Archaeologists unearth 1,100-year-old canoe from Florida

A 1,100-year-old canoe has been excavated from mud on a Florida island 10 years after it was first discovered by an amateur archaeologist.

The 40ft dugout canoe - which predates Christopher Columbus's 'discovery' of America by at least 600 years - was carefully extracted from the shore at Weedon Island, by staff from Pinellas County's archeology team.

It is the oldest canoe ever found in Florida and to prevent the lengthy fragile artefact from snapping during its removal, the team used hacksaws to cut it into sections.

Once it had been transported back to the mainland the sections were cleaned and then lowered into a tank of fresh water and chemical solutions which will preserve the 1,100-year-old wood.

The two-year excavation, cleaning and preservation will be paid for by a private group, Friends of Weedon Island, who raised $30,000 (£18,000) for the cause.

'The find is exciting,' Phyllis Kolianos of Pinellas County preserve education centers told WTSP.com.

'It's the largest canoe ever found in Florida in a salt water environment and it helps tell the story of the Manasota culture.

The canoe had initially been found by enthusiast Harry Koran a decade ago when he was scanning the shoreline for artefacts.

'I noticed a piece of wood in the ground, which was so perfectly in line, it looked more than just a tree branch,' said Mr Koran, who was delighted to be present during the excavation.

At the end of the process the canoe will be displayed at Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center.

Face of incredibly preserved 700-year-old mummy found by chance by Chinese road workers

These incredible pictures show a 700-year-old mummy, which was discovered by chance - by road workers - in excellent condition in eastern China.

The corpse of the high-ranking woman believed to be from the Ming Dynasty - the ruling power in China between 1368 and 1644 - was stumbled across by a team who were looking to expand a street.

And the mummy, which was found in the city of Taizhou, in the Jiangsu Province, along with two other wooden tombs, offers a fascinating insight into life as it was back then.

Discovered two metres below the road surface, the woman's features - from her head to her shoes - have retained their original condition, and have hardly deteriorated.

When the discovery was made by the road workers, late last month, Chinese archaeologists, from the nearby Museum of Taizhou, were called into excavate the area, the state agency Xinhua News reported.

They were surprised by the remarkably good condition of the woman's skin, hair, eyelashes and face. It was as though she had only recently died.

Her body, which measures 1.5 metres high, was found at the construction site immersed in a brown liquid inside the coffin.

And the coffin was opened earlier this week, on March 1, much to the excitement of the local city - and further afield. And the right hand of the 700-year-old mummy showed her preserved skin, and a ring.

The mummy was wearing traditional Ming dynasty costume, and also in the coffin were bones, ceramics, ancient writings and other relics.

This is the latest discovery after a lull of three years in the area. Indeed, between 1979 and 2008 five mummies were found, all in very good condition.

Those findings raising the interest in learning the techniques of preservation funeral of this dynasty and customs in time to bury the dead.

Director of the Museum of Taizhou, Wang Weiyin, told Xinhua that the mummy's clothes are made mostly of silk, with a little cotton.

He said usually silk and cotton are very hard to preserve and excavations found that this mummifying technology was used only at very high-profile funerals.

The first finding of the Ming Dynasty in Taizhou dates from May 1979 and led the opening of the museum.

At that time the bodies were also found intact, but due to lack of experience of archaeologists only clothing, belts and clamps could be preserved.

The Ming Dynasty, who built the Forbidden City and restored the Great Wall, was the last in China and marked an era of economic growth and cultural splendour which produced the first commercial contacts with the West.

World's most boring leader: Kim Jong Il - the man who looks at things

Any increased openness from the famously paranoid communists of North Korea is to be welcomed.

For years, the only glimpse inside the closed country has been the colourful annual parade involving literally millions of their dutiful subjects and soldiers.

Since the Dear Leader realised he would one day have to pass over the reins, however, he has come out of his shell rather.

In fact Kim Jong Il has been photographed hundreds of times in almost identical poses in almost identical clothes.

Mainly he looks at things.

Hilariously, there’s even a website now dedicated to the leader, called kimjongillooksatthings.com

But after the emergence today of him looking at a particularly tasty bunch of tomatoes, MailOnline felt it necessary to get involved in the action.

So here are some of the very best pictures of Kim Jong Il looking at things that we have found.

Judging by these, it’ll be some time before he is seen planting flowers at a graveside or supping a pint backstage at party conference.

So for the moment, we must make do with the best the political paparazzi of North Korea have to offer.

His successor, son Kim Jong Un, waiting in the wings can presumably only look on in admiration.

World's biggest family: The man with 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren

He is head of the world's biggest family - and says he is 'blessed' to have his 39 wives.

Ziona Chana also has 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren.

They live in a 100-room, four storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram, where the wives sleep in giant communal dormitories.

Mr Chana told the Sun: 'Today I feel like God's special child. He's given me so many people to look after.

'I consider myself a lucky man to be the husband of 39 women and head of the world's largest family.'

The family is organised with almost military discipline, with the oldest wife Zathiangi organising her fellow partners to perform household chores such as cleaning, washing and preparing meals.

One evening meal can see them pluck 30 chickens, peel 132lb of potatoes and boil up to 220lb of rice.

Coincidentally, Mr Chana is also head of a sect that allows members to take as many wives as he wants.

He even married ten women in one year, when he was at his most prolific, and enjoys his own double bed while his wives have to make do with communal dormitories.

He keeps the youngest women near to his bedroom with the older members of the family sleeping further away - and there is a rotation system for who visits Mr Chana's bedroom.

Rinkmini, one of Mr Chana's wives who is 35 years old, said: 'We stay around him as he is the most important person in the house. He is the most handsome person in the village.

