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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Archaeologists created a curved support structure that mimics the ceiling’s original shape.

Cool Finds

See a Rare Ceiling Fresco From Pompeii That Archaeologists Are Carefully Reassembling, Piece by Piece, Like an Ancient Puzzle

Located in the banquet hall of a home with an adjoining bakery, the fresco shows the mythological romance of Dionysus, the god of revelry and wine, and Ariadne, the Cretan princess

This map shows modern languages and their risk of dying out. 

Three Millennia Ago, Humans May Have Spoken Thousands More Languages Than We Have Today, During a Linguistic ‘Golden Age’

A new study suggests linguistic diversity reached its peak between 1000 B.C.E. and 1000 C.E. before declining

The pot was unearthed by University of Florida students this spring.

Cool Finds

Students in Florida Discovered a 400-Year-Old Intact Pot That Reveals Conflict Among Indigenous, Spanish and English Powers

Archaeology students at the University of Florida discovered the rare vessel at the site of the former Mission San Francisco de Potano, established in 1606 when Florida was under Spanish rule

The brown trout were likely introduced to guarantee a food source if reindeer hunts were unsuccessful, according to a new study.

Hunter-Gatherers Brought Trout to a Norwegian Mountain Lake 7,000 Years Ago, the Earliest Known Example of Humans Translocating Fish

Researchers have long known that the animals were introduced into the region’s high-altitude bodies of water, but they weren’t sure when it happened or whether humans had a hand. Analyses of recently discovered ancient fish traps provide new clues

The facial reconstruction of a man the team named Respectus

Their Names Were Lost to History. But Now, You Can See What Their Faces May Have Looked Like When They Lived in a Roman-Era City Nearly 2,000 Years Ago

A new exhibition in Budapest features 16 facial reconstructions based on skulls excavated from the ancient city of Aquincum. Curators don’t know the details of their lives, but they’ve invented backstories to fill in the gaps

Researchers discovered burned, ashy layers surrounding a standing stone that was placed in the cave 2,000 years ago.

Aboriginal Spiritual Leaders Performed ‘Magic, Healing, Cursing’ Rituals in This Australian Cave for 25,000 Years, New Research Finds

Archaeologists collaborated with members of the GunaiKurnai Aboriginal community to explore layers of ash from burned grasses dating back thousands of years inside Cloggs Cave

Kids learned about historical laundry tasks on the museum’s reopening day.

Kids Can Try Out the ‘Oliver Twist’ Lifestyle at This English Museum Revealing Conditions for Poor People in a Victorian Workhouse

After a restoration, the Ripon Workhouse Museum reopened to the public, showcasing the sights, sounds and rules of England’s 19th-century “solution to poverty”

The RMS Titanic, photographed on April 10, 1912, the day that Henry Hodges dated his letter. 

This Letter Penned on the ‘Titanic’ Days Before It Sank Shares the Perspective of the Ship’s Second-Class Passengers

The letter, now up for auction, describes good weather and bustling activity as the “Titanic” prepared to set off across the Atlantic Ocean

The Clipper Endeavor was about the same size as a Boeing 737.

This 1950s Airplane Disaster Prompted the Flight Safety Demonstrations Passengers Know Today. Searchers Just Found the Wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean

A team of explorers used an autonomous underwater vehicle to locate the remains of the Pan American ‘Clipper Endeavor’ about five miles off the coast of Puerto Rico

The secret listeners recorded conversations onto acetate discs.

British Intelligence Turned This Mansion Into a Bugged Spy Trap for Nazi Prisoners of War During World War II

Visitors can now tour the house, where German generals relaxed and gabbed upstairs while Jewish refugees working as spies and translators for the British government listened in from the basement

Before this document was discovered, only ten copies of the Exeter Declaration were known to exist.

A Volunteer Stumbled Upon a Strange Document in the U.K. National Archives. It Turned Out to Be a Rare Copy of the Declaration of Independence Printed in July 1776

Michael Scurr, a retired insurance broker, found the text while cataloging boxes of 18th-century correspondence housed at the London archives. It’s the only known copy of its kind outside the United States

Located on the River Thames in London, the Tower of London has stood for nearly 1,000 years.

The Tower of London Plans to Turn Its Moat Into a ‘Green Classroom’ and Show Off Its Architecture Archives in a Major Renovation

The landmark, nearly a millennium old, has housed kings, hosted royal executions and safeguarded Britain’s crown jewels. New education centers aim to invite more people to learn about that history

Minted by Carausius, this silver denarius is dated to 287 C.E.

Cool Finds

Railway Construction Reveals a Coin Minted by a Roman Officer Who Proclaimed Himself ‘Emperor of the North’ in Britain 1,700 Years Ago

Archaeologists in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire unearthed a silver denarius bearing the name of Carausius, who ruled the breakaway state of Britannia between 286 and 293

The exumed remains were reburied in caskets in 2022.

Thousands of Kidnapped Africans Died on an Island in the Atlantic After Being Rescued From Slave Ships. Evidence in Their Teeth Traces Their Journeys

Remains in the graves of St. Helena, where the British military housed “liberated” enslaved Africans, contain isotopes from inland Angola and Zimbabwe

Princess Ita was buried with this dagger.

Did These Ancient Egyptian Princesses Wield Weapons and Train in Martial Arts, Just Like the Men of Their Time?

A new analysis of their bones suggests they were buried alongside arrows, maces and daggers because they had repeatedly used those weapons in life

Quest was purchased by explorer Ernest Shackleton for a Canadian Arctic expedition that was later aborted. He then set his sights on his fourth Antarctic expedition, but he died on the way. The ship was later used for seal hunting off Newfoundland and Labrador.

New Close-Up Images Reveal the Wreckage of Ernest Shackleton’s Last Ship, Now Draped in Discarded Fishing Gear and Teeming With Life

The vessel “Quest,” found in 2024 off the coast of northeastern Canada, has become a home for corals, anemones and fish. It also holds the leftovers from decades of commercial fishing that happened above it after it sank

The pen and the broken circuit breaker switch sold at auction.

Buzz Aldrin Used This Humble Felt-Tip Pen to Save the Apollo II Astronauts. It Just Sold for More Than $850,000

In July 1969, a quick-thinking Aldrin used the writing instrument to rearm the engine arm circuit of the lunar module “Eagle” after the switch broke off during the moon landing

The Draken Harald Hårfagre is not modeled after a single historic ship, but an amalgamation of many Viking vessels described in stories.

This Viking Longship Crossed the Atlantic Before Starring in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ as Odysseus’ Greek Galley

Hollywood stars including Matt Damon went to rowing camp to learn how to operate the vessel for the new film

The S.S. Great Britain was the world’s largest passenger ship upon its launch.

Once the World’s Biggest Passenger Ship, This Metal Marvel That Crossed the Atlantic and Took Immigrants to Australia Has a New Museum Home

A new museum dedicated to stories surrounding the S.S. “Great Britain” is about to open in Bristol, where the ship is permanently dry-docked

Gold tongues found at Marina el-Alamein (right) and a limestone tombstone showing a man holding a bird (left)

Cool Finds

Ancient Egyptians Believed That These Newly Discovered Gold Tongues Allowed the Dead to Communicate in the Afterlife

Excavations at Marina el-Alamein, an archaeological site west of Alexandria, unearthed about two dozen of the rare artifacts, including one shaped like the Eye of Horus

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