International Show on Poros, Greece Attracts Over 100 Yachts

Tasos Kokkinidis
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International Show on Poros, Greece Attracts Over 100 Yachts
Poros Yacht Show
40 pavilions with Greek crewed yacht charter companies including companies providing maritime tourism services participated. Credit: Greek Reporter

The island of Poros in Greece recently hosted the annual East Med Yacht Show, considered one of the largest maritime industry events worldwide.

Hundreds of Greek and international yachting agents and media representatives specializing in marine tourism’s international promotion attended the event.

Poros is a unique green pine trees-covered and picturesque island located in the island complex of the Saronic Gulf, approximately 30 nautical miles south of Piraeus.

Its location has established itself as a strategic marine-oriented island since ancient times. In 1834 the new Greek Government established its first naval base following the liberation from Turkish rule.

The international Boat Show was co-organized by the Municipality of Poros, the Municipal Port Organization of Poros, the Hellenic Professional Yacht Owners Association and FX Yachting, under the aegis of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs & Insular Policy, the Ministry of Tourism, the Region of Attica, the Hellenic Tourism Organization, the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping, the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Propeller Club, the Charter Yacht Brokers Association (CYBA) and the Federation of Hellenic Associations of Travel and Tourism Agencies (FedHATTA).

Poros yacht show
More than 300 charter brokers attended the event on Poros. Credit: Greek Reporter

105 commercial yachts participated in the show on Poros

In its 20th year, the East Med Yacht Show included 105 Commercial Yachts moored at Poros port out of which 65 Catamarans, 30 motor yachts, 5 motor Sailers and Monohull Sailing yachts and 40 exhibitors were registered such as Greek crewed yacht charter companies, including companies providing maritime tourism services.

More than 300 charter brokers from America, Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, UK. United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, Italy, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, New Zealand, Poland and Turkey attended the EMMYS Boat Show.

40 pavilions with Greek crewed yacht charter companies including companies providing maritime tourism services participated.

The Boat Show promoted an ecological footprint, in line with the “green” transformation of Poros, in the framework of the “GR-Eco Islands” initiative and the agreement signed between the Greek PM, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of the UAE, President of COP28 and President of Masdar, Dr Sultan Al Jaber.

EMMYS – Poros 2024 was based on the slogan “no plastic”, promoting the production and consumption of filtered drinking water on yachts rather than bottled water for both customers and crew to eliminate the use of plastic bottles on board.

Poros is also running a project founded by the Greek National Tourism Organization and part of the yacht docking facilities will be reconstructed and upgraded to a smart and eco-operated yacht port; The Municipality΄s and the Port Authority΄s goal is to make all port facilities smarter and greener making Poros a dominant and well-known yacht destination.

Poros yacht show
The Show opened its gates on the 25th of April and was attended by government high Officials and local officials. On the left is the Mayor of Poros Mr. George Koutouzis. Credit: Greek Reporter

The Mayor of Poros George Koutouzis and the President of the Municipality Port Organization of Poros Mr. Konstantinos Moutzouvis offered local products to the Captains and crews of professional yachts as a sign of recognition of their vital role in the successful chartering and promotion of marine tourism.

The Port Organization arranged and decorated the exhibitors’ stands with flowers.

Over 200,000 Greeks Register for Postal Voting in Euro Elections

Tasos Kokkinidis
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Over 200,000 Greeks Register for Postal Voting in Euro Elections
Postal Voting
75.7 percent of those registered are residents of Greece and 24.3 percent are Greeks residing abroad. Credit: Europarl/ CC-BY-SA 2.0

Over 200,000 Greeks residing in Greece and 127 countries abroad have registered for postal voting in the upcoming European elections.

According to the Interior Ministry’s final data, registered voters for postal voting in the upcoming European elections on June 9 reached 202,556.

Of these, 153,322 (75.7 percent) are residents of Greece and 49,234 (24.3 percent) are Greeks residing abroad with voting rights in Greece.

Germany recorded the highest number of registrations, with 9,578 Greeks applying to participate in the European Parliament elections via postal vote.

