Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

A 6-year-old boy found this single-edged sword in a field in southern Norway in April.

Cool Finds

A 6-Year-Old Boy Spotted Something Sticking Out of the Ground in a Field. It Turned Out to Be a Viking Sword

Henrik Refsnes Mørtvedt was on a school field trip when he found the roughly 1,200-year-old weapon. The single-edged blade will now be preserved at an Oslo museum

The researchers say the early strains of plague they identified were highly lethal.

New Research

New Discovery That Hunter-Gatherer Children Died of Plague More Than Five Millennia Ago Sets Back the Date of the Earliest Outbreak

The skeletons of nomadic families unearthed in Siberia harbor “Yersinia pestis” bacteria, which challenges theories about conditions needed for the disease to spread

David Drake’s 1857 ceramic jar is featured prominently in the museum’s redesigned 18th-century galleries ahead of its America at 250 celebration. 

America's 250th Anniversary

By Signing His Name to Massive Jars, This Enslaved Artist Defied Literacy Bans in the South. Now, His Masterpiece Is on View With a Famed Paul Revere Bowl

Born into slavery around 1800, David Drake was a skilled ceramicist. His work will be on display at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston as the institution marks America’s 250th birthday

Archaeologists discovered musket balls thought to have been fired during the Battle of Bunker Hill.

America's 250th Anniversary

In June 1775, the American Patriots Faced Off With the British at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Archaeologists Are Uncovering Evidence of the Fighting 251 Years Later

Researchers discovered gun parts, musket balls and other artifacts in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood

Teachers wonder whether pottery was purposefully stashed in the tunnels for storage.

Cool Finds

Hidden Tunnels Dating Back to Henry VIII’s Reign Were Discovered at This English Boarding School, Where the King Once Lived

Bones, bottles and pottery were found at the New Hall School, which was once Henry VIII’s Palace of Beaulieu. Before that, Anne Boleyn’s father owned the estate

Archaeologists discovered the artifacts on Liberty Hill, a strategic hilltop near Fort Ticonderoga.

America's 250th Anniversary

Archaeologists Unearth Hundreds of Artifacts at Fort Ticonderoga, the Site of America’s First Offensive Victory of the Revolutionary War

The objects were discovered on Liberty Hill, the place where many Continental Army soldiers heard the text of the Declaration of Independence for the first time

The capsule is cylinder-shaped to minimize edges, through which water could seep.

America's 250th Anniversary

For Its Birthday, the U.S. Will Give Americans of the Future a 900-Pound Time Capsule Filled With Art, Natural Treasures and a Clever Copy of the Declaration of Independence

The capsule was created and filled at the direction of Congress, through the America250 commission. It will be interred beneath an original sculpture on July 4

Eric Conrad donated the table to the Betsy Ross House on Flag Day.  

America's 250th Anniversary

You Can Now See Betsy Ross’ Sewing Table in Philadelphia, Thanks to a Flag Day Donation From Her Great-Great-Great-Great Grandson

The origins of the Stars and Stripes are murky, but generations of Americans have admired stories about Ross creating the first American flag

The “Jon Landau American Music Gallery” is dedicated to many genres of music.

A Museum of American Music—Headlined by Bruce Springsteen—Opened in New Jersey With Instruments, Lyrics and Clothes From Rock Stars and Pop Legends

The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music at Monmouth University, which houses the archives of its namesake Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, welcomed its first visitors

The two-wheeled wagon found in the grave is a particularly rare find.

Cool Finds

Construction in Germany Revealed the ‘Princely Grave’ of a Celtic Warrior Who Was Buried With Weapons and a Two-Wheeled Wagon

Archaeologists say the find proves “the previously only assumed presence of a local Celtic elite.” Grave goods also included gold jewelry and a jug imported from modern-day Tuscany

Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, Bonifacio Bembo

See Visions of the Past and Future in This New York City Exhibition on the Renaissance Roots of Tarot Cards

The Morgan Library & Museum traces the history of beautifully illustrated tarot cards from their origins as a card game to modern occult fascination

Gordon S. Wood was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama in 2011. 

America's 250th Anniversary

Four Reasons You Should Know More About Gordon S. Wood, the Scholar of the American Revolution Who Died This Week at Age 92

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, who wrote of the “radicalism” of the country’s founding, was killed in a car collision in a parking lot

Columns found in Ehnasiya

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth a Marble Aphrodite, a Pharaoh’s Cartouche and a Roman Basilica, All in One Ancient Egyptian City

The collection of artifacts represents the layered history of Ehnasiya, an ancient Egyptian capital that became the Roman city of Heracleópolis Magna

Four of the woman's bones appear to have been broken and whittled.

This Woman’s Brains Were Scooped Out and Her Bones Were Broken and Whittled in Scotland 2,000 Years Ago

Researchers say the modifications may represent a previously unknown funerary ritual in Iron Age Britain

Workers recovered this cannon from the Savannah River in 2022.

Cool Finds

Workers Dredging the Savannah River Stumbled Upon 19 Cannons That Had Been Underwater Since the Revolutionary War

The centuries-old artifacts emerged from the riverbed between 2021 and 2022. Experts spent several years carefully restoring 17 of them, which will make their public debut in a new exhibition

The 12,060-piece set will be available in November.

You Can Soon Build the Sagrada Família Out of 12,060 Legos. Here’s Why the Famed Basilica Is an Architectural Marvel

Pioneering architect Antoni Gaudí’s plans for the basilica were ambitious and complex, drawing on creative geometric forms and ancient inspiration, which is one reason it remains unfinished after 144 years

This drawing of a horse may have been Leonardo’s design for his planned equestrian monument.

500 Years Ago, Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook Was Cut Up and Separated. Now, the Inventor’s Manuscripts and Drawings Are Reconstructed in an Online Archive

A new tool developed by Museo Galileo researchers has restored 50 pages from fragments excised centuries ago

The Roman brooch was found near Pathhead.

Cool Finds

This Rare, Intricate Brooch Represents the Roman Empire’s Long, Disjointed Attempt to Conquer Scotland

The “miniature masterpiece” will go on display during an upcoming exhibition focused on the legacy Rome left in the highlands the empire dubbed Caledonia

Researchers are trying to find out how the massive, central altar stone was transported to Stonehenge.

How Did Stonehenge Get Its Altar Stone? New Research Adds to the Debate Between Human Effort and Glacier Transport

Ice flow modeling and geological analyses suggest it’s possible that glaciers carried the stone part of the way during the last Ice Age. However, scientists say that scenario is unlikely

Graffiti spanning more than a century is scrawled on the walls of the Roman villa.

Cool Finds

These Italian Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School. They Found Ancient Roman Ruins Hidden in the Basement

Students at a high school in Rome stumbled upon a well-preserved villa that dates to the mid-second century C.E. Eventually, archaeologists hope to open the sprawling space to the public

Page 6 of 346