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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Harvard's Peabody Museum received the collection of 700 Native American hair samples as a donation in 1935.

Harvard Museum Pledges to Return Hair Samples of 700 Native American Children

The samples come from students who were forced to attend government-run boarding schools

Researchers analyzed teeth from a carp-like fish.

New Research

Early Humans May Have Cooked Fish 780,000 Years Ago

New research adds to the debate about when humans began cooking with fire

Nazis set an estimated 1,400 synagogues on fire during Kristallnacht.

These 84-Year-Old Nazi Photos Paint a Harrowing Picture of Kristallnacht

The images show mobs ransacking Jewish-owned homes, businesses and synagogues in 1938

Paleontologists discovered the skull in the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota.

T. Rex Skull Named Maximus Could Sell for $20 Million

The bones belonged to a dinosaur that lived some 76 million years ago

Hikers discovered Ötzi the ice mummy in September 1991 in the Tyrolean Alps.

Rewriting the Story of Ötzi, the Murdered Iceman

A new study suggests that nearly everything archaeologists thought they knew about the 5,300-year-old corpse’s preservation was wrong

Leola One Feather, of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, observes as Native American artifacts are photographed in Barre, Massachusetts. 

Massachusetts Museum Returns Wounded Knee Artifacts to Sioux Tribes

A ceremony on Saturday marked the conclusion of a long repatriation process

The thermal baths helped preserve the ancient statues.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Find 24 Bronze Statues, Preserved in Tuscan Spa for 2,300 Years

The discovery provides insight into the transition from Etruscan to Roman rule

The comb is made of ivory and inscribed with the sentence: "May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard."

Scientists Translate the Oldest Sentence Written in the First Alphabet

Inscribed on a Canaanite comb, the words reveal a struggle with head lice

The entrance to the CIA Museum in Langley, Virginia

See Inside the Rarely Seen and Newly Reimagined CIA Museum

Off-limits to all but a few in-person visitors, the museum is starting to welcome the public, online at least

The Taposiris Magna Temple west of the ancient city of Alexandria

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover 4,300-Foot-Long Tunnel Under Ancient Egyptian Temple

Researchers have been digging near the Taposiris Magna Temple in hopes of finding Cleopatra’s long-lost tomb

The final facial reconstruction depicting John Barber, 55

Art Meets Science

Scientists Reconstruct Face of 19th-Century Man Accused of Being a Vampire

He was a victim of tuberculosis—and a target of the vampire panic that swept through New England

All of the jewelry archaeologists unearthed from a Viking Age site north of Stockholm

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Trove of Viking Age Jewelry in Sweden

The 1,000-year-old neck rings, finger rings, pearls and coins were in near-pristine condition

Palcaraju glacier inside Huascarán National Park in Peru

One-Third of Iconic World Heritage Glaciers Will Melt by 2050, Study Finds

A new report from Unesco and the International Union for Conservation of Nature provides a bleak outlook for glaciers amid global warming

The emerald was on the Atocha, a Spanish vessel that sunk in 1622.

Cool Finds

Rare Emerald Discovered in 300-Year-Old Shipwreck Could Sell for $70,000

Proceeds from the sale will go toward humanitarian efforts in Ukraine

Researchers used satellite imagery to help narrow down the location to start digging.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth First-of-Its-Kind Roman Watchtower in Morocco

The military fortification was discovered near the ancient city of Volubilis

A cannibalized face dated to the 15th century B.C.E. The remains were found in Gough's Cave, the same site as some of the remains analyzed in the new study. 

Prehistoric DNA Reveals Two Groups Migrated to the U.K. After the Last Ice Age

The bones of two individuals found in caves helped scientists determine their ancestry

Civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King in 1964

When Julia Roberts Was Born, Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Paid the Hospital Bill

The Roberts family had previously welcomed the Kings’ children to their theater school

Guests watch Vikram Vedha on the opening day of Srinagar's multiplex cinema.

Movie Theaters Are Back in Kashmir. Is Anybody Watching?

The openings are part of an attempt to promote an image of normalcy in a conflict-ridden region

Griffin Post at the site of Bradford Washburn's abandoned 1937 camera cache.

Explorers Find Cameras Abandoned by Mountain Climbers in 1937

Scientists traced the movement of Canada’s Walsh Glacier to find the long-lost cache

Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues explores the legendary singer and trumpet player's life and legacy.

This Rap Documentarian’s Latest Subject? Louis Armstrong

Sacha Jenkins tells the jazz musician’s story through rarely-seen archival footage and letters

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