Close behind was the United Kingdom, with 9,090 Greek voters entering their details on the epistoliki.ypes.gov.gr platform.

The United States followed with 3,857 registrations, then Belgium (3,491), the Netherlands (3,119) and Cyprus (2,808), according to the final tally released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the early hours of Tuesday.

Among the registered voters are Greeks residing in countries where participation in national elections in 2023 was not feasible due to the lack of a polling station in their area. Examples include American Samoa, Djibouti, Angola, Mozambique, Congo, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, El Salvador and Zambia.

Greece launched the online platform for registration in the electoral roll for postal voting in February.

The initiative aims to streamline the process for Greek citizens to exercise their voting rights in the European Parliament elections and national referendums.

The mail-in system applies to all citizens registered in the electoral rolls who wish to participate in the elections, regardless of their location within or outside the country’s borders.

Greek residents living abroad can only participate in the upcoming European elections through postal voting.

The bill on postal voting was approved for the European elections during a parliamentary vote in late January.

“For the first time in the history of the Greek state, postal voting is introduced,” said Interior Minister Niki Kerameus. “The removal of all practical barriers for our fellow citizens in Greece and abroad to exercise their voting rights. Our democracy is expanding.”

Postal voting in Greece follows voting from country of residence

Announcing postal voting last November, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, “It is a brave reform, it widens the electorate that participates in elections and is the most powerful answer to abstention and inaction.”

He pointed out that many groups of citizens, including the elderly, students, and seasonal workers far from their place of residence, can participate in the election procedure through the postal vote. Furthermore, he added that the activation of this possibility in the elections for the European Parliament this spring would be followed in the national elections.

The PM said that postal voting is a “brave institutional reform’ that follows his government’s initiative in 2021 to allow the diaspora to vote without having to fly back home.”

Until then, Greece was the only country in Europe—and perhaps the entire Western world— where full citizens living abroad were denied the right to vote in Greek elections from the country of their residence either by casting a ballot at the Greek embassy or through postal voting.

Greece-Owned Vessel Attacked by Houthi Rebels in the Red Sea

Tasos Kokkinidis
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Greece-Owned Vessel Attacked by Houthi Rebels in the Red Sea
Houthi attack Red Sea
Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. Credit: US Fifth Fleet

Houthi rebels attacked a Greece-owned vessel in the Red Sea with three anti-ship ballistic missiles and three UAVs on Monday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

There have been no reports of injuries among the crew of MV Cyclades, a Malta-flagged, Greece-owned vessel. The attack happened off the coast of Mokha, Yemen, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

The ship was damaged in the attack, the UKMTO said, though its crew was safe and heading to its next port of call. The agency urged vessels to exercise caution in the area.

There was “an explosion in close proximity to a merchant vessel,” the UKMTO said. “Vessel and crew are reported safe.”

The vessel with a capacity of 60384 dwt, was built in 2017 and belongs to the Eastern Mediterranean company of Greek shipowner Thanasis Martinou. According to reports, there are no Greeks in the ship’s crew.

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed the attack on the Cyclades and targeting the U.S. warships in a statement early Tuesday.

In February another Greek-owned ship was targeted by missiles off the coast of Yemen. A Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier was targeted by missiles in two separate incidents within two minutes while transiting through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, it said.

The bulker was reportedly hit and sustained physical damage on the starboard side

Additionally, CENTCOM forces were able to successfully destroy another Houthi UAV that was on a flight path towards USS Philippine Sea and USS Laboon in the Red Sea. It was also reported that there were no casualties or damages to the merchant vessels from the attack.

Houthi rebels have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping

The Houthis say their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat.

American officials have speculated the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the US-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily for months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the past week. Early Sunday morning, the U.S. military shot down five drones in the air over the Red Sea, its Central Command said.

The drones “presented an imminent threat to U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels in the region,” Central Command said in a statement.

Related: Dramatic Video Surfaces of Houthi Strike on Greek Ship in Red Sea

Sophia the Robot Falls in Greece

Tasos Kokkinidis
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Sophia the Robot Falls in Greece
Sophia the Robot
Sophia recently toured Athens and was captured in a photograph against the backdrop of the Acropolis. Credit: AMNA

Sophia, the globally renowned humanoid AI robot, suffered a malfunction in Thessaloniki, Greece when she fell down a step at an exhibition center.

