Search

This article presents information on the spread of clown scares around the world. It discusses the role of the Internet and television news stations in the spread of clown scares, and the two factors that contributed to the rise in clown scare based on a study by veteran investigator Robert Bartholomew of Botany College in New Zealand.

The article offers information on Croydon Cat Killer, who was thought to be an individual who killed, dismembered and decapitated more than 500 cats across England, beginning in 2014 in Croydon. It reports that Boudicca Rising, cofounder with Tony Jenkins of South Norwood Animal Rescue & Liberty (SNARL), still insists humans are responsible for the massacre while Henny Martineau, head of veterinary forensic pathology at the Royal Veterinary College found this as an act of foxes.

In the same StBathans excavation area, palæontologistshave found evidence of crocodilians, turtles,bats and more than 40 bird species. NEANDERTHAL CARVING The toe bone of a prehistoric deer carvedwith lines by Neanderthals is one of theoldest works of art ever found, radiocarbondated to 51,000 years ago. DISTANT COUSINS * A cranial fragment and jaw ofa previously unknown ancienthuman species have been foundnear Ramla in Israel, dated tobetween 140,000 and 120,000years BP, and named the "NesherRamla Homo type". [Extracted from the article]

PHOTO (COLOR): A building complex uncovered near Scarborough has been described as "the most important Roman discovery of the last decade". The huge settlement on the outskirts of Zhengzhou was the highest-level residential complex of its time ever found along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Unearths the latest finds: lost cities, phallic carvings and a very old butterfly SHIGIR IDOL GETS OLDER A larchwood "totem pole" found in a Siberian peat bog is even older than estimated in our earlier report [FT371:14]. [Extracted from the article]

PHOTO (COLOR): Rock art in Pinwheel Cave, California (left) appears to mimic the shape of an unfurled Datura flower. TRANCE FLOWER Pinwheel Cave rock art in California may depict Datura, the hallucinogenic "trance flower". In 2017, while walking through a field near Market Harborough in Northamptonshire, Kevin Duckett, 49, found a shiny object that he first thought was some crumpled tin foil from the wrapping of a 1970s Mr Kipling cake. [Extracted from the article]

A MONTHLY EXCAVATION OF ODDITIES ANDANTIQUITIES PAUL SIEVEKING surveys some unusual finds, from anancient sword to some vitrified brain tissue MAYAN KNOW-HOW The water filtration system in the Maya cityof Tikal is the earliest known of its kind.Researchers recently discovered a volcanicmineral that captures microbes and heavymetals in one of Tikal's largest reservoirs. Closerinspection showed the quartz was dottedwith even smaller crystals of zeolites, acrystalline compound consisting of siliconand aluminium. Both quartz and zeolite crystals are usedin modern water filtration. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses mystery moggies and phantom felids related to Great Britain. It mentions offers information on a circus owner Mary Chipperfield, who released three of her favorite captive pumas into the wilds of Dartmoor National park in England. It also highlights issues faced by naturalists related to the Alien Big Cats.

Two coins dating from the Black Death - the 14th century bubonic plague pandemic that killed an estimated 200 million people - turned up during the Covid-19 lock-down. PLAGUE HISTORY REVISED A study published last December in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explores the effects of the first recorded plague pandemic in and after AD 541, known as the Justinianic Plague. Indeed, a young man in the tomb also had fragments of plague bacteria in his teeth. [Extracted from the article]

Rounds up the news, including a murdered mummy and the relics of a Kentish saint MUMMY MURDER MYSTERY A mummy in a finely painted coffin was brought back from western Thebes (modern Luxor) by Thomas Greg, 30, son of the High Sheriff of Antrim, who presented it to the Belfast Natural History Society. SAINT'S RELICS FOUND The fragmentary skeleton of Saint Eanswythe, patron saint of Folkestone in Kent, has almost certainly been identified, and are the only surviving remains of a member of the Kentish royal house. It lists 175 individual relics, many given by the abbey's founder, William the Conqueror, to atone for the horrific bloodshed of 1066. [Extracted from the article]

A MONTHLY EXCAVATION OF ODDITIES AND ANTIQUITIES PAUL SIEVEKING offers a menu of ancient cheese andeggs, complete with disposable wine cups FROZEN "DOG" STUMPSSCIENTISTS A puppy was found in Siberian permafrostnear the Indigirka River, just north of Yakutskin the summer of 2018. CHEESE FINDS A whitish substance in a jar, covered by fabricresembling cheesecloth and found in thetomb of Ptahmes, mayor of Memphis in Egyptbetween 1290 BC and 1213 BC, containedmore than 90 animal proteins, closelyresembling those produced in goat, sheep,cow and water buffalo milk, making it theoldest solid cheese ever discovered. Some of the milk residuesfound in pots appear to have been heated,which would be required for processing rawmilk into cheese or some other product. [Extracted from the article]

