Smart News History & Archaeology

In the unregulated park, kids encountered alligators without fences, gates or grates.

Cool Finds

When Kids Played With Alligators in Los Angeles

Babies, dogs and onlookers mixed with snapping reptiles at California's Alligator Farm

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A 2,000-Year-Old Greek Fortress Has Been Unearthed in Jerusalem

The fort played a role in the Jewish revolts that inspired Hanukkah

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Hidden Poop Joke Found in 17th-Century Art Owned By Queen Elizabeth

The newly restored Dutch painting depicts a man relieving himself

Bonus points if you can find a cat in this picture.

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Someone Just Paid $826,000 for the Greatest Cat Painting of All Time

"My Wife's Lovers" pays tribute to the wealthiest cats of the 1890s

Detail from the cover of the 1948 Green Book, a guidebook for black travelers.

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A Black American's Guide to Travel In the Jim Crow Era

For decades, <i>The Green Book </i> was the black traveler's lifeline

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NASA is Helping Study These Massive Earthworks from Space

Could satellite photographs decipher the meaning behind Kazakhstan's mysterious geometric designs?

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By Scanning Pyramids, Will Scientists Unravel Secrets of Ancient Egypt?

A new project uses thermal imaging to look for hidden chambers

A man walks by a family planning billboard portraying parents and one child in Beijing in 1983. China just announced it will reverse its controversial one-child policy.

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China Says It Will End One-Child Policy

Under new rules, Chinese families can have two children

Six ivory combs were also excavated from the tomb.

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The Incredible Treasures Found Inside the 'Griffin Warrior' Tomb

Why was a Mycenaean soldier buried with so many riches?

Archeologists working at the Upward Sun River site in Alaska, where they found the 11,500-year-old remains of two infants

New Research

Ice Age Babies Buried in Alaska Reveals Early Genetic Diversity in North America

The infants’ DNA shows that humans may have stayed near the Bering Strait for thousands of years before moving farther south

A hiker is dwarfed by the landscape of the mountain plateau where the Viking sword was found

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Hiker Accidentally Discovers 1,200-Year-Old Viking Sword in Norway

The wrought iron weapon is an extraordinary find

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How Tourism Shaped Photography in 19th Century Japan

Westerners were obsessed with geisha, samurai and cherry blossoms

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How Contact Lenses Were Made in 1948

Would you put this on your eye?

New Research

Lead Poisoning Rampant for Wealthy Medieval Europeans

It wasn't just the Romans that accidentally poisoned themselves

"Adolf Hitler Strasse" wasn't a street in Germany—it was a street at Camp Siegfried, a Nazi summer camp located in Yaphank, New York on Long Island during the 1930s.

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A Town Founded By Nazis Was Just Sued for Housing Discrimination

In parts of Yaphank, laws require homeowners to be of German descent

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Arctic Explorers Uncover (and Eat) 60-Year-Old Food Stash

Tins of jam and crackers hidden in Greenland’s Arctic desert made for a delicious surprise

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There’s an Elephant Buried Underneath the Vatican

The forgotten remains of a beloved, 16th-century papal pet

New Research

Man’s Best Friend May Hail From Central Asia

Genetic analysis of over 5,000 dogs suggests that they were originally domesticated in Mongolia and Nepal

Overlooking part of Malpaso or Nezahualcoyotl Dam in Chiapas.

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The Sunken Ruins of a 450-Year-Old Church Rise From a Mexican Reservoir

After a historic drought, a 16th-century church has reemerged

Screenshot from Histography&nbsp;

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This Is What 14,000,000,000 Years of History Looks Like

A designer's ingenious timeline covers the Big Bang to the Internet

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