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Vast ancient pyramid hidden for MILLENNIA near ‘Sacred City’ is unearthed…shedding light on lost ‘advanced’ civilisation

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have unearthed a vast ancient pyramid that was hidden for millennia, right next to a revered sacred city.

They have hailed the find as an opportunity to shed new light on the earliest advanced civilisation in the Americas.

Aerial view of the Chupacigarro archaeological settlement in Peru.
Jam Press/Caral Archaeological Zone
The ruined pyramid and surrounding development was found at the Chupacigarro archaeological site[/caption]
Excavated ruins of a 5,000-year-old pyramid in Peru.
Jam Press/Caral Archaeological Zone
A series of vertical stones called ‘huancas’ suggested to archaeologists there was a site to be discovered[/caption] Illustration of a newly discovered pyramid near Caral, Peru, with a map showing its location.

The new pyramid has been dug out at the Chupacigarro archaeological site, just one kilometre west of the world heritage site Caral in the Supe Valley, west Peru.

The discovery was made by the team dedicated to exploring the area around the sacred city, known as the Caral Archaeological Zone.

It is thought the pyramid site – named Sector F – was an extension of the main city.

For thousands of years, it lay beneath earth and shrubs, but then the scientists came across vertical stones – “huancas” – marking out the corners of a building.

They also signify the site as one of ceremonial importance.

The footprint of the ancient structure is rectangular, and features a central staircase that once led up to a towering summit.

It consists of 12 smaller areas scattered across nearby hilltops that historians think were used for ceremonies or other aspects of public life.

Around the outside, archaeologists also came across the ruins of numerous houses.

These discoveries point to the site being a small urban centre – a suburb of the main sacred city Caral.

The central pyramid is formed of at least three overlapping platforms that stacked up to form the body.

It also featured a sunken, central pillar.

One of the most astonishing finds in the dig was a massive “geoglyph” – meaning a design marked on the earth – of a human head.

The huge artwork was over 62 metres long and 30 metres wide.

The Chupacigarro archaeological site sits next to a small stream running through a ravine, which would have supplied water to the ancient Peruvians living there.

Illustration of a 5,000-year-old pyramid structure in Peru and its location within the Chupacigarro archaeological settlement.
Jam Press/Caral Archaeological Zone
Aerial view of the Aspero ruins in Peru.
Another archaeological site exploring a Caral settlement where the Lady with the Four Brooches was discovered
Ruth Shady, Caral Archaeological Zone

The ravine would also have allowed a channel for trade between inland settlements and people living on the coast.

The pyramid is part of a broader network of settlements around Supe Valley.

It was built by people of the Caral civilization, which thrived in ancient Peru for over a thousand years.

The modern Peruvian government hopes the fascinating new find will attract more visitors interested in the area’s past.

The Caral civilisation

THE Caral people were an ancient civilisation that lived in modern-day north-central Peru.

They were most established between 3500 and 1800 BC – making them the earliest advanced society in the Americas.

The group is significant because they are one of the six societies from where civilisation is thought to have separately bloomed.

The Caral developed at least 30 major settlements which were concentrated near the South Pacific coast of western Peru.

They were incredibly capable farmers compared with other civilisations from that era, and cultivated cotton plants which they used for fishing nets or clothing.

They also built numerous pyramids – like the one at Chupacigarro – at the same time the ancient Egyptians were doing so.

Another major achievement of their society was the development of the quipu – an encoded system of recording information.

The existence of the Caral people was only discovered in 1948, by Paul Kosok.

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Map reveals where kids are most likely to lose their teeth as 120 have NHS ops to remove decaying gnashers a DAY

THE proportion of five-year-olds with rotting teeth is rising in three areas of England, new figures have revealed – with experts warning of a dental health crisis.

The latest statistics show as many as six in 10 children in some areas are at risk of needing fillings, and in some cases tooth loss, by the age of five, with clear differences between poorer regions of England and the more affluent.

