By Auslan Cramb

Alex Salmond dropped a cultural bombshell yesterday when he claimed that the Stone of Destiny, one of Scotland's most famous relics, was a medieval fake.

Can the latest technology solve the enigma of the mummy of Pharaoh Tuthmosis I, asks Nevine El-Aref

Ptolemaic artefacts from the north coast near Alexandria, traces of a New Kingdom fortified city in Northa Sinai and a Byzantine wine factory in South Sinai are the most recent treasures found in Egypt, Nevine El-Aref reports

Rehabilitating Islamic Cairo is part of the cultural heritage mission successfully accomplished by Jan Figel, the European commissioner for culture, education, training and youth, who was in Cairo last week to inaugurate a number of EU-funded cultural projects, Rania Khallaf reports

By Professor Assem Deif

THE EDITOR published in Al-Ahram Weekly on 30 January only parts of my reply to the first question of a reader called Ronald Edge from Chicago asking about how I define directions for determinations of alignment due north of the Great Pyramid, even contrasting it with a famous astronomical site in Paris.

Forty four years after the last archeological research of the famous Stonehenge, British scientists have organized two-week excavations. Although it will take years to study the findings, it goes without saying that the work will bring sensational results.

The Sinai Peninsula and St Catherine's Monastery were the highlight of this year's Egyptian World Heritage Day celebration, reports Nevine El-Aref

The Bush-GOP-Christian Famine Will kill 10 times that many people

An ancient Egyptian rubbish dump offers fascinating glimpses into life in the City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish

The ancient city of Aizanoi in Cavdarhisar town of the western Turkish city of Kutahya has been considered one of the most important historical sites.

Manouchehr Saadat Noury, PhD

The term Satrap derived from Old Persian Xsatrapa, means the Protector of the Land, and it was the name given to the provincial governor (in Persian: Osstandaar) in the ancient Median and Persian Empires, including the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC) and in several of their heirs, such as the Seleucids (330–250 BC), Parthians (250 BC–AD 226), and the Sassanid Empire (226–651). Darius I or Darius the Great (522-486 BC) established 20 to 28 satraps with an annual tribute.

Archaeologists claim to have found the palace of the Queen of Sheba, an altar that may have held the Ark of the Covenant

Roger Boyes

Carpet of stone: medieval mosaic pavement revealed

Maev Kennedy

by Darren Devine

THE Welsh have more in common with sun-kissed glamour pusses like actress Penelope Cruz and footballer Christiano Ronaldo than pale- faced Germans like Helmet Kohl, according to an academic.

Mati Milstein

Neandertals had big mouths that they were able to open unusually wide, new research has determined.

A recent study found that a combination of facial structure, forward-positioned molars, and an unusually large gap between the vertical parts of the back of the jaw allowed Neandertals (also spelled Neanderthals) to gape widely.

In a paper published in Geophysical Journal International, Dr Graeme Eagles from the Earth Sciences Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, reveals how one of the largest continents ever to exist met its demise.

By ALEX DOMINGUEZ

Akhenaten wasn't the most manly pharaoh, even though he fathered at least a half-dozen children.

In fact, his form was quite feminine. And he was a bit of an egghead.

A new excavation at Stonehenge seeks to prove that it was not a shrine of the dead but a temple of healing utilizing unique bluestones from a site 250 miles away in Wales.

By Thea Chard

A new, simplified family tree of humanity, published on Sunday, has dealt a blow to those who contend that the enigmatic hominids known as Neanderthals intermingled with our forebears.

unpeeled by modern technological sleuthing

Deciphering latent script on ancient parchment makes curator Will Noel's job an Indiana Jones-style adventure

By Richard O'Mara

Legends about vampires, so popular among gothic-style fans, have a real base. People that fear daylight, have yellow fang-like teeth, animal-looking nails and are allergic to garlic do exist, not to mention those who merely wear black, gothic jewelry, gets fang implants and bites innocent old ladies while high.

By ADRIAN DARBYSHIRE

AN Ancient Greek explorer's extraordinary voyage took him to the Isle of Man 300 years before the birth of Christ, new research claims.

By GEORGE JOHNSON

Perched on a lonesome bluff above the dusty San Pedro River, about 30 miles east of Tucson, the ancient stone ruin archaeologists call the Davis Ranch Site doesn’t seem to fit in. Staring back from the opposite bank, the tumbled walls of Reeve Ruin are just as surprising.

The artifact is is part of an MU exhibit on America before Columbus

By REBECCA DELANEY

Grave near Colchester could be the first burial site of an ancient mystic ever to be discovered in Britain

By Andrew Johnson

Jennifer Viegas

China's terracotta army, a collection of 7000 soldier and horse figures in the mausoleum of the country's first emperor, was covered with beaten egg when it was made, scientists say.

