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.
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2,800-year-old ivory carved with sphinx discovered in TurkeyThe artifact is from an Iron Age settlement at Hattusa that was established after the city was abandoned by the Hittites.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Stone Age Europeans mastered spear-throwers 10,000 years earlier than we thought, study suggestsThe researchers say their study pushes back the dates for the use of spear-throwers in Europe by more than 10,000 years.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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'Magical' Roman wind chime with phallus, believed to ward off evil eye, unearthed in SerbiaPhallic objects like this were common in the Roman world to ward off evil.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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500-year-old Hebrew note reveals 'lost' earthquake swarm in ItalyA Hebrew note found in the Vatican Library describes a 1446 earthquake swarm previously unknown to seismologists.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Remains of 2,000-year-old sheep-drawn chariot discovered near 'Terracotta Army' in ChinaOnly the sheep's skeletons remain, but such vehicles appear in Chinese lore.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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500-year-old lion drawing in Puerto Rican cave may have been made by an enslaved AfricanThere were no lions in 16th-century Puerto Rico — so was the cave drawing made by someone who'd actually seen one?
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Dozens of centuries-old stone grenades from Ming dynasty discovered at Great Wall of ChinaThe weapons are among a variety of explosive devices used in China during the Ming dynasty.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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'World-class aquifer' enabled ancient African kingdom to thrive in the Sahara for hundreds of yearsThe rise and fall of the Garamantes in what is now Libya is a cautionary tale for regions that rely on ancient groundwater.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Cannibalism was a common funerary rite in northwest Europe near end of last ice ageResearch suggests cannibalism was a funerary rite for the Magdalenian people in northwest Europe, but others preferred to bury their dead.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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2nd-century Alexander the Great statue with lion's-mane hairstyle unearthed in TurkeyThe discovery shows the popularity of the ancient ruler hundreds of years after his death.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Norwegian family finds 1,200-year-old Viking treasure while searching for a lost earring in their yardThe discovery includes two roughly 1,200-year-old brooches, made from bronze and once gilded with gold, that may have belonged to an aristocratic woman.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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1,400-year-old tomb of emperor in China reveals evidence of royal power struggle among brothers and a warlordAn inscription on the 1,400-year-old tomb shows the dead man, who was posthumously declared emperor, was buried as a duke.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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'Ritual text' from lost Indo-European language discovered on ancient clay tablet in TurkeyResearchers are still studying the ancient text of an unknown language, written in cuneiform on a clay tablet.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Cup crafted from prehistoric human skull discovered in cave in SpainA new study suggests that Spain's ancient peoples shared complex beliefs about death and the afterlife.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Early medieval warrior found buried with his weapons in GermanyArchaeologists think the man died during the Merovingian period, an early stage of the Germanic-speaking empire of the Franks.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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14th-century shipboard cannon that fired 'stone shots' may be Europe's oldest on recordAn analysis of cloth found inside the cannon suggests that it dates to the 14th century and that the weapon was charged with gunpowder and ready to fire.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Early human relatives purposefully crafted stones into spheres 1.4 million years ago, study claimsThe stone spheres were crafted by early hominins who were trying to create symmetry in the objects, a new study suggests.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Who were the first farmers?Farming fundamentally altered the way humans live, eventually changing people from nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary city-dwellers.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Divers recover US airman's remains from WWII bomber wreck near MaltaThe remains have been identified as those of a gunner killed when the badly damaged aircraft crashed into the sea in 1943.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Mysterious 17th-century 'cauldron' may be primitive submarine used to salvage treasure from a sunken galleonThe object was found on the seafloor off Florida, near the wreck of a Spanish treasure galleon.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Wreckage from Tuskegee airman's warplane recovered from Lake HuronThe recovered wreck will help tell the full story of America's first Black military pilots.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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See the likeness of Bonnie Prince Charlie, who led Scottish clan uprising against the British crownThe new look of Charles Edward Stuart as a young man is based on forensic studies of his death masks.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Synagogue unearthed in Russia may be one of the oldest outside Israel. But not everyone is convinced.Archaeologists think the temple dates to the first century B.C., before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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Europe's oldest known village teetered on stilts over a Balkan lake 8,000 years agoThe village likely dates to the time of Europe's first farmers, who arrived from Anatolia about 8,000 years ago.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