A dentist examining a young child's teeth.
Getty
As many as six in 10 children in some areas are at risk of needing fillings by the age of 5[/caption]

The three areas with the highest rates of tooth decay among five-year-olds are the North East, London and the South West.

At a regional level, Manchester has the highest percentage of five-year-olds with enamel and/or dentinal decay – with 60.8 per cent of children affected there in 2024.

This is followed by South Hams in Devon (49.6 per cent), Pendle in Lancashire (49.0 per cent) and Salford (48.2 per cent).

Rochford in Essex had the lowest percentage (4.9 per cent), followed by St Albans (6.0 per cent), North Hertfordshire (6.9 per cent) and Bromsgrove (8.0 per cent).

The data shows a clear North-South divide, with the three highest percentages (not including London) all in northern England.

While England as a whole has seen a drop in the percentage of children with enamel and/or dentinal decay – from 29.3 per cent in 2022 to 26.9 per cent in 2024 – it has risen in the North East, from 26.0 per cent to 27.7 per cent.

In the South West, the percentage has jumped from 23.3 per cent to 24.2 per cent, and from 28.5 per cent in London to 30.0 per cent.

One of the main causes of enamel erosion is acids found in food and drink.

The report said: “It is especially important to determine the proportion of children with enamel decay who do not yet have dentinal decay, as in the past, children were often regarded as ‘free of decay’.”

The British Dental Association (BDA) said there has been “no progress” on the rollout of Labour manifesto pledges to “fix the failed contract fuelling the crisis in NHS dentistry” or to deliver prevention programmes in schools.

Chairman Eddie Crouch, said: “This oral health gap was made in Westminster, with children paying the price for official failure to take dentistry seriously.

“A new Government calls this ‘Dickensian’, but it will take deeds not words to turn this around.”

Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Helen Morgan said: “The Labour government’s promised 700,000 additional dental appointments have so far proven as real as the Loch Ness monster.

“To see your child in pain is one of the worst feelings a parent can go through.

“But to think that so much of this suffering could be prevented if the scourge of dental deserts was ended makes it all the more infuriating that we are still in this situation.

“It is time ministers woke up, gripped this crisis and prevented more unnecessary suffering.”

A toddler girl eating colorful candies.
Getty
One of the main causes of enamel erosion is acids found in food and drink[/caption]

The Royal College of Surgeons said, in 2022/23, some 47,581 children required tooth extractions in NHS hospitals, with 66 per cent (31,165 cases) directly attributed to decay.

This is the equivalent of 120 hospital operations every working day, it said.

Dr Charlotte Eckhardt, dean of the faculty of dental surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, said: “We’ve seen a slight improvement overall in the number of five-year-olds with tooth decay, but it is still too high.

“The fact that more than one in five children still suffer from an entirely preventable condition is concerning.

“Supervised toothbrushing programmes (STPs), which the Government has said it will implement, offer a glimmer of hope, but their roll-out is uneven across the country.

“STPs have proven to reduce dental decay within a single year after children have been enrolled.”

Toothbrushing tips for kids

WHEN it comes to kids brushing their teeth, it’s important to use a fluoride toothpaste, as this helps prevent and control tooth decay.

According to the NHS, children aged up to three years should:

  • Start brushing your baby’s teeth as soon as the first milk tooth breaks through (usually at around 6 months, but it can be earlier or later).
  • Parents or carers should brush the teeth.
  • Brush teeth twice daily for about 2 minutes with fluoride toothpaste.
  • Brush last thing at night before bed and on 1 other occasion.
  • Use children’s fluoride toothpaste containing no less than 1,000ppm of fluoride (check label) unless a dentist advises family toothpaste containing between 1,350ppm and 1,500ppm fluoride.
  • Use only a smear of toothpaste.
  • Make sure children don’t eat or lick toothpaste from the tube.

Children aged 3 to 6 years should:

  • Brush at least twice daily for about 2 minutes with fluoride toothpaste.
  • Brush last thing at night before bed and at least on 1 other occasion.
  • Parents or carers should brush the teeth.
  • Use children’s fluoride toothpaste containing no less than 1,000ppm of fluoride (check label) unless a dentist advises family toothpaste containing between 1,350ppm and 1,500ppm fluoride.
  • Use only a pea-sized amount of toothpaste.
  • Spit out after brushing and don’t rinse – if you rinse, the fluoride won’t work as well.

