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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Beginning in the early 20th century, Marfa's Mexican and Mexican American students attended the one-story adobe school up to ninth grade.

New National Park Site Spotlights School Segregation in Texas

The Blackwell School was once Marfa’s only public school for Mexican and Mexican American students

This bronze helmet found near Corinaldo, Italy, belongs to the Piceni civilization.

Cool Finds

Aristocratic Tomb Discovered in Italy Offers Clues to a Mysterious Pre-Roman Civilization

The burial site, rife with Iron Age artifacts like a chariot and a helmet, likely belonged to a Piceni prince

Tomasz Stachura, one of the divers who found the wreck, saw bubbles inside some of the Champagne bottles.

Cool Finds

Divers Find Crates of Unopened Champagne in 19th-Century Shipwreck

Discovered near Sweden, the vessel was loaded with bottles of sparkling wine, mineral water and porcelain

A team of archaeoastronomers suggests the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacán, Mexico, may have been constructed to align with the movement of the sun.

Ancient Mesoamerican ‘Pyramid of the Moon’ May Align With Summer and Winter Solstices

New research suggests the monument in Teotihuacán, along with the larger Pyramid of the Sun, were designed based on astronomical movements

The costume that sold at auction was not the one that made it into the final version of the film, but rather an earlier iteration that Fisher wore on set for screen testing.

Is Princess Leia’s ‘Star Wars’ Bikini the Most Controversial Costume in Sci-Fi History?

A version of the gold outfit worn by Carrie Fisher on the set of “Return of the Jedi” fetched $175,000 at auction

This portrait of Henry VIII was one of 22 in a set commissioned by Ralph Sheldon in the late 16th century.

Cool Finds

Art Historian Discovers Long-Lost Portrait of Henry VIII in Background of Social Media Post

Commissioned by a wealthy tapestry maker in the 1590s, the Tudor king’s likeness features a distinctive frame with a rounded top

As well as frescoes of Cerberus, the guard dog of the underworld, the tomb was decorated with paintings of marine centaurs.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Crack Open a 2,000-Year-Old Coffin in Italy’s ‘Tomb of Cerberus’

The stone coffin likely contains the leader of the family that built the frescoed chamber in Naples

The Dolphin Hotel is a historic structure dating in Southampton, England.

Inside the Controversial Plan to Turn a Hotel Where Jane Austen Attended Balls Into Student Dorms

Devoted readers are worried about the fate of the historic Dolphin Hotel in southern England

The historic roadway dates to the fourth century B.C.E. and stretches for over 500 miles.

Ancient Rome’s Appian Way Is Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The 500-mile-long stone highway is Italy’s 60th property to receive the designation

Fish swim by an ancient Roman mosaic once part of a wealthy villa in the city of Baiae.

Cool Finds

Divers Discover Mesmerizing Roman Mosaic Beneath the Sea

Found near Naples, the marble slabs once adorned a villa in a city known as the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire

More than 200 artifacts are returning to Mexico this month.

Nashville Museum Returns Hundreds of Pre-Columbian Artifacts to Mexico

The items also went on display in an exhibition that detailed the repatriation process

Moore loaned the scrap to the museum for two years.

Cool Finds

This History Buff Found a Scrap of George Washington’s Tent at Goodwill

The fragment, which was part of Washington’s dining marquee during the Revolutionary War, is now on display at a museum in Philadelphia

Excavations underway in the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome

Cool Finds

Ruins of Centuries-Old Palace That Housed Dozens of Popes Discovered in Rome

Before the papacy relocated in the 1300s, first to Avignon and then to the Vatican, pontiffs lived at the Lateran Palace

Submerged under 50 feet of water off the coast of Wisconsin, the Margaret A. Muir has largely fallen apart. 

Shipwreck Found in Lake Michigan 130 Years After Sinking With Captain’s ‘Intelligent and Faithful’ Dog Onboard

The captain said he would “rather lose any sum of money than to have the brute perish as he did”

The Roman-era ring depicts the goddess Minerva, who is adorned with a shield, helmet and spear.

Cool Finds

This 13-Year-Old Stumbled Upon a Roman-Era Ring While Hiking in Israel

The small artifact, discovered near an ancient farmstead, features an engraving of the goddess Minerva

The torch from the 2024 Summer Games in Paris was sold along with a torchbearer's uniform.

The Paris Olympics

2024 Olympics Torch and Torchbearer’s Uniform Sell at Auction

The sale’s big-ticket item, a torch from the 1960 Winter Games, did not end up selling

Researchers photographed and filmed the carvings underwater.

Cool Finds

Carvings of Ancient Pharaohs Unearthed in Nile River

The underwater expedition took place at a site that was flooded during the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s

The ancient wall was discovered in a forest in southern Italy.

Cool Finds

Roman Wall Built to Contain Spartacus’ Forces Discovered in Italy

Archaeologists think the Roman army constructed it to contain the revolting gladiator in 71 B.C.E.

The reconstructed Magan boat floating off the coast of Abu Dhabi

This Bronze Age Ship Replica, Made From Reeds and Goat Hair, Just Sailed 50 Nautical Miles

Researchers constructed the vessel using a list of materials found on a 4,000-year-old clay tablet

The five musket balls were found near the Concord River in Massachusetts, just under 20 miles northwest of Boston.

Cool Finds

Musket Balls Fired in Early Revolutionary War Battle Unearthed in Concord

Colonial militiamen fired the lead balls on April 19, 1775—and likely missed their mark

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