The venus figure discovered in Germany recently has very large breasts, bum and genitals, all said to connote fertility. But it also looks extremely fat. Were there obese people 35,000 years ago?

Few, if any. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index higher than 30—the equivalent of being about 5-foot-11 and 220 pounds. The best indicator of body type among prehistoric peoples is present-day societies with a similar lifestyle—that is, hunter-gatherers. From the San people of Botswana to the Pygmies in central Africa to the Batek of Malaysia, groups that fall into this category tend to be small and extremely thin. The Baka of Cameroon, for example, are about 5 feet tall and weigh around 105 pounds, giving them an average BMI of 20. Hunter-gatherers are usually thin because they subsist largely on fruits and vegetables, underground tubers, and, in some regions of Africa, honey. They also get calories from animal meat, and some of their diets are especially fish-heavy. But many tribes insist on distributing the meat evenly among the group, so there’s rarely enough for one person to get fat on. Hunter-gatherer tribes also stay thin, unsurprisingly, due to a generally active way of life.

A construction crew in Franklin, Tennessee have stumbled across the remains of what historians believe to be a Union soldier.

Along with the remains, police say military style uniform buttons were found in the dirt.

Detectives contacted members of the Carter House and Carnton Plantation, Civil War historic sites in Franklin. 

Representatives from both, along with the States Archeologist identified the findings as having historical value. 

The remains of one of Blackbeard’s pirate Crew may currently be stored in a box in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Kevin P. Duffus, a writer and filmmaker, says he needs access to the estate of Edward Salter, a landowner and merchant who died in 1735, to help confirm that the state has Salter’s remains. With the backing of some of Salter’s descendants, Duffus is seeking to have DNA testing done on bones that the state Office of State Archaeology recovered from a gravesite in Bath 23 years ago.

If the bones are Salter’s, not only could they be given a proper burial, Duffus says, but they could help prove that at least one of Blackbeard’s pirates was not executed in Williamsburg, Va., as popular history says. Duffus contends that Salter was a barrel maker who was forced to join the pirate’s crew after being hijacked aboard a ship.

Sardinian scientists have traced the roots of the “Sardonic grin” to a plant commonly found on the Italian island. The plant was made into a potion which forced condemned men as they went to their deaths.

‘The Punics were convinced that death was the start of new life, to be greeted with a smile,” he said.

Ballero’s team, whose work appears in the latest edition of the US Journal of Natural Products, have established that a toxic substance in the dropwart plant does, in fact, cause facial muscles to contract and produce a grimace or rictus.

The discovery could have a brighter side, he said, leading to drugs that might help certain conditions where parts of the face are paralysed.

Historians have been researching the most extreme forms of torture that took place in the ancient world as a means to keep the population obedient.

And the punishment: “sitting in the tub” saw the guilty person placed in a wooden tub with only their head sticking out. The executioner would then paint the victim’s face with milk and honey. Flies would begin to swarm around the victim’s nose and eyelids. The victim was also fed regularly and fairly soon, they would virtually be swimming in their own excrement.

At which stage maggots and worms would devour their body. One victim apparently survived for 17 days — he decayed alive.