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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

A team is working to conserve a collection of iron cannonballs found on The Mary Rose, Henry VIII's famous Tudor ship.

To Save Cannonballs on Henry VIII’s Flagship, Researchers Looked to X-ray Tech

The more than 1200 cannonballs found on The Mary Rose are facing a major problem—corrosion

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Cool Finds

500-Year-Old Pistol Part Could Shed Light on Colorado’s Spanish Colonial Past

The pistol part was found during an excavation several years ago by the Museums of Western Colorado’s Western Investigations Team

Cool Finds

Rare 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Footage Found at Flea Market

The nine-minute Miles brothers film reel shows the devastation that the powerful quake wrought

Students at the New York Academy of Art have reconstructed the faces of migrants who died at the border in hopes of identifying them.

To Help Identify Migrants Who Died Along Border, Art Class Reconstructs Their Faces

When DNA analysis and dental exams aren’t possible, facial reconstruction is a last-resort to identifying remains

"Early Days"

San Francisco Votes to Remove Statue with Racist Depiction of Native Americans

The monument shows a Mexican vaquero and Franciscan monk towering over a Native American man

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7,000-Year-Old Native American ‘Bog Burial’ Found Off the Coast of Florida

Experts have identified the remains of at least six individuals, and suspect there are many more bodies to be found

Nathan Bedford Forrest

New Historic Marker Highlights Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Ties to the Slave Trade

An earlier marker only noted the Confederate general, widely believed to be the Ku Klux Klan’s first leader, became wealthy from his ‘business enterprises’

Cool Finds

Wreck of Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Lexington Found 76 Years After It Was Scuttled in Battle

The ship was sunk by an American destroyer so it couldn’t be captured in the Battle of Coral Sea, considered to be the first carrier battle in history

131-Year-Old Message in a Bottle Found on Australian Beach

The oldest yet found, the relic was thrown into the Indian Ocean by German sailors conducting an experiment

Cudjo Lewis, the last survivor transported to Alabama on the Clotilda

Cool Finds

Search Continues for Last American Slave Ship After Recent Wreck Ruled Out

The Clotilda illegally transported 110 enslaved people from present-day Benin to Alabama more than 50 years after the U.S. outlawed the slave trade

Making history

Trending Today

Five Things to Know About Roger Bannister, the First Person to Break the 4-Minute Mile

The Oxford medical student, who died on March 3 at age 88, broke what was believed to be an impossible record

The massive family tree includes 13 million people

This May Be the World’s Largest Family Tree

Using more than 86 million profiles from Geni.com, researchers created a database that links 13 million people

Tattoos on the Pre-dynastic female mummy from Gebelein.

Earliest Figural Tattoos Discovered on 5,000-Year-Old Mummies

The markings include a bull, a sheep and a mysterious ‘S’ motif

Scene from the 1967 Detroit riot.

Trending Today

Study Shows Little Change Since Kerner Commission Reported on Racism 50 Years Ago

An update to the landmark study finds there is now more poverty and segregation in America

Equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, VA

Charlottesville Must Remove Tarps from Confederate Statues, Judge Says

Two statues were covered in the wake of last year’s deadly rallies to mark a period of mourning

Cool Finds

One Man’s Search to Find the Families of the “Deportees” in the Famous Woody Guthrie Song

Seventy years after the 1948 crash, Tim Hernandez is bringing new recognition to the 28 unidentified “braceros” who died when the plane blew up

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See Rare Images Depicting Life, Work at the White House

A team of librarians at the White House Historical Association are digitizing 25,000 behind-the-scenes photographs from 1962 to 1987

Is This the Seal of the Prophet Isaiah?

One archaeologist believes the relic may have belonged to the biblical figure, but there are major problems with her interpretation

Cave art found in India

New Research

Did Cave Acoustics Play a Role in the Development of Language?

In a new paper, researchers hypothesize that the location of cave art and sounds early humans heard might be linked

In this April 10, 2015 photo, Brayan Lopez, 9, plays a Taino wood drum while students perform a ceremonial dance in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico.

Ancient DNA Contradicts Historical Narrative of ‘Extinct’ Caribbean Taíno Population

Researchers create Caribbean’s first complete ancient human genome, find Taíno genes in living people

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