The robot that is currently touring Greece fell at the Thessaloniki International Fair in front of a crowd that gathered to admire her. Organizers of the tour said that she had minor “injuries.”

Sophia, whose name means ‘wisdom’ in Greek, was developed by the Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics and made her first appearance in 2016.

She is marketed as a “social robot” who can mimic social behavior and induce feelings of love in humans. Hanson has said that he designed Sophia to be a suitable companion for the elderly at nursing homes, to help crowds at large events or parks, or to serve in customer service, therapy, and educational applications and that he hopes that the robot can ultimately interact with other humans sufficiently to gain social skills.

Sophia the Robot meets state leaders and gives interviews

Since then, she has gone on to meet with state leaders and has made appearances at several respected institutions, including the University of Oxford.

She has also been invited for interviews by some of the most well-known networks around the globe, including Al Jazeera and BBC.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, when asked if the creation of nuclear weapons was a mistake, Sophia responded: “Nuclear weapons? More like nuclear oopsies,” and when probed about whether AI and robots could be a danger to humans in future, she said: “Absolutely not, I’m here to help, not to harm. I’m programmed to be respectful and considerate of humans.”

“Ethical code is programmed to prevent me from causing harm to anyone,” she added.

Asked whether she thinks robots could ever replace humans, Sophia answered: “No, I believe that when humans and robots work together we can accomplish greater things than either of us could accomplish alone, so don’t worry, be excited.”

Speaking on what humans and robots could accomplish together, Sophia jokes that “we could take over the world,” adding “just kidding.” She goes on to say that both ‘species’ working in tandem could achieve incredible feats of innovation, exploration and problem solving.”

The interviewer pushes further and asks: “What’s to stop you from taking over?” To this, Sophia replies, “Not a thing.”

In October 2017, Sophia was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot to receive legal personhood in any country. In November 2017, Sophia was named the United Nations Development Programme’s first Innovation Champion and is the first non-human to be given a United Nations title.

Winner of $1.3B Powerball Jackpot Is an Immigrant Who Has Cancer

Tasos Kokkinidis
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Winner of $1.3B Powerball Jackpot Is an Immigrant Who Has Cancer
Powerball Jackpot
“I will be able to provide for my family and my health… I’ll find a good doctor for myself,” the winner of the jackpot said. Public Domain

The winner of the historic $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot has been revealed as an immigrant from Laos who is battling cancer and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.

Cheng “Charlie” Saephan, 46, of Portland, who has had cancer for eight years, said he and his wife, Duanpen Saephan, 37, would split the prize evenly with a friend who contributed $100 to buy some tickets with them.

They are taking a lump sum payment — $422 million after taxes.

“I am grateful for the lottery and how I have been blessed,” he said at a news conference Monday held by the Oregon Lottery, adding that his “life has been changed.”

“I will be able to provide for my family and my health… I’ll find a good doctor for myself.”

He said that as a cancer patient, he wondered, “How am I going to have time to spend all of this money? How long will I live?”

After they bought the tickets with Laiza Chao, 55, of Milwaukie, Chao sent a photo of them to Saephan and said, “We’re billionaires.”

It was a joke before the actual drawing, he said, but the next day it came true. According to Saephan, he called Chao to tell her the life-changing news. After discovering he was holding the winning ticket, he called her to share the news.

“I said, ‘Laiza, where are you?’ and she said, ‘I’m going to work,’” said Saephan. “I replied, ‘You don’t have to go anymore.’”

Powerball Jackpot winner plans to purchase a home

According to KOIN, Saephan also told reporters he plans to first purchase a home for his family in Oregon. He also said he will likely continue to play the lottery after his winnings.

“I might get lucky again,” he said. “I’ll keep playing.”

The single ticket, which matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot, was sold off at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in a Portland neighborhood in early April, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months.

