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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Archaeological artifacts as well as bone fragments up to 5,000 years old were discovered at two Spanish homes.

Police Discover Hundreds of Stolen Artifacts at Two Spanish Residences

The collection includes bones, Paleolithic tools, an ancient Roman loom and more

A cave painting of an extinct cattle species from Lascaux, France, with markings on its back.

Could These Cave Markings Be the Earliest Form of Writing?

New research proposes that symbols in 20,000-year-old cave drawings are a proto-writing system, but not all scientists are convinced

Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti was welcomed by friends and colleagues on Wednesday after being released from prison on bail.

Iran Releases Taraneh Alidoosti, the Famous Actress Arrested for Supporting Protests

Alidoosti had criticized Iran’s brutal crackdown on protests following the death of Mahsa Amini

Archaeologists have only unearthed half of the Viking hall so far and plan to continue their dig later in 2023.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Viking Hall in Denmark

The structure may have been used for political meetings or other community gatherings

Archaeologists used a remotely operated vehicle called Deep Trekker to explore the H.M.S. Erebus site.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Recover 275 Artifacts From Mysterious Arctic Shipwreck

Explorer John Franklin and his 128 crew members disappeared while searching for the Northwest Passage in the 1840s

Toni Morrison, the renowned author of powerful novels about the Black experience, taught at Princeton between 1989 and 2006.

Toni Morrison’s Rarely Seen Papers Will Go on View at Princeton

The university is planning a months-long series of exhibitions, programs and performances

Egyptian officials with the ancient sarcophagus on January 2, 2023

U.S. Returns Looted Sarcophagus to Egypt

The “Green Coffin” had been at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences since 2013

A photo of Henrietta Lacks in the living room of her grandson, Ron Lacks

Henrietta Lacks’ Virginia Hometown Will Build Statue in Her Honor, Replacing Robert E. Lee Monument

Lacks’ unique cancer cells were taken without consent and used for medical breakthroughs

Robert Burns, the renowned Scottish poet most famous for writing “Auld Lang Syne” 

Cool Finds

This Rare Robert Burns Book Was Discovered in a Barber Shop, Where It Was Used to Clean Razors

The rarely seen copy of the Scottish writer’s debut poetry collection is now on display

Historian John Rice Irwin, linguist Carl Croneberg and historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall

Three Pioneering Scholars Who Died This Year

They believed that the stories of marginalized communities were worth chronicling

Vandals broke in to Koonalda Cave in South Australia and wrote a prank message over 30,000 year old art

Vandals Destroy 30,000-Year-Old Indigenous Cave Drawings in Australia

The perpetrators broke in to the cave and defaced some of the earliest known examples of First Peoples Rock Art

The cave once belonged to a wealthy Jewish family before becoming a Christian pilgrimage site

What’s Within the Burial Cave Dedicated to Jesus’ Midwife?

Archaeologists in Israel are excavating the site that was popular among pilgrims more than a millennium ago

Pope Francis with Archbishop Ieronymos II in 2021

Pope Francis Will Return Parthenon Sculptures to Greece

The fifth-century B.C.E. artifacts have been at the Vatican Museum for 200 years

Microwear traces on a Bronze Age tool used for smoothing or polishing

New Research

Unearthed Near Stonehenge, This Toolkit Was Used for Goldwork 4,000 Years Ago

The toolkit was discovered in 1801—but until recently, researchers didn’t understand its purpose

“I want people to see the convergence and similarities in all of these Black lives," says Chance the Rapper, who is planning a free music festival in Ghana.

The History Behind Chance the Rapper’s Black Star Line Festival

The event is named after an early 20th-century shipping line created by Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey

Critics say the portrayal of the Na'avi alien species in Avatar appropriates and homoginizes Indigenous cultures.

Indigenous Activists Criticize ‘Avatar’ Sequel

They say the film romanticizes colonization and reduces Indigenous cultures to vague stereotypes

The elusive yeast strain had been lurking in the soil at the University College Dublin in Ireland.

Elusive Yeast That Gave Rise to Lagers Found in Europe for the First Time

Students in Ireland discovered the ancestral fungus in the soil on their university’s campus

J. Robert Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project, a mission to develop nuclear weapons during World War II.

U.S. Reverses 1954 Removal of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Security Clearance

The “father of the atomic bomb” was accused of being a communist

Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran's most famous actresses, voiced support for anti-government protests on Instagram.

Iran Arrests One of Its Most Famous Actresses

Taraneh Alidoosti was detained after criticizing the government’s execution of a protester

President John F. Kennedy delivers remarks at Rice University regarding the nation's efforts in space exploration on September 12, 1962

National Archives Releases Thousands of Kennedy Assassination Files

Over 97 percent of documents related to the event are now publicly available

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