“This is just what we need in the run-up to Christmas, isn’t it?” Thus writes Tom Wood about the oldest of “13 viruses previously unknown to science” emerging from the melting Siberian permafrost due to global warming. Wood names some unhealthy implications for us all. Articles beneath his enlarge upon this story and introduce the complementary notion of “‘zombie ice’ from Greenland.” But there’s some good news as well, as The Emperor Wasn’t Fake after All! Research on Gold Coin Yields Historic Results. A coin found in 1713 has proven not a modern creation but a real c. 260 CE issue by a military-leader-turned-Roman-emperor in Dacia. Maddalena Mastrostefano tells the remarkable story of Sponsian’s non-zombie reanimation to history. But Ruth Schuster has another unearthing-conundrum as Mysterious Footprints in Spain Were Made 300,000 Years Ago. Redating footprints once thought made “only” about 100,000 BP raises questions about just who were their owners. Schuster well presents the “fluidity” in current human palaeontology this newest surprise represents. And Tom Hale says an Underwater “Swiss Stonehenge” Was Built by Unknown Ancient Culture. Recent work identified an artificial feature composed of almost 200 stacks of stones that’s more than six miles long, now at the bottom of Lake Constance in Central Europe. But built for what, and by whom? (WM)
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