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Christianity

This rare Anglo Saxon cross spent more than 1,000 years buried in a Scottish field. Left: the cross pre-conservation, and right: the cross mid-cleaning

Cool Finds

Freed of 1,000 Years of Grime, Anglo-Saxon Cross Emerges in Stunning Detail

Conservation revealed the artifact, discovered with Scotland’s Galloway Hoard, as an example of intricate Viking-era metalwork

Notre-Dame's Grand Organ, as seen before the April 2019 fire

Inside the Monumental Effort to Restore Notre-Dame’s Grand Organ

Workers spent four months painstakingly dismantling the musical instrument, which is only set to sound again in 2024

Experts have identified the painting as the earliest known version of Jacob Jordaens' The Holy Family (1617–18).

Cool Finds

A 400-Year-Old Flemish Masterpiece Spent Decades Hiding in Plain Sight

Officials previously thought that the Jacob Jordaens painting, which hung in a Brussels town hall for 60 years, was a copy

Newton held unconventional religious beliefs and dabbled in alchemy and the occult.

Isaac Newton Thought the Great Pyramid Held the Key to the Apocalypse

Papers sold by Sotheby’s document the British scientist’s research into the ancient Egyptians and the Bible

The altar's inscription suggests pilgrims traveled great distances to reach the religious site.

Cool Finds

Altar to Ancient Greek God Pan Found Embedded in Wall of Byzantine Church

Christians in what is now northern Israel may have repurposed the basalt structure as a deliberate affront to pagan worshippers

This year's top titles include One Mighty and Irresistible Tide, You Never Forget Your First, and Caste.

Holiday Gift Guide

The Ten Best History Books of 2020

Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and help explain how the country got to where it is today

Student researchers analyzed this leaf from a Book of Hours (left), a devotional Christian manuscript that dates to the 15th century. The students found traces of French cursive writing beneath the visible text (right). The cursive was likely scraped away to make the parchment reusable for the illuminated Gothic script.

Cool Finds

College Sophomores Discover Hidden Text in Medieval Manuscript

Students at Rochester Institute of Technology used a self-developed UV imaging system to assess a 15th-century religious document

The researchers found a statuette of a woman holding a musical instrument that appears to be a drum.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Golan Heights Unearth Fort Dated to Time of Biblical King David

Researchers say the newly discovered site was probably part of the enigmatic Kingdom of Geshur

The Sistine Hall, originally constructed as part of the Vatican Library

Vatican Library Enlists Artificial Intelligence to Protect Its Digitized Treasures

The archive employs A.I. modeled on the human immune system to guard offerings including a rare manuscript of the “Aeneid”

Art historian Jennifer Alexander believes the carving is a self-portrait made by a medieval stonemason.

Cool Finds

A 12th-Century Mason Created a Hidden Self-Portrait in Famed Spanish Cathedral

Over the past 900 years, millions of pilgrims walked through Santiago de Compostela Cathedral without spotting the secret carving

A brightly-colored page in the Codex Borgia, one of the artifacts requested by Mexico's president

Mexico Seeks Apology for Catholic Church’s Role in the Spanish Conquest

In a letter to Pope Francis, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also requested the temporary return of a number of artifacts

Detail of Michelangelo's The Last Judgment fresco

This $22,000 Book Features Life-Size Photos of the Sistine Chapel’s Art

The pricey tome consists of three 25-pound, two-foot-tall volumes

Archaeologists found the remains of cabins, broken clay tobacco pipes, ceramic cups and other artifacts.

Maryland Archaeologists Unearth Jesuit Plantation’s 18th-Century Slave Quarters

Researchers are working with the descendants of enslaved people seeking to document their family histories

Archaeologists unearthed the friary's ruins beneath the site of a demolished parking garage.

Cool Finds

Long-Lost Medieval Monastery Discovered Beneath Parking Garage in England

Carmelite friars established Whitefriars in 1270, but the religious site was destroyed during the Protestant Reformation

A digital reconstruction of the newly unearthed Norse godhouse

Cool Finds

Ruins of Eighth-Century Pagan Temple Found in Norway

The structure—built to honor Norse gods like Thor and Odin—is the first of its kind discovered in the country

The second season of "The Spanish Princess" presents a highly dramatized version of the Battle of Flodden. In actuality, the queen (seen here in a c. 1520 portrait) never rode directly into battle.

Based on a True Story

When Catherine of Aragon Led England’s Armies to Victory Over Scotland

In 1513, Henry VIII’s first queen—acting as regent in her husband’s absence—secured a major triumph at the Battle of Flodden

The second permanent First Baptist Church structure on South Nassau Street in Williamsburg was dedicated in 1856.

Archaeologists Unearth Foundations of One of the Nation’s Oldest Black Churches

A dig in the heart of Colonial Williamsburg revealed sections of the First Baptist Church, which was founded in 1776

Jerzy Kalina's Poisoned Well is on view at the National Museum in Warsaw.

Why a New Sculpture of Pope John Paul II Is So Controversial

Artist Jerzy Kalina says his “strongman” is a call to resist “multiplying forms of red revolution”

This book, printed in 1634, contains what may be the first Shakespeare play to reach Spain.

Cool Finds

Rare Edition of Shakespeare’s Last Play Found in Spanish Library

The dusty volume may be the first copy of the Bard’s dramatic works to circulate on Spanish soil

Archaeologists unearthed shards of pottery, wine jugs, floor tiles and traces of crops, among other artifacts.

Cool Finds

Sourdough Bread Oven, ‘Air Freshener’ Found at Medieval Irish Monastery

During the 13th century, French monks created a Cistercian community at Beamore in County Meath

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