Cracked Mayan Code May Point to 8 Tons of Lost Mayan Gold

A expert claims to have cracked the famous Dresden Codex, a pre-Columbian Maya book likely from the 11th century. The book points to treasure hidden in a lake.

(FOX Science)- It's a treasure hunt even Indiana Jones would be proud of. 

Buried beneath a lake in Guatamala sits a fortune in lost treasure -- Mayan gold to be precise -- and a group of German archaeologists has just set off to find it. Their only guidance, a freshly decoded ancient book containing a map to the treasure. 

It sounds like a movie, but it's very much real, reported FoxNewsLatino. Joachim Rittsteig, an expert in Mayan writing who is heading up the mission to Guatemala's Lake Izabal, the site reported. Read more here.

Scientists discover oldest North American human remains in Alaska

(Credit: Ben Potter, University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

The remains are of a 11,500-year-old cremated Paleoindian child.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2011) — Scientists have discovered the cremated skeleton of a Paleoindian child in the remains of an 11,500-year-old house in central Alaska. The findings reveal a slice of domestic life that has been missing from the record of the region's early people, who were among the first to colonize the Americas.

The discovery, by Ben Potter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and colleagues, appears in the 25 February issue of the journal Science.

Archeologists find world's oldest salt mine

It is in Azerbaijan and dates to the bronze age.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2010) — CNRS (1) archeologists have recently provided proof that the Duzdagi salt deposits, situated in the Araxes Valley in Azerbaijan, were already being exploited from the second half of the 5th millennium BC. It is therefore the most ancient exploitation of rock salt attested to date. And, to the researchers' surprise, intensive salt production was carried out in this mine at least as early as 3500 BC.

This work, conducted in collaboration with the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and published on 1st December 2010 in the journal TÜBA-AR, should help to elucidate how the first complex civilizations, which emerged between 4500 BC and 3500 BC in the Caucasus, were organized.

The economic and symbolic importance of salt in ancient and medieval times is well known. Recent discoveries have shown that salt most probably played a predominant role in protohistoric societies, in other words those that preceded the appearance of writing. How is salt obtained? The two most widely used techniques are based on the extraction of rock salt, in other words a sedimentary deposit containing a high concentration of edible salt (2), and the collection of sun-dried salt in salt marshes, for example. Knowledge of the techniques used in former times to exploit raw materials such as salt, obsidian (3) or copper enables archeologists to deduce essential information on the needs and the level of complexity of ancient societies. In the Caucasus, the first traces of... Read more here.

Oops. Triceratops and Torsaurus Were Same Dinosaur at Different Stages.

The classic image of a Triceratops is on the left. On the right is the new face of Triceratops, previously called Torosaurus. (Credit: Artwork by Holly Woodward, MSU graduate student)

It took one hundred years to find this mistake.

Triceratops and Torsaurus Were Same Dinosaur at Different Stages

Multicellular Life is Over Two Billion Years Old

(Credit: Copyright CNRS Photo Library / A. El Albani & A. Mazurier)

New fossils from Gabon move proof of multicellular life from 600 million to 2.1 billion years ago.

Complex, Multicellular Life from Over Two Billion Years Ago Discovered

Roman gladiator graveyard Found

Skeletons with violent injuries found in Britain.

'Roman gladiator graveyard' unearthed in Britain

Neanderthals In Britain 40,000 Years Earlier Than First Thought

(Credit: iStockphoto/Frank Ramspott)

The time-line for Neanderthals entering Britain is being revised.

Neanderthals Walked Into Frozen Britain 40,000 Years Earlier Than First Thought, Evidence Shows

Meet the Dinosaur With the Longest Horns

Meet the Dinosaur With the Longest Horns.

First Horned Dinosaur from Mexico: Plant-Eater Had Largest Horns of Any Dinosaur

3,300-year-old tomb of the ancient Egyptian capital's mayor rediscovered

This tomb was first found in the 19th century and partially looted, but the location was lost and it was covered by sand. Now, Archaeologists have found the location again.

Ancient mayor's 'lost tomb'