Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

The submarine's plaque still bears its name.

Cool Finds

American Submarine Lost in WWII Located Off Okinawa

Explorers found the “Grayback,” which sank in 1944 with 80 U.S. sailors aboard, after correcting a single digit mistranslation

Judith Leyster, The Concert, c. 1633

The Dutch Golden Age’s Female Painters Finally Receive a Show of Their Own

A new exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts spotlights eight unheralded 17th- and 18th-century artists

One of the wrecks discovered off the coast of Vaxholm

Cool Finds

This Wreck May Be the Sister Ship of Sweden’s Ill-Fated ‘Vasa’ Warship

Divers discovered the wreckage of two 17th-century warships off the coast of an island near Stockholm

Some of the 824 bones uncovered at a site in Mexico

Two Traps Where Woolly Mammoths Were Driven to Their Deaths Found in Mexico

The discovery may offer rare evidence that humans were actively hunting the great creatures

Researchers debate whether Iron Age Scots hunted the massive fin whales or simply made the most of animals swept ashore.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Hollowed-Out Whale Vertebra Containing Human Jawbone, Remains of Newborn Lambs

Iron Age Scots made the unusual vessel with the bone of a fin whale, Earth’s second largest whale species

Roma or Sinti girl imprisoned in Auschwitz, as seen in pictures taken by the SS for their files

London Library Spotlights Nazi Persecution of the Roma and Sinti

The Roma and Sinti’s wartime suffering “isn’t necessarily a subject that people know that much about,” says the curator of a new London show

Light Detection and Ranging technology revealed architectural details and topographic data on Raleigh Island.

Using Drone-Mounted Lasers, Scientists Find Ancient Bead-Making, Island-Dwelling Community in Florida

Archaeologists used LiDAR to spot a large settlement, where residents produced an important pre-Columbian commodity

For 100 years, the Iron Scow was lodged in the same place in the "powerful upper rapids" above the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, according to Niagara Parks. On Halloween weekend this year, it shifted for the first time.

A Historic Boat, Stuck Above Niagara Falls Since 1918, Finally Breaks Free

But the vessel’s joyride didn’t last long; it is now lodged in a new location some 160 feet downriver

The markings range from letters to shapes, patterns and symbols.

You Can Now Explore a 3-D Model of Cave Covered in Creepy ‘Witches’ Marks’

Visitors spotted hundreds of etchings designed to ward off evil while exploring a cave in England’s Creswell Crags

An unknown thief stole the historic rifle in a brazen 1971 heist.

Cool Finds

Revolutionary War Rifle Stolen 50 Years Ago Recovered at Barn Sale

The long rifle, made by master gunsmith Johann Christian Oerter, will go on view at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia

Researchers suspect the wreck is all that remains of the U.S.S. Johnston, a naval destroyer sunk during the Battle off Samar in October 1944.

Cool Finds

World’s Deepest Shipwreck Is WWII Destroyer Lost in the Philippine Sea

A private mission found the mangled debris of what is likely the U.S.S. Johnston 20,400 feet under the surface

Robbers rammed their car into the medieval cathedral, sawing through metal bars to grab silver chalices and other irreplaceable church treasures.

Thieves Ram Into Medieval French Cathedral, Making Off With Trove of Relics

The suspects reportedly battered down the door of the Unesco World Heritage Site using a tree trunk strapped to a car

A jar of soil collected at the site where George Peck was murdered in 1880 will join others on view at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama

A Maryland Community Gathered to Remember the Lynching of George Peck

Montgomery County residents collected soil from the site where Peck was dragged to his death in 1880

Contractors found a witch bottle similar to the one pictured here while demolishing a former inn's chimney.

Cool Finds

‘Witch Bottle’ Filled With Teeth, Pins and Mysterious Liquid Discovered in English Chimney

The charms were designed to ward off witches, but new research suggests they had medical uses as well

This aerial picture shows Shuri Castle after a fire ripped through the historic site in Naha, Japan's southern Okinawa prefecture, on October 31

Fire Ravages Japanese Heritage Site Shuri Castle

The castle, first built more than 500 years ago, was seen as a symbol of the dynamic Ryukyu Kingdom

Officials hope to complete work on the new museum by the Jefferson Memorial's 80th anniversary in 2023

Trending Today

Philanthropist Donates $10 Million to Jefferson Memorial Museum

David Rubenstein’s donation will fund the creation of a new education center at the D.C. monument

Patriots toppled the statue in July 1776, but British Loyalists rescued and hid some of the fragments

You Could Own an Amputated Arm From the George III Statue Toppled at Bowling Green

The 18th-century lead fragment was unearthed in a Connecticut resident’s garden in 1991

The creepiest doll in all the land

A Minnesota Museum’s Creepy Doll Contest Is Here to Haunt Your Dreams

“The doll I disdain handling is the one with human hair,” says curator Dan Nowakowski

The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of William the Conqueror's invasion of England.

New Research

Architecture and Math Show the Bayeux Tapestry Was Designed to Decorate a Cathedral

A new study proposes a convincing explanation for the 11th-century tapestry’s creation

A double ambrotype portrait of Albro Lyons, Sr. and Mary Joseph Lyons

NYC Monument Will Honor African-American Family Displaced to Make Way for Central Park

But the project has drawn criticism, particularly because the monument will stand some 20 blocks north of Seneca Village’s historic location

Page 192 of 351