Ker Than

Fabric fragments excavated from the tomb of an ancient Maya queen rival modern textiles in their complexity and quality, scientists say.

The tomb was discovered in the Maya city of Copán in Honduras by a team led by archaeologist Robert Sharer of the University of Pennsylvania.

By Paul Rincon

Ancient humans started down the path of evolving into two separate species before merging back into a single population, a genetic study suggests.

By Bruce Bower

Holes in ancient skulls reflect skilled medical care

America’s democratic presidential race is between Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton.

Several years ago, we included a quotation in a presentation about the fascinating correlations in legends, scriptures and modern scientific discoveries about “shape shifters” in preparatory work for our DVD. (In our work, we found proof that the once widely accepted 19th century theory is correct, the asteroid belt is the remnants of a planet).

A bay in the far north of Scotland is to be searched by archaeologists in the hope of uncovering Viking artefacts.

UK museum seeks cash to keep a rare astrolabe in public hands.

Philip Ball

The fate of a fourteenth-century pocket calculator is hanging in the balance between museum ownership and private sale.

The Treasury of Atreus - also known as the Tomb of Agamemnon - is the largest and most impressive of the nine tholos tombs at Mycenae. The location of the Atreus Tomb has intrigued archaeologists for many years but by studying the landscape, the courses of the ancient roads and the various lines of sight at Mycenae, archaeologist David Mason believes he has found out why such an unusual and distinctive site was chosen for the tomb.

The voyage to America

Fossilized human feces reveals the first immigrants

Darah Hansen

Scientists from around the world who have been studying the centuries-old human remains that melted out of a glacier in northwestern British Columbia in 1999 will gather for the first time in Victoria later this month to talk about what they've learned from the unnamed "iceman."

Brian Handwerk

Today's tax codes are complicated, but the ancient Aztecs likely shared your pain.

To measure tracts of taxable land, Aztec mathematicians had to develop their own specialized arithmetic, which has only now been decoded.

This could be a good plot for a Hollywood movie: giant half an inch worms live under the ground of a huge megapolis, threatening the life of millions of its citizens. For the citizens of Moscow, Europe’s biggest city, this is, however a reality. Such worms were found and caught on video camera by Vadim Mikhaylov, a founder of the digger’s organization in Russia.

Jeremy Lovell

Archaeologists set out on Monday to unlock one of the secrets of Stonehenge, the majestic monument in southern England -- when were the first standing stones placed at the ancient religious site?

By Daniel A. Farber

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. --The Ninth Amendment

Nevine El-Aref reports on the reopening of Dendara Temple and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif's visit to Luxor

A rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period (8th-6th centuries BCE) was recently discovered in archaeological salvage excavations in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza.

During the recent archaeological salvage excavations in Parthian site of Nakhl-e Ebrahimi village, near the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, Iranian archaeologists have discovered a crypt containing a body of eight-year-old girl and burial gifts, reported by Persian service of CHN on Friday.

Iraqi archaeologists have discovered a new Babylonian town 180 kilometers south of Baghdad.

A rock-hewn cave used by Christians hiding from official church authorities has been found by chance at Hammamat Pharaon on the west Sinai coast, reports Nevine El-Aref

LUXOR, Egypt (AFP) - Egyptian and European archeologists on Saturday announced they had discovered a giant statue of an ancient pharaonic queen on the spectacular south Egypt site of the Colossi of Memnon.

Two rare gold coins of the rebel Roman emperor Carausius have been discovered on a construction site in the Midlands. Gold coins of Carausius are extremely rare. Only 23 are known, and the last was found as long ago as 1975 in Hampshire.

By Cate McQuaid

In 1883, a French army captain stationed in Tunisia, Ernest de Prudhomme, went outside to dig in his garden and happened upon a trove of mosaics. It was quite a find: The mosaics dated to the sixth century, the period known as Late Antiquity. They included images of two menorahs, and a Latin inscription between them read "Your servant, the girl Juliana, paved the holy synagogue of Naro for her own salvation out of her own resources."

By KENNETH CHANG

When archaeologists excavated brick tombs outside a ceremonial site for an early king of Egypt, they expected to find the remains of high officials who had been sacrificed to accompany the king in his posthumous travels.

Aliens downed Tunguska meteorite to protect our planet from devastation, stated Russian scientist Yuriy Lavbin. He showed 10 quartz crystals that he found at the place of the meteorite’s crash. Several of the crystals have holes in between, so they can be united in a chain.

Following 16 years of closure to the public, the Al-Muzawaka necropolis in Dakhla Oasis will soon be back on the tourists track, reports Nevine El-Aref