#archaeology

#archaeology

Analysis of ancient faeces taken from two toilets reveals dysentery in Old Testament Jerusalem.Examination of the latrines dating back to the biblical Kingdom of Judah uncovered traces of a single-celled microorganism Giardia duodenalis a common cause of debilitating diarrhoea in humans.The findings are the oldest example of this diarrhoea-causing parasite infecting humans anywhere on the planet, the researchers lead by the University of Cambridge said.

Boffins at the University of California, Berkeley, have delved into the undisclosed depths of OpenAI's ChatGPT and the GPT-4 large language model at its heart, and found they're trained on text from copyrighted books.Academics Kent Chang, Mackenzie Cramer, Sandeep Soni, and David Bamman describe their work in a paper titled, "Speak, Memory: An Archaeology of Books Known to ChatGPT/GPT-4."
"We find that OpenAI models have memorized a wide collection of copyrighted materials, and that the degree of memorization is tied to the frequency with which passages of those books appear on the web," the researchers explain in their paper.

The biggest archaeological dig on a section of Hadrian's Wall since the 1990s is continuing and experts hope it will reveal more secrets of life on a northern outpost of the Roman Empire.Historic England and Newcastle University are running a five-year excavation programme at the Birdoswald fort, Cumbria, which is part of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site.

Architect Lina Ghotmeh discusses her design for this year's Serpentine Pavilion in London, in this exclusive video produced by Dezeen for the gallery.Set to take the form of a timber shelter housing a concentric table for visitors to congregate around, Ghotmeh's pavilion in London's Kensington Gardens will open to the public next Friday - 9 June 2023.

The cruelty of teenage girls can often feel like life-or-deathbut in Yellowjackets, Showtime's hit series about a New Jersey girl's soccer team that gets stranded in the wilderness, it really is.Starving, freezing, and with no animals to hunt and little else to lose, the teens have slowly transformed from classmates into cannibals.

Oxford University had a Sackler Library, two Sackler galleries, a Sackler officer and a Sackler keeper of antiquities.But after the family's name an acknowledgment to the dynasty's generous donations came under scrutiny because of some of its members' ties to the opioid crisis in the United States, Oxford announced on Monday that it would drop mention of it from several of its buildings and staff positions.

It has never been easier for designers and brands to access recyclable materials and close the clothing loop, says Christopher Raeburn in this interview.Speaking to Dezeen from his studio, which is housed in the former Burberry textile factory in east London, the British designer explained that sustainable fashion has gone from fringe to mainstream since he started his brand in the late noughties.

Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter.Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.Smells hover just below our conscious awareness, conjuring up emotions and memories that shape how we perceive and navigate the world.An unexpected whiff of a long-forgotten snack or a dusty book can transport a person to years past enabling a kind of time travel that makes hazy memories more vivid.

The University of Oxford will remove the Sackler name from its buildings and staff posts following a review into its ties with the family.It comes after a number of institutions have ended their relationships with the Sackler family in recent years over its association with the US opioid crisis.The Sackler Library in Oxford, as well as a number of galleries and staff posts at the Ashmolean Museum in the city, will be renamed following the review.

Set up Roman Found on Instagram We almost started it as a joke in the garden during lockdown.My cousin, Ellie, bought a metal-detector for herself and then I got my hands on it and she never got it back!It was something fun to do when we really couldn't do a lot.I'd always had this interest in history since I was a young child as I grew up metal-detecting with my dad.

The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau.Sign up to get it by email.This week's issue is written by Natasha Frost, a reporter in Melbourne.As a design student in Melbourne in the 1960s, Mimmo Cozzolino, who in childhood had moved with his family to Australia from Italy, was struck by his lecturers' preoccupation with design movements taking place on the other side of the earth.

Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter.Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.When archaeologists uncovered the burial site of two brothers who lived during the 15th century BC in Israel, they were surprised to discover that one of them had brain surgery shortly before he died.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails An archaeological dig has uncovered what is believed to be a Roman shrine beneath a graveyard.Excavations at the site of an old song school in the grounds of Leicester Cathedral began in October 2021 and have since produced a remarkable amount of information, dig directors have said.

Kehinde Wiley's work cuts deep.In his paintings, he unsheathes the pain of historic and ongoing violence against Black and brown bodies.Unflinchingly he faces the imagery of power and reimagines its symbols.In his new show AnArchaeology of Silence opening at the de Young Museum on March 18, Wiley applies his voice and incredible talent to historic figures in positions of repose - soldiers slain in battle, Christ figures, swooning royalty - by exchanging white subjects for Black ones.

The University of Cambridge will return looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria.The 116 artefacts, which are mainly made of brass but also include some ivory and wooden objects, were taken by British armed forces during the sacking of Benin City in 1897.During the attack, the British burned the city's palace and exiled Benin's Oba, or king, with thousands of brasses and other works  collectively known as the Benin bronzes'  taken and later sold off in London to recoup the costs of the military mission.

Kinnerton Street in Belgravia, central London, was built as a mews to service grand houses, with stables for horses and poky rooms for servants upstairs.Despite a century of conversion of the low rows into very desirable residences, the street retains some original facades with wooden doors wide enough for carriages, opening to the pavementless road for ease of mucking-out.

A 1,300-year-old necklace, discovered on the site of a new housing development, was buried in the grave of a woman who may have been royalty or a powerful Christian leader, archaeologists have said.The centuries-old treasure was found during excavations in April ahead of construction starting on a new housing development in Northamptonshire.

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email A two-thousand-year-old object discovered in Northumberland in 1992 has been reassessed only to find it's not a darning tool as originally believed.Archaeologists think they have found the only known, lifesize Roman dildo.

Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter.Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.A seven-word inscription discovered by accident on a 3,700-year-old lice comb is the oldest known sentence written in an alphabet, according to a new study.The inscription written on the ivory comb is in Canaanite, the earliest alphabet, and the source of the Latin one used today to write English and many other European languages.