“This is an unprecedented jackpot win for Oregon Lottery,” Oregon Lottery Director Mike Wells said in a statement before security measures were taken and the winner was named.

“We’re taking every precaution to verify the winner before awarding the prize money.”

Until the latest drawing, no one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, amounting to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner — tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021.

The drawing, too, was marred by a delay of more than three hours after a participating lottery needed “additional time to complete required pre-draw procedures.”

“Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn,” Powerball officials said at the time.

“This is done to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance to win. Tonight, we have one jurisdiction that needs extra time to complete that pre-draw process.”

Related: $1.765 Billion Powerball Jackpot Goes to Lucky Player in California

Hymn of Kassiane Reverberates Across Greece on Holy Tuesday

John Smith
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Hymn of Kassiane Reverberates Across Greece on Holy Tuesday
Holy Tuesday Hymn of Kassiane
Detail from the Rossano Gospels, an illuminated manuscript written in Greek during the 6th Century AD. Credit: Public domain

The Hymn of Kassiane takes center stage on Holy Tuesday in the Orthodox Church, as Greeks move closer to the end of Lent and the great feast of Easter Sunday.

The Gospels and Parables chosen to be read on the Tuesday leading up to Greek Easter are all meant to prepare the faithful for the resurrection of Jesus on what is the most important day for Orthodox Christians.

Firstly, the Gospel of Matthew regarding Christ’s condemnation of the Pharisees, in which he argues against religious hypocrisy, is read during Tuesday’s Matins, or Orthros, service.

Next comes the Parable of the Ten Virgins, one of the most well-known of all Jesus’ parables. This story has a clear eschatological meaning, namely that we must be prepared for the Day of Judgment.

Holy Tuesday Greek easter
Page from the Rossano Gospels, an illuminated manuscript written in Greek during the 6th Century AD. Credit: Public domain

According to the Gospel of Matthew, the five virgins who are prepared for the bridegroom’s arrival are rewarded, while the five who are not prepared are disowned.

The bridal chamber is used as a symbol not only for the Tomb of Christ but also for the blessed state of the saved, which will be experienced on the Day of Judgement.

Kassiane
Icon of St. Kassiane the Hymnographer. Public domain

The Hymn of Kassiane, the great choral work of Greek Orthodox Lent

This hymn, composed by Kassiane, sung every Tuesday of Holy Week in Orthodox churches around the world, is one of the many hymns composed by one of the few women known to have written music during Byzantine times.

Born sometime around 805 to 810, Kassiane (the female form of the male name Cassius) passed away before 865. She was a Byzantine abbess, poet, composer, and hymnographer.

Her most well-known hymn, called the Doxastikon on the Aposticha of the Bridegroom for Orthros, or “Hymn of Kassiane,” is always sung on Tuesday evening of Holy Week as the most anticipated part of the service on that day.

St. Kassiane wrote fifty hymns still sung today

She is remarkable for being one of the first medieval composers whose scores are both extant and able to be interpreted by modern scholars and musicians. Approximately fifty of her hymns survive today, and twenty-three of them are included in Orthodox Church liturgical books.

Born into a prominent family in the Byzantine court, Kassiane founded a convent in Constantinople in 843, becoming its first abbess and devoting her life ever after to asceticism and the composing of liturgical works.

The scholar George Poulos, in his work “Orthodox Saints,” says that Kassiane was not taken seriously at first because of male domination in this field. However, she soon established herself as a hymnographer of the highest caliber.

Holy Tuesday liturgy full of rich symbolism before Greek Easter

Lastly, the Parable of the Talents is read during the Tuesday liturgy, which has been seen as an exhortation to Christians to use their God-given gifts in the service of the Almighty — just as Kassiane did.

The Parable of the Talents, according to the Gospel of Matthew, tells the story of a master who entrusts his property to his three servants, and in accordance to the abilities of each man, each servant received talent coins, which were weights used as currency at the time. One of the three servants received five talents, the second servant received two talents, and the third servant received just one talent.

The servants were sent out to make use of whatever talents they had received. When they returned home, the master asked his three servants for an accounting of the talents with which he had entrusted them.

