Smart News History & Archaeology

A hotel's welcome notice for Auke Dalstra of flight MH17 is seen at the arrival hall of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal on July 18, 2014 in Sepang, Malaysia.

Trending Today

The Horrific Downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 Has Echoes in History

Lessons from history hint at what might happen next

The skeleton of a young man, whose tooth plaque was used in the study.

New Research

Ancient Tooth Plaque Shows Our Ancestors Used to Feast on Weeds

Purple nutsedge is a pest today, but thousands of years ago it was probably valued for its cavity-preventing properties

Cool Finds

You Can Now Riffle Through the Same Library Charles Darwin Used Aboard the Beagle

The digital library includes 195,000 pages of text and 5,000 illustrations

Shoreline near Cape Canaveral

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Are Hunting for the Lost French Fleet That Nearly Conquered Spanish Florida

In 1565 a fleet of French ships was destroyed in a hurricane, effectively ending France's hopes of territory in Florida

The Costa Concordia, refloated.

Trending Today

The Wrecked Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Is Finally Being Towed Away

The ship's remains will be broken down for scrap metal

Clay tokens that Assyrians used for a simple bookkeeping system.

New Research

Some Ancient Assyrians Ignored the Advent of Writing for Thousands of Years

It took thousands of years for Assyrians to finally give up primitive record-keeping methods

Cool Finds

Children’s Skulls Encircled Some Bronze Age Lake Villages

The bones may have been thought to ward off flooding in lakeside villages

None

Cool Finds

How One 1930s German Photographer Successfully Trolled the Nazi Party

A photograph of a young Jewish girl won a contest to find the "perfect example of the Aryan race."

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Greece Find Some of the World's Oldest Erotic Graffiti

About 2,500 years ago, ancient Greeks were boasting of their sexual conquests in long-lasting graffiti

Soviet propaganda, circa 1920

Cool Finds

Thousands of Secret KGB Espionage Documents Are Now Available to the Public

The papers contain names of spies, descriptions of secret weapons and detailed plots against the West

Visitors wait in line at the National Archives to view the Declaration of Independence (against the wall, center right), preserved under glass and special lighting, ahead of the Fourth of July Independence Day holiday in Washington, July 3, 2013.

Cool Finds

The National Archives Wants to Put Its Whole Collection on Wikimedia Commons

The National Archives and Records Administration plans to upload everything it can

Trending Today

After WWII, Japan Made One of the World's Strongest Commitments to Military Pacifism—Which It's Now Going to Soften

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to rejigger Japan's long-standing commitment to pacificism

Washington, D.C.

The Colosseum Was a Housing Complex in Medieval Times

Recent archeological digs have found that people lived in the Colosseum during the medieval era

New Research

Archeologists Find Evidence of Torture at 1,200 Year Old Massacre

An archaeological dig in Colorado was the site of a horrific massacre

Hammer amulets like these have been found across Viking Europe

Cool Finds

Small Viking Charms Really Do Represent Thor’s Hammer

Inscription on a small metal charm definitively states 'This is a hammer'

Male and female parasitic worms of the genus Schistosoma

New Research

Mesopotamian Irrigation May Have Helped Out a Parasite That Now Infects 200 Million People

A parasite egg found in a grave in the Middle East gives scientists a window into how disease spread in prehistory

These mana potions won't actually let you cast fireballs.

Cool Finds

How Did "Mana," An Austronesian Religious Idea, Become a Gaming Staple?

Anthropologist Alex Golub tracks the path of mana, from ancient Taiwan to fantasy gaming culture

Part of a healthy (neanderthal) diet

New Research

Neanderthals Ate Their Vegetables

Traces of feces found in Spain show that neanderthals ate their vegetables

Unattributed photograph of William Howard Taft from 1909

Cool Finds

Taft’s Bathtubs Weighed A Ton

Taft might not have really gotten stuck in a bathtub, but he did seem to have a fondness for them

Plimoth Plantation, a recreation of what the Plymouth colony might have looked like

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Are Trying To Figure Out Exactly Where Plymouth Was

A new excavation is looking into the location of the famous colony

Page 275 of 295