One of the great conundrums of ancient Mediterranean history may be nearer solution–well, sort of. It now seems the vastly-entertaining 5th-century BCE Herodotus was wrong on another count and the Etruscans weren’t originally of Anatolian stock, but we still don’t understand how they got that weird language. Ariel David’s article explains how genetic studies across 1800 years have both enriched our knowledge about the specific matter and attack larger archaeological truisms like “simple assumptions that genes equal languages.” CNN’s Katie Hunt takes us further back in time with news that Fossilized Footprints Show Humans Made it to North America Much Earlier than First Thought. A New Mexico site’s rather secure stratigraphy seems a near-clincher against the “traditional” view of human arrival in the Western Hemisphere only around 16,000 BP. One scholar notes the scientific controversy bore almost the characteristics of “religious zeal.” Some remarkable Ancient Alien theorizing comes under The Observer’s presentation Telling ‘The Greatest Story Never Told’. Dr. Lana Cantrell is truly an original among the writers in that genre. And Jason Colavito’s review of Confessions of an Egyptologist sounds more entertaining and “real” than the new Erich von Daniken book he pillories. (WM)– Delivered by Feed43 serviceTHE ANOMALIST