Smart News History & Archaeology

Erosion of a Bronze Age Post in the Thames

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Are Calling on Average British Citizens to Save Eroding History

The sea is devouring medieval towns, uncovering shipwrecks, and eroding valuable archaeological sites.

Park Place, Brooklyn after the 1888 blizzard.

Cool Finds

It Wasn’t Always the City’s Job to Remove Snow

Even if everybody isn’t happy with the quality of snow removal, they should be pleased it's not their responsibility

A painting by one of Darwin's children, found on the back of one of the manuscript pages of "On the Origin of Species."

Cool Finds

See the Doodles Darwin’s Children Made in His “On the Origin of Species” Manuscript

While Darwin contemplated speciation and evolution, his kids envisioned battling vegetables and tropical birds

The introduction of cows changed the diet of ancient Britons

New Research

6,000 Years Ago, the Trendiest Food in Ancient Britain Was Dairy

New research shows that ancient Britons started cooking with dairy soon after livestock was introduced to the isles

A mosquito of the genus Anopheles.

New Research

Nazi Scientists Wanted to Use Mosquitoes to Send Diseases Behind Enemy Lines

The Nazi SS ran an entomological research facility

Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico.

New Research

Ancient Cities Developed in a Surprisingly Similar Way to Modern Ones

The same mathematical equations that describe patterns of modern urban sprawl are equally suited to explaining the development of ancient cities

Cool Finds

King Richard III Will Be the First Famous Historical Person Whose Genome Is Sequenced

And it'll be public, so anyone can check it out

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New Research

Here's Proof the Bible’s Tales Were Tweaked

Biblical figures were riding around on camels thousands of years before camels were domesticated

Happisburgh, a stretch of southeastern British coast that's one of the country's fastest eroding spots.

Cool Finds

The Oldest Human Footprints Ever Discovered Outside of Africa Have Already Been Washed Away

Casts and computer images are all that's of footprints made 900,000 years ago on the British coast

The mushroom cloud from the atmospheric detonation of the 11 megaton Castle Romeo nuclear bomb.

Cool Finds

For 25 Years, U.S. Special Forces Carried Miniature Nukes on Their Backs

The B-54 Special Atomic Demolition Munition was a nuclear bomb the size of a backpack

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Trending Today

Modern Olympic Athletes Are Bigger, Stronger And Far, Far More Specialized

Over time, Olympians are changing shape to suit their sport

A nurse training program at the Central State Hospital.

Cool Finds

Psychiatric Records for African American Patients Are Rare, And This Hospital Has a Century's Worth

Researchers are attempting to digitize and preserve the tens of thousands of patient records from the Central State Hospital

Cool Finds

No One Knows Why Ancient Egyptians Built This 4,600-Year-Old Pyramid

The new pyramid joins the list of other mysterious step pyramids built before the Great Pyramid at Giza

The Grand Fleet, 1916. This sketch was made by Muirhead Bone, who, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defence "became the first official war artist in 1916"

World War I: 100 Years Later

The British Employed Official War Painters in Both World Wars

Between 1939 and 1945 the War Artists Advisory Committee purchased about 6,000 pieces of art from over 400 artists

Modern humans get back to their (partial) roots at the Neanderthal Museum in Germany.

New Research

Neanderthals Went Extinct 30,000 Years Ago, But Their DNA Is Still in the Human Genome

Some of the Neanderthal genes made important contributions while others made us more susceptible to disease

A vintage postcard presents a deceptively sunny view of the school

Trending Today

Forensic Experts Have Found 55 Bodies Buried at Notorious Reform School

That's more than twice as many as they expected to find

The USS Pueblo.

Cool Finds

The Time the U.S. Nearly Nuked North Korea Over a Highjacked Spy Ship

The Pueblo incident ended peacefully, but newly unclassified documents detail President Johnson's contingency plans

Researchers recreated what the 7,000 year-old man likely looked like.

New Research

Just Call This Hunter-Gatherer Ol' Blue-Eyes

DNA from an ancient human tooth found in a cave in Spain reveals one European hunter-gatherer's complexion

Cool Finds

Look Closely at This Picture of John Glenn

The reflected faces of NASA staff appear in John Glenn's spacesuit

No Instagram filter needed.

Cool Finds

See the First Photographs Ever Taken of Jerusalem

Since 1844, millions of photographs have probably been taken of Jerusalem. But these blurry snaps are the very first.

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