Orellana was right
When in the 16th century the Spanish conqueror Francisco de Orellana sailed the Amazon River, he said that there were big cities on both sides of the river. Few believed then, let alone in the following centuries, when no trace of what the conquest itself had destroyed was found.
But French archaeologist Stéphen Rostain has studied the Ecuadorian Amazon in recent years using LiDAR technology and has just published the result in Science magazine: It has identified over 6,000 platforms and structures connected through a wide network of “roads” and surrounded by farmland using complex drainage systems. He has identified a total of 15 cities. The conqueror was therefore right.
Members of the James Cook University and the Research Council of Australia have discovered ceramic fragments from 2,000-3,000 years ago on the island of Jiigurru in northwestern Australia. These are the oldest ceramic remains discovered so far in Australia. The geological study... [+]
Rome, a.C. 443. Censors were elected for the first time. Two centuries later it would be the most important magistrature of the Republic. Every five years, they chose two censors among consular senators.
It was a position of great responsibility: they were primarily responsible... [+]
Chronicler Theophanes Declarante stated that winter 763-764 was one of the coldest in history. Snow and ice occupied the Byzantine capital and also saw an iceberg in Bosforón.
Climate cooling has been considered to be due, among other factors, to the lack of volcanic activity... [+]
Toledo, 1272-1280. Alfonso X of Castile gathered 427 monomedical songs dedicated to the Virgin. The Cantigas de Santa Maria constitute one of the most important musical and literary collections of the Middle Ages, but being decorated with the miniature cantiga, these... [+]
It has been considered that the wine drank by the ancient Romans was a poorly made wine, without body and with an unpleasant taste. But the work that researchers at the universities of Ghent and Warsaw have published in Antiquity has provoked the withdrawal of this belief.
The... [+]