Articles tagged as Artifacts | Smithsonian Magazine

In a photograph by Devin Allen, a young girl holds a sign at a protest in Baltimore.

Breaking Ground

How the African American History Museum Is Curating “Black Lives Matter”

Photographs, posters and other artifacts documenting the protests find a home at the new Smithsonian museum

December 14, 2015

An Intern Saved a Museum by Finding This Revolutionary War Treasure in the Attic

The obvious lesson: never throw anything away

December 1, 2015

The crew promised the donation of the iconic two-foot hourglass and the original audio tape of late cast member MacDonald Carey saying, “like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”

For 50 Years, Days of Our Lives Has Made History. Now, It’s a Part of the Smithsonian

The show’s iconic hourglass is among a host of donations the show’s producer and cast members made to the American History Museum

November 9, 2015

A bowl done in a style first seen around A.D. 1100 has “acid blooms” on its interior—imperfections suggesting that someone used modern soaps to clean the bowl up, possibly to fetch a higher price on the black market.

An Exclusive Look at the Greatest Haul of Native American Artifacts, Ever

In a warehouse in Utah, federal agents are storing tens of thousands of looted objects recovered in a massive sting

November 2015

A museum worker wearing gloves holds up a cuneiform clay tablet, one of a collection of over 100, on display at a museum in Jerusalem.

What the Heck is Cuneiform, Anyway?

The writing system is 6,000 years old, but its influence is still felt today

October 20, 2015

The 1,800-year-old Arch of Triumph was destroyed on Sunday

October 6, 2015

Divers examine ceramic artifacts that may hold clues about ancient medicines, perfumes and food.

Antikythera Shipwreck Yields New Cache of Ancient Treasures

Scientists have recovered more than 50 artifacts from the site, including a bronze armrest that was possibly part of a throne

September 29, 2015

The Innovative Spirit

Can You Guess the Invention Based on These Patent Illustrations?

Hint: They are all part of the National Museum of American History’s collection

September 25, 2015

A diver holds a granite head, meant to be the head of a priest, from the Ptolemaic period. The now-hollow eyes were probably inlaid when it was first made in ancient Egypt.

Sunken Treasures From Ancient Egypt Are Now on Display in France

The Arab World Institute in Paris shows off 250 artifacts once lost underwater

September 15, 2015

The Broken Promise of the Levees That Failed New Orleans

A piece of concrete serves as a reminder of how Hurricane Katrina shattered a city’s faith

September 2015

The Strange Saga of George Washington’s Bedpan

Even the most mundane of objects associated with the Founding Father have a story

August 20, 2015

The famous terracotta army guards the tomb of Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang. Dozens of other graves and ruins around China are not so well secured.

Move over, Lara Croft: raiding tombs is an increasingly viable career in China

August 11, 2015

Historians, archaeologists and librarians scramble to save precious cultural capital before it can be sold or destroyed by militants

August 7, 2015

Dating human remains (such as this 800-year old skeleton found in Bulgaria) often relies on radiocarbon dating

New Research

Climate Change Might Break Carbon Dating

Fossil fuel emissions mess with the ratio of carbon isotopes in the atmosphere

July 27, 2015

In this intricate mechanical bank, the user balances a coin on the miniature man's gun, which then shoots the coin into a slot in the tree.

One Man’s Obsession With Antique Toys Resulted in a Museum

The Portland, Oregon, attraction is more than just the stuff of Kidd’s play

July 14, 2015

An iconic remnant of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, this flag-covered piece of fuselage was hidden away in storage until NASA's new memorial launched on June 27, 2015.

NASA’s Memorial Honors Lives Lost on the Challenger and Columbia Missions

The permanent exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida displays remnants of the shuttles and items from fallen astronauts

July 2, 2015

The Fall and Rise and Fall of Pompeii

The famous archaeological treasure is falling into scandalous decline, even as its sister city Herculaneum is rising from the ashes

July 2015

At 3.3 million years old, tools unearthed at the Lomekwi 3 excavation site in Kenya, like the one pictured above, represent the oldest known evidence of stone tools, researchers suggest.

The Oldest Stone Tools Yet Discovered Are Unearthed in Kenya

3.3 million-year-old artifacts predate the human genus

May 20, 2015

The coconut that John F. Kennedy carved a message into while stranded during his Navy service in 1943. During his term as president, the coconut sat on his desk in the Oval Office.

Urban Explorations

These History-Making Artifacts Can Only be Found at Presidential Libraries

From coconut shells to boat cloaks, these mementos tell fascinating tales from American presidential history

May 5, 2015

An early draft of the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Personal Writings of Arthur C. Clarke Reveal the Evolution of “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Works donated from the author’s archives in Sri Lanka include letters to Kubrick and an early draft of his most famous novel

May 2015