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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Tourists walk along the Via dell'Abbondanza, one of Pompeii's major streets.

Tourist Carves His Family’s Initials Onto a Wall in Pompeii

In recent years, officials have seen a series of similar incidents at Italy’s most popular historic sites

Start dates at schools across American range from mid-July to early September.

When Do Kids Go Back to School? It Depends on Where They Live

In some districts, students returned to their classrooms weeks before Labor Day

An aerial photograph of Lahaina's banyan tree taken on August 3, 2024. A wildfire devastated the town in August 2023.

One Year After a Devastating Fire, Lahaina’s 151-Year-Old Banyan Tree Is Healing

Arborists didn’t know if the historic tree would survive, but they’ve been working to give it the best possible odds

One of the four newly translated cuneiform tablets

Newly Deciphered, 4,000-Year-Old Cuneiform Tablets Used Lunar Eclipses to Predict Major Events

Ancient Babylonians linked astronomical phenomena to pestilence, the death of kings and the destruction of empires

American sprinter Noah Lyles rang the Paris 2024 bell after winning the men's 100-meter final.

The Paris Olympics

These Olympic Gold Medalists Get to Ring a Bell Bound for Notre-Dame

The bell was built for the Games, but it will soon get a second life in one of Paris’ most beloved landmarks

Philipe Petit walks between the twin towers on August 7, 1974.

Philippe Petit Marks the 50th Anniversary of His World Trade Center Walk With a New High Wire Act

The 74-year-old French artist reflected on his stunt and balanced on a tightrope at two performances in Manhattan

As evidenced by Gordon Parks' A Woman and Her Dog in the Harlem Section (1943), New York pets had evolved from hunting assistants to companions by the 20th century.

See Images of New Yorkers and Their Pets Across Three Centuries

An upcoming exhibition will trace the history of the city’s domesticated dogs, cats, horses and other animals

A picture of Calhoun in a mouse utopia in 1970

Cool Finds

This Old Experiment With Mice Led to Bleak Predictions for Humanity’s Future

From the 1950s to the 1970s, researcher John Calhoun gave rodents unlimited food and studied their behavior in overcrowded conditions

Video footage captured by a remotely operated underwater vehicle shows the cable winch of the S.S. Dellwood, a 3,500-ton U.S. Army vessel that had been installing communication lines when it collided with a submerged rock pinnacle.

Discover Alaska

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Battle of Attu, the ‘Forgotten Battle’ of World War II

Underwater archaeologists discovered three shipwrecks submerged near the small Alaskan island, which was the site of one of the deadliest conflicts in the Pacific

The anonymous sender secured the artifacts in foam cut-outs inside a cardboard flapjack box.

Cool Finds

The Mystery of the Bronze Age Ax Heads Mailed Anonymously to an Irish Museum Has Been Solved

A farmer stumbled upon the 4,000-year-old artifacts while working in his field in central Ireland

Each of the Persian darics features an image of a crouched archer.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Stumble Upon Ancient Pot of Gold Coins in Turkey

Researchers think the hoard, which dates to the fifth century B.C.E., may have been buried during a time of upheaval

The Step Pyramid stands more than 200 feet tall and is made from stones weighing more than 650 pounds. Some other researchers are not yet convinced by the idea that it was built using a hydraulics system.

Ancient Egyptians May Have Used Hydraulic Lift to Build Pyramid

Researchers propose that a system of water could have lifted heavy stones to the height necessary to construct the Step Pyramid

Part of the 17th-century foundation will be visible through a glass floor section in the new archaeology center.

Cool Finds

17th-Century Home Unearthed in Colonial Williamsburg

Crews were constructing a new archaeology center when they stumbled upon the historic structure’s foundations and accompanying artifacts

Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas, in 1932.

A Statue of Johnny Cash Is Coming to the U.S. Capitol

Standing alongside civil rights leader Daisy Bates, the singer-songwriter will represent the state of Arkansas in Statuary Hall

Benjamin Franklin lived in London for much of the time between 1757 and 1775.

Why Were There So Many Skeletons Hidden in Benjamin Franklin’s Basement?

During restorations in the 1990s, more than 1,200 pieces of bone surfaced beneath the founding father’s London home

The mummy was preserved with her mouth wide open.

Egyptian Mummy Dubbed ‘Screaming Woman’ May Have Died in Agony

The woman, preserved with an open mouth, went through an expensive mummification process 3,500 years ago

Brahe's mansion, Uraniborg, was located on an island in Sweden. His basement laboratory is represented by the bottom left room in this drawing.

New Research

Was This Renaissance Alchemist Ahead of His Time?

New research suggests that Tycho Brahe isolated tungsten nearly 200 years before the metal was identified as an element

Six of the 12 islands, including Hiva Oa, are permanently inhabited.

These Remote Volcanic Islands in the South Pacific Just Became a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Marquesas, located some 3,000 miles from their nearest continental neighbor, are some of the most isolated islands on the planet

A woman stands behind a model of a Neanderthal at the Natural History Museum in London. Contrary to the narrative that early humans left Africa roughly 50,000 years ago, a new study finds our species migrated from the continent on multiple occasions.

Early Humans Migrated Out of Africa Several Times, DNA Study Suggests

Homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthals as early as 250,000 years ago and may have ultimately bred them out of existence, according to new research

Researchers translated the cuneiform writing, which is characterized by symbols gouged into moist clay.

Cool Finds

Researchers Decipher Cuneiform Tablet—and Discover It’s a Furniture Receipt

The small clay rectangle is engraved with an ancient Semitic language known as Akkadian

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