Children aged 7 and over should:

  • Brush at least twice daily for about 2 minutes with fluoride toothpaste.
  • Brush last thing at night before bed and at least on 1 other occasion.
  • Use fluoride toothpaste containing between 1,350ppm and 1,500ppm of fluoride (check label).
  • Spit out after brushing and don’t rinse – if you rinse, the fluoride won’t work as well.

Children aged 7 and over should be able to brush their own teeth, but it’s still a good idea to watch them to make sure they brush properly and for about 2 minutes.

Source: NHS

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Check little-known iPhone folder stealing your storage and DELETE everything in it – I couldn’t believe how bad mine was

UNLOCK your iPhone and get your thumbs ready to hit “delete” – because there’s a folder you need to empty out right now.

It’s packed with loads of useless stuff that will be gobbling up your valuable storage.

iPhone Utilities menu showing Favorites (1,005), Hidden, Recently Deleted, and Duplicates (10,843).
The Sun
Go to the Duplicates folder in your iPhone’s Photos app[/caption]

An iPhone’s storage space is precious stuff: it’s where all of your photos, videos and apps are kept. It can fill up pretty quickly.

Usually getting extra storage means paying for pricier iPhone models – and then you’ll fork out even more to back it up with iCloud.

So one solution is to trim the amount of storage that you need in the first place.

SPACE SAVER

Go into your Photos app and scroll down until you find the Utilities section.

In there, you should see a tab called Duplicates.

This is where Apple keeps track of every photo and video that you’ve got doubles, triples, or even quadruples of.

It can happen very easily, especially if you use an app like WhatsApp where you might receive the same image in multiple chats.

I checked my duplicates folder and found a frankly shocking 10,843 duplicate pictures and clips.

By clearing them out, I instantly free up dozens of gigabytes of storage.

If you’ve got lots of videos in particular, you might find yourself unlocking even more storage space.

Each item will be listed in order of recency.

You’ll be able to see the duplicate files, each with a Merge button alongside it.

If you hit Merge, the duplicates will be removed leaving you with an original file.

To make the job quicker, you can tap the Select button in the top-right.

Screenshot of iPhone screen showing duplicate files and a weather forecast.
The Sun
You’ll want to tap on the Merge button to scrub out doubles of your photos and videos[/caption]

This will let you quickly tap on all of the duplicate files that you want to free up and merge them all in one clean sweep.

There’s even an option to Select All on this page, so you can merge everything in an instant.

That’s the fastest way to free up space, as manually selecting each Merge could take ages if you’ve never cleared out your Duplicates before.

It’s a good idea to check your Duplicates folder every few months to make sure that it isn’t clogging up with unnecessary doubles.

DON'T BREAK THE 1GB RULE!

Low storage isn't just annoying – it could be ruining your iPhone...

Apple has a ‘1GB rule’ that you must never break.

It refers to the minimum amount of free storage space available on your iPhone.

Your iPhone’s performance can drop significantly if you have less than 1GB of free space.

Check your iPhone storage by going into Settings > General > iPhone Storage.

“If your device is low on storage, iOS or iPadOS automatically frees up space while installing an app, updating iOS or iPadOS, downloading music, recording videos, and more,” Apple explains.

“iOS or iPadOS only removes items that can be downloaded again or that aren’t needed anymore.”

Apple adds: “If your available storage is consistently less than 1GB, your device might slow down as iOS or iPadOS repeatedly makes room for more content.”

Picture Credit: Apple / The Sun

EXTRA SPACE

If this doesn’t free up enough space, you’ve got some other options too.

The easiest thing to do is going into Settings > General > iPhone Storage.

This will show how much free space you have left, and it even details which apps are taking up the most storage.

