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Artifacts

Washington, D.C.

The Colosseum Was a Housing Complex in Medieval Times

Recent archeological digs have found that people lived in the Colosseum during the medieval era

New Research

Archeologists Find Evidence of Torture at 1,200 Year Old Massacre

An archaeological dig in Colorado was the site of a horrific massacre

Hammer amulets like these have been found across Viking Europe

Cool Finds

Small Viking Charms Really Do Represent Thor’s Hammer

Inscription on a small metal charm definitively states ‘This is a hammer’

Harry Rossoll, who drew a popular "Smokey Says" newspaper cartoon in the mid-1940s, modeled his sketches after the campaign hat he wore as a member of the United States Forest Service.

Before Pharrell, Smokey Bear Donned This Now-Trendy Hat As a Symbol of Fire Safety

This is the story of Smokey Bear’s hat, and how it was lost—twice—before finally joining the collections at the Smithsonian

Male and female parasitic worms of the genus Schistosoma

New Research

Mesopotamian Irrigation May Have Helped Out a Parasite That Now Infects 200 Million People

A parasite egg found in a grave in the Middle East gives scientists a window into how disease spread in prehistory

Part of a healthy (neanderthal) diet

New Research

Neanderthals Ate Their Vegetables

Traces of feces found in Spain show that neanderthals ate their vegetables

4,500 year old Mesopotamian food offerings found in Bristol

Cool Finds

This 4,500-Year-Old Food From Iraq Was Found in a Cabinet in England

Spring cleaning got very interesting for researchers when they found remains of a Mesopotamian tomb offering in a cupboard

Plimoth Plantation, a recreation of what the Plymouth colony might have looked like

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Are Trying To Figure Out Exactly Where Plymouth Was

A new excavation is looking into the location of the famous colony

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Find Jobs in Oil Boomtown

The oil boom in North Dakota has lead to a lot of job openings, including jobs for archaeologists

Cool Finds

New Road To Machu Picchu Discovered

The nearly-mile-long road was built over 500 years ago by the Inca, and appears to be intact

Cool Finds

See Samuel Beckett’s Doodles of James Joyce And Charlie Chaplin

The six-notebook handwritten manuscript has been in private hands since the 1960s

Cool Finds

The Newest Fashion for Archaeologists: Wearable Submarines That Allow Them to Explore Shipwrecks

The device looks like an astronauts spacesuit and will allow researchers an unprecedented amount of time on the seafloor

These artifacts were stolen from the Egyptian Museum in 2011 and were recovered this April. but many looted artifacts leave the country, never to return.

Cool Finds

In Egypt, Antiquities Looters Use Bulldozers

Three years after the revolution, technology and diplomacy are being used to combat looters

Wool pants found in a grave in China are the oldest pants yet discovered by archaeologists

New Research

The World’s Oldest Pants Were Developed for Riding Horses

3,000-year-old pants discovered in ancient tomb in China

Petroglyphs in Utah

Cool Finds

Prehistoric Rock Art Defaced in Utah

Visitors to Nine Mile Canyon decided to leave more than footprints at the longest art gallery in the world

Cool Finds

Using GIS to Factcheck Julius Caesar’s Account of the Gallic Wars

Scientists are using modern technology to check whether Julius Caesar’s accounting of Roman history was accurate

Cool Finds

Take a Look at How Disney Got Investors for Disneyland

Boing Boing was given the original Disneyland prospectus, and now you can see it

Window washer Jan Demczur used his squeegee to pry open the elevator doors where he and five others were trapped. Taking turns, they used the squeegee and its metal handle to hack through drywall so that they could squeeze through and escape down the stairs.

How a Squeegee Handle Became a Life-Saving Tool on September 11, 2001

Artifacts now on loan to New York City’s National September 11 Memorial and Museum tell the story in ways that words cannot

Ghazali monastery

Cool Finds

These Archaeologists Were Looking for Tombs, But They Were Totally Psyched to Find Toilets

The discovery of toilets at a Sudanese monastery indicates that the site was an important one

Trending Today

The 9/11 Memorial Museum Opens to the Public

So far, the 9/11 Memorial Museum has provoked a range of reactions. Now, you can come to your own verdict.

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