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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

The Guggenheim Museum's Hilma af Klint exhibition was a surprise hit, eventually becoming the Manhattan institution's most-visited show of all time

Study Shows U.S. Museums Still Lag When It Comes to Acquiring Works by Women Artists

Between 2008 and 2018, artwork by women represented just 11 percent of acquisitions and 14 percent of exhibitions at 26 major museums

Jo van Gogh-Bonger and her son Vincent Willem, as photographed in Paris in 1890

New Biography Spotlights Jo Bonger, Sister-in-Law Who Helped Rescue van Gogh From Obscurity

Bonger, wife of van Gogh’s brother Theo, described her mission as ‘getting [Vincent’s work] seen and appreciated as much as possible’

One of the mosaics at Paphos, Cyprus.

Trending Today

Getty Launches $100 Million Project to Safeguard Heritage

The initiative will fund projects that will help sites weather threats like armed conflict, climate change and overtourism

Misidentified Roman ‘Pendants’ Were Actually Women’s Makeup Tools

Known as ‘cosmetic grinders,’ the artifacts would have been used to crush minerals for makeup

A William Blake illustration depicting the fall of Adam and Eve

Cool Finds

Student Discovers Secret Acrostic in Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’

A Tufts University undergraduate spotted three interlocking instances of the word “FALL” in Book 9 of the epic poem

A cow skull being unearthed at the Ipplepen site.

Cool Finds

Upscale Butcher Shop Suggests Romans Were More Widespread in Britain Than Previously Thought

The animal remains at Ipplepen are part of mounting evidence that Roman influence stretched deep into Devon

Milton's admiration for Shakespeare is well-documented

Is This John Milton’s Annotated Copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio?

A copy of the Bard’s collected plays may contain notes penned by the ‘Paradise Lost’ author

A copper band found at the McQueen shell ring is similar to ceremonial objects seen at sites in the Great Lakes region

Cool Finds

Grave Hints at Interaction Between Early Humans Living in Great Lakes, American Southeast

Parallels between burial sites in the two regions suggest long-distance networks emerged earlier than previously believed

Andrea del Verrocchio, "Head of a Woman With Braided Hair," c. 1475-1478

The Man Who Mentored da Vinci Receives First U.S. Retrospective

National Gallery of Art spotlights Andrea del Verrocchio, a skilled sculptor and painter whose individual accomplishments have long been overlooked

The ancient Silk Road trading post of Hasankeyf, which sits on the banks of Tigris River in southeast Turkey, will soon be flooded by the Ilisu Dam. Picture here, Construction crews destroy limestone cliffs around Hasankeyf that are dotted with neolithic caves in preparation for submerging later this summer

Turkey Is Moving Forward With Plans to Flood a 10,000-Year-Old City

Hasankeyf and nearly 200 other settlements will be inundated as part of a dam project

Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre

Exploring Paul Revere’s Legacy Beyond His Famed Midnight Ride

Before becoming an American legend, the Revolutionary War hero was best known as a skilled artisan, activist and entrepreneur

A New Monopoly Celebrates Women. But What About the Game’s Own Overlooked Inventor?

At the turn of the 20th century, Lizzie Magie created the Landowner’s Game, which sought to teach players about the injustices of wealth concentration

Archaeologists found traces of a milk protein in seven prehistoric Britons' calcified dental plaque

Cool Finds

Prehistoric Farmers’ Teeth Show Humans Were Drinking Animal Milk 6,000 Years Ago

A new study suggests Neolithic Britons processed raw milk to reduce its lactose content

In 2016, Hurricane Matthew revealed a trove of 16 Civil War cannonballs (seen here) at the same beach where the latest specimens were found

Cool Finds

Hurricane Dorian Unearths Civil War Cannonballs at South Carolina Beach

At first, the couple who discovered the pair of cannonballs thought they’d simply stumbled upon a rock

New Research

Unique Salt Coating Helped Preserve 25-Foot-Long Dead Sea Scroll

Analysis shows that the unique processing of the Temple Scroll’s parchment kept it intact

A local culture association has urged the government to move the rocks to a permanently dry location

Drought Reveals Dolmen of Guadalperal, Popularly Dubbed ‘Spanish Stonehenge’

Construction of a dam and reservoir in 1963 flooded the archaeological site, submerging the megalith monument and hiding it from view

Diet Eman

Diet Eman, the Dutch Resistance Fighter Who Helped Jews Escape the Nazis, Has Died at 99

Eman was haunted by the horrors she had seen to the end of her life. ‘It really breaks your heart,’ she once said

Cool Finds

Artifacts from the Final Battle of the English Civil War Uncovered During Road Project

In 1651, Parliamentary forces defeated Royalist troops, forcing Charles II into exile

Rock art in Vallegrande in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Wildfires Are Destroying Bolivia’s Rock Art

Blazes set by farmers hoping to clear land for agriculture pose a threat to archaeological sites across the South American country

Kimberly Teehee photographed in 2010.

100 Years of Women at the Ballot Box

Kimberly Teehee Will Be the Cherokee Nation’s First Delegate to Congress

The nomination, promised in an 1835 treaty, is still pending as of July 2020

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