$1.3 billion shipwreck's anchor found, timeline of human life in Australia upended, Mary Queen of Scots' little-known letters revealed.
Anchor Found From Sunken British Ship That Carried 100,000 Pounds Of Gold Worth Over $1.3 Billion
SWNSThe anchor of the Merchant Royal being taken ashore.
When the Merchant Royal sank in 1641, it took a payload of 100,000 pounds of gold and 400 bars of Mexican silver down with it.
The British vessel hasn’t been seen since, but a UK fishing crew near Cornwall recently found a trace stuck in its nets: the ship’s big, rusty anchor.
Dubbed the “El Dorado of the seas,” the long lost ship is thought to have gone down near the Isles of Scilly off the southwestern tip of England when it sailed into treacherous weather on the voyage home after returning from Mexico. The gold and silver cargo has an estimated current value of more than $1.3 billion.
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New Study Suggests Humans Lived In Australia 55,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought
John SherwoodThe site of the blackened stones in southern Victoria, Australia.
A site filled with blackened stones in southern Victoria, Australia has raised the possibility that humans existed on the continent 120,000 years ago — twice as long as the previously established timeframe of early human life in the land “down under.”
Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria journal, a new study essentially posited that the stones at Moyjil (or Point Ritchie) by the Hopkins River in Warrnambool were blackened by man-made fires instead of brush fires.
Dig deeper here.
Little-Known Letters Reveal The Mary, Queen Of Scots We Seldom Hear About
Wikimedia CommonsMary, Queen Of Scots
The life of Mary, Queen of Scots is one of legend. The 16th-century ruler of Scotland took the throne early, battled for power with Elizabeth I of England, and eventually died in a particularly brutal beheading for daring to challenge her.
But what gets less attention is how she actually ruled over her kingdom. Fortunately, a newly-uncovered collection of documents can give us unique insight into that very topic.
See more at Smithsonian.
