Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Archaeology

The canoe was discovered in an underwater cave in 2021.

Maya Canoe Found in Underwater Cave May Have Been Used for Rituals

Archaeologists discovered the seven-foot-long vessel near Chichén Itzá two years ago

Phoebe Waller-Bridge (left) and Harrison Ford (right) in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

An Archaeologist’s Take on What Indiana Jones Gets Right—and Wrong—About the Field

The movie franchise speaks to ethical issues at the very heart of anthropological thinking

Forensic artist Hew Morrison created this rendering based on the skull of the girl.

Forensic Artist Reconstructs the Face of a Teenager Who Lived 1,300 Years Ago

Researchers have spent a decade unraveling the mysteries of the girl’s unusual burial site

A recently unearthed fresco at a house in Pompeii shows a flatbread that could have been a precursor to pizza.

Cool Finds

Does This Pompeii Painting Depict a 2,000-Year-Old Pizza?

The fresco features a flatbread with a variety of toppings—but no tomato and mozzarella

The titular "Dial of Destiny" in the new Indiana Jones film is based on the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient device used to chart the cosmos.

Based on a True Story

The Real History Behind the Archimedes Dial in ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’

A device called the Antikythera mechanism is the true-life basis for the object at the center of the franchise’s latest installment

Researchers think that this pendant could be the oldest known depiction of a penis—and early evidence of humans' ability to think symbolically.

New Research

Is This the Earliest Known Phallic Art?

Researchers think the 42,000-year-old artifact was carved from graphite to resemble a penis

A rendering of what the site in Tiel may have once looked like

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover 4,000-Year-Old ‘Dutch Stonehenge’

The ritual site was once used to determine the longest and shortest days of the year

An inscribed stone found at the Ocomtún site

Cool Finds

This Ancient Maya City Was Hidden in the Jungle for More Than 1,000 Years

Archaeologists surveying the ruins of Ocomtún found pyramids, stone columns and a ballgame court

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner came across this hominin tibia in Kenya’s Nairobi National Museum. The magnified area shows cut marks.

Our Human Relatives Butchered and Ate Each Other 1.45 Million Years Ago

Telltale marks on a bone from an early human’s leg could be the earliest evidence of cannibalism

Inscriptions on the statues in both Etruscan and Latin are still legible after thousands of years.

Found in Ancient Spa, Stunningly Preserved Bronze Statues Go on View in Rome

The trove of 2,300-year-old bronzes was discovered last year in a thermal spring in Tuscany

The three-inch-long pottery shard contains only parts of a passage from Virgil's Georgics.

Cool Finds

Virgil Quotation Found Etched on 1,800-Year-Old Roman Jar

Researchers say the ancient inscription is the first of its kind ever discovered

A walkway for visitors to tour the newly opened site

You Can Now Visit the Site Where Julius Caesar Was Stabbed

Rediscovered in the 1920s, the Roman square is now welcoming visitors for the first time

Engravings discovered in La Roche-Cotard cave

Oldest Known Neanderthal Engravings Were Sealed in a Cave for 57,000 Years

The art was created long before modern humans inhabited France’s Loire Valley

The hilt of a the recently discovered Bronze Age sword, which was extraordinarily well-preserved

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Find 3,000-Year-Old Sword So Well Preserved It ‘Almost Still Shines’

The Bronze Age artifact was discovered in a grave during excavations in southern Germany

Natufian artworks, such as this figurine, became common around 15,000 years ago. Few artworks predating that period have been found in the Levant.

When Did Humans Start Settling Down?

In Israel, new discoveries at one of the world’s oldest villages are upending the debate about when we stopped wandering

One of the mysterious boats painted in an Australian cave several hundred years ago

New Research

New Study Identifies Mysterious Boats Painted in Australian Cave

Researchers say the rock art may be a record of “fighting craft” from present-day Indonesia

An astonishingly well preserved mosaic was unearthed at the same site in early 2022.

Cool Finds

Rare Roman Mausoleum Unearthed in London

Archaeologists say it’s the most intact structure of its kind ever found in Britain

Archaeologists in England found Bronze Age skeletal remains, cremation burials and artifacts.

Bronze Age Cemetery Discovered Near Stonehenge

Archaeologists found graves and artifacts while preparing land for a new subdivision in southern England

Marine archaeologists first learned of the wreck from local fishermen in 2008.

Divers Are About to Pull a 3,000-Year-Old Shipwreck From the Depths

Found off of Croatia, the hand-sewn vessel will be the subject of extensive study once it’s back on dry land

Researcher Laurent Davin plays a replica of one of the 12,000-year-old bird bone flutes recently discovered in northern Israel.

Cool Finds

These 12,000-Year-Old Flutes Mimic the Sound of Prehistoric Birds

The remnants of seven small bird bone instruments were discovered in northern Israel

Page 46 of 121