Stories from this author
:focal(3000x2000:3001x2001)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/62/27/62273dc9-b757-46ce-b58a-c830e6c4e9ae/3arnexe.jpg)
What Can We Learn From Apocalyptic Times of the Past?
More than a millennium ago, a Maya community collapsed in the face of a devastating drought. One writer joined an intrepid archaeologist to upend what they thought they understood about why it all happened
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/e9/18/e918c95a-9bbf-4ed9-b78f-9dfff6b2e787/mar2017_k04_phenom.jpg)
A Child From 17th-Century Europe Might Have Rewritten the History of Smallpox
The deadly scourge goes back for centuries, but how many?