Smart News History & Archaeology

Methuselah the Judean Date Palm is still going strong even after sprouting from a 2,000-year-old seed.

Cool Finds

Tree Grown From 2,000-Year-Old Seed Has Reproduced

Age doesn’t have much on this rare piece of greenery sprouted from a seed discovered in an ancient Israeli site

Cool Finds

That Time an Astronaut Smuggled a Corned Beef Sandwich To Space

The sandwich was a joke but its crumbs proved to be too much — for politicians, not for the mission

Cool Finds

Found: A Secret Nazi Hideaway in the Heart of an Andean Jungle

Hints of a dark Nazi history found in Argentina

Trending Today

530 Years Later, Richard III Gets a Royal Reburial

The king’s remains, which were found buried beneath a Leicester parking lot, will be reinterred this week

A vineyard in Pomerol, Aquitaine, France

Cool Finds

American Bugs Almost Wiped Out France’s Wine Industry

When the Great French Wine Blight hit in the mid 1800s, the culprit turned out to be a pest from the New World that would forever alter wine production

This detail from Rome's Trajan's Column hints at what the Roman soldiers who built the fort recently discovered near Trieste may have looked like.

New Research

The Oldest Known Ancient Roman Fort Has Been Discovered in Italy

Researchers use laser scanners to identify a Roman military camp that may have initiated the settlement of the modern Italian city of Trieste

New Research

People Ate Pork in the Middle East Until 1,000 B.C.—What Changed?

A new study investigates the historical factors leading up to the emergence of pork prohibition

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.

Trending Today

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”

Cool Finds

Would You Pass Thomas Edison’s Employment Test?

Probably not.

A view of part of Honduras' rainforest.

Trending Today

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"

Trending Today

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?

Trending Today

How Dick Tracy Invented the Smartwatch

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

Trending Today

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

Cool Finds

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

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