HERE IS THE NEWS...: PAUL SIEVEKING presents some of his favourite stories from his first decade as FT newsman. [Extracted from the article]

The article offers miscellaneous information on topics including stone age astronomers, historical drawing or stone age art and ancient Egyptian socks. Topics discussed include historical cave paintings from Turkey, Spain, France which represented understanding of astronomy pre-dating Greek civilization, zig-zag pattern engraved into a mussel shell made by Homo erectus and imaging techniques developed by scientists to discover use of dyes on child socks by ancient Egyptians.

Daisy Eris Campbell Hilaritas Press 2020 Pb, 105pp, £11.33, ISBN 9780998713489 Daisy Eris Campbell - named Eris after the Greek goddess of Chaos (Roman Discordia) by her father Ken Campbell, the irrepressible, indefinable, anarchic genius of the theatre [obit FT242:30-31] - was conceived in the Liverpool Everyman on the set of Illuminatus! Daisy made her name with the 1997 revival of The Warp (the longest play in the world, originally staged by Ken in 1979.) Ken took Daisy to a Robert McKee story structure course when she was 11, where she learned about "The Gap". [Extracted from the article]

The Himlingøje burial site in Denmark lies beside the lower reaches of the river Tryggevælde Å on the Stevns peninsula. To grow the plants, ethnobotanist Sarah Sallon and colleagues sorted through hundreds of seeds. To verify that they were ancient - and not more recent specimens deposited, for example, by burrowing animals - the team carbon-dated seed shell fragments clinging to the roots after the seeds had successfully sprouted. [Extracted from the article]

REVIEWS / BOOKS Heliogabalusor, the Crowned AnarchistAntonin ArtaudInfinity Land Press 2019Hb, 196pp, £25, ISBN 9781916009110 In AD 218, a 14-year-old Syrianlad called Varius Avitus Bassianusarrived in Rome as the EmperorMarcus Aurelius AntoninusPius Felix Augustus, known tohistory by the name of his god,Elagabalus ("Greekified" asHeliogabalus). Stephen Barber tells us thatthe dissident surrealist poetAntonin Artaud, instigatorof the Theatre of Cruelty,"effortlessly out-imagined andout-hallucinated André Breton,while ridiculing his politicalaffiliations." As the book's blurb says,"Heliogabalus is simultaneouslyhis most extreme, revolutionaryand deranged book". [Extracted from the article]

Last summer, archæologists from Novosibirsk Institute of Archæology and Ethnography, excavating the Denisova cave in the Altai Mountains, discovered the figurine of a cave lion (Panthera spelæa) - 42mm long, 8mm thick and 11mm high - made from a woolly mammoth tusk by an Upper Palæolithic artist between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago. "The figurine depicts an animal with its tummy tucked in, its hind legs bent", said Mikhail Shunkov, head of the Institute's Stone Age Archæology Department. The figurine doesn't resemble any previous find; the closest in style are cave lion figurines from Vogerfelt Cave in south-west Germany, and from caves in south-west France. [Extracted from the article]

The year definitely got off to an auspicious start for us, with a completely unexpected appearance by Fortean Times in the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who! @paradbase asked: "I assume there has been at least one article about Doctor Who in FT, so does that mean there is a Doctor Who TV series in the Doctor Who universe?!" FT386:26: Paul Mathewson corrected us on a point of RAF history: "In Jenny Randles's excellent UFO casebook story relating to the RAF Javelin encounter in 1956 she refers to the 46th Squadron. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents information on various archaeological findings from excavations by researchers. Researchers feel that the famous wooden Shigir Idol from the Ural Mountains is more than twice as old as Stonehenge. Scientists have found the earliest known evidence of bread-making from a 14,400-year-old hunter-gatherer site in Jordan's Black Desert. Researchers have found an upper Homo sapiens jawbone thought to be from a young adult near the coast in the Misliya Cave on Mount Carmel.

The article provides information on several archaeological finds. A marmoreal stone statuette dating back to about 8,000 to 5,500 BC has been unearthed at the neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, Turkey. The largest Iron Age mound in Great Britain has been identified at the former site of Skipsea Castle by the excavation team of Jim Leary of the University of Reading.

The article focuses on reports on discoveries from Scotland which includes Pictish cravings found by archeologist Anne MacInnes, remains of burials of century warriors found on top of coffin under Tarbat Old Parish Church in Portmahomack, Easter Ross.

