• Fly into Rome as it looked in 320 A.D.
• Tour the interior of famous buildings.
• Visit the sites in 3D such as the Roman Forum, Colosseum and the Forum of Julius Caesar.
• Learn about how the Romans lived.

The life-sized bust showing the Roman ruler with wrinkles and hollows in his face is tentatively dated to 46 B.C. Divers uncovered the Caesar bust and a collection of other finds in the Rhone near the town of Arles -- founded by Caesar.

Among other items in the treasure trove of ancient objects is a 5.9 foot marble statue of Neptune, dated to the first decade of the third century after Christ.

Two smaller statues, both in bronze and measuring 27.5 inches each also were found, one of them, a satyr with his hands tied behind his back, "doubtless" originated in Hellenic Greece, the ministry said.

The presumptive lost city, described in written records as a stone settlement adorned with gold statues, has long been a grail for explorers-as well as a lure for local tourism businesses.

A commonly cited legend claims that Paititi was built by the Inca hero Inkarri, who founded the city of Cusco before retreating into the jungle after Spanish conquerors arrived.

On January 10 Peru's state news agency reported that "an archaeological fortress" had been discovered in the district of Kimbiri and that the district's mayor suggested it was the lost city.

Mayor Guillermo Torres described the ruins as a 430,000-square-foot (40,000-square-meter) fortification near an area known as Lobo Tahuantinsuyo.

Few other details about the site were offered, but initial reports described elaborately carved stone structures forming the base of a set of walls.

But his first public display later this year is at the heart of a growing storm - one pitting scientists against Kenya's powerful and popular evangelical Christian movement. The debate over evolution vs. creationism - once largely confined to the United States - has arrived in a country known as the cradle of mankind.

"I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it," says Bishop Boniface Adoyo, head of Kenya's 35 evangelical denominations, which he claims have 10 million followers. "These sorts of silly views are killing our faith."

He's calling on his flock to boycott the exhibition and has demanded the museum relegate the fossil collection to a back room - along with some kind of notice saying evolution is not a fact but merely one of a number of theories.

Leakey fears the ideological spat may provoke an attack on the priceless collection, one largely found during the 1920s by his paleontologist parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, who passed their fossil-hunting traditions on to him.

The museum, which attracts around 100,000 visitors a year, is taking no chances.

Turkana Boy will be displayed in a private room, with limited access and behind a glass screen with 24-hour closed-circuit TV. Security guards will be at the entrance.

"There are issues about the security," said Dr. Emma Mbua, the head of paleontology at the museum. "These fossils are irreplaceable and we wouldn't want anything to happen to them."

The new analysis reveals that the device's front dials [image] had pointers for the sun and Moon—called the "golden little sphere" and "little sphere," respectively—and markings which coincided with the zodiac and solar calendars. The back dials [image], meanwhile, appear to have been used for predicting solar and lunar eclipses [image].

The researchers also show that the device could mechanically replicate the irregular motions of the Moon, caused by its elliptical orbit around the Earth, using a clever design involving two superimposed gear-wheels, one slightly off-center, that are connected by a pin-and-slot device.

The team was also able to pin down the device's construction date more precisely. Radiocarbon dating suggested it was built around 65 BC, but newly revealed lettering on the machine indicate a slightly older construction date of 150 to 100 BC. The team's reconstruction also involves 37 gear wheels, seven of which are hypothetical.

"In the face of fragmentary material evidence, such guesswork is inevitable. But the new model is highly seductive, and convincing in all of its detail," wrote Francois Charette, a researcher at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Germany who was not involved in the study, in a related article in the journal Nature.

But according to Professor Gilles Hug, of the French National Aerospace Research Agency (Onera), and Professor Michel Barsoum, of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the covering of the great Pyramids at Giza consists of two types of stone: one from the quarries and one man-made.

"There's no way around it. The chemistry is well and truly different," Professor Hug told Science et Vie magazine. Their study is being published this month in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society.

