10. First Family
Americans may boast of family values, but they've got nothing on the folks of Saxony-Anhalt in central Germany. That's the home region of what might be the most traditional — or at least the oldest — nuclear family ever uncovered. Researchers there excavated 4,600-year-old graves of a group of Stone-Agers who appeared to have been killed together in a raid — judging from the defensive wounds many of them bore and the projectile point embedded in the vertebra of one female. Among the remains was a foursome interred together — an adult male and female and two boys, one of them 8 to 9 years old, the other 4 to 5. Analyzing molecular DNA evidence, the investigators confirmed what the tableau suggested: This was a family. Certainly this is not the oldest one that ever existed, but merely the oldest ever unearthed. Still, for now it is, to scientists at least, the true First Family.
Behind the Scenes: Prepping For Vancouver 2010
The Rise of Manny Pacquiao
The Odd Popularity of Mafia Wars
Let's Bail Out the Pot Dealers!
The Must-Have Travel Gadgets of 2009
Cartoons of the Week
10 Questions with Ewan McGregor
Hip Berlin: Europe's Capital of Cool
Pictures of the Week