Ring of Truth Reappears 40 Years Later

Oh, you have to appreciate this kind of happy ending.

More than 50 years later, a man will finally get his high school class ring back. Back in 1960, the man gave his Class of 1962 ring to his girlfriend as a token of affection. The two young people like each other — quite a lot, in fact — and so it was quite understandable that the young woman was mortified when, because of slippery fingers, she managed to drop the ring in the toilet mid-flush.

This unfortunate event occurred in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., where apparently the plumbing is quite good because the family's hastily called plumber spent a large amount of time ripping up the pipes without finding the ring. The woman apologized, the boyfriend accepted, and on they went, together. They eventually got married.

Fast forward to 2011 and a particularly bad storm in Roanoke Rapids, resulting in the collapse of a storm pipe. Wouldn't you know that the cleanup crew discovered the long-lost ring — intact if a bit dirty. The ring had become lodged in the sewer not far from where it entered the sewer system and had stayed there

The foreman of the crew that found the ring took it to a local jeweler, who returned the ring to its former shine and sheen. Then, it was on to finding the owner.

That proved to be the easy part because only 25 students graduated from the ring-owner's high school in 1962 and the school closed the very next year. A few phone calls later, the foreman was in touch with the ring's rightful owner, who is still married to the same woman.

No word from the couple on how they're going to look after the ring this time, but it's probably along the lines of a bookcase or trophy case or at least a drawer in a dresser far from the bathroom.

Fossil Hunter Sniffs Out an Archaeological First

The nose knows. Or someone knows about noses. Or something like that.

Anyway, scientists have announced that they have discovered a bone fragment that is about 13,000 years old in Florida, of all places. It's "of all places" because the bone fragment has etched on it an engraving of a trunked animal. That, together with the dating of the fragment, make this find the only known example of art that a proboscidean (the aforementioned trunked animal) found in North or South America. Europe, of course, has several examples of such nose-heavy art, but the Americas haven't been able to join the nose-knows club, until now.

A fossil hunter found the bone fragment in Vero Beach, Fla., and found the artwork only while doing the cleaning. The fragment is just 3 inches long and 1.75 inches tall and is part of a bone of a large mammal — scientists think it was a mammoth or maybe a mastodon. (The longshot speculation would be on giant sloth, but none of the scientists were willing to enhance that speculation with enthusiastic support.)

You can read all about it in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Also involved in the preservation of this terribly important fragment will be the Museum Conservation Institute and the National Museum of Natural History. Oh, and the Smithsonian Institution.

With such historical heavyweights involved, you'd have to ask what it all means in the grander scheme of things. Is it a watershed moment? Probably not. Is it something that hasn't been before? Well, yes and no — yes in various caves in Europe but no in parts Western. So from that perspective, it is significant. It's all part of a greater picture of anthropology that continues to emerge, from likely and unlikely sources.

The Official Was the Cause of Gladiator's Death, Professor Claims

Blame the referee.

That's one academic's theory about an enigmatic epitaph that has stumped historians for nearly 100 years. The epitaph is on the tombstone of a Roman gladiator who died about 1.800 years ago in what is now Turkey.

The tombstone depicts what could be the final scene in the life of a Roman gladiator, Diodorus, who died after a fight with Demetrius, another gladiator. The tombstone shows one gladiator holding two swords while the other gladiator is on the ground, holding up one hand as if in submission.

It is that last word that is the key, according to a Canadian professor, who believes that he has solved the mystery. The inscription on the tombstone reads ""After breaking my opponent Demetrius I did not kill him immediately. Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me."

The summa rudis was the referee. The professor believes that the reference to the referee is a a suggestion that certain rules were not followed. In detail, a gladiator who has lost his sword can request submission; also, a gladiator who has fallen by accident can get up, pickup his sword, and keep on fighting.

The professor's theory is that the tombstone, which has been in the Brussels Musee du Cinquanternaire since the early 20th Century, depicts Diodorus holding two swords and Demetrius on the ground and that the referee allowed Demetrius to get back up, after he had fallen and Diodorus had grabbed his sword. The result was a reversal of fortune, as Demetrius then gained the upper hand and Diodorus paid with his life, either right then or later, as a result of the renewed struggle.

