Tom Metcalfe

Tom Metcalfe is a freelance journalist and regular Live Science contributor who is based in London in the United Kingdom. Tom writes mainly about science, space, archaeology, the Earth and the oceans. He has also written for the BBC, NBC News, National Geographic, Scientific American, Air & Space, and many others.

Articles by: Tom Metcalfe

One of the polished stone balls found in a Neolithic tomb on Tresness in the Orkney Islands. Hundreds of such balls have been found but no one knows what they were used for.

Mysterious stone balls found in Neolithic tomb on remote Scottish island

By Tom Metcalfe published

Two polished stone balls shaped about 5,500 years ago — linked to a mysterious practice almost unique to Neolithic Britain — have been discovered in an ancient Scottish tomb.

The 1,600-year-old wooden idol was found in a bog in County Roscommon in the west of Ireland. It seems to have been deliberately broken in two.

8-foot-tall pagan idol unearthed in Irish bog

By Tom Metcalfe published

A wooden pole made from an oak tree trunk and carved into the shape of a pagan idol 1,600 years ago has been unearthed in a bog in Ireland.

old ryazan buried treasure

Medieval Russians hid silver hoard before Mongol invasion

By Tom Metcalfe published

Archaeologists in southwest Russia have unearthed a trove of medieval silver at a site where treasure was often hidden from an invading Mongol army in the 13th century.

England king arthur stone monument

Ancient monument linked to King Arthur is older than Stonehenge, research finds

By Tom Metcalfe published

The stone structure was part of a ceremonial landscape.

Damien Jemison, photographer at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), captured this image of the NIF laser beam lines entering a part of the target chamber. Jemison needed five exposures to capture the range of light in the dimly lit spot. He also converted the resulting image to monotone, saying "The end result is my artistic view of how I feel when standing face-to-face with the highest-energy laser in the world."

Fusion experiment breaks record, blasts out 10 quadrillion watts of power

By Tom Metcalfe published

This aerial picture taken on July 27, 2021, shows a burned forest at Gorny Ulus, west of Yakutsk, in Siberia.

Siberian wildfires dwarf all others on Earth combined

By Tom Metcalfe published

Smoke from massive wildfires in Russia's eastern Siberia region has reached the geographic North Pole "for the first time in recorded history," according to NASA.

Researchers say the building was once a local office of the NSV, a Nazi welfare agency that distributed gas masks, among other tasks.

History teacher finds secret cache of Nazi artifacts hidden behind house wall

By Tom Metcalfe published

A secret cache of Nazi artifacts — including badges adorned with eagles and swastikas, and a portrait of Adolf Hitler — has been found in Hagen, Germany.

Accurate radiocarbon dates of the bones of skeletons found at Machu Picchu in 1912 show the Inca citadel was inhabited by 1420 – several decades earlier than expected.

Machu Picchu was built decades earlier than thought

By Tom Metcalfe published

The mountaintop Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in southern Peru was built and inhabited decades earlier than previously believed.

The stone marking the sacred limits of the ancient city was found near the historic center of Rome in June 2021.

Sacred stone tied to the legend of Romulus and Remus unearthed in Rome

By Tom Metcalfe published

An immense stone that defined the sacred city limits of ancient Rome almost 2,000 years ago has been unearthed by construction workers in the historic center of the city.

Snowcapped mountains in Akureyri, Iceland.

Iceland may be the tip of a sunken continent

By Tom Metcalfe published

Iceland may be the last exposed remnant of a nearly Texas-size continent — called Icelandia — that sank beneath the North Atlantic Ocean about 10 million years ago

Here, a reconstruction of the Treporti Channel road in Roman rimes. The Venice lagoon would have been to the left of the road and to the Adriatic Sea to the right.

Sunken settlement discovered beneath a Venice lagoon

By Tom Metcalfe published

The submerged remains of a Roman road have been found on the seafloor of the Venice lagoon, along with archaeological structures that are thought to be what's left of a dock and settlements.

A cannabis plant in bloom.

Cannabis originated in China, genetic analysis reveals

By Tom Metcalfe published

Cannabis, the source of marijuana, originated in northwest China, where local strains are most like the original strain of cannabis cultivated more than 12,000 years ago.

Sediment show the timber-lined pit was filled with water; archaeologists think it formed an artificial pool that reflected the sky and that it may have been used for water rituals.

