IN SINAI -- 10,000 YEAR OLD CAVE PAINTINGS DISCOVERED

A newly discovered cave in Sinai, Egypt, is the first of its kind in the region to be found decorated from floor to ceiling with colorful ancient paintings.

Egyptologists with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Arab Republic of Egypt discovered the cave in a region located 30 km (19 miles) north of the city St. Catherine and 60 km (38 miles) southeast from Sarabit el-Khadem, an ancient Egyptian city famous for its turquoise mines. The sandstone cave is located in a difficult-to-access area, measuring about 3 m deep (9.8 feet) by 3.5 meters wide (11.5 feet), said Dr. Mustafa Ministers, Secretary-General of the High Council of Antiquities in a Facebook post.

Dark red paintings of animals, including donkeys and mules, on the roof are considered the oldest, tracing back to between 5,500 and 10,000 BCE. The bodies of the animals from this era are consistent throughout the cave - five of the same animals are seen on the roof at the entrance of the shelter, as well as a set of human prints on the ceiling and on a rock at the center of the cave.

The second group of paintings is characterized by paintings that appear to be women and animals during the Chalcolithic Period, or Copper Age, the era between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages characterized as a transition between stone-tool use to metal-working.

COULD NEANDERTHALS SWIM AND DIVE?

Over 100,000 years ago at the Grotta dei Cavalli (Cave of Horses) on what is now the northwestern tip of Sicily, a group of Neanderthals made tools from clamshells - one of only three sites in the world where strong evidence has been found of systematic shell scraper manufacture by Neanderthals, another being the Grotta dei Moscerini (Cave of Gnats), a large seaside cave at the base of a cliff on the tip of Italy's boot-heel about 500 kilometres to the northeast.

The tools were found throughout multiple archaeological layers dating from 106,000 to 74,000 years ago, but were not distributed evenly throughout the Neanderthal-associated sequence; where shell tools were common, stone tools were not.

Neanderthals made stone tools, but their shell-based toolmaking is less well-known. In 1949, archaeologists found 171 at Moscerini. Another 136 were separately found at Cavalli, and much smaller numbers in other Neanderthal sites such as Kalamakia Cave in Greece.

The assumption had been that the Neanderthals picked up shells on the beach, but between a fifth and a quarter of the specimens found at the two sites in Italy seem to have been collected alive. All were made from the smooth clam, Callista chione. The shells are almost evenly thin from the bulge of the half-shell to its edge. Edges were shaped with stone hammers, and experiments demonstrate that unlike stone the cutting edges of the shells can be retouched two to three times without changing the cutting angle.

Studies show that Neanderthals preferred meat but also caught fish in shallow freshwater and ate shellfish. Neanderthals 115,000 years ago in what is now Spain bored holes into shells and colored and decorated them. Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St Louis, USA, reports evidence of "surfer's ear" in Neanderthal skulls - bony growths in the ear canal prevalent among humans who swim in cold water.

HAMBURGER IN ROMAN EMPIRE?

Grabbing a bite to eat in the days of the Roman Empire wasn’t all that different from sitting in an American diner, if the dishes described in a Roman cookbook are anything to go by. Milkshakes and waffles may not have been on the menu just yet, but one delicacy called isicia omentata bears a strong resemblance to a staple of modern cuisine – the hamburger.

The recipe appears in a book called Apicius, which contains 10 separate volumes relating to different categories of food, such as meat, seafood, birds, and vegetables. Thought to have been written in the 4th or 5th century, Apicius contains recipes dating all the way back to the 1st century, mostly using ingredients that would have been available to the wealthier classes living in and around Rome.

Like an extravagant burger, isicia omentata is essentially a minced meat patty that is flavored with pine nuts, peppercorns, and a fish-based sauce called garum, and accompanied by a bread roll that has been pre-soaked in white wine.

It’s not the sort of thing that would have been available to the lower classes, although Roman laborers did used to eat at fast food joints called thermopolia, which were kiosks that served ready-to-eat dishes to workers on their lunch break.