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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Partridges, turtledoves, geese... you know the drill.

12 Facts About ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’

Amaze and astound your loved ones with these pieces of carol trivia

A federal tea taster at work.

The FDA Used to Have People Whose Job Was to Taste Tea

Literally, that was it

The Southern Pole of Inaccessibility. The thing sticking up in the middle is the bust of Lenin.

These Places Are Actually The Middle of Nowhere

These “poles of inaccessibility” are among the world’s most remote places

Pearls have been a symbol of extreme wealth for thousands of years.

Here’s Why Pearls No Longer Cost a Fortune

Coming up with ways to lower the price of pearls—either through culturing or by out-right fakery—took centuries

An illustration of Washington's imagined deathbed scene, painted about 50 years after his death.

George Washington’s Hard Death Shows the Limits of Medicine in His Time

He’s one of the United States’s most revered figures, but his last hours were plagued by excruciating illness

French wine became imperilled in the mid-1800s as twin pests from America swept through European agricultural regions.

How One Mycologist Saved France’s Wine (Among Other Things)

Bordeaux mixture saved many crops besides grapes from fungus

Egyptian excavation workers work on a mummy in a newly discovered tomb in Luxor, Egypt

Cool Finds

In Luxor, Two Tombs Dating Back 3,500 Years Unveil Their Secrets

They include hundreds of statues and one of the best-preserved wall paintings found in the area

The reproductive organs of Schlumbergera, known as the Holiday Cactus. This was heady stuff in Erasmus Darwin's time.

Charles Darwin’s Grandfather Was Famous for His Poems About Plant Sex

Erasmus Darwin’s poetics influenced his grandson’s vision of nature

Maria Telkes, known as the "Sun Queen" for her focus on solar energy.

Future of Energy

This 1940s Solar House Powered Innovation and Women in STEM

As far back as the 1940s, people were worried about running out of fuel. The sun seemed like a feasible alternative

The tradition of decorative gingerbread dates back to the Middle Ages.

The Un-Christmassy Origin of Gingerbread Houses

This tradition dates back to the story of Hansel and Gretel

Sculptors Cave 3D Animation

Take a Virtual Tour of a Mysterious Pictish Cave in Scotland

Archaeologists have created a 3D model of the fascinating, but hard-to-access Sculptor’s Cave

For the 1960s, Coach's sporty, practical styling was unique.

A Paper Bag Was the Inspiration for the First Coach Purse

Lillian Cahn reached back to her childhood experiences to design the ‘leather shopping bag’ that was the company’s first purse

Excavations at Avery's Rest

Cool Finds

Remains Tell Stories of Delaware’s Earliest Enslaved

Burials uncovered in Rehoboth Bay give a first-hand account of the hard life faced by those forced to labor on a 17th-century Delaware plantation

Cool Finds

Message From the Past Found Inside Spanish Statue of Jesus

A local chaplain wanted people from the future to know what crops his region grew, what games they played and what diseases they suffered

This is not what the world's first industrial robot looked like.

How Robots Left the Lab and Started Helping Humans

Computers were the size of refrigerators—or larger—but robots were on their way

Cool Finds

Is This St. Nicolas’ Pelvis Bone?

Oxford researchers have determined that a bone fragment purportedly from St. Nicholas comes from the same century in which he died

Christine Keele at the Marlborough Street court

Christine Keeler, the British Model at the Heart of a 1960s Political Scandal, Is Dead at 75

Keeler had simultaneous relationships with a Conservative politician and a Soviet attaché, prompting concerns that she had revealed British state secrets

Madame Tussauds Berlin--one of the many Tussauds wax museums that bears Marie Tussaud's name--has a wax sculpture of Marie Tussaud herself. Here, she's portrayed sculpting the head of Ben Franklin (which is a thing she actually did).

How Marie Tussaud Created a Wax Empire

From France, to Britain, to the world, Tussaud’s waxworks endure

You may know the woman depicted here as Rosie the Riveter, but she wasn't originally called that.

The Riveting Story of an American Icon

Rosie has a surprising history

Bears Ears National Monument

Trending Today

Five Things to Know About the Redrawn National Monuments

The president is reducing two massive National Monuments by millions of acres. Read the context behind the decision and what to expect going forward

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