The pair used X-rays, a plasma torch and electron microscopes to compare small fragments from pyramids with stone from the Toura and Maadi quarries.

They found "traces of a rapid chemical reaction which did not allow natural crystalisation . . . The reaction would be inexplicable if the stones were quarried, but perfectly comprehensible if one accepts that they were cast like concrete."

At first glance, the mysterious carving looks a bit like a miniature electricity pylon with a latticed construction of uprights and grids. At the top is the outline of a misshapen cup which has a five-pointed star on one of the sides. Inside the cup shape, stacked on top of each other, are four diamond-shaped lozenges of different lengths and widths.

The crypt is part of an older structure on top of which the 15th-century chapel was built. It was used as a workshop during the chapel's construction and the scratching on the south wall seems to have been dismissed as a workman's sketch for one of the roof pinnacles.

"I can say with confidence this carving does not represent a pinnacle, or any three-dimensional church spire design," says Cowie. "This becomes obvious when you unravel the geometric layers."

Which is where he has the edge on most of us. Because where we see an electricity pylon or a badly drawn cup, Cowie sees a multi-layered, geometrically defined, mathematical template.

Bozhidar Dimitrov, head of Bulgaria's National Museum, told Reuters news agency the discovery was "sensational".

It is the latest in a string of finds in the area in recent years which has excited archaeologists and has provided more details of the skills of the still mysterious Thracian civilisation.

According to officials at the museum, the dagger is 16cm (6in) long and is sharp enough to shave with.

More than 500 other miniature gold items were found in the same tomb.

The detail on the dagger suggests that it was used for sacrificial purposes.

The verse, entitled Dispute Over Suicide, was written between 2000 and 1740 BC in hieroglyphics on papyrus. It runs: "Death is by my side today, like a well trodden way...

"Death is by my sight today, like the longing of a man to see home... I am laden with misery..."

The writer, known as The Eloquent Peasant, was commissioned by King Meri-ka-re to write a poem to discourage his subjects from taking their lives. It ends by saying people can find a solution to their despair.

The poem concludes: "Put care aside, my comrade and brother... Make an offering on the brazier and cling to life."

Dr George Tadros, a consultant psychiatrist, and Egyptologist Dr Ahmes Pahor used analytical software to examine the poem.

"The Max Planck Institute and 454 Life Sciences are working together to sequence the Neandertal genome. Our expertise with ancient DNA and the Neandertal, coupled with 454 Sequencing, a next generation sequencing technology with unparalleled throughput, makes this an ideal collaboration," explained Svante Paabo, Ph.D., Director of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute. "The advent of 454 Sequencing has enabled us to move forward with a project that was previously thought to be impossible."

Neandertal inhabited Europe and the Near East until about 30,000 years ago then disappeared after his successor, Homo sapiens, migrated to Europe. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the first Neandertal fossil in Germany's Neander Valley near Dusseldorf. Dr. Paabo was the first to sequence DNA from a Neandertal fossil in 1997 while at the University of Munich.

"We are excited to collaborate with the Max Planck Institute to sequence the Neandertal genome, as it promises to yield more insight into human biology than the sequencing of any individual human," said Christopher McLeod, President and CEO of 454 Life Sciences. "This ambitious project is further validation of 454 Sequencing technology and demonstrates that we can sequence any genome, even one from highly degraded samples."

It was a dark and stormy night, and in a cave in what is now southern France, Neanderthals were singing, dancing and tapping on stalagmites with their fingernails to pass the time.

Did this Ice Age rave-up happen, perhaps 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, on a cold night in the Pleistocene Epoch? Or is it purely a figment of the imagination of Steven Mithen, professor of early prehistory at the University of Reading in England?

Impossible to know, Mithen, 45, readily admits, but in his book, "The Singing Neanderthals," he has built a strong case that our hominid ancestors had a musical culture, and a rudimentary form of communication that went with it, that has left traces deeply embedded in modern mankind.

The astonishing fact about this discovery is that it dates back to at least 300 years before the traditional date of the founding of Rome, 753 BC.