Even though the tombstone shows Diodorus in a strong position, holding both swords, the tombstone doesn't show the final part of the story, which would be quite the opposite of what is being depicted.

It's one man's theory, perhaps, and it's a bit convoluted. But if it can be corroborated, we can all rest easier, at least in gladiatorial terms, which is more than can be said for Diodorus.

Blackbeard Exhibit Now on Display

Leave it to Blackbeard to make off with his own treasure even as his flagship was no longer of any use.

The revered pirate, whom many people believe was a man named Edward Teach, lost his favorite ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, when it ran aground off the coast of North Carolina in the early 18th Century. But because the ship merely hit rocks, instead of sinking, the pirate captain and his crew had ample time to get away with whatever they could carry, which was probably jewels, gold, and other lightweight items — including the legendary guns, cutlass, and matches to light his hair on slow-burn fire.

The rest of it is now on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museum. Among the items to be shown are cannons, lead shots, bells, anchors, and much more, about 300 items in all. The curiosity factor alone will be enough to get many people in the doors of the museum, which plans to leave the items on permanent display.

One of the more prominent items on display will be the large anchor just plucked from the depths. Weighing 3,000 pounds and measuring 13 feet long and 16 feet wide, the anchor was a particular target of the salvage crew.

The display will no doubt benefit as well from the popularity of the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, in which both Blackbeard and the Queen Anne's Revenge feature prominently.

'Modern' Disease Found in Ancient People

Something new is old again. Or something old is new again. It's the same story here, with here being a study out of Emory University reporting that some of the peoples of the ancient Nubian lands died of a disease still around today.

That disease is schistosomiasis, which travels through the skin after contact with worm-infested waters. In the 21st Century, more than 200 million people contract this dread disease, which results in a rash, fever and chills, coughs and achy muscles. And that's when it's treated. If you don't do a thing about it other than hope it goes away, you could suffer damage to your internal organs, specifically the bladder, intestines, liver, and lungs. Nasty stuff, that schistosomiasis.

The thing is, scientists have thought that it's mainly a "modern" disease, meaning that the ancient folks, who suffered from many other diseases that aren't around today because we've managed to make drugs that help prevent or eradicate them, had this kind of sickness bullet to dodge as well.

How do we know this? Well, the good scientists who contributed to that Emory University study did some well-informed tests on 200 mummies found in two populations in what is now Sudan, at two different time periods: 1,200 years ago and 1,500 years ago. The earlier population was settled along a river but depended on canal irrigation to help their food crops flourish. The later population was different again, depending on only the oft-flooding Nile for their waterborne crop nourishment. Turns out that in both cases, that water was also bearing along the pathogen that likely made their lives very unpleasant, if not shortened.

You can read the full study here.

Climate Change Caused Viking Exit from Greenland: Study

So they got cold, did they? Surely they were made of sterner stuff, or so the histories would have us believe.

Seems the Vikings high-tailed it out of Greenland after the temperature dropped 7 degrees in a handful of generations way back in the 12th Century.

They were living there, and then they weren't. Similar patterns can be found in the 1300s and 1400s as well.

The Vikings arrived in 980, when things were hot all the way round, including on Greenland. The winters were harsh, of course, but the Vikings would have been used to that. Apparently, though, the winters (and the summers) got harsher still, and the result was a mass migration.

Now, the number of Vikings living on Greenland in the 12th Century was nowhere near the current population of New York or Paris, but the settlements were widespread enough to suggest more than a few people sprinkled here and there up and down the coast. So it seems strange that a little bit of cold would convince them to find greener pastures elsewhere.

We just don't know a whole lot about this time in history, mainly because the protagonists in our Little Ice Age story weren't all that good at writing things down and leaving them behind for future generations to find an decipher. We can guess, surely, but where does that get us?

The people doing the guessing — sorry, the educated speculating are from Brown University and have published a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study's findings will no doubt be discussed and dissected for years to come.

The study suggests, actually, that the shift in temperatures downward affected the land and its ability to grow crops and support livestock. Not having enough food is certainly more of a reason that Vikings would abandon their Greenland outposts. It also lets the Norsemen off the hook in terms of having to answer an uncomfortable question.