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History is full of lost arts and techniques that researchers are still trying to decipher, such as deciphering heirloom recipes lost to time. Some of these formulations are for the vibrant colors our ancestors developed millennia ago.
It’s easy to think of the past as a sepia-toned expanse. Over time, paint stained from objects and paint faded from disintegrating fabrics.
However, civilizations that lived thousands of years ago were full of vibrant colors.
Generations of craftsmen have worked to achieve brilliant hues like the perfect shade of blue. And microscopic traces revealed that floral motifs once adorned Greek marble statues.
Researchers may now have discovered the secret to one of the most valuable colors of all time.
Long time ago
The ancient Greeks and Romans considered Tyrian purple, first developed in the Bronze Age, a distinguished, royal color. But the recipe for the long-lasting pigment using Mediterranean sea snails disappeared with the collapse of the Byzantine Empire.
Researchers have found the valuable pigment inside 3,600-year-old potsherds containing purple dye from a Bronze Age workshop in the city of Kolonna on the Greek island of Aegina.
Discovered alongside crushed mollusk shells and stone tools, the pigment could still be used to dye fabric, according to researchers, but it has uncovered a new mystery in the crafting process.
we are a family
A fossilized ear bone found in a cave in Spain helps tell the story of a Neanderthal child with Down syndrome who was cared for by a community of young people.
The child, who lived about 146,000 years ago, likely had severe hearing loss, vertigo and balance problems, and abnormalities in his inner ear suggested he had Down syndrome.
Life would have been difficult for a defenseless child in the Stone Age because Neanderthals were moving from place to place. It’s surprising that the child lived to be 6, says paleoanthropologist Mercedes Conde-Valverde, an assistant professor at the University of Alcalá in Spain.
“It has been known for decades that Neanderthals cared for and protected their vulnerable companions,” Conde-Valverde said. “What was not known until now was the case of an individual receiving non-maternal care from birth, even though it was unpaid.”
Defying gravity
The space suits that allow NASA astronauts to perform spacewalks outside the International Space Station are becoming increasingly obsolete, but Collins Aerospace and NASA have halted plans to develop new suits.
The announcement comes as a coolant leak in the spacesuit worn by NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson halted plans for a spacewalk this week.
NASA and Boeing are considering extending the Starliner crew’s stay at the space station by up to three months as they continue to evaluate issues with the spacecraft.
Meanwhile, the agency has chosen SpaceX to design a vehicle that will deorbit the space station when it ceases operations at the end of the decade and falls into the ocean.
other worlds
The first in-depth look at a sample collected from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed that the space rock may have a watery past.
Organic compounds essential for life were present in the sample, similar to those found in mid-ocean ridges on Earth, and researchers now think Bennu may have broken away from an ancient oceanic world.
China’s Chang’e-6 lunar module also returned to Earth with its precious cache of the first samples taken from the far side of the Moon.
Data from NASA’s retiring InSight mission has revealed that Mars is hit by hundreds of basketball-sized space rocks each year, with two football field-sized impacts occurring as astronomers watched.
power of nature
Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula experienced an 800-year lull, but that all changed in 2021 when volcanoes there began to wake up. Now, new research identifying the main source feeding the hotbed of activity suggests the eruptions could continue for years or even decades.
Local communities such as Grindavík, a fishing town of more than 3,000 residents near the country’s iconic Blue Lagoon tourist attraction, could be forced into long-term evacuation going forward.
Meanwhile, although Mount Rainier in Washington state has not erupted for the last 1000 years, this is the issue that worries US volcanologists the most.
frequently asked questions
Share these new stories with your friends:
— Elite men served as scribes and recorded events during the rise of ancient Egyptian society — and administrative roles left unusual marks on their skeletons, including their spines and jaws.
— A new satellite was launched this week to monitor space weather as solar activity increases and could provide advance warning of solar storms erupting from the sun.
— The anatomy of a fossil belonging to an ancient sea creature surprised scientists and they realized that the fossil was upside down.
—Wood samples, a piece of twig, an animal bone and some ancient almonds have helped researchers uncover when the famous Greek Hellenistic-era ship Kyrenia actually sank.
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