More importantly, you should find a list of recommendations at the top of the page.

iPhone storage usage and recommendations to free up space.
The Sun
There are some other ways of freeing up space on your iPhone in its storage settings[/caption]

These are one of the most effective ways of freeing up storage space on an iPhone.

For instance, you can use Offload Unused Apps to keep the files associated with apps you don’t use regularly – but removing the apps themselves.

Then you can restore them when you need them without having to keep them saved the whole time.

You might also see an option to Remove Older Downloads.

iPhone storage showing Reddit (1.55 GB), LinkedIn (1.46 GB), and Voice Memos (1.41 GB) usage.
The Sun
You can easily see which apps are taking up the most storage – as well as how recently you’ve used them[/caption]

This will let you keep just the latest five automatically downloaded episodes per show on your iPhone.

It won’t affect anything that you’ve saved or manually downloaded.

And you can hit Review Downloaded Media to see what’s saved on your iPhone – letting you scrub anything that you don’t want.

You could easily free up huge amounts of space with these tricks, so they’re worth trying before you fork out on a pricier iPhone model with extra storage.

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Are 99.6% of Dream Team bosses foolishly overlooking this bargain midfield option?

DREAM TEAM managers should always be alert to potential difference-makers, especially those who are cheap as chips.

At this point in time, might Jacob Ramsey (£2.7m) fit the bill?

Aston Villa player in The Sun Dream Team.
Dream Team
99.6% of Dream Team managers are overlooking Ramsey at present[/caption]

The Aston Villa midfielder has been on a role of late with 35 points in four appearances across the last three Gameweeks.

The 23-year-old scored against West Ham and provided two assists at home to Celtic in Gameweek 21 for a combined return of 22 points.

Like most of Unai Emery’s troops, he underwhelmed away to Wolves in Gameweek 22 but bounced back with a strong showing against Tottenham in the FA Cup in Gameweek 23.

Ramsey scored within a minute at Villa Park on Sunday, thanks in no small part to Antonin Kinsky’s error, and received 12 points for his efforts come the final whistle.

From a Dream Team perspective, this fruitful form has come at a good time as gaffers should be very interested in Villa players at this stage of the season.

Jacob Ramsey of Aston Villa scoring a goal.
Getty
Ramsey struck early against Spurs[/caption]

Villa are one of just three teams set to fulfil two fixtures in Gameweek 24 with Ipswich and Liverpool due in the Midlands within four days of each other.

A home game against the Tractor Boys has to be considered a favourable match-up and while Arne Slot’s league leaders are quite the opposite, that midweek fixture is essentially a bonus point-scoring opportunity – a helpful quirk in the schedule.

Not only that, Emery’s side will also double up in Gameweeks 25 (Chelsea & Crystal Palace) and Gameweek 26 (Cardiff & Champions League round of 16 first leg).

This combination of form and fixtures surely makes Ramsey, who currently features in just 0.4% of teams, an appealing option for the next month or so.

Unai Emery, Aston Villa's head coach, at a Premier League match.
Villa have plenty of fixtures to fulfil in the coming weeks
Alamy

Villa’s No41 has started the last four games in a row and delivered enough goal involvements to retain his place but some Dream Team bosses may be concerned about his minutes given the level of competition within the squad.

January recruits Donyell Malen (£2.9m), Marco Asensio (£3.5m) and Marcus Rashford (£3.4m) have added extra dimensions in attack and it will be interesting to see how Emery shuffles his pack.

Many gaffers will feel Morgan Rogers (£3.5m) allows them to cover Villa’s busy period and that may well be the case.

The 22-year-old has scored 11 goals and provided seven assists in all competitions this season.

His tally of 195 points is only bettered by six midfielders at the time of writing.

Morgan Rogers of Aston Villa celebrates a goal.
Alamy
Rogers is a popular man this week[/caption]

After a wave of transfers this week, Rogers is now the third-most popular player in his position (21.7% ownership).

He probably is the first port of call for Villa points, with Ollie Watkins (£5.1m) also a strong option when fit, but Dream Team managers who like to go against the grain should at least consider Ramsey ahead of Gameweek 24.


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