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Artifacts

Archaeologists found these stoneware fragments in the wreckage of the Dannebroge.

This Danish Warship Exploded in Battle 225 Years Ago. Now, Archaeologists Are Racing to Recover Its Artifacts

The destruction of the “Dannebroge” was documented in art and history books. Now, thanks to a museum’s excavations, archaeologists can study the wreck up close for the first time

Now part of Dry Tortugas National Park, Fort Jefferson was built starting in 1846.

This Soldier Died of Yellow Fever During a Hurricane 153 Years Ago. Archaeologists Just Found His Grave

George Tupper, a 22-year-old from Massachusetts, was nearly a year into his military service when a yellow fever outbreak struck Fort Jefferson

John Jacob Astor IV's 18-karat gold pocket watch and 14-karat gold pencil case

The Titanic’s Wealthiest Victim Was Carrying a Gold Pocket Watch When He Died. Now, It Could Sell for $500,000 at Auction

John Jacob Astor IV was returning from his honeymoon with his wife, who survived the 1912 disaster. His pocket watch and gold pencil case are going up for sale this month

Early examples of Native American dice discovered in the United States

Are These the Earliest Known Dice in the World? Native Americans May Have Used Them to Play Games of Chance More Than 12,000 Years Ago

A new study suggests that humans were playing with probability during the Ice Age—and that dice were invented 6,000 years earlier than previously thought

The archaeologist Jean Charles Loriquet created a copy of the mosaic.

New Research

Is This 1,800-Year-Old Mosaic the First Known Image of a Woman Fighting Wild Beasts in an Ancient Roman Arena?

The artwork was destroyed during World War I. But an archaeologist’s sketch may reveal a female figure wielding a whip and facing off against a leopard, a new study suggests

The sling bullet measures just over an inch long.

New Research

Why Was This 2,000-Year-Old Sling Bullet Inscribed With the Word ‘Learn’?

The artifact is the first sling bullet of its kind unearthed at the ancient city of Hippos, though archaeologists have found dozens of other examples without inscriptions at the site

The Old Babylonian Mask of Humbaba

This Spellbinding Exhibition Explores How Ancient Cultures Used Magic to Navigate Life’s Challenges

The Toledo Museum of Art is showcasing a treasure trove of masks, amulets, spellbooks and gems dating to between 2000 B.C.E. and 300 C.E.

The intact cannonball weighs four pounds.

Archaeologists Discover an Intact Cannonball From the Battle of the Alamo—One Day Before the Pivotal Conflict’s 190th Anniversary

The projectile is made of bronze, which suggests it was fired by the Mexican Army during the siege leading up to the 1836 battle

An ostraca bearing a drawing of a shrew, the sacred animal of the Egyptian god Haroeris

Archaeologists Unearth More Than 40,000 Pieces of Pottery That Ancient Egyptians Used Like Scrap Paper

The ostraca, some dating back to the time just before Cleopatra, were discovered within the ancient ruins of Athribis

This 12,000-year-old butterfly clay bead was decorated with red ochre and marked with the fingerprints of a child.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Identify Traces of Children’s Fingerprints Still Visible on Clay Beads Created 15,000 Years Ago

Discovered in present-day Israel, the beads suggest that Natufian groups used clay for symbolic purposes many years earlier than scholars previously thought, according to a new study

This chrysoprase snuffbox belonged to Frederick II of Prussia.

These Historic Snuffboxes Associated With 18th-Century Monarchs Were Stolen in a Shocking Heist. Now, They’re Back on Public Display

In 2024, thieves made away with the intricately decorated boxes, which had been on display in Paris. Two of the boxes, which were later recovered, are now on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London

Researchers from the Relicta Foundation studied the site using deep-core drilling, geophysical surveys and lidar scans.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Traces of a Mysterious Medieval City That Was Abandoned Under Puzzling Circumstances Hundreds of Years Ago

Found in a Polish forest, the town of Stolzenberg appears to have been built around the turn of the 14th century. Surveys revealed evidence of a town square, a main street and a moat

Ramses' wooden coffin is the centerpiece of the exhibition.

See Ramses II’s Intricately Decorated Coffin and Rare Treasures From His Reign at This New Immersive Exhibition

Now on display in London, “Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold” features 3,000-year-old artifacts alongside virtual reality experiences that transport museumgoers to the 13th century B.C.E.

The feathers belonged to birds from four large parrot species, according to researchers.

Humans May Have Transported Live Parrots Over the Andes Mountains Along Sophisticated Trade Routes Before the Rise of the Inca Empire

Archaeologists were puzzled when they found parrot feathers in a pre-Inca burial in coastal Peru. A new study suggests that the birds were captured in the wild and kept alive over lengthy journeys

The entrance to the cellar was found beneath the golf course.

Cool Finds

A Groundskeeper Noticed a Sinkhole on a Golf Course. It Turned Out to Be a Wine Cellar Full of Empty Bottles, Untouched for More Than 100 Years

The cellar is located near the 13th hole of a course at the Davyhulme Park Golf Club in England. Staffers think it was previously part of a manor that was torn down in 1888

The three-foot-long iron sword is covered in sediment and shells.

Cool Finds

This Diver Stumbled Upon a Centuries-Old Sword Beneath the Mediterranean Sea. Years Later, He Found Another One Nearby

Shlomi Katzin, who unearthed a 900-year-old sword in 2021, recently discovered a similar artifact jutting out of the seabed off the coast of Israel

Prayers partially cover diagrams from On the Sphere and the Cylinder, a treatise written by Archimedes.

Cool Finds

Historians Say They’ve Discovered a Long-Lost Page From the Archimedes Palimpsest, a Treasure Trove of Rare Ancient Mathematical Treatises

Three leaves had been missing for more than a century. Researchers found one of them when they decided on a whim to check the archives of a French museum

The illustration depicts the scribe Ramose and a jackal figure that may represent the god Wepwawet.

Cool Finds

The Egyptians Used an Ancient Version of Wite-Out to Correct Their Mistakes on This Papyrus Scroll 3,300 Years Ago

An ancient artist applied a white substance to an illustration of a jackal, slimming down its appearance, according to researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum in England

Kat Baxter, curator of archaeology and numismatics for Leeds Museums and Galleries, poses with the 2,000-year-old coin.

Cool Finds

Someone Used This Mysterious Coin as Bus Fare in the 1950s. It Turned Out to Be 2,000-Year-Old Currency Minted by the Phoenicians

A public transit official working for the city of Leeds found the coin while counting bus and tram fares. Now, his grandson has donated it to Leeds Museums and Galleries

The medal features a portrait of Zeus on one side. The other side depicts the Acropolis in Athens.

This Rare Silver Medal From the First Modern Olympic Games in 1896 Just Sold at Auction

At the time, athletes received silver medals for winning first place. The Olympics didn’t introduce gold medals until 1904

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