Smart News History & Archaeology

One of the more than 200 bouquiniste stalls along the Seine in Paris

Parisian Booksellers Have Lined the Seine for Centuries. Now, They're Fighting to Stay

Ahead of the 2024 Olympics, city officials are trying to relocate the bouquinistes for security reasons

Researchers found the remains of stilts and tens of thousands of wooden spikes.

Cool Finds

This 8,000-Year-Old Village on Stilts May Be the Oldest of Its Kind in Europe

Archaeologists unearthed the settlement—which had tens of thousands of defensive spikes—beneath a lake in Albania

Hugh Gray's famous 1933 photo of a creature he believed to be Nessie

Loch Ness Monster Lovers Come Together for Biggest Hunt in 50 Years

Volunteers will convene in the Scottish Highlands armed with drones, hydrophones and other technologies

Brooker began collecting in 1959 in Paris and has been assembling his library ever since.

Trove of Rare Renaissance Books Could Fetch $25 Million at Auction

T. Kimball Brooker has amassed a collection of more than 1,300 texts from the 16th century

Excavations near the Powder Magazine in Williamsburg, Virginia, where the four bodies were found

Four Bodies Found in Colonial Williamsburg Belonged to Confederate Soldiers

Researchers are trying to identify the men who died after the Battle of Williamsburg in 1862

Researchers have recreated what the exiled royal Charles Edward Stuart—better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie—might have looked like at age 24.

See the Face of 24-Year-Old Bonnie Prince Charlie, Recreated Using Death Masks

The new recreation shows what the prince might have looked like during the 1745 Jacobite rising

Ancient human remains and shell accessories found at the Hirota burial site

New Research

These Ancient Japanese Islanders Created a Signature Skull Shape by Molding Babies' Heads

Some 1,800 years ago, the Hirota people practiced intentional cranial modification

Tank convoy through the Ardennes, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945

New Research

Drone Scans Reveal New Details About the Battle of the Bulge

Researchers used lidar to uncover nearly 1,000 previously unknown features of the famous battlefield

Bélizaire and the Frey Children features an enslaved 15-year-old alongside three white children who were likely in his care.

Who Was the Enslaved Child Painted Out of This 1837 Portrait?

The painting of Bélizaire, 15, shown behind the children of his enslavers, has been acquired by the Met

In 25 B.C.E., Romans founded a colony called Augusta Emerita in what is now Mérida, Spain.

Cool Finds

Iron Window Bars Unearthed at a Roman Public Bath in Spain

The crisscrossing bars were likely part of the bath's changing room, called the apodyterium

A group poses in front of Michigan State University's first observatory, circa 1888.

Cool Finds

Students Unearth Forgotten 142-Year-Old Observatory Buried on Michigan State's Campus

Archaeology students have been working at the site since workers happened upon it in May

The remains likely belong to a Qinling panda rather than a Sichuan panda. Pictured: Qi Zai, a Qinling panda born in captivity

Cool Finds

Fully Intact Giant Panda Skeleton Discovered in Chinese Emperor's 2,000-Year-Old Tomb

Archaeologists previously found a panda skull in a nearby Han burial, but its torso was missing

The coins depict the god Apollo on one side and a horse surrounded by symbols on the other.

Cool Finds

Metal Detectorists Discover 2,000-Year-Old Gold Coins in Wales

The 15 artifacts are the first Iron Age gold coins ever found in the country

Boston artist Peter Stephenson completed The Wounded Indian in 1850.

'Wounded Indian' Sculpture Will Return to Boston—Decades After It Was Supposedly Destroyed

The piece was rediscovered in 1999 at a Virginia museum, which has finally agreed to hand it over

An aerial image of the banyan tree taken on August 10, 2023

Will Maui's Beloved 150-Year-Old Banyan Tree Survive the Scorching Wildfires?

Amidst the devastation of Lahaina, a coastal town in Maui, the tree is burned but still standing

The arrowhead was originally discovered in the 19th century, then stashed away as part of a museum collection. Recently, researchers decided to take another look.

New Research

This Arrowhead Was Made From a Meteorite 3,000 Years Ago

Found in Switzerland, the 1.5-inch-long artifact was fashioned from meteoric iron during the Bronze Age

Phin Sokol, the abbot of Khemararangsi Buddhist Temple, performs a Buddhist blessing at a ceremony for the repatriation of three bronze statues that were previously part of the collection of the National Gallery of Australia.

Australia Returns Three Looted Statues to Cambodia

The rare artifacts will remain on display at the National Gallery of Australia for up to three years as the Cambodian government prepares a place for them

Built in 1919-20, the lighthouse stands 68 feet tall and measures about 1,000 square feet.

You Can Now Buy a Lighthouse of Your Very Own in Michigan

So far, bidding is only up to $16,000 for the historic 68-foot-tall structure in Lake Superior

Miomir Korac, the lead archaeologist working on the newly unearthed ship

Cool Finds

Coal Miners Discover Ancient Roman Boat in Serbia

Measuring nearly 43 feet long, the ship's remains were found near the bustling Roman city of Viminacium

The current Minnesota flag, which lawmakers hope to soon retire, flies during a snowstorm.

Minnesota Starts Work on a New State Flag

The old flag—often criticized for its poor design and offensive images—is slated to be replaced in May

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