ARCHAEOLOGISTS who have unearthed six former Roman villa estates in the west of the county will unveil their latest findings at the end of the month.
More than 100 volunteers, consisting of historians, archaeologists and villagers have conducted a detailed analysis of the landscape around Bugbrooke, Flore, Harpole, Nether Heyford and Weedon in the last three years.
Although nine Roman settlements were found in total, they have successfully identified six Roman villas dating from the third and fourth centuries.
Bones hint at first use of fire
Human-like species living in Africa up to 1.5 million years ago may have known how to control fire, scientists say.
US and South African experts analysed burnt bones from Swartkrans, just north of Johannesburg, using the technique of electron spin resonance.
It showed the bones had been heated to high temperatures usually only achieved in hearths, possibly making it the first evidence of fire use by humans.
The results will be presented at the 2004 Paleoanthropology Society Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada, in March.
Aztec temple is reborn with belief in the sun's power
Wearing a scarlet headband and amulets, the Nahuatl shaman invoked the spirit of the "blessed creator" at dawn yesterday, as he raised an eagle-plumed staff over tens of thousands of pilgrims who had travelled to the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan to soak up the power of the equinox.
The long-abandoned site, 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, was founded early in the first millennium, and became Mexico's most successful pre-Hispanic city-state, with a peak population of 200,000. Its religion centred on sun and moon deities, and now the love affair with the sun is enjoying a revival.
Antiquities market updateSpain recovers 5,000 looted artefacts
Spanish authorities have uncovered an illegal archaeological museum featuring more than 5,000 priceless artefacts looted from Phoenician, Iberian, Roman and Islamic sites in the southern region of Andalusia, the civil guard announced on Monday.
The museum, located in a house basement in Aguilar de la Frontera in southern Spain, displayed "a priceless private collection" essentially made up of pieces stolen in Andalusia's Guadalquivir valley, spokesman Rafael Perez told reporters.
Float, float on. . .Did Noah really build an ark?
In the Bible, God tells Noah he has to build an ark and load a pair of every kind of animal before a great flood engulfs the world. It is widely regarded as a myth, but could it actually be true?
The story of Noah and his ark is one which sticks in the minds of children and never gets forgotten.
God warned Noah - the only good man left in a world full of corruption and violence - to prepare for a great flood. With his sons he built a great ark and the animals marched in two by two. By the time the rain started to fall, Noah was ready. The ark was a refuge until the waters went down, leaving Noah and his menagerie high and dry on Mount Ararat.
Well. Um. Whatever. Watch the program this is a promo for and see what all they have to say. Seems like one of those "If this, then maybe that, and possibly something else, and perhaps half a dozen other things, and how about that, it all makes sense!" kinda things.
Probably far more likely is recent work involving a massive flood in the Black Sea region. First put forward by Pitman and Ryan, the basic scenario goes like this:
The notion that the Black Sea flood could have triggered diaspora was first posited by two marine geologists at the Lamont-Dorherty Geophysical Observatory at Columbia University in New York. Based on their research in the region, William Ryan and Walter Pitman III concluded that as glaciers melted at the end of the last Ice Age, water from a rising Mediterranean Sea breached a natural dam at the Bosporus, plunging at least 300 feet into the Black Sea basin. For up to a year, water thundered into the area, engulfing a vast fresh-water lake and some 60,000 square miles of land.
Pay attention to Black Sea (bottom) archaeology: it will turn out to be a new frontier in archaeology.
And still more from the BBCUnlocking the secrets of the sea
State-of-the art underwater technology is helping researchers to unlock the secrets of the deep blue sea.
The University of Ulster's Centre for Maritime Archaeology has acquired detection equipment which was once the preserve of navy personnel.
The CMA's work at the university's Coleraine campus involves ancient shipwrecks and shifting sands.
Archaeologists record details of the thousands of shipwrecks along the British and Irish coasts.
Go us! Spies sign on for Kiwi's terror tool
A computer card developed in Hamilton is playing a key role in hunting international terrorists.
A Waikato University team led by former archaeologist Professor Ian Graham, made the first card for US$2000 ($3026) because they could not afford the US$100,000 machine which was all there was to study traffic flows on the internet.
Today most Western intelligence agencies use the team's cards to track internet traffic for key words and sources that may alert them to terrorists.
And Dr Graham has found a taste for business. When he started, he freely admits, he "knew nothing about business". Now he works fulltime for a company, Endace, which has earned almost $10 million in the financial year ending this month.
And still more BBC. . . .Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: Drying out!
There is a street in the centre of York that would be instantly recognisable to a resident of the city from the 10th century.
That is because it is a replica of the Viking settlement that once stood on that exact spot.
The one big difference is that the street is now five metres beneath the pavements of 21st century York.
It is part of the city's astonishing archaeological visitor attraction, Jorvik.