million-Year-Old Skull Discovery Rewrites Human Evolution Timeline

The 13 fossil teeth collected in the Ledi-Geraru Research Area from 2015-2018.

(Brian Villmoare/ASU)

1. New Australopithecus Species Reveals Complex Co-Existence

In Ethiopia's Afar region, researchers from Arizona State University uncovered 13 fossilized teeth belonging to a previously unknown species of Australopithecus that lived alongside the earliest members of genus Homo between 2.6 and 2.8 million years ago. The discovery at the famous Ledi-Geraru Research Project site fundamentally challenges the linear progression model of human evolution.

"This new research shows that the image many of us have in our minds of an ape to a Neanderthal to a modern human is not correct — evolution doesn't work like that," explains Kaye Reed, a research scientist at Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins. The teeth represent a new species distinct from Australopithecus afarensis—the famous species represented by Lucy - confirming that multiple hominin species occupied the same landscape simultaneously.

The original Yunxian Man cranium before reconstruction, showing distortion from geological pressure.

 (Gary Todd/CC0)

2. Chinese Skull Pushes Back Human Divergence Timeline

A remarkable million-year-old skull from China has shattered beliefs about when modern humans and their closest relatives diverged from common ancestors. The Yunxian 2 skull, digitally reconstructed using sophisticated CT imaging, revealed features placing it within the mysterious Homo longi lineage—closer to Denisovans than to Homo erectus. Published in Science, the research suggests that major human lineages diverged much earlier than previously believed, with Neanderthals separating around 1.38 million years ago, followed by the Homo longi clade at 1.2 million years ago, and finally Homo sapiens at 1.02 million years ago.

"From the very beginning, when we got the result, we thought it was unbelievable. How could that be so deep into the past?" Professor Xijun Ni told the BBC. Most controversially, the discovery raises questions about whether the ancestral population from which all three lineages emerged may have existed in western Asia rather than Africa, potentially challenging the traditional "Out of Africa" model.

• Lucy May Not Be Our Direct Human Ancestor After All
• 'Never Seen Before' Teeth Reveal Ancient Humans Interbred With Unknown Species

3. Lucy's Status as Direct Ancestor Challenged

Revolutionary fossil evidence from Ethiopia is challenging decades of scientific consensus about Lucy being a direct ancestor of modern humans. New discoveries published in Nature link the mysterious "Burtele foot"—a 3.4-million-year-old partial foot with an opposable big toe designed for grasping tree branches—to Australopithecus deyiremeda, a distinct hominin species that lived alongside Lucy's kind. Chemical analysis of tooth enamel indicates that A. deyiremeda subsisted primarily on forest foods, contrasting sharply with A. afarensis, which consumed a more varied diet including grasses and sedges. The research suggests that A. deyiremeda may be more closely related to the even older Australopithecus anamensis than to Lucy's species, undermining the traditional view of A. afarensis as the single ancestral trunk.

Researchers Xiujie Wu and María Martinón-Torres with skull replicas.

(CENIEH)

4. Chinese Teeth Reveal Interbreeding With Homo Erectus

Revolutionary 300,000-year-old dental remains from China's Hualongdong site display an unprecedented combination of primitive and modern features, suggesting early humans may have interbred with Homo erectus. The 21 dental elements combine archaic features typical of Homo erectus—such as robust molar and premolar roots—with distinctly modern traits including reduced third molars commonly found in Homo sapiens. "It's a mosaic of primitive and derived traits never seen before – almost as if the evolutionary clock were ticking at different speeds in different parts of the body," explained María Martinón-Torres, Director of CENIEH. Published in the Journal of Human Evolution, the findings reinforce the idea that traits associated with Homo sapiens were already present in Asia at least 300,000 years ago.

Plaster reconstructions of skulls of human ancestors.

(Jose A. Bernat/University of Cambridge)

5. Hidden Genetic Chapter Reveals Two Ancestral Populations

Using advanced genome analysis, researchers from the University of Cambridge found evidence that modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that diverged around 1.5 million years ago and reconnected about 300,000 years ago. One group contributed 80% of modern human genetic makeup, while the other contributed 20%—as much as 10 times the contribution of Neanderthal DNA. Published in Nature Genetics, the study revealed that genes inherited from the minority population—particularly those related to brain function and neural processing—may have played a crucial role in human evolution. "Our research shows clear signs that our evolutionary origins are more complex, involving different groups that developed separately for more than a million years, then came back to form the modern human species," said co-author Professor Richard Durbin.

The skull in situ in the wall of the Petralona Cave.