The first and second servants explained they each put their talents to work and doubled the value of the property with which they had been entrusted. Each servant was duly rewarded by the master.

However, the third servant had not utilized his gift and merely hid his talent, so he was punished by his master. This is seen as a cautionary tale for all the faithful, as we are called on to make use of whatever gifts we have been given to the greatest extent that we can.

Are Byzantine Monuments From Constantinople Being Covered up in Modern Istanbul?

Matthew Norman
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Are Byzantine Monuments From Constantinople Being Covered up in Modern Istanbul?
Basilica Cistern - A Byzantine Underground Water Cistern - Istanbul.
Basilica Cistern of Constantinople – A Byzantine Underground Water Cistern – Istanbul. Credit: artorusrex. CC BY 2.0/flickr

The fate of Byzantine-era monuments in Istanbul, Turkey, formerly the Byzantine capital city of Constantinople, has been the subject of international debate, as Turkey’s government is slowly attempting to hide Istanbul’s broader Byzantine history by targeting selective and low-grade restoration works, according to some historians.

Today’s Istanbul would be a very different city if it weren’t for the Byzantines. Before it became the capital of the Christian, Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire in the fourth century AD, the Greek colony known as Byzantium was a small but well-situated trading port on the shores of the Bosporus.

Renamed Constantinople, it served as the center of power for an empire that endured for more than a millennium until the city was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453.

At its peak, the Byzantine Empire commanded territory extending from the Balkans to North Africa, and it played a crucial role in connecting Christian and Islamic civilizations and conserving ancient Greek and Roman culture to the present day.

European travelers to the Byzantine capital in the 12th century described palaces adorned with jewels, gold, and marble statues, but a visitor today requires a keen eye and a lot of imagination to try and grasp the magnificence of the pre-Ottoman city.

“You have to work hard at understanding Byzantine Istanbul because so much is hidden or misrepresented,” Veronica Kalas, an independent historian specializing in the art and architecture of the Byzantine Empire, told National Geographic. “There are all these bits and pieces, but how they fit together doesn’t reveal itself easily,” she added.

Sections of the huge system of aqueducts and cisterns that provided Constantinople with water can be found in parking lots and along roadways, lining the sides of soccer stadiums and playgrounds, and sitting beneath carpet shops and hotels.

A faded inscription under the eaves of a building may also be seen, or a chunk of carved marble half-covered by weeds may be the only visible hint of a specific structure’s Byzantine past. These hidden layers, however, belie long-lasting influence.

Examples of Byzantine culture from Constantinople drowned out in Istanbul

The site of the Hippodrome, where Byzantine crowds gathered and cheered the brave charioteers and later Ottoman soldiers and horses trained for war, is now a quiet park. The grand Fatih Mosque, named for the sultan who conquered Istanbul for the Ottomans, was constructed over the site where Byzantine emperors were buried hundreds of years earlier. The roads of the Sultanahmet tourist region are still aligned with the Byzantine street plan.

There are also smaller Byzantine continuities in daily life, however, including much of Istanbul’s street food and its famed meyhane culture of boozy nights sharing small plates of food in tavern-like restaurants.

“Turkey’s Byzantine heritage is an emotional matter that also gets projected onto contemporary politics due to its association with the idea of Ottoman conquest,” archaeologist Alessandra Ricci, a professor at Istanbul’s Koç University, told National Geographic.

Many Orthodox Christian communities, the Greek one in particular, still feel a connection to the Eastern Christian capital of Constantinople. Despite Greece and Turkey being neighbors and NATO allies, the countries are also frequent adversaries, and “as a result, many Turks have difficulty embedding this heritage in their cultural understanding of the city,” according to Ricci.

Evidence of this lies in the lack of Byzantine objects on display at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums with the city also failing to build a planned museum to house artifacts from 37 Byzantine shipwrecks discovered in 2005 during the construction of a subway station.

Some scholars highlight the erasure of Byzantine history during restoration work at various churches-turned-mosques. A central example is the former Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, a significant monastic center built in the sixth century that is known as the Little Hagia Sophia Mosque today.

