Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Mata Hari (Malay for “eye of the day”) captivated European audiences with her spiritual yet sexually charged performances

Revisiting the Myth of Mata Hari, From Sultry Spy to Government Scapegoat

One hundred years after her death, a new exhibit is putting the spotlight on the dancer’s life and legacy

A hasty 1900 pigeongram sent to H. Winkelmann by Charles Werner, a great Barrier Island resident. "Dear Mr Winkelmann," it reads, "Charlie Soborne has smashed his arm last night from the wrist to the elbow by a rifle bullet. His father says that the arm will have to be amputated at once so Ernest asked me to send you this... send a steamer at once to the Barrier... also if possible a lawyer."

This New Zealand Island’s Pigeon Mail Stamps Are Still Prized

Pigeons carried correspondence between Great Barrier Island and the New Zealand mainland for about a decade in the early 20th century

Holmes and Watson have had years of adventures together, but the first time they ever appeared in print was in a story Arthur Conan Doyle set in Utah.

The Creator of Sherlock Holmes Was, Like Many Victorians, Fascinated by Mormons

The first story featuring iconic detective Sherlock Holmes, ‘A Study in Scarlet,’ was published on this day in 1887—and set in Mormon Utah

American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks

Dennis Banks, Native American Civil Rights Warrior, Has Died

He rose to national attention after spearheading a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota

Two millennia after it served as a floor on a Roman emperor's ship and decades after it disappeared mysteriously, this mosaic returns to Italy

Roman Mosaic, Long Used as a Coffee Table, Returned To Italy

The mosaic hails from a “pleasure ship” built by the notorious emperor Caligula

The Abbey Road crosswalk, which has been moved slightly since 1969, in modern times.

A Short History of the Crosswalk

Pedestrian crosswalks and roads have a complicated relationship

The Russian Orthodox Church in Igiugig

Trending Today

In Emotional Homecoming, Smithsonian Repatriates 24 Sets of Human Remains

Collected by an anthropologist in 1931, the National Museum of Natural History returned the bones to the village of Igiugig

Eeek!

Zombie Movies Are Never Really About Zombies

Zombies have offered a way to work out cultural fears about everything from race to climate change

A woodcut from a 1720 history of "witches and wizards"

How New Printing Technology Gave Witches Their Familiar Silhouette

Popular media helped give witches their image

Even the venus fly trap, which takes an active role in catching its prey, is almost nothing like us.

Getting to the Roots of “Plant Horror”

From the serious—pod people—to the farcical—”feed me, feed me!”—this genre has produced some strange stuff

This paper log for Interface Message Processor shows the very first online communication.

These Two Small Letters Heralded the Beginning of Online Communication

Their message is far more profound in retrospect than it was at the time

Take a bite of history on National Mincemeat Day

The History of Mincemeat Pies, from the Crusades to Christmas

Mentioned by Shakespeare, allegedly banned by Puritans, and enjoyed by many still, these traditional treats have a long history in English cuisine

The Aitape skull

New Research

This Ancient Skull May Have Belonged to The World’s Oldest Tsunami Victim

A new study says Papua New Guinea’s Aitape skull is from someone who died in a massive ocean wave 6,000 years ago

The astrolabe is a rare and highly sophisticated navigational tool.

Cool Finds

Rare Mariner’s Astrolabe Found in Shipwreck Near Oman

Contrary to some reports, it may not be the earliest-known marine navigational tool—but it’s still a spectacular find

Trending Today

Pablo Neruda Did Not Die of Cancer, Raising the Possibility He Was Murdered

The Nobel-prize winning Chilean poet died 2 weeks after the brutal Pinochet regime took power in his country

New Research

Google Earth Leads to Discovery of 400 Stone “Gates” in Saudi Arabia

Amateur researchers first came across the rock structures in 2004. Four years later, after seeing them again on Google Earth, they decided to investigate

The cuneiform clay tablets discovered inside a ceramic pot.

Archaeologists Discover Trove of Cuneiform Tablets in Northern Iraq

Many of the 93 artifacts were unbaked and badly worn, making reading and translating the tablets a lengthy task

Songbook From the 16th-Century Spells Out Samurai Customs, Tactics and Baby Names

The newly translated Japanese text offers kernels of advice to warriors who had yet to face battle

The mud brick foundation of a 3,200-year-old temple to the pharaoh Rameses II

Remains of Temple to Ramses II Discovered Near Cairo

The recent find was five years in the making

Archaeologists excavating a new theater uncovered near Jerusalem's Western Wall

Roman Theater Uncovered Near Jerusalem’s Western Wall

Never finished or used, the small theater has been sought for more than a century by archaeologists

Page 240 of 351