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The painted replica of a c. 490 B.C. archer (at the Parthenon in Athens) testifies to German archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann’s painstaking research into the ancient sculpture’s colors. The original statue came from the Temple of Aphaia on the Greek island of Aegina.

True Colors

Archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann insists his eye-popping reproductions of ancient Greek sculptures are right on target

The arduous task of silkworm cultivation involved keeping the tiny silkworm eggs (about 35,000 of them weigh only an ounce) at the correct temperature. Hatched worms then had to be fed mulberry leaves around the clock.

Spin Cycle

Silkworm farming, or sericulture, was a backbreaking job that often required the participation of entire families

The Nightmare (Henry Fuseli, 1781)

Dream On

Why your nightmares hold the key to workplace success

Peter Ross Range

Peter Ross Range on “Silken Treasure”

Tony Perrottet

Tony Perrottet on “John Muir’s Yosemite”

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Guy Gugliotta on “The Great Human Migration”

Matthew Gureswitsch

Matthew Gurewitsch on “True Colors”

A frybread meal at a Navajo powwow.

Frybread

This seemingly simple food is a complicated symbol in Navajo culture

Navajo frybread cooks in an iron frying pan.

Frybread Recipe

A recipe from Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions

Six days after Betka Tudu's birth, female relatives and neighbors in the West Bengal village of Purulia gathered to bless him and "to protect him from harm's way," says Dey. Born into the Santhal tribe, Betka "unknowingly drew his distant kin closer than ever."

Welcome to Your World

This year’s photo contest winners reflect decidedly international points of view

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Our 10th Annual Photo Contest Ends Today at 2 PM EST!

Enter your best shots by November 30th at 2 PM EST, and compete to win our grand prize!

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July Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

“Everybody needs beauty... places to play and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike,” wrote Muir (c. 1902).

John Muir’s Yosemite

The father of the conservation movement found his calling on a visit to the California wilderness

Christopher Henshilwood (in Blombos Cave) dug at one of the most important early human sites partly out of proximity—it’s on his grandfather’s property.

The Great Human Migration

Why humans left their African homeland 80,000 years ago to colonize the world

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Were “Hobbits” Human?

Debate rages over an Indonesian fossil find

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Showing Their Age

Dating the Fossils and Artifacts that Mark the Great Human Migration

View of Beirut, Lebanon, with palm and pine trees in the foreground

Times of Trouble

Flashpoints in Modern Lebanese History

Carleton Watkins stereograph of El Capitan in Yosemite

About Carleton Watkins

On the life and career of the 19th-century American landscape photographer who captured Yosemite in stereo

Quebec city's Parliament building, the site of the Place de l'Assembée-Nationale.

Let Me Be Franc

A Look Back for Quebec City’s 400th

The Sea Stallion from Glendalough

Raiders or Traders?

A replica Viking vessel sailing the North Sea has helped archaeologists figure out what the stalwart Norsemen were really up to

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