Two very large crude carriers loaded with Iranian oil have reached Indian ports, ship tracking data from LSEG shows, as local refiners utilise a temporary waiver granted by the United States last month to resume purchases from Tehran for the first time in seven years. The current waiver is due to expire on April 19. The Iran-flagged Felicity has reached Sikka Port in western India, while the Curacao-flagged Jaya is at the eastern port of Odisha, the data shows. A VLCC carries 2 million barrels of oil. India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, has not received a cargo from Iran since May 2019 after coming under U.S. pressure not to buy the country's crude. Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, has bought Iranian oil loaded on the Jaya, a vessel under U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported last week. India has also allowed Reliance Industries Ltd, the operator of the world's biggest refining complex, to buy Iranian oil loaded on the Comoros-flagged...
In a remarkable scientific discovery, Spanish archaeologists have found evidence that human ancestors ate children, some 850,000 years ago. Digging at the Gran Dolina cave site in Atapuerca, northern Spain, the researchers discovered a human neck bone belonging to a child aged between two and four years old, with clear butchery marks, suggesting that the small children may have been devoured clean.
The team from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) stated that the site of the marks on the neck bone suggests the youngster was decapitated. Notably, the body parts of the child belong to Homo antecessor, believed to be the last common ancestor of both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
"This case is particularly striking, not only because of the child's age, but also due to the precision of the cut marks," said Dr Palmira Saladie, the co-director of the excavation.
"The vertebra presents clear incisions at key anatomical points for disarticulating the head. It is direct evidence that the child was processed like any other prey."
Although cannibalism is well documented in early humans, it is unusual to find evidence of a child being eaten. If the discovery stands verified, it could mark the earliest evidence of the practice found to date.
“What we are documenting now is the continuity of that behaviour: the treatment of the dead was not exceptional, but repeated,” said Ms Saladie.
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Stockier and shorter on average than modern humans, the Homo antecessor lived between 1.2 million and 800,000 years ago. Their brain size was roughly between 1,000 and 1,150 cubic centimetres, which is smaller than the average 1,350 cubic centimetres brain size of people today.
"The new find reinforces the hypothesis that these early humans exploited their congeners as a food resource," the researchers stated.
“Every year we uncover new evidence that forces us to rethink how our ancestors lived, how they died, and how the dead were treated nearly a million years ago.”
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/qRkG6wu
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