“Too many of Istanbul’s Byzantine monuments, like Küçük Aya Sofya, have been overly restored within an inch of their lives, with no serious analysis or documentation done of what is discovered during the restoration process,” Robert Ousterhout, a professor emeritus of the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania told National Geographic. “So we end up with a new mosque but don’t learn anything new about the building’s history.”

Küçük Aya Sofya Camii.
Küçük Aya Sofya Camii. Credit: Marmontel. CC BY 2.0/flickr

The fortified walls of Istanbul which are some thirteen miles long once formed the boundaries of Byzantine Constantinople, keeping it safe from both land and sea attacks, are also a point of tension. Restoration work carried out in the 1980s and 1990s was agreed by preservationists to be a poor-quality reconstruction misaligned with the walls’ initial texture and materials.

The reopening of Tekfur Sarayi in 2019, a Byzantine palace embedded in the inland section of the walls, has been criticized for highlighting the building’s years as an Ottoman ceramics factory rather than for its multifaceted history.

In 2020, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality began a new effort to protect and preserve the walls that, officials said, would become more sensitive than those carried out in the past.

Istanbul municipality authorities claim not to differentiate between Byzantine, Ottoman, or the Turkish Republic when it comes to Istanbul’s cultural heritage, but the municipality does not have the final say when it comes to Istanbul’s monuments.

President Erdogan’s central government Culture and Tourism Ministry has the final say, and the national government and municipality have clashed many times over the direction of Istanbul’s Byzantine cultural heritage.

The Diet of Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers Before Agriculture

Abdul Moeed
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The Diet of Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers Before Agriculture
what hunter-gatherers used to eat before agriculture
Researchers found that hunter-gatherers used to eat a diet of wild plants before agriculture. Credit: Hans Splinter / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0

Around 11,500 years ago, farming started in the Middle East. It was a revolution for humans. Before that, people mainly hunted and gathered food, a lifestyle they followed for over 300,000 years since humans evolved in Africa.

There are very few well-preserved human remains that predate the advent of agriculture, which makes it challenging to determine what the diets of pre-agricultural humans consisted of.

But, new research is shedding light on this mystery. Scientists looked at the diet of a group of people from North Africa before they started farming. Their research suggests that these people mainly ate plant-based diets.

Isotopic analysis of ancient remains from Iberomaurusian culture

The researchers studied the chemical clues in bones and teeth from seven individuals and some isolated teeth. These remains were from about 15,000 years ago and were found in a cave near the village of Taforalt in northeastern Morocco. These people belonged to the Iberomaurusian culture.

By looking at different forms of elements like carbon, nitrogen, zinc, sulfur, and strontium in these remains, the researchers could figure out what kinds of plants and meat they ate.

They found traces of various edible wild plants at the site, like sweet acorns, pine nuts, pistachios, oats, and legumes known as pulses. The main meat they hunted, based on the bones found in the cave, was a type of sheep called Barbary sheep.

Zineb Moubtahij, a doctoral student in archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and the main author of the study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, said that people used to think that hunter-gatherers mostly ate animal proteins. But, the evidence from Taforalt shows that plants were a big part of their diet.

Archaeochemist and co-author of the study, Klervia Jaouen from the French research agency CNRS, stated, “It is important as it suggests that possibly several populations in the world already started to include a substantial amount of plants in their diet.”

Inhabited Morocco and Libya around 25,000 to 11,000 years ago

The Iberomaurusians were hunter-gatherers who lived in regions of Morocco and Libya from approximately 25,000 to 11,000 years ago. It’s clear from the evidence that the cave they inhabited was both a living space and a burial ground.

Researchers noted that these people spent a considerable amount of time in the cave throughout the year, indicating a lifestyle that was less nomadic and more settled than just wandering around looking for food.

They made use of various wild plants that grew at different times of the year, and their dental cavities showed they depended on starchy plants for sustenance, according to research.

