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Artifacts

Generations of bearded vultures return to the same nesting sites for centuries, offering archaeologists a glimpse into the past.

Generations of Bearded Vultures Stashed Humans’ Treasures, Including a 650-Year-Old Sandal, in These Bird Nests

Researchers recovered more than 200 human artifacts from historical nests in southern Spain

The piece was carved from local red deer antler.

Cool Finds

A Rare Medieval Hair-Styling Tool Was Found at Scotland’s Eilean Donan Castle

The artifact is part of a large assemblage of excavated artifacts recently acquired by National Museums Scotland

During the summer of 2025, a team of divers pulled up 1,051 silver coins known as reales, five gold coins called escudos and other gold artifacts.

Divers Recover More Than $1 Million Worth of Gold and Silver Coins From 310-Year-Old ‘Treasure Fleet’ Shipwrecks

The vessels sank in a violent hurricane off the coast of Florida in July 1715, when they were traveling from Cuba to Spain with an estimated $400 million worth of coins and jewels from the New World

The wampum beads found this summer by Calum Brydon, an archaeology graduate student

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Seven Rare Wampum Beads at 17th-Century English Settlement in Canada

Indigenous groups created the small beads from mollusk shells. They’re the first artifacts of their kind ever found at the Colony of Avalon in Newfoundland

Deep-sea divers retrieve artifacts from the wreckage of the Britannic, which rests nearly 400 feet below sea level.

The Titanic’s Sister Ship, the Britannic, Sank in 1916. For the First Time, Divers Have Recovered Artifacts From Its Wreck

The luxury liner was requisitioned as a hospital ship during World War I. Thirty people died after the vessel struck a German naval mine and sank off the coast of Greece

The bronze coins were found in a pit inside a complex of tunnels dug during the Great Revolt.

Cool Finds

Did Ancient Jews Hide These Coins for Safekeeping During a Fourth-Century Revolt Against Roman Rule?

A cache of coins bearing the faces of the Roman emperors Constantius II and Constans I was discovered in underground tunnels created by Jews in what is now northern Israel

Director Steven Spielberg kneeling with a camera during the production of Jaws

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ With This Sprawling Exhibition at the Academy Museum

Visitors will learn about the making of the beloved summer blockbuster through more than 200 props, costumes, recreated sets and annotated script pages

The bracelet was taken by a staffer at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

A 3,000-Year-Old Bracelet Belonging to an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Has Been Stolen, Sold and Melted Down for Gold

After the artifact went missing from Cairo’s Egyptian Museum in early September, authorities began carefully tracking down its whereabouts

Some of the artifacts stored in the al-Kawthar building had been unearthed at the St. Hilarion Monastery.

Archaeologists in Gaza Rushed to Rescue Thousands of Ancient Artifacts From an Impending Airstrike

In just six hours, workers evacuated 70 percent of the historic collection, including objects from one of the Middle East’s oldest Christian monasteries. The remaining 30 percent was lost in the attack

The whistle, pictured here, reminded researchers of Stone Age bone whistles found in Europe.

New Research

This Drilled Cow Bone May Have Been an Ancient Egyptian Cop’s Whistle

The artifact, found 17 years ago, was recently replicated and tested by researchers

The buried limestone chamber dates to the third or fourth century C.E.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Albania Unearth Tomb Belonging to an Upper-Class Roman Who Died 1,700 Years Ago

The limestone chamber is marked with inscriptions identifying the deceased and honoring the deity Jupiter. Officials say it’s the first tomb of its kind to be found in the country

The Oseberg, a Viking ship built in 820 C.E., moved to its new home at the Museum of the Viking Age at the speed of ten inches per minute.

The Best-Preserved Viking Ship in the World Just Survived Its Treacherous Final Journey

For more than ten years, experts have been painstakingly planning to move three 1,000-year-old vessels—the “Oseberg,” “Gokstad” and “Tune”—about 115 yards to their new home in Oslo

The figurine is a little more than an inch tall.

Cool Finds

Curator Rediscovers Tenth-Century ‘Portrait’ of a Viking With an ‘Unusual, Ornate Hairstyle’

First unearthed in 1797, the small gaming piece was kept in storage at the National Museum of Denmark for more than 200 years until curator Peter Pentz found it

Eldarir checked three large suitcases full of artifacts in 2020.

Man Who Tried to Smuggle 600 Looted Ancient Egyptian Artifacts in Three Checked Suitcases Is Going to Prison

Ashraf Omar Eldarir failed to declare the stolen goods when he entered the United States through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2020

Adapted kitchen utensils on display at the V&A

From Fashion to Fidget Spinners, This London Exhibition Celebrates Disabled Design, Innovation and Joy

“Design and Disability” features 170 objects created by disabled artists, designers, photographers, inventors and more

Some of the impacted points and bladelets found at Obi-Rakhmat

New Research

Could These 80,000-Year-Old Stones Be the World’s Earliest Known Arrowheads?

A new study suggests that fragments unearthed at an archaeological site in Uzbekistan look like other examples of arrowheads created thousands of years later

The gun is now part of a permanent exhibition about TIll at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

The Gun Linked to Emmett Till’s Murder Is Now on Display at a Museum in Mississippi

The weapon is thought to have belonged to J.W. Milam, one of the two men who kidnapped, tortured and killed the Black teenager for whistling at a white woman in a grocery store in 1955

The plaster artifact is about one foot long, seven inches wide and one inch thick.

Cool Finds

This Christian Cross Found in Abu Dhabi Illuminates the Lives of Monks Who Lived 1,400 Years Ago

Researchers discovered the intricately decorated artifact at an archaeological site near a seventh-century C.E. monastery on the island of Sir Bani Yas

The Nyayanga excavation site in Kenya, in July 2025. Fossils and Oldowan tools have been excavated from the tan and reddish-brown sediments, which date to more than 2.6 million years old.

Early Humans Moved Stones Long Distances to Make Tools 600,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

A new study takes another look at some of the oldest known stone tools and suggests their makers transported materials for up to eight miles

A crane lifts an ancient sculpture from Abu Qir Bay near Alexandria, Egypt.

Cool Finds

Ancient Statues Emerge From the Waters Off Egypt’s Coast, Where They’d Been Hiding for Thousands of Years

Several large sculptures were among the trove of artifacts that divers recovered from the waters near Alexandria, Egypt. Officials say the site may have been an extension of the nearby city of Canopus

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