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Artifacts

The lock features four rotating dials, and each dial has six letters.

Cool Finds

This Mysterious Combination Lock Sank in a 1583 Shipwreck. When Engineers Cracked the Code, It Clicked Open for the First Time in More Than 400 Years

A metal detectorist recovered the brass artifact from the wreck of the “Ann Francis,” a merchant vessel that sank off southern Wales. Researchers used micro-CT scans to identify the four-letter combination

Archaeologists found the sword at the bottom of Lake Mezzano in central Italy.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Found a 3,300-Year-Old Sword at the Bottom of a Volcanic Lake in Italy—and It’s Still Sharp

The remarkably well-preserved 13th century B.C.E. weapon was found submerged in Lake Mezzano, once home to a Bronze Age village on stilts

The paw print was found in the rubble of a Bronze Age home in Tavşanlı Höyük.

A Dog Left a Paw Print on This Mud Brick 4,000 Years Ago. Archaeologists Discovered It in the Rubble of a Bronze Age House

The brick was found at Tavsanli Hoyuk, an archaeological site in western Turkey. Humans and dogs in this region have had a close relationship for thousands of years

Researchers are examining the cauldron to learn more about its origins.

Cool Finds

Divers Recover a Mysterious Cauldron That Had Been Hiding at the Bottom of an English River for Hundreds of Years

Nobody knows how the three-legged iron cauldron ended up in the River Wear. Weeks before Halloween, it finally returned to the surface

Archaeologists and volunteers took part in excavating the dike near Glasgow.

Cool Finds

When a 19th-Century Scottish Landowner Blocked a Public Footpath, Locals Rebelled. Now, Archaeologists Have Unearthed Parts of His Controversial Wall

The rebellion against “Harvie’s Dyke,” a pair of stone walls erected in the 1820s, was a triumph for the workers and middle classes of Glasgow, who used riots, boycotts and lawsuits to win back access to the River Clyde

Authorities think one of the statues might have originally stood nearly 28 feet tall.

Cool Finds

A Farmer in Egypt Stumbled Upon a Pink Stone and Called the Authorities. They Found the Remains of Two Colossal Statues of Ramses II Beneath the Property

Archaeologists recovered the head of one statue that might have measured nearly 28 feet tall. It could point to a major building site commissioned by the pharaoh

Claude Nuttall's pocket diary measures just under four inches long.

This Soldier Kept a Diary in the Trenches of World War I. A Child Found It at the Dump Decades Later, Pierced by a Bullet and Stained With Blood

Corporal Claude Nuttall recorded his wartime experiences in the diary. Now, after decades of research, a museum curator is telling the soldier’s story in a new book

The tettina was found broken into pieces in 2011.

Cool Finds

Mourners Placed an Ancient Sippy Cup in a Roman Toddler’s Grave. It May Have Been Meant to Sustain the Child on the Journey to the Afterlife

Fragments of the spouted cup, known as a “tettina,” were unearthed in England over a decade ago. It has recently been restored and put on display for the first time

"Time Team" archaeologist Carenza Lewis helped supervise the dig.

Cool Finds

Volunteers Are Helping Unearth One of England’s Oldest Leprosy Hospitals, Giving a Glimpse Into How Victims of the Disease Were Treated in Medieval Times

Researchers believe that the Hospital of the Holy Innocents, founded in the 11th or 12th century, may have had “little houses with a little yard” for up to 20 people with leprosy. “You’d need to have resources to get in here,” one archaeologist says.

An aerial view of the archaeological trenches dug around Lismore's parish church, a 13th-century cathedral

Cool Finds

A Community-Led Archaeology Dig on a Tiny Scottish Isle Has Unearthed a Medieval Monastery of ‘International Importance’

The settlement, founded by an early Christian saint in the 500s, is “far more than a small island church.” It may have played a larger role in the Christianization of Britain than historians once realized

The dishes were packed carefully, and many remained intact.

Cool Finds

A Ship Carrying Stacks of Ancient Dishware Sank Off the Coast of Turkey 2,100 Years Ago. Its Ceramic Cargo Is Still Remarkably Intact

Researchers believe that the vessel’s plates and bowls were made in the ancient city of Rhosus, once praised by Roman statesman Cicero for its “fine pottery”

Twenty coins discovered in Rome may be the first physical evidence of a "Little England" enclave.

Cool Finds

What Are Medieval English Coins Doing in Rome? They Could Be Rare Evidence of a ‘Little England’ Enclave That Received Special Papal Privileges

Researchers argue that the tenth-century coins provide new evidence of a bustling English community located next to the Vatican that was permitted to use its own currency

The Hwangja Hwatong found on Geumseongsan Mountain, in Naju, South Korea

Cool Finds

Soldiers Sweeping for Land Mines in South Korea Have Unearthed the Country’s Oldest Gun, a 600-Year-Old Inscribed Bronze Tube

The artifact was found in 2023 during a metal detecting survey. Experts have been analyzing it since and recently confirmed its authenticity

Pottery fragments from Etowah in Georgia, where people of the Mississippian culture built large earthen mounds

Ancient Pottery Reveals the Earliest Known Traces of Chocolate East of the Mississippi, Painting a Picture of Connection in the Americas

A new archaeological discovery suggests that people in present-day Georgia have feasted with cacao for 1,000 years

The exhibition features damaged art from all over the world.

A New Exhibition Spotlights 4,500 Years of Broken, Shot-Up and Degraded Artworks to Explore the ‘Power of the Fragment’

The show, on view in Florence and coming to D.C. next year, examines the history and impact of destroyed sculptures throughout time and across cultures

An archival photo is the only remaining evidence of the artifact that first pointed to the extent of Meretneith’s power.

New Research

The First Female Pharaoh? An Old Photo of Ancient Hieroglyphics Highlights the Status of One of Egypt’s Earliest Queens, Researchers Say

The black-and-white photograph of a long-lost artifact depicts four serekhs, symbols of Egyptian rulers, and two of them, a recent study suggests, are hers

A few of the ancient Roman artifacts found beneath the Bath Assembly Rooms

When Jane Austen Took a Turn About the Ballroom in Bath, Ancient Roman Artifacts Were Hiding Beneath Her Feet. Now, Archaeologists Have Finally Found Them

Recent excavations at the Bath Assembly Rooms in England revealed Roman-era coins, roof tiles, pottery, glassware, a network of ditches and a fragment of a military helmet

An 1857 storage jar signed by David Drake

The Milwaukee Art Museum Just Returned Two Ceramics Made by Enslaved Potter David Drake to His Descendants

The two vessels, one of them a signed 1855 jar, are the latest to be reinstituted to Drake’s family, who are on a mission to acquire the works of their ancestor

The tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt

New Research

Mysterious ‘Anomalies’ Have Been Detected Beyond King Tut’s Tomb. Could They Be Secret Passageways Leading to the Long-Lost Remains of Queen Nefertiti?

Geophysical surveys provide new evidence for a theory that the Egyptian pharaoh was interred in the outer rooms of an existing burial complex. Researchers are trying to get approval to investigate for themselves

A bronze helmet with hammered decoration from Heraklion, Crete

Cool Finds

See a Stunning Collection of Stolen Greek Artifacts, Spanning 5,000 Years, That Were Just Returned to Greece

The antiquities were seized at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by investigators from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr.

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