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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

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

Cool Finds

You Thought Modern Life Was Bad. This Neanderthal Child Was Eaten By a Giant Bird

It’s not known if the bird killed the child or scavenged its remains, but finger bones found in Poland show they went through a bird’s digestive tract

Stone tools discovered in Belize's Paynes Creek Salt Works

How Salty Fish Helped the Maya of Belize Bolster Their Economy

A new study suggests that workshops on the coast of Belize were not only producing salt, but also preserving animal meat

Agglutinated walls in Palaeopascichnus linearis from the khatyspyt formation

Oldest Known Macroscopic Skeletal Organism Was Masquerading as Fossilized Feces

Some researchers initially dismissed the remains of Palaeopascichnus lineari as teeny turds from a bygone era

Child's left-foot sock

1,700-Year-Old Sock Spins Yarn About Ancient Egyptian Fashion

This stripy toe sock appears to have warmed the foot of a tot in the late antiquity period

Tulsa in flames

Trending Today

Tulsa to Search for Mass Graves From the Race Massacre of 1921

During the pogrom, a white mob killed an estimated 300 black Tulsans. According to eyewitnesses, the dead are buried in unmarked mass graves in Greenwood

Pottery shards from Pulau Ay site

Ancient Precursor to Pumpkin Spice Latte? Archaeologists Uncover Earliest Human Use of Nutmeg

Shards of ancient ceramics on Pulau Ay reveal nutmeg’s early history

Eight-Year-Old Girl Finds Iron Age Sword in Swedish Lake

She’s no King Arthur, but locals are calling Saga Vanecek the “Queen of Sweden.” To that we say, long live Saga!

New Research

Residue of Opium Poppy Found in Bronze Age Juglet

Whether the opium was consumed or used as oil for perfume or for anointing remains unclear

The contemporary Wolf Hall manor stands on the same property as the lost 16th-century estate

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Foundations of Wolf Hall, Where Henry VIII Fell for Jane Seymour

The team’s finds include a network of Tudor-era brick sewers, the foundations of two towers and ornate tiles

The institution begins the long road to restoration

Brazil’s National Museum Launches Rebuilding Efforts with Temporary Exhibition of Surviving Collection

Stabilization work must be completed before experts can assess extent of damage to museum’s collection of more than 20 million artifacts

Swedish researchers used phase-contrast imaging to examine the soft tissue of a 2,400-year-old mummified hand

Now We Don’t Have to Unravel Mummies to Study Them at a Cellular Level

Phase-contrast imaging enabled researchers to non-invasively examine a mummified hand’s blood vessels, skin layers and connective tissue

One of the human figures depicted in the newly documented petroglyphs

Cool Finds

An Unknown Ancient Civilization in India Carved This Rock Art

Hikers are cataloging the petroglyphs in the western part of Maharashtra state

Altar Frontal (1741), Isfahan. Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin

Armenia

The Met’s Latest Show Traces Armenia’s Cultural Evolution

Armenia! features more than 140 artifacts, including gilded reliquaries, illuminated manuscripts, textiles

Philip James de Loutherbourg's 19th-century depiction of the Battle of Bosworth Field highlights the chaotic nature of the clash

Local Council Approves Plan to Turn Portion of Battle of Bosworth Site Into Driverless Car Testing Track

The 1485 clash between Richard III and Henry VII precipitated rise of Tudor dynasty

New Research

People Braved Australia’s Western Desert Roughly 45,000 Years Ago

Newly dated artifacts from a rock shelter show humans were in the inhospitable Little Sandy Desert at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought

Annie Kenney in 1909

Newly Discovered Letter Sheds Light on Overlooked Suffragette

Annie Kenney, who took part in the movement’s first militant act, wrote to her sister after being released from prison

Scientists analyzed 3D scans of entheses, or scars left at points where muscle attaches to bone

Neanderthals Used Their Hands for Precision, Not Just Power

Researchers suggest that the early human ancestors’ hand usage places them in line with tailors, painters rather than brute-force laborers

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