Rome:

The remains of a 2,000-year-old wooden ship, dating back to the Roman Empire, have been found near Rome's ancient port of Ostia.

The ship's discovery, made during work at the site of a new road, has been hailed as an important one by archaeologists.

The wooden ship is about 11 metres long, making it one of the largest ancient vessels excavated near Ostia Antica, a port city founded 2,500 years ago that became Rome's first colony.

The ship's bow and stern are missing.

"The restoration work is very delicate as we have to continually cover the boat with water to prevent the wood drying out. It needs to be handled using very sophisticated techniques," archaeologist Anna Maria Moretti said.

The remains of the ship were found four metres below the ground during repair of a bridge linking the modern-day coastal town of Ostia to the fishing port of Fiumicino, where Rome's main airport is located.

Culture Minister Giancarlo Galan described the discovery as "spine-tingling".

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Peking Man's Intelligene Proved

Washington
          
                      A new research has found that Peking Man, who is believed to be 700,000 years old, was smarter than thought.

            At a time when China’s climate was chillier than it is today, a group of  Homo erectus lived in a cave system in Zhoukoudian China.

            A team of scientists led by Dr. Chen Shen, of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada, have been re-examining the tools that Peking Man used.

           “The new study suggests that Peking Man lithic technology was not simple as previously thought,” Unreported Heritage News quoted Shen in the abstract of a paper, as saying.

               “The micro-wear evidence indicates many typed tools were made for specific tasks related to processing animal substances,” added Shen.

                Peking Man didn’t just know how to butcher animals, he also knew the best way to hunt them – with the end of a stone pointed spear.

               “Importantly, most pointed tools were probably hafted, and this provides arguably the earliest evidence for the composition tools in the Chinese Middle Pleistocene,” said Shen.

                The paper was presented at a recent Society for American Archaeology conference.

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