Akkadian cuneiform script from the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery archives.

Brush up on Your Ancient Akkadian With New Online Dictionary

The dead language was once the dominant tongue in Mesopotamia

This clay tablet written around the year 1800 B.C.E. may represent the oldest known use of trigonometry

New Research

Ancient Babylonian Tablet May Hold Earliest Examples of Trigonometry

If true, it would mean the ancient culture figured out this mathematical field more than a millennia before its known creation

New Research

How the Silk Road Created the Modern Apple

A genetic study shows how wild Kazakhstan apples dispersed by traders combined with other wild species to create today’s popular fruit

An ancient knee joint that shows signs of grinding between the bones, a result of osteoarthritis

New Research

What a 6,000-Year-Old Knee Can Teach Us About Arthritis

By studying bones dating back thousands of years, researchers find that the disease may not be just a part of getting old

Carthaginian general Hannibal is legendary for bringing tens of thousands of soldiers, cavalrymen, and thousands of horses, mules and African elephants through the Alps during the Second Punic War.

New Research

Silver Composition in Coins Confirms the Story of the Rise of Rome

Lead isotopes in Roman coins reveal the defeat of Carthage financed Rome’s expansion throughout the Mediterranean

This Mysterious Stone Structure Is Older Than Stonehenge

Until recently, Britain’s Stonehenge was thought to be the world’s oldest set of stone monuments

Excavation at Burghead

Cool Finds

Dig Uncovers Artifacts From One of “Europe’s Lost People”

A archaeological excavation in Burghead Fort has uncovered a longhouse from the Picts, a late Iron Age and early Medieval powerhouse

Cool Finds

World’s Oldest Smiley Face May Decorate a Hittite Jug

Researchers did not notice the cheery, 3,700-year-old expression until they restored the ceramic

Tabula Peutingeriana.

Where to See Some of the World’s Oldest and Most Interesting Maps

Chart humanity’s course through history with these antique navigational tools

Josiah Wedgwood, of Wedgwood pottery fame, was also a staunch abolitionist and designed this medallion to further the cause.

This Anti-Slavery Jewelry Shows the Social Concerns (and the Technology) of Its Time

The ‘Wedgwood Slave Medallion’ was the first modern piece of protest jewelry

One of the tablets found at the fort

Cool Finds

Cache of Roman Messages Found Near Hadrian’s Wall

The 25 well-preserved wooden tablets include a soldier’s request for time off

NASA's Earth-orbiting satellite Hinode observes the 2011 annular solar eclipse from space.

How Eclipse Anxiety Helped Lay the Foundation For Modern Astronomy

The same unease you feel when the moon blots out the sun fueled ancient astronomers to seek patterns in the skies

The White Horse at Uffington, Oxfordshire

Against All Odds, England’s Massive Chalk Horse Has Survived 3,000 Years

Cleaning up the Uffington Horse is the neigh-borly thing to do

The Huey Tzompantli

Cool Finds

Aztec “Skull Tower” Contains Remains of Women and Children

The tzompantli were once believed to only contain the skulls of conquered male warriors

The statues and carvings from Gobekli Tepe were found with fragments of carved skull from thousands of years ago.

New Research

Unprecedented Carved Skulls Discovered at a Stone Age Temple in Turkey

Three carved skull fragments from Gobekli Tepe offer tantalizing hints about the lives of Neolithic people

It is not uncommon for highlands churches to be situated within caves. Mekina Medhane Alem, built of wood and layered stone, contains 800-year-old paintings but is believed to be centuries older.

Portraits of Faith

A Legendary Photographer Visits an Isolated Christian Community in Ethiopia

High in the mountains of eastern Africa, an ancient way of life continues apace

British Camp Hill Fort in Herefordshire

Cool Finds

Explore Ancient British Isles Hill Forts with a New Online Atlas

The atlas lists over 4,000 of the structures that dot the landscape, used as gathering spots for Bronze and Iron Age Britons

The Cairo Toe

Cool Finds

This 3,000-Year-Old Wooden Toe Shows Early Artistry of Prosthetics

Crafted from leather and wood, the ancient Egyptian prosthesis was was adjusted to precisely fit its wearer’s foot

The advantages of coins as currency were clear.

Making Cents of Currency’s Ancient Rise

Cash has been king for over 40,000 years

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