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Plan of the 1976 excavation

Offham Hill is a Neolithic archaeological site and scheduled monument near Lewes, East Sussex. It was first identified as a possible causewayed enclosure in 1964; like others in England, it was enclosed with ditches interrupted by gaps, or causeways. Such enclosures may have been settlements, meeting places, or ritual sites. Offham Hill was inspected by the Ordnance Survey in 1972 and excavated by Peter Drewett in 1976. By this time, it had been badly damaged by ploughing and partially obliterated by a chalk quarry. Most finds came from the ditches, including about 7,000 worked flints, nearly 300 sherds of pottery, a human burial, other human bones, and animal remains. The site and most of the pottery were identified as Neolithic, in part by radiocarbon dating. Further ploughing after the 1976 excavation led to the effective destruction of the site. A reanalysis of the site's artefacts and human remains in 2011 confirmed a construction date in the mid-fourth millennium BC. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Folio of a medieval copy of the Amṛtasiddhi

... that the Amṛtasiddhi (folio pictured), translated as 'the attainment of immortality', is an early text about what later became haṭha yoga?
... that Joe Kraker was said to be the only lineman in football history to play without shoulder pads?
... that the Violin Concerto by Mieczysław Weinberg, premiered in Moscow in 1961 by Leonid Kogan, was first performed in Germany by Linus Roth in 2014, and in the U.S. by Gidon Kremer in 2015?
... that from 1912, Jindřiška Flajšhansová was the principal editor of Ženské listy, a Czech journal that became a women's "survival manual" during World War I?
... that Ponce de Leon Springs in Atlanta was named in reference to the legend of Juan Ponce de León's search for the Fountain of Youth due to the spring water's supposed health benefits?
... that Elizabeth II's 1994 state visit to Russia was overshadowed in the UK by a Prince Charles biographical book?
... that Maria Bakalova thought that her Borat Subsequent Moviefilm audition might have been part of a human trafficking scheme?
... that Don Lemon "didn't mean to set the internet on fire" when teasing the rebranding of CNN Tonight to Don Lemon Tonight?

In the news

Hurricane Julia impacting Nicaragua

Hurricane Julia (satellite image shown) leaves more than 80 people dead across South and Central America.
After an explosion damages the Crimean Bridge, Russia attacks many Ukrainian cities with missiles.
In motor racing, Max Verstappen wins the Formula One World Championship.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Carolyn Bertozzi, Karl Barry Sharpless, and Morten P. Meldal for their work on click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.

On this day

October 18: Alaska Day (1867)

Robert Guiscard

320 – Pappus of Alexandria, one of the last great Greek mathematicians of antiquity, observed an eclipse that allowed historians to calculate the approximate dates of his life.
1081 – Byzantine–Norman wars: Robert Guiscard (pictured) led an invasion of the Byzantine Empire, capturing Dyrrhachium in present-day Albania.
1587 – Filipino sailors disembarked from the Manila galleon Nuestra Señora de Buena Esperanza in what is now Morro Bay, California, the first documented instance of Asians in the Americas.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: In an act of retaliation against ports that supported Patriot activities in the early stages of the war, the Royal Navy destroyed what is now Portland, Maine.
1963 – The first cat in space, later known as Félicette, launched aboard a French Véronique rocket.

Baldassare Galuppi (b. 1706)
Lucy Stone (d. 1893)
Freida Pinto (b. 1984)

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Today's featured picture

Government House is a government building in the city of Baku, housing various state ministries of Azerbaijan. It was constructed between 1936 and 1952 as the Baku Soviet Palace, to house the administration of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. Designed by Lev Rudnev in the Baroque style, it is located on the shore of the Caspian Sea.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

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