She says Mr Chana noticed her on a morning walk in the village 18 years ago and wrote her a letter asking for her hand in marriage.

Another of his wives, Huntharnghanki, said the entire family gets along well. The family system is reportedly based on 'mutual love and respect'

And Mr Chana, whose religious sect has 4,00 members, says he has not stopped looking for new wives.

'To expand my sect, I am willing to go even to the U.S. to marry,' he said.

One of his sons insisted that Mr Chana, whose grandfather also had many wives, marries the poor women from the village so he can look after them.

Baby boy born with two perfect front teeth

A baby boy surprised his first-time parents when he was born with two fully-formed FRONT TEETH.

Most babies six months to a year to grow their first teeth but Oliver James had two pearly whites from the start.

His parents Joanne Jones, 31, and Lee, 32, said they have already booked their son's first dentists appointment.

The 7lb 12oz youngster has two front incisors in his lower gums and doctors say the teeth may fall out and be replaced or stay in place as the first of his baby teeth.

Mr and Mrs James, from Haverhill, Cambridgeshire have been inundated with friends and family who are keen to see their firstborn's toothy smile.

Mrs James, a carer, said that they were delighted to have a healthy baby boy and added that his teeth were proving popular with visitors.

She said: 'Oliver is a very, very good baby and it was a complete surprise to see his teeth. They are not little stumps, they are proper teeth.

'It is not unknown for babies to be born with teeth, but it is extremely rare.

'It was quite comical in the hospital because everyone wanted to come and see Oliver's teeth when they heard about them.

'He has to go back so that they can keep an eye on them. These may be his proper teeth, or he could get three sets.

'If they get wobbly he will have to have them out, but they seem quite solid.'

Oliver was born by caesarean section at the Rosie Maternity Hospital in Cambridge at 3am on December 30.

Perhaps wary of receiving a nasty nick, Joanne decided to feed Oliver by bottle.

Husband Lee, a warehouse worker, told of his surprise when medical staff presented him with his son and pointed out his unusual teeth.

He said: 'As soon as he was born you could see his two front teeth quite clearly, I was quite shocked.'

The couple had been trying to conceive for four years when Joanne fell pregnant with Oliver naturally.

But she spent six weeks of the pregnancy in hospital as she suffered with hyperemesis - or severe morning sickness.

She said: 'I had the worst pregnancy ever, I spent quite a lot of time in hospital on a drip because I was so poorly.

'When I saw Oliver's teeth I thought it must have been because he was teething while he was in there.

'He is just perfect, but we are not planning to have any more. My brother has six children, so he will have plenty of cousins to play with.'

The BMW sports car that's made entirely out of bricks

A Chinese artist wants £80,000 for a BMW car that handles like a brick... as it's made out of hundreds of them.

Dai Geng spent more than a year cementing the brick blocks together which he then carved into a model of a sporty BMW Z4, which can exceed speeds of 150mph.

Except for the windows, everything is made from brick, even the hinges that allow the door to open and close just like metal ones.

Mr Dai even managed to make brick hinges so the doors can open and close.

The car has been on display at Shenzheng, in Guangdong province, in southeastern China, and has now has been put up for sale.

Mr Dai said: 'Only the windows are not made of bricks. Everything else including the tyres, the steering wheel, the exhaust pipe and trimmings are made of brick.'

He is hoping the car will be sold for use as a garden ornament and bought by one of the newly rich Chinese who regard BMW as extremely desirable because of the quality and performance.

The brick car, which is 5 metres long, 2.15 metres wide, 1.6 metres high and weighs 6.5 tons, was completed in 2007 and was displayed at different places, such as the 798 Art Zone in Beijing.

World's earliest winery discovered 6,100 years after producing its last vintage

The world's oldest winery has been uncovered in a remote cave in the mountains of Armenia.

A grape press, fermentation jars and even a cup and drinking bowl dating to about 6,100 years ago were discovered by an international team of researchers.

While older evidence of wine drinking has been found, this is the earliest example of complete wine production, according to Gregory Areshian of the University of California, Los Angeles, co-director of the excavation.

'The evidence argues convincingly for a wine-making facility,' said Patrick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, who was not part of the research team.

Such large-scale wine production implies that the Eurasian grape had already been domesticated, said McGovern, author of 'Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer and Other Alcoholic Beverages.'

The same Armenian area was the site of the discovery of the oldest known leather shoe, dated to about 5,500 years ago. That discovery at the area known as Areni-1 was reported last summer.

According to the archeologists, inside the cave was a shallow basin about 3 feet across that was positioned to drain into a deep vat.

The basin could have served as a wine press where people stomped the grapes with their feet, a method Areshian noted was traditional for centuries.

They also found grape seeds, remains of pressed grapes and dozens of dried vines. The seeds were from the same type of grapes - Vitis vinifera vinifera - still used to make wine.

The earliest comparable remains were found in the tomb of the ancient Egyptian king Scorpion I, dating to around 5,100 years ago.

Because the wine-making facility was found surrounded by graves, the researchers suggest the wine may have been intended for ceremonial use.

That made sense to McGovern, who noted that wine was the main beverage at funeral feasts and was later used for tomb offerings.

Indeed, he said, 'Even in lowland regions like ancient Egypt where beer reigned supreme, special wines from the Nile Delta were required as funerary offerings and huge quantities of wine were consumed at major royal and religious festivals.'

McGovern noted that similar vats for treading on grapes and jars for storage have been found around the Mediterranean area.

In his books, McGovern has suggested that a 'wine culture,' including the domestication of the Eurasian grape, was first consolidated in the mountainous regions around Armenia before moving to the south.

The findings are published in the online edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.