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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

The latest findings suggest that separate groups of early humans invented stone tools on multiple occasions

Cool Finds

Humans May Have Been Crafting Stone Tools for 2.6 Million Years

A new study pushes the origins of early human tool-making back by some 10,000 years earlier than previously believed

New Research

Ancient Fingerprints Show Men and Women Both Made Pottery in the American Southwest

Long thought to be primarily women’s work, new analysis of ceramic fragments shows both sexes created pottery at Chaco Canyon

From L to R: Kanlitas rock painting, enhanced version, isolated rendering of markings

Art Meets Science

Rock Art and Footprints Reveal How Ancient Humans Responded to Volcanic Eruption

New study dates the preserved footprints to 4,700 years ago, a full 245,000 years later than previously suggested

Unlike modern beavers, which use their sharp-edged teeth to chop up trees and build dams, mega-sized ones were unable to alter their environment to fit their needs

Why Did These Human-Sized Beavers Go Extinct During the Last Ice Age?

A new study suggests the giant beavers disappeared after their wetland habitats dried up, depriving the species of its aquatic plant-based diet

From left to right: Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Jane Vercaine, Barbara Deming, Kady Vandeurs, Carol Grosberg and others lead a protest at City Hall

Women Who Shaped History

New York City Monument Will Honor Transgender Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

The two women were instrumental in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and spent their lives advocating for marginalized groups

Cool Finds

The Oldest Film of a Solar Eclipse Has Been Restored and Released Online

In 1900, magician, astronomer and filmmaker Nevil Maskelyne used a special adapter to film the astronomical event in North Carolina

The prehistoric school seems to adhere to the laws of attraction and repulsion, with members maintaining enough distance between neighbors without straying too far from the group

Cool Finds

Did This Fossil Freeze a Swimming School of Fish in Time?

The 50-million-year-old slab of limestone suggests that fish have been swimming in unison for far longer than previously realized

A police boat cruises along the River Seine past the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, which was badly damaged by a huge fire on April 15, and which is under repair, on May 20, 2019.

France’s Senate Requires That Notre-Dame’s Iconic Spire Be Rebuilt ‘Exactly as It Was’

The bill contradicts an earlier call for proposals to replace the fallen tower with a more modern aesthetic

Watch Rare Footage of a Smiling, Sunglass-Wearing Queen Victoria

The remarkably clear 1900 film was found in the MoMA archives

Cool Finds

Burial Mound Found on Kindergarten Playground Was Used for 2,000 Years

Thirty sets of human remains from the mound in southwest France show locals buried their dead in the same spot from the Stone Age to the Iron Age

Anne Frank wrote the letters between 1936 and 1941, a period predating the events of her famed diary.

Letters Anne Frank Wrote to Her Grandmother Will Be Published for the First Time

The notes are featured in a soon-to-be released volume of Frank’s collected works

Pîhtokahanapiwiyin, better known as Chief Poundmaker

After 130 Years, Canada Exonerates ‘Peacemaker’ Chief Convicted of Treason

‘In 1885, Chief Poundmaker was treated as a criminal and a traitor,’ Prime Minister Trudeau said. ‘In 2019, we recognize the truth’

Michelangelo likely sketched "The Seated Man" while working as an apprentice in Domenico Ghirlandaio's studio

Cool Finds

Art Historian Says He Has Identified the Earliest Known Michelangelo Drawing

The sketch, now on view in Budapest, likely dates to between 1487 and 1490

The134-year-old circus advertisement was crafted using lithograph, a material meant to degrade over time. After uncovering it in the Corral Bar and Riverside Grill, the family who owns the establishment restored and encased in glass.

Huge 19th Century Circus Poster Found in Walls of Wisconsin Bar

It advertised an 1885 performance by the Great Anglo-American Circus

New Research

Worn-Out Teeth Expand the Narrative of the Ancient Egyptian Career Woman

Wear patterns suggest a woman buried in the ancient city of Mendes processed papyrus reeds, a job women were not previously known to do

Stereoscopic portraits of Queen Victoria. Dated 1854.

Two Unseen Photographs of Queen Victoria Released in Honor of Her 200th Birthday

Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were early and eager adopters of new photographic technologies and commissioned many personal family portraits

Walt Whitman in 1869, as photographed by William Kurtz

Rare Walt Whitman Artifacts Go on View at Library of Congress for Poet’s 200th Birthday

The library holds the world’s largest collection of Whitman-related items

All four chicks are growing quickly, quadrupling in size from around 8 centimeters tall at birth to more than 30 centimeters last week

Tower of London Welcomes Baby Ravens for the First Time in 30 Years

The four chicks eat at least once every two hours, feasting on a diet of quail, mice and rats

The former Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg

Nuremberg Decides to Conserve Nazi Rally Grounds

Some argued that the site should be left to decay into ruins, but officials have decided to maintain it as a testament to the city’s dark history

A spread from one of the casebooks volumes.

Read Hundreds of Medical Case Files by Two 17th-Century Quacks

Cambridge historians have digitized 500 case notes by the notorious astrologer-physicians Simon Forman and Richard Napier

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