(Nadina/CC BY-SA 3.0)

6. Greek Petralona Skull Finally Dated: 286,000 Years

After decades of controversy, the Petralona skull—one of Europe's most significant hominin fossils—has been definitively dated to at least 286,000 years old using advanced uranium-series dating techniques. Published in the Journal of Human Evolution, the research settles a long-standing debate about this robust cranium discovered in 1960 in northern Greece. The new dating places the Petralona hominin within the Middle Pleistocene period, providing crucial evidence that multiple human lineages coexisted in Europe during this time. The skull exhibits distinctive features that set it apart from both modern humans and Neanderthals, placing it within the broader category of Homo heidelbergensis, often considered a common ancestor to both Neanderthals and modern humans.

Paranthropus robustus cranium SK 48. Credit: Dr. Bernhard Zipfel, with permission from Dr. Lazarus Kgasi, junior curator of Plio-Pleistocene Paleontology at Ditsong National Museum of Natural History in Pretoria

(South Africa)

7. Tooth Pits Reveal Genetic Signature of Extinct Genus

Scientists discovered tiny, uniform pits on 2.2 million-year-old fossilized teeth from Africa that may represent a genetic signature for the entire extinct genus Paranthropus. Published in The Journal of Human Evolution, the study found that these uniform, circular, and shallow pits occur in predictable patterns on Paranthropus molars from both eastern and southern Africa. However, the pitting was virtually nonexistent in Homo and uncommon in Australopithecus africanus, previously considered Paranthropus's immediate ancestor. "Teeth preserve an incredible amount of biological and evolutionary information," study co-author Ian Towle told Live Science. The pits likely have a genetic basis, possibly similar to amelogenesis imperfecta, providing a potential taxonomic marker independent of bone morphology or DNA.

A facial reconstruction representing a male individual of Homo georgicus (from the Dmaisi excavation).

(Cicero Moraes et al/CC BY 4.0)

8. Two Species Migrated From Africa Together

New analysis of fossils from Dmanisi, Georgia, suggests that two distinct ancient human species migrated together from Africa approximately 1.8 million years ago. The research, focused on five skulls discovered between 1999 and 2005, proposes that Homo erectus was accompanied by a more primitive hominin species during humanity's first great exodus. At the heart of this discovery lies Skull 5, which exhibits characteristics dramatically different from its companions—with an exceptionally large jaw and facial structure yet one of the smallest braincase capacities ever found in genus Homo (approximately 546 cubic centimeters). If confirmed, the presence of two distinct hominin species at Dmanisi would fundamentally alter our understanding of early human migration patterns.

DNA analysis of a 4,600-year-old skeleton from Egypt’s Nile Valley.

CGTN Africa

9. Ancient Egyptian Genome Reveals Ancestry Links

Scientists successfully sequenced the genome of a man buried in Egypt around 4,500 years ago, making him the oldest genome from Egypt to date. Despite Egypt's challenging conditions for DNA preservation, the research team found that about 4-5% of DNA fragments came from the individual himself—enough to recover meaningful genetic information. The genetic analysis revealed that about 80% of the man's ancestry was shared with earlier north African populations, while the remaining 20% was more similar to groups from the eastern Fertile Crescent, particularly Neolithic Mesopotamia. This genetic profile fits with archaeological evidence of long-standing connections between ancient Egypt and the eastern Fertile Crescent dating back at least 10,000 years, supporting the spread of farming, domesticated animals, and writing systems between these regions.

Jordan Mansfield/Courtesy of Pathways to Ancient Britain Project

10. Earliest Evidence of Fire-Making: 400,000 Years Ago

A groundbreaking archaeological discovery in Suffolk, England, has pushed back the timeline for human-made fire by 350,000 years. Researchers excavating at Barnham uncovered compelling evidence that early Neanderthals were creating fire on demand 400,000 years ago—the earliest known instance of deliberate fire-making in human history. Published in Nature, the discovery contained three crucial pieces of evidence: a preserved hearth with heated sediments, fire-damaged hand axes, and fragments of iron pyrite—the mineral our ancestors used to create sparks by striking it with flint. What makes the pyrite discovery particularly significant is that this mineral doesn't occur naturally in the Suffolk area, meaning ancient inhabitants traveled considerable distances to obtain it. Professor Nick Ashton from the British Museum, who led the excavation, described it as "the most exciting discovery of my 40-year career."

• Top image: Image of scientists in an anthropological laboratory.  
• Source: AI Generated

By Gary Manners

References

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

02-01-2026 om 18:16 geschreven door peter