It has long been known that Bronze Age people were living on the site where the ancient Romans founded their city.

But few traces of their society have ever been brought to light.

Anna De Santis, who took part in the dig, said the woman whose bones have been found was aged about 30 when she died.

She was evidently of high birth, for she was wearing an amber necklace with a gold pendant, a bronze hair-fastener and a bronze ring on one of her fingers.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs is an exhibition from National Geographic. Organized by Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions in association with The Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and The Field Museum. Tour Sponsor is Northern Trust. Chicago Sponsor is Exelon, Proud Parent of ComEd.

Howard Carter had spent five years searching the Valley of the Kings for the tomb of Tutankhamun. His funding was coming to an end, but he persuaded his patron, Lord Carnarvon, to support his work for one more season. A few days after digging began again, a young water-carrier put his hand on a stone step.

"It was a spectacular discovery -- a tomb untouched since antiquity, its inner sanctum never looted by tomb robbers," says James L. Phillips, Acting Curator of the Near East and North Africa at The Field Museum and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Chicago. The only tomb of its era found intact, it was also, Phillips notes, the first major discovery in the age of easy worldwide communication. That, along with rumors of a mysterious curse, helped make Tut the most popular of the pharaohs.

But there is no denying the allure of the treasure itself. More than 5,000 beautifully preserved artifacts were found in Tut's tomb, and the 50 selected for this exhibition -- along with more than 70 from other royal tombs -- are among the most breathtaking objects of ancient Egypt. Only a few of these artifacts were in the original exhibition, and many have never before traveled outside Egypt.

A tattooed mummy has been found in Peru which archaeologists say is one of the best-ever relics of a civilisation that ended more than 1,300 years ago.

The mummy, herself 1,500 years old, is of a woman in her 20s, believed to be an elite member of the Moche tribe.

The skeleton of an adolescent girl offered in sacrifice was found with a rope still around its neck.

The archaeologists from Peru and the US found the mummy at a site called El Brujo on the north coast near Trujillo.

"My opinion is that this is a type of pyramid, probably a primitive pyramid," said Dr. Aly Abd Alla Barakata, a geologist from the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority.

Barakata is the first expert from Egypt to visit the Visocica hill and offer an opinion on whether huge stone slabs excavated on the site could form the sloping sides of a massive step pyramid.

Semir Osmanagic, an amateur Bosnian archaeologist who has been investigating Latin American pyramids for 15 years, claimed last year that the Visocica hill, about 20 miles northwest of Sarajevo, is a pyramid. If correct, it would be the first ancient pyramid ever found in Europe.

Osmanagic's team, made up mainly of volunteers, began excavations last month on the 2,120-foot hill. The team found that Visocica has 45-degree slopes pointing toward the cardinal points and a flat top. Under layers of dirt, workers discovered a paved entrance plateau, entrances to tunnels and large stone blocks.

The archaeologists made the discovery in the state of Amapa, in the far north of Brazil.

A total of 127 large blocks of stone were found driven into the ground on top of a hill.

Well preserved and each weighing several tons, the stones were arranged upright and evenly spaced.

It is not yet known when the structure was built, but fragments of indigenous pottery found at the site are thought to be 2,000 years old.

Archaeologists and other experts began digging into the sides of the mysterious hill near the central Bosnian town of Visoko last week. On Wednesday, the digging revealed large stone blocks on one side that the leader of the team believes are the outer layer of the pyramid.

"These are the first uncovered walls of the pyramid," said Semir Osmanagic, a Bosnian archaeologist who studied the pyramids of Latin America for 15 years.

Osmanagic said Wednesday's discovery significantly bolsters his theory that the 2,120-foot hill rising above the small town of Visoko is actually a step pyramid -- the first found in Europe.

"We can see the surface is perfectly flat. This is the crucial material proof that we are talking pyramids," he said.

Osmanagic believes the structure itself is a colossal 722 feet high, or a third taller than Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza. The huge stone blocks discovered Wednesday appear to be cut in cubes and polished.

