Smithsonian Magazine: July 2008
Features
Raiders or Traders?
A replica Viking vessel plying the North Sea this month is part of an effort to learn more about what the Norsemen were really up to
By Andrew Curry
Precarious Lebanon
Stricken by sectarian warfare and still reeling from the 2005 murder of its former Prime Minister, the Mediterranean nation brokers a fragile peace
By Joshua Hammer
Welcome to Your World
This year's photo contest winners reflect decidedly international points of view
By Abigail Tucker
John Muir's Yosemite
The father of the conservation movement found his calling on a visit to the California wilderness
By Tony Perrottet
The Great Human Migration
Why humans left their African homeland 80,000 years ago to colonize the world
By Guy Gugliotta
True Colors
Call them gaudy, call them kitsch, but archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann insists his eye-popping reproductions of ancient Greek sculptures are right on target
By Matthew Gurewitsch
Silken Treasure
The Italian city of Como, celebrated for its silk and scenery, has inspired notables from Leonardo da Vinci and Giuseppe Verdi to Winston Churchill and George Clooney
By Peter Ross Range
Departments
Indelible Images
It's in the Bag
Sports Illustrated photographer Neil Leifer hit a grand slam when he set out to capture a double play on film
By Owen Edwards
Presence of Mind
Wonders and Whoppers
Following in Marco Polo's footsteps through Asia leads our intrepid author to some surprising conclusions
By Mike Edwards
Wild Things
Wild Things
Life as We Know It
By Amanda Bensen, Kenneth R. Fletcher, T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino and Jesse Rhodes
Around the Mall
Lunar Living
The quest to return to the moon ignites new hope and vision at the 50-year-old space agency
By Kenneth R. Fletcher
The Object at Hand
The Smithsonian's Crystal Skull
How the museum's quartz cranium highlights the epic silliness of the new Indiana Jones movie
By Owen Edwards
