Smart News History & Archaeology

Candida Alvarez's Estoy Bien (2017) provided the inspiration for the title of a new exhibition at El Museo del Barrio.

How a Sweeping Survey in NYC Redefines What It Means to Make 'Latinx' Art

A new triennial at El Museo del Barrio features a wide range of works by 42 artists and collectives

A 300-thread count sari woven out of a hybrid Dhaka muslin thread

How Modern Researchers Are Trying to Recreate a Long-Lost Fabric

Dhaka muslin was immensely popular for millennia, but the secrets of its creation faded from memory by the early 20th century

An undated view of the Seven Hills of Bonn by Josephine Butler, who campaigned for sex workers' rights and pushed Parliament to raise the age of consent

Pioneering Victorian Suffragist's Unseen Watercolor Paintings Are Up for Sale

Seven landscape scenes by 19th-century British social reformer Josephine Butler are headed to the auction block

Hunter-gatherers in what is now Russia likely viewed the wooden sculpture as an artwork imbued with ritual significance.

New Research

This Wooden Sculpture Is Twice as Old as Stonehenge and the Pyramids

New findings about the 12,500-year-old Shigir Idol have major implications for the study of prehistory

Archaeologists confirmed the find in late 2019 but only announced the news now due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This drawing shows what the St. Mary's Fort may have looked like.

Cool Finds

Researchers Discover Ruins of Maryland's Earliest Colonial Site, a 386-Year-Old Fort

A team used ground-penetrating radar to identify the outlines of a defensive outpost at the St. Mary's settlement

The intricately crafted ornament, which depicts a knight emerging out of a snail shell perched atop of a goat, measures less than an inch long.

Cool Finds

Was This Ornament of a Knight Emerging From a Snail Shell a 'Medieval Meme'?

The unusual image "may be a satirical reference to cowardly or non-chivalric behavior of opponents," says curator Beverly Nenk

Fragment of a gold mask unearthed at Sanxingdui, an archaeological site in southwest China

3,000-Year-Old Gold Mask, Silk Linked to Enigmatic Civilization Found in China

The state of Shu left behind few written records. A trove of 500 newly excavated objects may offer insights on the mysterious kingdom

François Pascal Simon Gérard, Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain, circa 1808

New Jersey Estate Owned by Napoleon's Older Brother Set to Become State Park

In 1815, exiled Spanish king Joseph Bonaparte fled to the U.S., where he lived in luxury on a sprawling, 60-acre estate

Bulls, like horses, were important animals to the ancient Greeks.

Cool Finds

Rare Bronze Bull Sacrificed to Zeus Found at Site of the Ancient Olympic Games

The 3,000-year-old figurine was probably a votive offering made at the Greek god's altar in Olympia

Violet Gibson, a 50-year-old Irish woman, attempted to assassinate Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1926.

The Little-Known Story of Violet Gibson, the Irish Woman Who Shot Mussolini

A free radio documentary tells the tale of the long-overlooked individual who nearly killed the Italian dictator in 1926

The 74-foot-tall slab will be installed at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The Newseum's Iconic First Amendment Tablet Is Headed to Philadelphia

Weighing in at 50 tons, the marble slab previously adorned the facade of the now-shuttered journalism museum in D.C.

A 1932 facsimile of the first issue of the Emancipator, published on April 30, 1820

History of Now

New Project Reimagines the U.S.' First Antislavery Newspaper, the 'Emancipator'

A joint initiative from Boston University and the "Boston Globe" revamps a 19th-century abolitionist publication for 21st-century research about race

During World War II, the United States government incarcerated some 120,000 Japanese Americans, including the Uno family spotlighted in the documentary series.

Education During Coronavirus

Watch 150 Years of Asian American History Unfold in This Documentary

The five-part PBS series chronicles the community's story through archival footage, interviews

The tool is between 3,800 and 5,300 years old.

Cool Finds

Rare Ancient Tool Found in Australia May Have Been Made With Kangaroo Bone

The rare find is helping archaeologists piece together Indigenous technologies used thousands of years ago

Much of the Apostle Santiago Church burned to the ground in a March 7 fire.

Fire at 16th-Century Mexican Church Prompts Debate Over How to Protect Cultural Heritage

Critics argue that a lack of preservation funding contributed to the devastating loss

Teeth with dental inlays from a nonroyal elite Mayan tomb.

Archaeologists Uncover a 1,300-Year-Old Skeleton of a Maya Diplomat

The remains revealed that the government official was wealthy as an adult, but he had a difficult childhood

Researchers have developed this theoretical model to explain the workings of the Antikythera mechanism, the 2,000-old ancient Greek device that is often referred to as the "first computer."

New Research

Scientists May Have Discovered How the Ancient Greeks' 'First Computer' Tracked the Cosmos

Researchers proposed a new theoretical model for the Antikythera Mechanism, a 2,000-year-old device used to chart the universe

Overhead view of the mass grave, which contains the remains of at least 41 Copper Age people

Analysis of 6,200-Year-Old Grave Raises New Questions About Neolithic Massacre

Researchers in Croatia extracted DNA from 38 victims of a fifth-millennium B.C. mass killing

The fragments contain Greek translations of verses from the books of Zechariah and Nahum.

Cool Finds

Dozens of Dead Sea Scroll Fragments Found in Israeli Cave

The pieces of parchments are the first of their kind discovered during archaeological excavations in 60 years

The site is comprised of six sectors, the last of which was recently excavated.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover Traces of Early Christian Community in Egypt

Active between the fourth and eighth centuries A.D., the vast site housed multiple churches, monastic cells and other structures

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