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Archaeology

Found among Steinhardt's stolen artifacts was the Larnax, a small chest that was used to store human remains. Dated to between 1200 and 1400 B.C.E., the chest originated on the island of Crete.

New York Antiquities Collector Returns 180 Stolen Artifacts Worth $70 Million

A deal made with the Manhattan district attorney bars billionaire Michael Steinhardt from purchasing ancient objects for the rest of his life

Archaeological evidence of crucifixion is rare, as victims were rarely properly buried. Most crucifixions used rope rather than nails to bind the condemned to a cross.

Cool Finds

Rare Physical Evidence of Roman Crucifixion Found in Britain

Researchers discovered the skeleton of a man with a nail hammered through his heel bone

The sealed tomb held about 400 funerary figurines.

Cool Finds

Mummies With Gold Tongues Found Inside 2,500-Year-Old Tombs in Egypt

The rare discovery of a sealed tomb yielded well-preserved grave goods including 400 funerary figures

A robot powered by artificial intelligence will attempt to restore fragmented frescoes at the Roman city of Pompeii, destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

How Robots Could Help Restore Fragmented Frescoes in Pompeii

Using artificial intelligence, scientists have put together a computerized system that could rebuild the magnificent murals destroyed by Mount Vesuvius

An aerial shot shows of the site where the Viking longhouse was discovered.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Uncover One of the Largest Viking Longhouses in Scandinavia

Using ground-penetrating radar, scientists were able to find the Iron Age settlement and learn more about its place in Viking culture

Excavators discovered the underground ritual site beneath Garibaldi Plaza, formerly part of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán.

Cool Finds

Aztec Altar Secretly Built After the Spanish Conquest Discovered in Mexico City

Researchers found incense burners, a vessel containing cremated remains and other artifacts in the former capital of Tenochtitlán

Researchers found the remains of a man in his mid-40s at Herculaneum, a Roman town near Pompeii.

Vesuvius Victim Died Just Steps From the Safety of the Sea, Skeleton Shows

The middle-aged man’s remains are the first of their kind found at Herculaneum in 25 years

Some of the jewelry found in the tombs resembles designs worn by Queen Nefertiti.

Egyptian Jewelry, Mesopotamian Seal Found in Cyprus Offer Clues to Bronze Age Trade Networks

Artifacts found in a pair of tombs on the Mediterranean island speak to the interconnected nature of the ancient world

Climate change led Ancestral Puebloans to relocate, forming denser communities and building grand structures like the great kivas in Chaco Canyon.

How Volcanic Eruptions Helped the Ancestral Puebloan Culture Flourish

Drastic changes in climate in the sixth century C.E. led the ancient Native American civilization to adopt new technologies

Chemical analysis of stalagmites in nearby underwater caves indicated that extensive flooding caused the collapse of the Liangzhu culture.

New Research

Why Did This Chinese City of Canals Collapse in the Third Millennium B.C.E.?

New research suggests Liangzhu, “China’s Venice of the Stone Age,” was abandoned due to extreme flooding

Art dealer Helen Fioratti and her husband, Nereo, purchased the mosaic from an aristocratic Italian family in the 1960s and used it as a coffee table in their Manhattan apartment for some 45 years.

Cool Finds

A Mosaic From Caligula’s ‘Pleasure Boat’ Spent 45 Years as a Coffee Table in NYC

Authorities returned the ancient artwork, now on view at a museum near Rome, to Italy following a multi-year investigation

The simple coin design was quickly replaced, leaving only 40 or so surviving specimens today.

Cool Finds

Found in a Candy Tin: One of the First Coins Struck in Colonial North America

Illegally minted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the 1652 silver shilling recently sold at auction for $351,912

This year's list includes Four Lost Cities, About Time and The Man Who Hated Women.

The Best Books of 2021

The Ten Best History Books of 2021

Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and help explain how the U.S. got to where it is today

The 13-year-old discovered the cache on her third metal-detecting outing.

Cool Finds

British Teenager Discovers Rare Bronze Age Ax Hoard

Milly Hardwick, a 13-year-old from Suffolk, stumbled onto a cache of 65 artifacts dated to around 1300 B.C.E.

The mosaic was scorched by fire, but its depiction of the Iliad remains clearly visible.

Cool Finds

Huge Roman Mosaic Depicting Scenes From the ‘Iliad’ Found Beneath U.K. Field

The artwork features scenes from the Iliad showing Achilles’s defeat of Hector

Inlaid with silver and brass, the ancient Roman dagger is in remarkably good condition.

Cool Finds

Amateur Archaeologist in Switzerland Unearths 2,000-Year-Old Roman Dagger

Lucas Schmid’s find led to the discovery of hundreds of other ancient artifacts linked to a 15 B.C.E. battle between imperial and Rhaetian forces

This glass fish was found in a fairly modest private house in Amarna, buried under a plaster floor along with a few other objects. It may once have contained ointment.

A Brief Scientific History of Glass

Featuring ingots, shipwrecks and an international trade in colors, the material’s rich past is being traced using modern archaeology and materials science

Made of pure silver, the coin was minted during the second year of the Great Revolt.

Cool Finds

Israeli Preteen Discovers Rare Silver Coin Minted During Jewish Revolt Against Rome

Eleven-year-old Liel Krutokop found the shekel, which dates to the second year of the first-century C.E. Great Revolt, while sifting through dirt

Travel by way of these ten titles.

The Best Books of 2021

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2021

With many of our wings still clipped by Covid-19 this year, we needed to travel vicariously through these adventurous reads

The Seleucid fortress boasted stone walls measuring nearly ten inches thick.

Cool Finds

Israeli Archaeologists Unveil Hellenistic Fortress Destroyed by Jewish Forces in 112 B.C.E.

Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus I, a nephew of Maccabean Revolt leader Judah Maccabee, razed the fortified structure during his conquest of Idumea

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