Plato's stave: academic cracks philosopher's musical code

Historian claims Plato's manuscripts are mathematically ordered according to 12-note scale . . .

Battle for the Nile as rivals lay claim to Africa's great river

With crises of population and resources upstream, there is now deadlock over who owns the Nile . . .

The Cave of Chauvet-Pont d'Arc

They explored almost the entire network of chambers and galleries, and on the way back out, Éliette saw an amazing sight in the beam of her lamp: a small mammoth drawn with red ochre on a rocky spur hanging from the ceiling. "They were here!" she cried out, and from that instant they began searching all of the walls with great attention. They discovered hundreds of paintings and engravings.

The mystery of Caravaggio's death solved at last – painting killed him

He killed a man, brawled constantly, rowed with patrons and fled justice while revolutionising painting with his chiaroscuro style. Now, as if to underline how dramatic Caravaggio's short life was, researchers say he may have quite literally died for his art.

This Shoe Had Prada Beat by 5,500 Years

"Think of it as a kind of prehistoric Prada: Archaeologists have discovered what they say is the world’s oldest known leather shoe. . ."

A Classical Education: Back to the Future

'For Nussbaum, human development means the development of the capacity to transcend the local prejudices of one’s immediate (even national) context and become a responsible citizen of the world. Students should be brought “to see themselves as members of a heterogeneous nation . . . and a still more heterogeneous world, and to understand something of this history of the diverse groups that inhabit it.” . . .'

Scars from lion bite suggest headless Romans found in York were gladiators

The haunting mystery of Britain's headless Romans may have been solved at last, thanks to scars from a lion's bite and hammer marks on decapitated skulls.The results of forensic work, announced today, on more than 80 skeletons of well-built young men, gradually exhumed from the gardens of a York terrace over a decade, suggests that the world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard has been found.

L'énigme des manuscrits de la mer Morte

Les manuscrits millénaires de la Bible, découverts en 1947, à Qumrân, sur les bords de la mer Morte, livrent peu à peu leurs secrets. L'exposition que la Bibliothèque nationale de France François-Mitterrand (BNF), à Paris, leur consacre, jusqu'au 11 juillet, révèle les dernières avancées dans la compréhension de ces dizaines de milliers de fragments de textes datant de 250 ans avant J.-C. à 100 ans après J.-C., et dont le quart est à l'origine de deux religions révélées, le judaïsme et le christianisme.