The article offers information on several antiquities. Topics discussed include study of the DNA and internal anatomy of head of an Ice Age wolf which found preserved in permafrost by researchers at the Museum of Natural History in Stockholm and the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo; newly discovered medieval chess piece Lewis Chessman and discovery of Iron Age roundhouses, Roman burials and Saxon pottery.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including ghosts, the impact of the book All About Ghosts and supernatural tropes.

The article offers information on several archaeological excavations such as golden mouth plaque, rabbit's leg and a wooden arm related to Roman civilization. Topics discussed include discovery of remains of a Roman bathtub in Chichester Priory Park, West Sussex, England; recovery of a wooden arm from a Roman well at the Warth Park industrial estate in Northamptonshire; and unearth of a terraced Roman villa in Oxfordshire, England.

The article presents introduction to articles within the issue on topics including the legend of "Paul is Dead," conspiracy theories involving faked deaths like financier Jeffrey Epstein, and correction to articles such as related to a photo from Peter Watkins' film "The War Game."

EDITORIAL THE DEVIL'S BUSINESS Two years ago in these pages (FT356:40-47)Gary Lachman marked the 50th anniversaryof the "Summer of Love", tracing thedownward trajectory of the hippie dream ofpersonal, sexual and psychedelic liberationas it played out on the streets of SanFrancisco's Haight Ashbury during 1967. James Riley (p34)examines the variousoccult currents washingaround the late Sixtiescounterculture, creatinga web of "Satanic" connections linkingcharacters as varied as Anton LaVey,Kenneth Anger, Roman Polanski and onetimeHaight hippie Manson himself. Modern-day Satanists (or are theySJW pranksters or alt-right apologists inDevilish disguise?) The Temple of Satancontinue to make headlines, helped byPenny Lane's new film about them, HailSatan?. [Extracted from the article]

The article offers archaeology news brief. Topics of discussion includes archeologist Mike Hermes has discovered a coin of Kilwa sultanate from the Wessel Islands, off northeast Arnhem Land. Two Spanish coins from the 13th century and 16th century that belong to Maravedí of Philip IV were discovered by a hiker in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah and a rare coin has been found during digging at a small Roman farmstead.

An introduction is presented on which the editor discusses about the articles in the issue including paranormal activities at forest of Hoia Baciu in Transylvanian city. cryptozoology and role of smartphone cameras in the death knell for large cryptids like the Loch Ness Monster.

The article focuses on the bronze statue of Buddha being found in Australia during an archeological excavation depicting towards the entry of Chinese in Australia.

The article focuses on the haunted landscapes in Great Britain which consist of paranormal activities.

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, the Moonscapes exhibition at the Watts Gallery, and ancient links between lunar deities, silver and epilepsy.

The article presents news briefs related to excavations. Markings found carved on a cave wall in Azerbaijan may be among the earliest examples of the world's oldest board game played by Egyptian pharaohs 4,000 years ago. A logboat thought to be 5,000 years old has been discovered in the River Boyne near the Brú Na Bóinne World Heritage site in Ireland. Traces of conifer resin have been found on skulls at the Iron Age settlement of Le Cailar, France.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, television programs from the 1980s, and the series "Survivors."

The article offers news briefs related to archaeology. It mentions that scientist at the American Geophysical Union meeting, held on December 12, 2019, showed evidence for the discovered pyramid-like structure at the Mount Padang in west Java, Indonesia. It adds that a skeleton of a handless figure has been excavated in Chapelle Dom Hue in Guernsey, Channel Islands, which suggests for Christian burial.

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the contribution of philosopher John Michell, the annual gathering of forteans in Cheshire, England from April 6-7, 2019, and the series of experiments designed by Gordon Rutter.

The article focuses on the work of historian Robert Irwin referring to his journal "Times Literary Supplement" providing background on author Charles Fort and mentions actively engaged readership of the journal. Topics discussed include skepticism of the author Cyrano de Bergerac regarding witch craft and robots as aids to geriatric care, reports of anomalies and paranormal phenomenon.

An introduction is presented which offers miscellaneous information, which includes fireworks festival, Marsden Imbolc Fire Festival which will be held in Marsden, West Yorkshire in 2020, talks about supernatural fiction of author Alan Murdie, and also mention about Rendlesham Forest incident.

The article presents updates on strange phenomena in archaeology as of December 2016. Topics covered include the discovery of a relic of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama in a crypt beneath the Grand Bao'en Temple, the burial of a man with Caucasian features in the Turpan Basin and the identification of African people in an excavation of a cemetery in London.

The article discusses a case study on nature versus nurture involving Jack Yufe, one of a pair of identical twins separated soon after birth. Topics discussed include the difficulty of Jack to communicate with his twin, Oskar Stöhr, the similarities between the twins and their political and religious differences.