Photos released by the media and made available on Osmanagic's website show a series of stone plates buried just beneath the top layer of soil and vegetation. Despite the tests and pictures, some archaeologists aren't convinced by his claims.

"Clearly there are voids or something similar in the rock, but that is a long way from saying these are man-made," said Anthony Harding, president of the European Association of Archaeologists.

Scientists say bronze bowls, ceramic pots and other recovered artefacts shed light on an old Indonesian culture.

"There's potential that Tambora could be the Pompeii of the East, and it could be of great cultural interest," said Professor Haraldur Sigurdsson, of the University of Rhode Island, US, who has been researching the area for 20 years.

"All the people, their houses and culture are still encapsulated there as they were in 1815. It's important that we keep that capsule intact and open it very carefully."

The preserved footprints and abandoned homes of villagers who fled a giant eruption of Mount Vesuvius 3,800 years ago show the volcano could destroy modern-day Naples with little warning, Italian and U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

The eruption buried entire villages as far as 15 miles (25 kilometres) from the volcano, cooking people as they tried to escape and dumping several feet (metres) of ash and mud.

New excavations show far more extensive damage than that found at the more famous site of Pompeii, buried in A.D. 79.

rown University's library boasts an anatomy book that combines form and function in macabre fashion. Its cover--tanned and polished to a smooth golden brown, like fine leather--is made of human skin.

In fact, a number of the nation's finest libraries, including Harvard's, have such books in their collections. The practice of binding books in human skin was not uncommon in centuries past, even if it was not always discussed in polite society.

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Brown's John Hay Library has three books bound in human skin--the 1568 anatomy text by the Belgian surgeon Andreas Vesalius, and two 19th-century editions of "The Dance of Death," a medieval morality tale.

One copy of "The Dance of Death" was rebound in 1893 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf, a master binder in London. A note to his client reports that he did not have enough skin and had to split it. The front cover, bound in the outer layer of skin, has a slightly bumpy texture, like soft sandpaper. The spine and back cover, made from the inner layer, feel like suede.

Writing emerged in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India as far back as 3,000 B.C. Yet the first full-blown text -- a series of signs that are clearly telling a story— does not show up in the New World until about 400 to 300 B.C. They were left by the Zapotecs in the Oaxaca Valley south of central Mexico. Most of the early Maya writing comes from between A.D. 150 and 250.

Because Zapotec writing emerged so much earlier, researchers have long believed that the Maya were influenced by it.

The earliest single Mayan glyph — which could have stood for a person's name or might have been a sign on a calendar — dates to about 600 B.C. But it isn't considered writing. These new glyphs are much more complex, project leader William Saturno of the University of New Hampshire said.

"This is a full-blown and fully developed script," Saturno told LiveScience. "Which is not to say that the Maya invented writing and not the Zapotec, but it does lead us to question the origins and the complexities of these origins."

These are not the victims of "random violence", says Arthur A Demarest, the US archaeologist who has spent the best part of a decade fending off drug lords and looters as he excavated the 1,200-year-old site.

He says most of the dead, who include men, women and children, have been killed by "pulling the head back and shoving a large spear through the chest into the spine".

"You find war captives decapitated but not mass executions like this," he told the BBC News website.

The models bear a striking resemblance to the mask which covered the mummified face of King Tutankhamun when his remains were found by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 and other ancient portraits.

"The shape of the face and skull are remarkably similar to a famous image of Tutankhamun as a child where he was shown as the sun god at dawn rising from a lotus blossom," said Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The mummy, found two months ago, was covered from head to toe in brightly colored cartonage burial material depicting a range of graphic scenes, including the Goddess Maat of balance and truth who was shown with outstretched arms that took the shape of feathered wings.

Also shown were the four children of the falcon-headed god, Horus, and the rituals and processes to mummify the person, who Hawass believed must have been wealthy considering his burial location and fine gold used for the mummy's mask.

In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.