Smart News History & Archaeology

Federal police forensic specialists investigate the cause of the fire that tore through Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

Five Things We've Learned Since Brazil’s Devastating National Museum Fire

Luzia, the oldest human fossil in the Americas, was recovered from the rubble

The 28 footprints capture an early reptile-like creature's unusual diagonal gait

Cool Finds

The Grand Canyon’s Oldest Footprints Are 310 Million Years Old

Researcher Stephen Rowland says the creature that left the tracks was "doing a funny little side-walking step, line-dance kind of thing"

A statue in Joachim Ronneberg's honor stands tall outside the city hall in Alesund

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The Commando Who Foiled Hitler's Atomic Ambitions Has Died

Norwegian resistance fighter Joachim Ronneberg led the raid that destroyed stock of "heavy water" Hitler needed to produce weapons-grade plutonium

Cool Finds

Oldest Intact Shipwreck Discovered in the Black Sea

The Greek merchant vessel similar to those found on ancient pottery was carbon dated to 400 B.C.

Since 2002, a series of fragments with questionable provenance have flooded the antiquities market

Museum of the Bible Acknowledges Five of Its Dead Sea Scrolls Are Forgeries

Analysis suggests nearly one-third of the museum's 16 scrolls are fakes, and study of the remaining fragments may yield similar results

The Valley of the Fallen

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Spain's Push to Remove Franco's Remains From the Valley of the Fallen

Congress approved the government decree to move the fascist dictator from his spot in the civil war mausoleum, but obstacles remain

L to R: Paul Stabler, "Charles Obach" (circa 1870–79) and Jacobus de Louw, "Vincent van Gogh" (1873)

Employer Who Pushed Van Gogh to New Career Path Revealed in Studio Photo

An 1870s photograph of Charles Obach, one-time manager of the London Goupil Gallery branch, was found in the National Portrait Gallery's collections

Walpole's neo-Gothic estate boasts a castle-like white exterior, labyrinthine network of closets, chambers and rooms

Curious Collection of Historic Oddities Reunited in Horace Walpole's Neo-Gothic Castle

See more than 150 artifacts originally on view in the estate during the 1700s

A Norwegian Lebensborn home.

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Norway Apologizes for Persecuting WWII "German Girls"

Women who consorted with Nazi soldiers were attacked, shunned and deported after the war

Gelatin silver print of Theodore Roosevelt. Dimensions: Mount: 9 × 17.9 cm (3 9/16 × 7 1/16")

Library of Congress Digitizes Its Huge Trove of Teddy Roosevelt Papers

Among the thousands of documents is a letter containing the first use of the president’s famed maxim: ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’

A glimpse at the newly unearthed frescoes

Beautifully Painted Shrine Emerges From the Ashes of Pompeii

The remnants of a garden, a pool and an altar with traces of burnt offerings were also found

Venice, one of the cities most at risk, has already installed submerged floodgates aimed at combating flooding, but it’s one of the few to take such preventative action

Rising Seas Pose Imminent Threat to Dozens of Historical Sites Across the Mediterranean

Venetian canals, Phoenician port city of Tyre and Croatia’s Old City of Dubrovnik are amongst the sites at risk of flooding, erosion

Urban rats appeared to enjoy a steady diet of high-quality food, including protein-rich meat, while rural rats struggled to get by on limited, often meat-free meals

Urban Rats Enjoy Richer, More Reliable Diet Than Their Rural Counterparts

Researchers analyzed the remains of 86 brown rats that roamed Toronto between 1790 and 1890

The inscription, as found on a column drum unearthed during the dig

2,000-Year-Old Stone Inscription Is Earliest to Spell Out 'Jerusalem'

In ancient times, a shorthand spelling was typically used

During World war II, the original Monuments Men rescued more than five million works of art, including Jan and Hubert van Eyck's 1432 "Ghent Altarpiece"

British Army Revives Monuments Men to Salvage Art in War-Torn Countries

The 15-person squad, formed to combat loss of cultural heritage in the Middle East, will specialize in art crime, engineering and archaeology

The animatronic mask is situated directly across from the traditional 1588 Armada portrait, which depicts a far more polished version of Queen Elizabeth I

What Did Elizabeth I Actually Look Like? This Artist Has a Suggestion

Mat Collishaw’s ‘Mask of Youth’ presents realistic depiction of the Tudor queen, explores her savvy command of public persona

Monster of Rome from Image of the Papacy

Rare Book Library Summons Tales of World's Oldest Monsters

The monsters have arrived at Toronto's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Af Klint saw herself as a “holy transcriptionist, a technician of the unknown” whose work was simply a stepping stone in the pursuit of knowledge

From Obscurity, Hilma af Klint Is Finally Being Recognized as a Pioneer of Abstract Art

Before the modernists, the Swedish painter's monumental canvases featured free-wheeling swirls, mysterious symbols, pastel palette

Previous excavations at the site have revealed raven talons, toad bones and even bronze cauldrons filled with the remains of ritually sacrificed puppies

Cool Finds

This Ancient 10-Year-Old Received a ‘Vampire Burial’ to Prevent Return From the Dead

The malaria-stricken Roman child was buried in the ominously named Cemetery of the Babies with a stone inserted into its mouth

The upcoming installation will feature a choral work inspired by Mary Borden's wartime love sonnets

Mary Borden's Forgotten World War I Ballad to Mark Centenary of Armistice Day

The heiress, poet and activist funded and oversaw military field hospitals during both world wars, penned series of sonnets inspired by wartime experiences

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