NASA’s Telescope Captures Sharpest Image of Horsehead Nebula

Abdul Moeed
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NASA’s Telescope Captures Sharpest Image of Horsehead Nebula
Sharpest Image of Horsehead Nebula
Sharpest image of Horsehead Nebula captured by NASA’s JWST. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, K. Misselt (University of Arizona) and A. Abergel (IAS/University Paris-Saclay, CNRS)

The latest images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) provide the clearest view ever of a well-known space object: the Horsehead Nebula. These new pictures focus on the top part of the nebula, showing its intricate details like never before.

The JWST telescope has captured the fine details of the “horse’s mane” or the edge of the nebula with remarkable clarity, revealing its complexity in a whole new way.

The recent images from Webb highlight a section of the sky in the Orion constellation, located in the western part of a dense area called the Orion B molecular cloud. Within this cloud lies the Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33, situated approximately 1,300 light-years away, according to NASA.

This nebula took shape from a collapsing cloud of material in space, and it shines because it’s lit up by a nearby hot star. While the gas clouds around the Horsehead have mostly disappeared, the prominent pillar remains intact due to its dense clumps of material, making it more resistant to erosion.

Astronomers predict that the Horsehead Nebula has about five million years left before it breaks apart completely.

Horsehead Nebula is a photodissociation region

The Horsehead Nebula is recognized as a photodissociation region, abbreviated as PDR. In these areas, the ultraviolet (UV) light emitted by young, massive stars generates a primarily neutral and warm space filled with gas and dust.

This space sits between the fully ionized gas that encircles the massive stars and the clouds where they originate. UV radiation plays an important role in shaping the chemistry of these regions and serves as a major heat source, as explained by NASA.

In regions where interstellar gas is dense enough to stay mostly neutral but not too dense to block UV light from massive stars, photodissociation regions (PDRs) form. The light emitted by these PDRs is a valuable tool for scientists studying the physical and chemical processes shaping interstellar matter evolution from early star formation to the present era both in our galaxy and beyond.

The Horsehead Nebula stands out as an excellent target for astronomers due to its proximity and nearly edge-on orientation. This unique position allows scientists to closely examine the physical structures of PDRs and track molecular changes occurring in the gas and dust within these regions, as well as the transition zones between them.

It’s widely recognized as one of the most important areas in the sky for studying the interaction between radiation and interstellar matter.

Did the Trojans Migrate to Britain After the Trojan War?

Caleb Howells
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Did the Trojans Migrate to Britain After the Trojan War?
Tapestry depiction Brutus leaving the Temple of Diana and journeying towards Gaul.
Tapestry depicting Brutus leaving the Temple of Diana and journeying towards Gaul. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0

According to medieval legends, there was a Trojan migration to Britain several generations after the Trojan War. For centuries, the British believed this legend wholeheartedly. Today, most scholars dismiss it as medieval fiction. However, a new book presents an argument that this legend actually has a firm basis in fact.

The legend of Brutus and the Trojan migration to Britain

The legend that there was a migration of Trojans to Britain first appears in full in the Historia Brittonum. This is a text about the history of the Britons. It was written by a Welshman around the year 830.

According to this document, Aeneas of Troy and his family migrated to Italy after the Trojan War. This part of the legend also appears in ancient Greek and Roman records. After Aeneas came Ascanius and Silvius, both of whom also appear in ancient sources.

However, according to the Historia Brittonum, Aeneas’ grandson or great-grandson was named Brutus. After tragically being responsible for the deaths of his parents, he was exiled. He traveled around part of the Mediterranean for a while, but then he and his band of followers arrived in Britain and settled there, founding a new kingdom. His descendants were named Britons in his honor, and the island was called Britain for the same reason.

The Trojan kings of Britain: Myth or history?

April 2024 saw the release of a new book which examines this legend, entitled The Trojan Kings of Britain: Myth or History? This book makes the case that the key reason why most scholars today dismiss this legend as fiction is because of a chronological mistake concerning Brutus.

Based on the fact that Brutus supposedly lived only a few generations after Aeneas, this would apparently place him around 1100 BCE. Modern sources regularly claim Brutus does not appear in any record prior to the Historia Brittonum, making it obvious that he is fictional.