Bronze Age 'infinity pool' hosted supernatural water rituals, archaeologists say

By Tom Metcalfe published

A mysterious wooden structure built in Italy more than 3,000 years ago may have been a Bronze Age "infinity pool" that reflected the sky during religious rituals.

This iceberg-filled passage, Lemaire Channel, lies in the Southern Ocean.

Earth's fifth ocean just confirmed

By Tom Metcalfe published

Only three coins of this type have ever been found before in Poland, which was well beyond the Carolingian realms. Archaeologists suspect they are linked to the Scandinavian trading emporium at Truso.

Hoard of silver coins may have been part of historic ransom to save Paris

By Tom Metcalfe published

A hoard of silver coins minted in the Carolingian Empire may have been part of a historic ransom to save Paris from a Viking invasion.

The amulet was discovered by an Israeli pioneer about 40 years ago near the site of an ancient Jewish synagogue and was recently given to the IAA.

Ancient 'magical' amulet used to ward off the 'evil eye' rediscovered after 40 years

By Tom Metcalfe published

A bronze amulet inscribed with the name of God and symbols for protection against the curse of the "evil eye" has been rediscovered after being lost in Israel 40 years ago.

Archaeologists are investigating a football field behind Alexandra Hospital in Singapore that is thought to cover the mass grave of victims of a massacre in 1942.

Mass grave of WWII massacre victims could be hiding under field in Singapore

By Tom Metcalfe published

Archeologists are investigating a lawn that's thought to cover the mass grave of the victims of a wartime massacre in Singapore, ahead of the construction of a hospital extension on the site.

During the 1918 influenza pandemic, warehouses were converted to keep infected people quarantined.

1918 flu mutated to become deadlier in later waves, century-old lungs reveal

By Tom Metcalfe published

The influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic mutated into variants, much like the novel coronavirus has done in the current pandemic, century-old virus samples reveal.

Albert Einstein stands with a student, circa 1945. The theoretical physicist was known to correspond with random people who wrote to him, according to researchers of a new study describing a letter he wrote to an engineer in the British Royal Navy.

Albert Einstein's lost letter to British engineer suggests 'unknown physics' in animal behavior

By Tom Metcalfe published

In a newly discovered letter written by Albert Einstein, the renowned physicist suggested there could be a link between the migrations of birds and "unknown" physical processes.

The silver shilling coin portrays Charles I, who was the King of England at the time when it was struck in the 1630s

Rare silver coin portraying King Charles I discovered in a field in Maryland

By Tom Metcalfe published

The 3D photogrammetric scan of the wrecked submarine matches the dimensions of HMS Urge and shows where the bow of the vessel broke off as it plunged into the seafloor.

Wartime submarine 'HMS Urge' identified, quashing conspiracy theories of sub's secret mission

By Tom Metcalfe published

Divers have confirmed the identity of the wreck of a British submarine called HMS Urge, quashing controversial claims that it was sunk by Italian warplanes during a secret mission.

The infant's grave at the Panga ya Saidi cave is about 78,000 years old, making it the the oldest Homo sapiens burial in Africa.

Oldest deliberate burial of a human in Africa discovered

By Tom Metcalfe published

A tiny grave holding the remains of a 3-year-old child is now the oldest deliberate burial of a Homo sapiens individual in Africa.

The newly discovered tomb, seen here from the south-west, was unearthed when workmen using a mechanical digger overturned a large slab above it.

'Untouched' Bronze Age tomb containing human remains and a mysterious stone found in Ireland

By Tom Metcalfe published

An ancient tomb thought to date back more than 3,000 years has been discovered in southwest Ireland by workmen carrying out land improvements on a farm.

The latest research from the Plain of Jars combines the ages of some of the stone jars with the ages of some of the burials – most of the burials were found to be much younger than the stone jars.

'Plain of Jars', one of the most mysterious archaeological sites, reveals its true age

By Tom Metcalfe published

The 1693 Yemeni silver coin found in 2014 in Rhode Island. Similar similar coins have since been unearthed at American colonial sites.

Silver coins unearthed in New England may be loot from one of the 'greatest crimes in history'

By Tom Metcalfe published

A handful of Arabian silver coins found in New England may be the last surviving relics of history's most notorious act of piracy — and perhaps one of the most famous pirates who ever lived.