Smart News History & Archaeology

Cool Finds

How an Early 19th Century Journalist Took Lincoln to Task for Travel Reimbursement

Lincoln was a congress member at the time but not the only one charging too much for travel

The mysteries surrounding Stonehenge persist.

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Did Stonehenge Hold Up a Giant Stage?

A new theory poses that the prehistoric structure could have been something like an “ancient Mecca on stilts”

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Would You Pass Thomas Edison’s Employment Test?

Probably not.

A view of part of Honduras' rainforest.

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Did a Recent Expedition Really Discover a “Lost City” in Honduras?

Controversy surrounds the recent announcement of a re-discovered ancient settlement in the jungles of Central America

An image of white-tailed eagle talons from the Krapina Neandertal site in present-day Croatia, dating to approximately 130,000 years ago. Scientists theorize that they may be part of a necklace or bracelet.

New Research

Neanderthal Jewelry Is Just as Fiercely Cool as You'd Imagine

A re-examination of a cave find indicates that the early human species sported eagle talons like some kind of prehistoric punk rockers

Cool Finds

When Breathtaking Rock Billboards Dominated the Sunset Strip

A new exhibition showcases the Sunset Strip's "rock 'n' roll billboards"

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Sorry, ‘Ben-Hur’ Remake...No Circus Maximus for You

Rome blocks the remake from filming at the historic stadium

A man butchers a whale in 1968

New Research

We Now Have a Toll of All the Whales Killed by Hunting in the Last Century

The whaling industry killed nearly 3 million for their oil, researchers estimate. But the true total is likely higher.

A mummified corpse of a Chinchoro girl between 4,000 and 8,000 years old gets a cleaning.

New Research

Saving the World’s Oldest Mummies From Rot in a Warmer, Wetter World

Why are the ancient bodies of the Chinchorro people stored in a Chilean museum rapidly degrading into black ooze?

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How Dick Tracy Invented the Smartwatch

The detective’s two-way wrist radio paved the way for the Apple Watch and other wearables

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UN: Destroying the Ancient City of Nimrud Was a “War Crime”

Global outcry after ISIS razes 3,000-year-old archaeological site with bulldozers

Gustavia, St. Barths

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St. Barts Is Like the Galapagos for Linguistic Diversity

Beyond the glitz of tourism, St. Barts natives speak in unique varieties of French

This is the inner lead casket of the Greyfriars medieval stone coffin.

Who's Inside the Lead Coffin Found Near Richard III?

The mysterious identity of a female skeleton discovered in a coffin-within-a-coffin stumps archeologists

Paul Allen used his superyacht Octopus to locate a Japanese battleship near the Philippines.

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Microsoft Billionaire Finds Enormous Sunken Japanese Battleship

Paul Allen used his megayacht to locate the long-lost ship, which has been missing since World War II

Smokey the bear being given a fire helmet by Washington Fire Departments’ deputy fire chief, M.H. Sutton in 1950

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The Real Smokey Bear Has A New Biography

It’s officially licensed by the Forest Service and written from Smokey’s point of view

A view of the dense Honduran rain forest.

Cool Finds

Amazing Ruins of a Long Lost City Discovered in Honduras

A scientific expedition into the depths of the Honduran rain forest discovered a lost city

A picture of Calhoun in a mouse utopia in 1970

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How 1960s Mouse Utopias Led to Grim Predictions for Future of Humanity

John Calhoun studied behavior during overcrowding in mice and rats

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Germans Brace for the Re-Release of ‘Mein Kampf’

Is Hitler’s 90-year-old manifesto too dangerous to be on bookshelves?

Cool Finds

Impatient Scientists Used Paint-By-Numbers Technique to Create the First Image From Mars

Scientists used raw data to create their first image of the red planet

Hiram Rhodes Revels

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The First African American Senator Was Sworn in 145 Years Ago Today

Hiram R. Revels made history when, amid the tensions of Reconstruction, he became a senator from Mississippi

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