Ancient Cultures
This 19th-Century Politician Never Thought He’d Be Outed for Vandalizing an Egyptian Temple
Unlike a Chinese youth recently shamed into apologizing for the markings he left on an Egyptian Temple, Luther Bradish got away guilt-free with his sneaky bid at immortality
June 11, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
The First French Winemakers Learned Everything They Knew From Etruscans
New research pins the arrival of wine making in France to around 525 B.C.
June 04, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
Legendary Human-Eating Bird Was Real, Probably Could Have Eaten People
In Maori legend, Te Hokioi was a giant bird that preyed on children, and science says that's probably the truth
June 03, 2013 |
By Rose Eveleth
The Ancient Egyptians Had Iron Because They Harvested Fallen Meteors
Modern chemical analysis confirms that ancient Egyptians used iron from meteorites
May 30, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
Tiger vs. Lion—Who Would Win?
Lions are the king of the plains. Tigers rule the jungle. But face to face, which would win?
May 29, 2013 |
By Rose Eveleth
How Two Retirees’ Amateur Archaeology Helped Throw Our View of Human History Into Turmoil
Through decades of excavation near their cottage Anton and Maria Chobot unearthed artifacts of the Clovis people
May 28, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
This Woman Is a Hair-Style Archaeologist
Like a superhero of the coiffe, Janet Stephens spends her days as a regular hair dresser and her nights recreating the hairstyles of ancient Rome
May 28, 2013 |
By Rose Eveleth
Mayan Pyramid Destroyed to Get Rocks for Road Project
The construction company building the road appears to have extracted crushed rocks from the pyramid to use as road fill
May 14, 2013 |
By Rose Eveleth
Scientists Map Britain’s Most Famous Underwater City
Researchers have created a 3D visualization of Dunwich using acoustic imaging
May 13, 2013 |
By Rose Eveleth
The Great(est) Gatsby Playlist
Baz Luhrmann may have his take, but Smithsonian Folkways offers its own streaming soundtrack for the novel-turned-movie
May 10, 2013 |
By Leah Binkovitz
U.S. Gives Mongolia Its Tyrannosauras Skeleton Back
The U.S. government is returning a Tyrannosaurus skeleton to Mongolia and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is giving two statues back to Cambodia
May 07, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Ancient Australia’s First Settlers Probably Came There On Purpose
Rather some chance encounter with the continent down under, researchers think that the original migrants set out to deliberately colonize Australia
April 25, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Ancient Maya Were Cultural Sponges
Rather than the Maya influencing the Olmec or vice versus, similarities between their cultures represent a general shift in ancient Mesoamerica
April 25, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
How Do You Say ‘Star Wars’ In Navajo?
The Navajo Nation teamed up with Lucasfilm to translate the classic space opera
April 25, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
Almost All That Remains of This Woman, Perhaps the First Queen of Windsor, Is Her Jewelry
Though her clothes long since decomposed and her bones are almost completely decayed, her lavish jewelry remains behind, giving hints to her identity
April 24, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Chechnya, Dagestan, and the North Caucasus: A Very Brief History
Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hails from Dagestan, a war-torn Russian region in the North Caucasus.
April 19, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
Our Closest Ape-Like Ancestor Is Reshuffling Thinking About Human Evolution
Australopithecus sediba included a strange mix of both modern Homo and ape-like australopith features
April 15, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Chins Prove There’s No Such Thing As Universal Beauty
Dartmouth researchers studied chin shapes of 180 recently deceased male and female skeletons from Australia, Africa, Asia and Europe. Chin shapes, they found, differ significantly in all of these regions
April 11, 2013 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Thousands of Roman Artifacts Have Just Been Sitting Under London’s Financial District
A trove of Roman artifacts, dug up from a London construction site
April 11, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
Shroud 2.0: A High-Tech Look at One of Christianity’s Most Important Artifacts
The Shroud of Turin? There's an app for that
April 01, 2013 |
By Colin Schultz
