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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Researchers conducting excavations near Bath Abbey have uncovered the remains of an apse dated to between the late eighth and late tenth centuries.

Cool Finds

Newly Unearthed Anglo-Saxon Monastery May Have Hosted England’s First Coronation

In the millennia since Edgar the Peaceful’s 973 coronation, the content of the royal ceremony has remained largely the same

Susan B. Anthony's childhood home in Battenville, New York, as seen in 2018

Susan B. Anthony’s Childhood Home Is Getting Renovated

The women’s suffrage activist lived in the house from 1833 to 1839

Among the artifacts believed to be lost are letters written by Chinese immigrants, photographs of Chinatown and an 1883 document on the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Fire at Museum of Chinese in America Caused Less Damage Than Initially Feared

Around 200 boxes recovered from the building have been deemed “very much salvageable,” but they represent only a “fraction” of the museum’s collection

Historic records and biometric analysis suggest the man seen front row center in this 1943 image of Sobibor camp guards is John Demjanjuk.

Newly Released Photos May Place the ‘Devil Next Door’ at Sobibor Death Camp

This is the latest chapter in the long, complex saga of John Demjanjuk, who was accused of participating in Nazi war crimes

This concretion, recovered from the Hoi An shipwreck, alludes to the fate of artifacts left underwater.

Who Owns the Art Recovered From Shipwrecks?

A thought-provoking exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco draws on artifacts from two centuries-old shipwrecks

Image from Rebel Lives: Photographs From Inside the Lord's Resistance Army by Kristof Titeca

How a Notorious Ugandan Rebel Group Used Everyday Snapshots as Propaganda

A new exhibition explores the underlying agenda of seemingly mundane photographs taken by members of the Lord’s Resistance Army

Chagyrskaya Cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains, where researchers uncovered Neanderthal stone blades that resemble tools excavated in Europe

Neanderthals May Have Trekked 2,000 Miles to Siberia

A new tool analysis suggests European Neanderthals migrated east at least twice

Jacob Lawrence, . . .again the rebels rushed furiously on our men. — a Hessian soldier, Panel 8, 1954, from Struggle: From the History of the American People, 1954-56

How Jacob Lawrence Painted a Radical History of the American Struggle

The Peabody Essex Museum is reuniting a series of paintings that explore the hidden stories of the nation’s formative years

The cesspit under the Somerset House is nearly 15 feet deep and contained almost 100 artifacts.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Trove of Medieval Artifacts in London Cesspit

The precursor to the toilet was probably an easy place to throw away—or lose—small objects

Félicette, a former stray who was sent into space by French researchers in 1963, now has a bronze statue in her honor at France's International Space University.

Félicette, the First Cat in Space, Finally Gets a Memorial

Last month, a team unveiled a bronze statue honoring the feline, who launched on a suborbital mission in 1963

The remains of Takabuti, a young woman who was murdered in the 7th century B.C. in Egypt

This 2,600-Year-Old Mummy Died in a Violent Backstabbing

Researchers concluded she was murdered by someone who forced a blade into her chest from behind

Witch bottles, or talismans designed to ward off evil spirits, were more commonly employed across the pond in the United Kingdom.

Cool Finds

Suspected ‘Witch Bottle’ Full of Nails Found in Virginia

Archaeologists unearthed the blue glass bottle near the hearth of a small fort used during the Civil War

A statue of Pliny the Elder at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore in Como, Italy

Cool Finds

This 2,000-Year-Old Skull May Belong to Pliny the Elder

The Roman statesman launched a rescue mission when Vesuvius erupted but lost his life in the process

The remains of a pre-Hispanic temazcal recently found in Mexico City

Cool Finds

14th-Century Steam Bath Found in Mexico City

The discovery has helped archaeologists pinpoint the location of the ancient neighborhood of Temazcaltitlan

Nesyamun was a priest and scribe whose duties included ritualistic chanting and singing.

Education During Coronavirus

Listen to the Recreated Voice of a 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

Media outlets have likened the sound to a “brief groan,” a “long, exasperated ‘meh’ without the ‘m,’” and “rather like ‘eeuuughhh’”

Portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama painted by Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively

Trending Today

The National Portrait Gallery’s Obama Portraits Will Embark on a Five-City Tour

Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald’s paintings of Barack and Michelle Obama are set to visit Chicago, Brooklyn, L.A., Atlanta and Houston

A shiny black fragment found within the victim’s skull likely represents remnants of the man’s brain, which was subjected to such searing heat that it turned into glass.

Vesuvius’ Scorching Eruption Turned a Man’s Brain Into Glass

A new study reports on a shimmering black substance found in one victim’s skull

A Louvre curator purchased the looted artwork during a 1942 auction.

Art Historian Identifies Ten Nazi-Looted Paintings in the Louvre’s Collections

Emmanuelle Polack made the discovery less than one month after she was brought on board to study the museum’s ill-gotten artwork

A sculpture of two bulls, originally carved in the second century A.D., looted from Afghanistan's Kabul Museum almost 30 years ago

After 30 Years, Looted Kushan Bull Sculpture Will Return to Afghanistan’s Kabul Museum

The artifact is one of thousands left destroyed, damaged or missing after civil war broke out in the 1990s

John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1865-66

The Women Behind the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

An exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London explores 12 women’s contributions to the male-dominated artistic circle

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