New discovery: an exceptionally well-preserved 3,000 years old bronze sword unearthed during excavations in Nördlingen, Bavaria.
The sword of the Achtkantschwert type ("octagonal sword" - due to the shape of the hilt) was found in a burial, dating late 14th c. BC.
Baumann, C. The paleo-synanthropic niche: a first attempt to define animal’s adaptation to a human-made micro-environment in the Late Pleistocene. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 15, 63 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01764-x
Synanthropic behavior, i.e., the behavior of wild animals that benefit from a shared ecology with humans, has existed long before the sedentarization of Homo sapiens during the Neolithic, around 10,000 years ago. This study describes and discusses the concept of an older animal-human relationship: paleo-synanthropic behavior and the associated paleo-synanthropic niche. Key features of this new niche are anthropogenic food waste from mobile hunter-gatherers as a stable food base for small opportunistic scavengers and a human-near environment safe from large predators. By linking the niche to human behavior rather than to a specific location or structure, this niche was accessible for a long time, even in the Late Pleistocene. Like modern synanthropic animals, members of the paleo-synanthropic niche experienced an increase in population density and a decrease in home range. This, in turn, made it easier for humans to capture these animals and use them as resources for meat, fur, or feathers, as seen in the zooarchaeological record of many European Late Pleistocene sites. As a disadvantage, diseases such as zoonoses may have spread more easily.
Amidon is a Mastodon client for AmigaOS 3.x. by @midwan
It allows the user to connect and authenticate with a Mastodon server instance, post new toots and interact with the various aspects of Mastodon (replies, favourites, bookmarks, etc.).
Twitter will absolutely 100% continue to follow this pattern of arbitrary, emotional, and societally impactful content suppression as long as you give them the power to get away with it, even for 24 hours. I don’t know why people have any illusion it’s otherwise.
It’s why I left. It’s why I refuse to give them that power over me, even for a minute.
Elite international universities have announced plans to open campuses in India. Yet Narendra Modi’s government has made it clear these won’t be oases of academic freedom — rather, they’ll help Hindu nationalists impose censorship even outside India's borders.
Handy infographic for our new paper on theropod lips. Everything you want to know about why we're arguing (more than ever) for lipped dinosaurs on one handy sheet! And if you share further, that QR code in the corner will take to you the open-access paper.
Tom Potato
The Japan Times
Nina Willburger
Thomas Holtz
Jan
Lesley Carhart 
Audrey Truschke
Jimijamflimflam
Mark Witton
Women4Popehat