Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Researchers uncovered an over 1,200-year-old tomb filled with ceramic and gold artifacts at El Caño Archaeological Park in Panama.

This 1,200-Year-Old Tomb in Panama Contains a Treasure Trove of Artifacts and Up to 32 Bodies

Researchers found flutes, bells, gold jewelry and the body of an important religious leader inside the elaborate shared grave

Hans Holbein the Younger's 1539 portrait of Anne of Cleves before (left) and after (right) conservation

See the Portrait That Made Henry VIII Fall in Love With Anne of Cleves, Newly Restored to Its Former Glory

The Louvre cleaned and conserved Hans Holbein’s 1539 likeness of the Tudor queen, revealing its vibrant colors and previously hidden details

The statue was discovered in two pieces, one much older than the other, near Burghley House in Lincolnshire.

Cool Finds

Construction Worker Stumbles Upon Mysterious Roman Statue Hidden Beneath a Parking Lot in England

Found near a lavish historic estate, the nearly 2,000-year-old artifact has baffled researchers

Curator Frances McIntosh says the collection's survival is "nothing short of a miracle."

Cool Finds

Shells From Captain Cook’s Final Voyage Were Rescued From a Dumpster

Long presumed lost, the collection of rare shells is now on display in England

Art historian Federica Gigante examines the device at the Fondazione Museo Miniscalchi-Erizzo in Verona, Italy.

Cool Finds

Long Overlooked, This 11th-Century Astronomical Device Documents Scientific Exchange Among Muslims, Jews and Christians

The astrolabe features Hebrew and Latin inscriptions added by different owners over time

Princess Diana opened the first dedicated ward for patients with AIDS and HIV-related diseases at London's Middlesex Hospital in 1987.

LGBTQ+ Pride

Who Will Design London’s First Permanent HIV/AIDS Memorial?

Five artists have been shortlisted for the project, which will be located near the site of the U.K.’s first dedicated AIDS ward

Paul Alexander died on March 11 at age 78.

Texas Man Who Lived 70 Years in an Iron Lung Dies at 78: ‘I Never Gave Up’

Paralyzed by polio in 1952, Paul Alexander led a full life despite being confined to a large steel ventilator

A Neanderthal skull on display at the Natural History Museum, London. Many modern humans have inherited around 1 to 2 percent of their DNA from Neanderthals and their close relatives, Denisovans.

Modern Indian People Have a Wide Range of Neanderthal DNA, Study Finds

Genomes of Indian people today reveal links to a prehistoric migration and a group of Iranian farmers, as well as several new sequences from the Neanderthal genome

The fully intact statue would have measured nearly 23 feet tall.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth the Long-Lost Top Half of an Enormous Ramses II Statue

A German researcher found the lower section of the Egyptian pharaoh’s likeness nearly 100 years ago

Experts have confirmed that the sword belonged to a Viking, dating it to between 850 and 975.

Cool Finds

A 1,000-Year-Old Viking Sword Emerges From an English River

Discovered by a magnet fisher, the weapon dates to between 850 and 975, during the Vikings’ violent conquest of Britain

Penguins surround the post office at Port Lockroy, a British outpost on Goudier Island.

You Could Run a ‘Penguin Post Office’ in Antarctica

Three new hires will spend five months living among gentoo penguins and sorting postcards at the world’s southernmost post office

A video posted on social media shows a woman spraying red paint on the portrait, then cutting it with a handheld tool.

Pro-Palestinian Activists Damage Balfour Portrait at Cambridge University

The 1917 Balfour Declaration was a pivotal declaration of British support for a “national home for the Jewish people”

Researchers tested samples from seven ceramic vessels found on the ancient site of Cotzumalhuapa, and they found nicotine residue in three of them.

New Research

Mesoamericans May Have Drunk Tobacco During Rituals 1,000 Years Ago

New research reveals evidence of nicotine residue on vases unearthed in Guatemala

The moon’s shadow, as seen from the International Space Station, passes over central Asia during a 2020 total solar eclipse.

A History of Total Solar Eclipses Seen by Astronauts From Outer Space

Since the Gemini 12 mission in 1966, a handful of people have seen these stunning celestial events from orbit—or watched the moon’s shadow pass over Earth

The museum is located inside a former teacher's college that played a vital role in the Dutch resistance.

With New Holocaust Museum, the Netherlands Reckons With Its Past

The venue, which opens this week, memorializes the Dutch Jews who suffered at the hands of the Nazis

The dagger was discovered in a forest near Korzenica in November 2023.

Cool Finds

Found in a Polish Forest, This Dagger Belonged to an Elite Warrior 4,000 Years Ago

A metal detectorist came across the copper artifact while searching for objects from World War I and World War II

Completed in 1709, the library has more than 22,000 books.

You Can Spend the Night in the Secret Library Tucked Inside St. Paul’s Cathedral

Airbnb is offering two guests the chance to sleep amongst 22,000 books in an area normally off-limits to visitors

A view of the Korolevo archaeological site. Researchers used the decay of isotopes in rocks dug up from the site to determine the age of the stone tools.

Stone Tools Found in Ukraine May Be the Oldest Evidence of Early Humans in Europe

The 1.4-million-year-old rocks may have belonged to Homo erectus, and they shed light on migrations of human ancestors, a new study suggests

Mining foreman R. Thornburg shows a small cage with a canary used for testing carbon monoxide gas in 1928.

What Happened to the Canary in the Coal Mine? The Story of How the Real-Life Animal Helper Became Just a Metaphor

The humble bird, which was employed until 1986, represents an important part of mining history

The Bréal Cup, designed by French scholar Michel Bréal, was awarded to the winner of the first Olympic marathon.

The Paris Olympics

Paris Is Preparing for the Summer Olympics With a New Exhibition at the Louvre

“Olympism” explores the history of the ancient Olympics and France’s influence on the modern games

Page 71 of 341