The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.
A new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press out yesterday shows that ‘progressive
A hardy band of Neanderthals may have made a last stand for their species at a remote outpost in subarctic Russia, a newfound prehistoric ‘tool kit’ suggests.
The Ural Mountains site ‘may be one of the last [refuges] of the Neanderthals, and that would be very exciting,’ said study leader Ludovic Slimak, an archaeologist at France’s Université de Toulouse le Mirail.
Neanderthals dominated Europe for some 200,000 years until modern humans began moving into the region about 45,000 years ago. The two human species likely shared space for a while, but it’s a mystery what happened during that period, how long it lasted, and why Homo sapiens prevailed in the end.
(Related: ‘Neanderthals, Humans Interbred-First Solid DNA Evidence.’)
Previous archaeological evidence had placed the last known Neanderthal refuges on the Iberian Peninsula, home to current-day Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar. (See ‘Neanderthals” Last Stand Was in Gibraltar, Study Suggests.’)
‘Not surprisingly, it was in the peripheral areas’-Iberia and perhaps northwestern Europe-’that Neanderthals remained the longest as discrete populations,’ said Neanderthal expert Erik Trinkaus, of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who wasn’t part of the new study.
But now hundreds of stone tools found at Byzovaya-a Russian site at the same chilly latitude as Iceland-could redraw the […]
Researchers from the Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes in Istanbul and the Laboratoire de Tribologie et de Dynamiques des Systèmes have analyzed the oldest obsidian bracelet ever identified, discovered in the 1990s at the site of Aşıklı Höyük, Turkey. Using high-tech methods developed by LTDS to study the bracelet’s surface and its micro-topographic features, the researchers have revealed the astounding technical expertise of craftsmen in the eighth millennium BC. Their skills were highly sophisticated for this period in late prehistory, and on a par with today’s polishing techniques. This work is published in the December 2011 issue of Journal of Archaeological Science, and sheds new light on Neolithic societies, which remain highly mysterious.
Dated to 7500 BC, the obsidian bracelet studied by the researchers is unique. It is the earliest evidence of obsidian working, which only reached its peak in the seventh and sixth millennia BC with the production of all kinds of ornamental objects, including mirrors and vessels. It has a complex shape and a remarkable central annular ridge, and is 10 cm in diameter and 3.3 cm wide. Discovered in 1995 at the exceptional site of Asıklı Höyük in Turkey and displayed ever since at the Aksaray Archeological Museum, the […]
NEW YORK and HONG KONG — China has again outshone the US as the top venue for initial public offerings despite steep share price falls on the mainland and Hong Kong stock markets, highlighting the shift in global financial activity from west to east.
Companies raised $73bn from IPOs in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong this year, according to Dealogic – almost double the amount of money raised on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq combined.
Hong Kong retained its crown as the top bourse for the third year in a row, with $30.9bn raised this year. That figure compares with $30.7bn and $18bn, respectively, on the New York and London stock exchanges.
The results belied much weaker deal flow on mainland and Hong Kong exchanges this year, as market turmoil forced companies to delay share offerings and, in some cases, call them off at the last minute. The $73bn they raised was less than half last year’s total, compared with a 6 per cent decline in IPO fundraising on US exchanges.
The US last topped the IPO league tables in 2008.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index is also down nearly 20 per cent this year and China’s main index in Shanghai has […]