National Geographic has an interesting article about the history of (and the business of) Halloween.

In addition to sacrificing animals to the gods and gathering around bonfires, Celts often wore costumes—probably animal skins—to confuse spirits, perhaps to avoid being possessed, according to the American Folklife Center at the U.S. Library of Congress.

By wearing masks or blackening their faces, Celts are also thought to have impersonated dead ancestors.

Young men may have dressed as women and vice versa, marking a temporary breakdown of normal social divisions.

In an early form of trick-or-treating, Celts costumed as spirits are believed to have gone from house to house engaging in silly acts in exchange for food and drink—a practice inspired perhaps by an earlier custom of leaving food and drink outdoors as offerings to supernatural beings.

A British seaman’s war-time log has been discovered that discloses how 67 sailors survived 20 days and 1,200 miles adrift at sea after their ship was sunk by a German U-boat.

The men were stranded in four lifeboats and survived on water biscuits, raisins and the odd raw fish caught by hand.

They drank salty rain-water and tins of condensed milk they salvaged from the wreckage.

The newly discovered log tells of how the men were often drenched by heavy rain storms, leaving them cold and wet for days afterwards.

Three men died from hypothermia and exposure and had to be buried at sea during the ordeal in the middle of the Atlantic in February 1943.

Despite their plight, they managed to navigate their way using the stars and eventually found land at Antigua.

A collection of 9,000-year-old artifacts has been uncovered at a site in central Sweden.

Parts of a bow, a paddle, and the wooden shaft of an axe are among the discoveries recently unearthed from the Stone Age settlement Kanaljorden outside of Motala, according to local media reports.

“Totally unbelievable,” project leader Fredrik Hallgren with the Stiftelsen Kulturmiljövård Mälardalen (‘Cultural Preservation Society of Mälardalen’) told the local newspaper Motala & Vadstena Tidning.

All of the artifacts except for the axe blade are made of wood. The objects have been preserved for thousands of years because a layer of peat covered the mud in which they were found.

The discovery is unique for central Sweden, and the bow is the first of its kind ever discovered in Sweden.

40 mummified Scotch pines, dating back to the early 1200s, have been found near a fjord in Norway.

The find astounded researchers, since most dead trees decay as they are eaten by tiny organisms, said research leader Terje Thun, a biologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

“Here on the west coast of Norway, where it rains a lot and [is] always wet, it was a surprise that the wood was in such good condition,” Thun said.

With these uniquely preserved pines, he added, “you could touch the same tree that Viking [ancestors] have seen.”

A 16 year-old, the son of an archaeologist, was swimming off a beach in Montenegro when he discovered an odd looking stone, evidence of an ancient Greek or Roman trading post.

Once his son reported the find, Mr Le Quesne, a professional archaeologist, fetched a snorkel and dived down to investigate. He discovered fluted columns, 90cm in diameter, on plinths, which appeared to form part of an ancient Greek or Roman temple, basilica or major public building, similar to those at other archaeological sites around the Mediterranean.

On a clear day, the columns are visible from the surface of the water, but it appears that the remains, which include ancient pottery, have stayed untouched for thousands of years.

Michael said: “When I first swam out, I thought they were just rocks, as most people would, but then I noticed that they were cylindrical and knew that they couldn’t be natural, so I called my dad over.

“I’ve been dragged around a lot of ancient ruins, so if it hadn’t been for that I wouldn’t have looked twice.”