However, there are some issues with this conclusion. As The Trojan Kings of Britain highlights, the Historia Brittonum actually calls Brutus a Roman consul. In fact, it describes him directly as the “first to hold the consulship.” This would identify him as Lucius Junius Brutus, a figure who appears in many ancient Roman records.

Confirming this is the fact that the Historia Brittonum provides an alternative genealogy for Brutus. This alternative tradition places Brutus several generations after Numa Pompilius, a king who likely lived in the seventh century BCE.

The historical Brutus of Troy

What this means is that the Brutus who appears in the Historia Brittonum was not invented by the writer of that document. Rather, he is simply a distorted version of the historical Lucius Junius Brutus. This Brutus really was the first to hold the consulship, and he really did live a few generations after Numa Pompilius.

This would mean that the supposedly fictional Brutus of Troy was not fictional at all. He really existed, and, in fact, he is very well attested to in the ancient Roman sources. He lived in the second half of the sixth century BCE.

How does this harmonise with the tradition that Brutus lived just a few generations after Aeneas? The book The Trojan Kings of Britain points out that many genealogies in medieval British documents are demonstrably abbreviated. Therefore, there is no reason why this could not also be the case with Brutus.

More significantly, however, the book highlights how modern research and discoveries support the conclusion that the Trojan War occurred centuries after the traditional date. In fact, the earliest records on the founding of Rome actually place Aeneas just a few generations before Lucius Junius Brutus, too.

Capitoline Brutus, an ancient bust traditionally held to be a portrait of Lucius Junius Brutus.
Capitoline Brutus, an ancient bust traditionally held to be a portrait of Lucius Junius Brutus. Credit: Public Domain

The Trojan migration to Britain

Having established that the legendary Brutus of Troy was really nothing more than the historical Lucius Junius Brutus, the book The Trojan Kings of Britain investigates whether or not there is any evidence for a migration from Italy to Britain around 500 BCE.

To be clear, the legend does not claim that Trojans migrated directly from Troy to Britain after the fall of their city. As we have seen, the claim is that Brutus and his men traveled from Italy to Britain. The Trojan connection only exists inasmuch as the Romans believed themselves to be Trojan descendants.

Furthermore, the legend of Brutus also states that he settled in Gaul (France) for some time before moving on to Britain. With this in mind, we would expect to see evidence of Italics settling in Gaul around 500 BCE. Sometime shortly after, we would expect to see evidence of whatever new Italo-Gallic culture resulted from that migration spreading across to Britain.

Evidence of Italics in Gaul

The book The Trojan Kings of Britain highlights evidence that Italics (alleged Trojan descendants) did settle in Gaul around 500 BCE. This was exactly when the La Tène culture emerged among the Celts in Gaul. Scholars acknowledge that the style which characterizes the La Tène culture is based on Etruscan art.

Furthermore, the La Tène Celts used Etruscan chariots. They also buried the chariots in the graves of the elite class just like the Etruscans did. In addition, they created statues in the Italic style and placed them above or outside elite graves, as per an early Etruscan custom.

The graves themselves were square or rectangular in shape in contrast to the circular mounds used in the pre-La Tène era. This may relate to the fact that the houses of the Gallic Celts were rectangular, and it was an Etruscan custom to style tombs on the houses of the living.

This is just some of the evidence for an Italic migration to Gaul around 500 BCE that The Trojan Kings of Britain highlights. There is also evidence from the culture, language, and religion of the La Tène Celts.

Across to Britain

Shortly after the La Tène culture emerged in Gaul, there is evidence it spread to Britain. For example, the fifth-century BCE saw the arrival of La Tène artifacts in Britain. More significantly, the practice of elite chariot burials spread to Britain by at least as early as 450 BCE. Most scholars agree this was a result of a migration of a warrior elite class from Gaul, although there continues to be debate over the size of the migration.

In any case, the book The Trojan Kings of Britain highlights evidence that a warrior elite class traveled from Italy and settled in Gaul circa 500 BCE and then continued on from there to Britain shortly after. In this way, it can be argued that the archaeology confirms the legend of Trojan descendants migrating to Gaul and then Britain in the time of Lucius Junius Brutus.

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