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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Detail from Tolkien's Conversation With Smaug, 1937

Rarely Seen Paintings by J.R.R. Tolkien Portray a Lush ‘Lord of the Rings’ Landscape

The Tolkien Estate recently published a trove of rare, unpublished art by the famed fantasy author on its website

Researchers unearthed 10-pound Civil War artillery shell at a national park in Georgia in February. Local authorities say they plan to safely detonate the bomb—a decision that angered some historians arguing for the artifact's preservation. 

Cool Finds

Unexploded Civil War Shell Unearthed in Georgia

Local authorities plan to safely detonate the ordnance, potentially destroying it in the process. The decision has sparked controversy among history buffs

Smog hangs over downtown Los Angeles, here in 2019. A new study found links between heavy air pollution and historical redlining in urban areas.

Redlined Neighborhoods Have Higher Levels of Air Pollution, Study Suggests

A new analysis documents a link between discriminatory housing practices and local air quality

Italy's Arma dei Carabinieri seized 79 archaeological goods last year.

Officials Recover Thousands of Cultural Goods in Crackdown, Including Roman Gold Coins

International police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection performed checks at museums, border crossing points, airports and auction houses

One of the three broken masts from the 1891 wreckage of SS Atlanta. Researchers discovered the ship at the bottom of Michigan's Lake Superior last summer.

Well-Preserved, 131-Year-Old Shipwreck Found in Lake Superior

Researchers discovered the S.S. “Atlanta” last summer while using sonar to map 2,500 miles of the seabed

On March 15, the Senate unanimously passed legislation calling for year-round daylight saving time.

Untold Stories of American History

What Happened the Last Time the U.S. Tried to Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent?

A 1974 switch to year-round DST proved unpopular, with Americans expressing “distaste” for the long, dark winter mornings

An aerial view of a ten-foot-long section of the newly discovered mosaic

Cool Finds

See Dazzling Photos of a Roman Mosaic Floor Unearthed in London

The ancient artwork is the largest of its kind found in the English capital in 50 years

A woodblock illustration depicts a warrior challenging Tamamo-no-mae, a evil nine-tailed fox disguised as a woman who tries to kill the emperor. Legends say the "killing stone," which recently split in half, contained her vengeful spirit.  

Ancient Japanese Stone Said to Contain ‘Demon’ Cracks Open

Legends say the evil spirit of a beautiful woman plotted to kill the emperor was trapped inside more than 1,000 year ago

Researchers discovered the wreck of Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, the team announced this week. The ship was last seen by Shackleton's crew in 1915 before it slipped under the icy surface. 

Cool Finds

Wreck of Shackleton’s ‘Endurance’ Discovered in Icy Antarctic Depths

Researchers captured stunning photographs of the century-old wreck, still intact almost two miles beneath the waters of the Weddell Sea

Votive offering found at the Sikait site

Did Ancient Nomads Seize Control of a Roman Emerald Mine in Egypt?

Recent excavations suggest the Blemmyes assumed power of the Sikait mining site between the fourth and sixth centuries C.E.

This rare stone covered in carved Pictish symbols is one of just 200 stones like it that have been discovered.

Rare Stone With Pictish Symbols Discovered in Scotland

Unearthed in a farmer’s field, the monument is one of only 200 of its kind known to exist

The bowls were probably created in what is now Iraq between the fourth and eighth centuries C.E.

1,500-Year-Old ‘Magic Bowls’ Seized in Jerusalem Raid

Ancient Mesopotamians used the vessels, which were inscribed with incantations, to ward off demons, disease and other misfortune

A 14th-century gold coin found by a metal detectorist in England sold for $185,000 at auction on Tuesday.

Amateur Treasure Hunter Unearths Rare 14th-Century Gold Coin

The leopard florin was minted in 1344 and is one of just five of its kind known to survive today

Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665), Portia Wounding Her Thigh, 1664, Oil on canvas

You Know Artemisia Gentileschi—Now Learn About These Other Renaissance Women Artists

An exhibition on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts focuses on Italian women artists who held their own in the male-dominated art world

Medieval manuscripts featuring stories about King Arthur and Camelot

Art Meets Science

How Much Medieval Literature Has Been Lost Over the Centuries?

A new analysis suggests that just 9 percent of manuscripts produced in Europe during the Middle Ages survive today

A view of Teotihuacan, San Juan Teotihuacan, Mexico

Here Are the World’s 25 Most Endangered Cultural Heritage Sites

The World Monument Fund’s list includes sites in the Maldives, Pakistan, the United States and elsewhere, but was finalized before the war in Ukraine

Empty frames at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are a tangible reminder of the 1990 theft. 

History of Now

A Tantalizing Clue Emerges in the Unsolved Gardner Museum Art Heist

Boston police officers tell local media that the 1991 murder of Jimmy Marks might be linked to modern history’s biggest art heist

The largest cache of embalming vessels discovered in Egypt included pots containing resins, oils and myrrh.

These Ancient Egyptian Artifacts Reveal New Details on the Mummification Process

Archaeologists discover a large cache of ceramic pots from the sixth century B.C.E. containing resins, oils and myrrh used for embalming

President Biden announced his pick to fill the US Supreme Court vacancy on Friday: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Women Who Shaped History

What to Know About Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Historic Nomination to the Supreme Court

Jackson, a 51-year-old Harvard graduate and former public defender, would be the first Black woman on the Court

Experts have authenticated the leather hat worn by Amelia Earhart through archival photographs.

Amelia Earhart’s Leather Flying Cap Sells at Auction for $825,000

Worn by the famed aviator during her 1928 flight across the Atlantic, the lost helmet was kept for nearly a century in the closet of a Minnesota home

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