Fones Cliffs along the Rappahannock River in Virginia. Last week, the Rappahannock Tribe announced the reacquisition of 465 acres of ancestral homeland along the river.

Good News

Ancestral Homeland Returned to Rappahannock Tribe After More Than 350 Years

The historic reacquisition spans 465 acres in the Northern Neck of Virginia

The food library and museum is slated to reopen later this spring.

A Museum in Rome Narrates Italian History Through Cookbooks and Kitchenware

Reopening this spring, Garum explores more than 500 years of local culinary traditions

Spot can reach speeds up to 3mph, has 360 degree vision that helps it avoid obstacles and is protected from dust and rain, per its creator, Boston Dynamics. 

Meet Spot, the Dog-Like Robot Roaming the Ruins of Pompeii

The bot, built by Boston Dynamics, can navigate difficult terrains that humans can’t access safely

“[T]his study show[s] how the owner of the house stimulated the visitor’s senses to convey a message about its power and wealth,” says co-author Danilo M. Campanaro in a statement.

Why Archaeologists Virtually Reconstructed an Ancient House in Pompeii

The team hopes to simulate how visitors would have experienced the space and gain a stronger understanding of the motivation behind Roman designs

A worker prepares a hot air balloon during a festival in Ba Vi National Park, west of Hanoi, Vietnam.

Good News

Good News

Uplifting stories to brighten your day

An illustration of a mummification experiment shows a bound body's breakdown of soft tissue after three weeks, and after seven months.

Researchers Find Potential Evidence of Oldest-Known Mummification

Newly discovered photographs help researchers to re-analyze 8,000-year-old remains from burials in Portugal

Scientists claim that the rock used to carve the Venus of Willendorf statue likely came from Italy.

New Research

3-D Scans Show 30,000-Year-Old Stone Sculpture Dug Up in Austria Likely Came From Italy

Scientists suspect an ancient limestone carving known as the Venus of Willendorf traveled hundreds of miles across the Southern Alps

A protester holds a sunflower during a London rally in support of Ukraine on March 26, 2022.

Why Sunflowers Are Ukraine’s National Flower

People around the world are embracing the bright bloom as a symbol of solidarity with the beleaguered country

New research shows that mass migration of ancient peoples from the south were essential to bringing maize cultivation to Maya communities in Central America. Scientists previously thought knowledge of farming techniques were shared by word of mouth between neighboring communities. 

New Research

New Study Finds Migrants Brought Maize to the Maya

DNA analysis of skeletal remains in Belize helps piece together how corn cultivation came to thrive in Central America

Sandbags are piled high around a statue of the Duc de Richelieu in Odessa, Ukraine, on March 14, 2022.

Inside the Efforts to Preserve Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage

Here’s how experts and civilians alike are working to protect the country’s art, artifacts and scientific specimens

"Donatello: The Renaissance" makes a case for the Renaissance sculptor as one of the leading artists of his generation.

Why Donatello Was a Father of the Renaissance

A blockbuster exhibition in Florence argues that the Italian sculptor deserves to be a household name on par with Michelangelo and Raphael

The finds suggest that the islands off the coast of Abu Dhabi weren't "arid and inhospitable" thousands of years ago, but rather a "fertile coast" ripe for settlement.

The United Arab Emirates’ Earliest Buildings Are 8,500 Years Old

Found off the coast of Abu Dhabi, the structures likely served as houses for Ghagha Island’s Neolithic inhabitants

None

A 5,000-Year-Old Human Bone Was Found in the River Thames

Well preserved by mud, the femur dates to Britain’s Neolithic period

Four lead ingots found in a shipwreck off the coast of Israel feature Cypro-Minoan markings but actually originated in Sardinia.

New Research

Imported Lead Ingots Offer Evidence of Complex Bronze Age Trade Networks

A new analysis of shipwrecked metals inscribed with Cypro-Minoan markings suggests the objects originated in Sardinia, some 1,550 miles away from Cyprus

The offering consisted of 164 starfish, chunks of coral, seashells, pufferfish, a resin figurine, animal bones and the skeleton of a female jaguar holding a spear in its claw.

Cool Finds

Trove of Starfish Deposited as Offering to Aztec War God Found in Mexico City

Researchers discovered 164 sea stars placed in the Templo Mayor around the turn of the 16th century

One mountain, named with a racist slur and slated for renaming, is located in Routt County in northern Colorado near the state's border with Utah. 

History of Now

U.S. Will Rename 660 Mountains, Rivers and More to Remove Racist Word

A task force is identifying new names for sites on federal land that bear a derogatory term referring to Indigenous women

Analysis of historical documents showed no evidence of the site being called Machu Picchu until 1911.

Have We Been Calling Machu Picchu by the Wrong Name?

Historical records suggest the Inca called the 15th-century citadel Huayna Picchu, before an American explorer who “discovered” the site in 1911 renamed it

Geese could have been bred to compensate for a reduction in birds from spring to autumn, according to researchers.

New Study Suggests Geese Were the First Domesticated Birds

Researchers found bones in China that indicate geese were domesticated about 2,000 years before chickens

The anthropomorphic carvings represent one of the earliest examples of artistic expression in the Middle East.

Well-Preserved, 9,000-Year-Old Shrine Discovered in Jordan Desert

Researchers uncovered two standing stones featuring anthropomorphic carvings and a model of a “desert kite” used to trap wild gazelles

French culture minister officials visits the site of the discovery where an ancient human-shaped sarcophogus was found, among other objects, including sculptures, carvings and a 13th-century altar screen. 

Cool Finds

Notre-Dame Repair Crews Discover an Ancient Graveyard With a Sealed Sarcophagus

France’s culture ministry describes the finding as being “of remarkable scientific quality”

Page 100 of 327