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“ This piece is not something you would associate with a king or someone of high status, it is more likely to be an outdoor working garment,” says Peter MacDonald of the Scottish Tartans Authority.
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This Scrap of Fabric Is the Oldest-Known Scottish Tartan BBC Newsįorty years after a 22-by-17-inch piece of material was found in the Glen Affric peat bog in the Scottish Highlands, dye analysis and radiocarbon testing has shown it to be the remnants of green, brown, red, and yellow tartan from the 16th century. “This discovery of new species concealed in common locales underscores the necessity of persistent exploration, even in seemingly unremarkable settings,” the team explains. Scientists in Japan have identified a new species of orchid, a beautiful bloom with rosy pink petals that is, unexpectedly, found in manicured lawns and balcony gardens.
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An Elegant New Orchid Found Hiding in Plain Sight EurekaAlert The work has not yet been authenticated, but breathless estimates of its worth top $50 million. Did the Bulgarian Police Discover an Unknown Jackson Pollock Painting? by Taylor Defoe, ArtnetĪn investigation into organized crime in Sofia, Bulgaria, led to an unexpected discovery: a painting that may have been created by Jackson Pollock for actress (and well-known collector) Lauren Bacall for her 25th birthday in 1949. Their studies have shown that it serves as the “glue” of the mountain range-and it is thawing. There, scientists are studying the permafrost in the rock walls.
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The cable car system that ferries visitors from Chamonix to the top of Aiguille du Midi in the French Alps is also “one of the most unusual natural laboratories in the world,” writes reporter Vedrana Simičević. He finds that the clubs weren’t the crude weapon we picture them to be today, but rather “probably required considerable expertise to craft and maneuver.” How Climate Change Is Reshaping the Alps by Vedrana Simičević, BBC Future Club-Wielding Ancestors: Myth or Reality? by Václav Hrnčír, SapiensĪrchaeologist Václav Hrnčír explores the caveman’s club, from the oldest known example-found at Kalambo Falls in Zambia and dating back at least 300,000 years-to those wielded by LEGO minifigs and Fred Flintstone. It’s a family saga that includes a museum renovation, an abandoned storage container and an FBI task force. The Odd Journey of Abraham Lincoln’s Hair by Matt Bai, The Washington PostĪ reporter-turned-detective tries to figure out how Justice John Marshall’s gallstones, a metal key that unlocked one of Philadelphia’s first jails, and strands of President Abraham Lincoln’s blood-stained hair ended up in his neighbor’s basement in Washington, D.C.
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