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Cool Finds

The sender carefully secured the ax heads inside a cardboard flapjack box.

Cool Finds

Someone Anonymously Mailed Two Bronze Age Axes to a Museum in Ireland

Officials are asking the donor to come forward with more information about where the artifacts were discovered

Luis Muro Ynoñán poses with a carving of a mythological bird-like creature.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth 4,000-Year-Old Ceremonial Temple in Peru

The structure appears to predate Machu Picchu, the country’s best-known archaeological site, by 3,500 years

Researchers Kabria Baumgartner and Meghan Howey at the dig site

Archaeologists May Have Found Home Built by One of New England’s First Black Property Owners

Pompey Mansfield was an enslaved man who won his freedom, purchased land, constructed a house and became a prominent community leader

The well-preserved statue is nearly seven feet tall.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Stumble Upon Marble Statue of Greek God in Ancient Sewer

The 2,000-year-old statue, which likely depicts Hermes, is a monumental discovery for Bulgaria

The remains of the Bronze Age roundhouse are located in a park in Cardiff, the capital of Wales.

Northern Europe and the British Isles

An Excavation in Wales Paints a Picture of Home Life 3,500 Years Ago

Archaeologists have enlisted volunteers to dig up the remains of a Bronze Age roundhouse found beneath a park

Last May, the team uncovered a telltale sign of the long-lost palace: the base of a centuries-old wall and a foundation.

Cool Finds

Amateur Historians Unearth a Long-Lost Tudor Palace Visited by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I

Locals had long shared stories of Collyweston Palace. Then, excavations in England’s Midlands revealed traces of the fabled estate

The watch is engraved with the words, "THEODORE ROOSEVELT FROM D.R. & C.R.R."

Cool Finds

Theodore Roosevelt’s Long-Lost Pocket Watch Surfaces at a Florida Auction House

Thieves stole the timepiece, a gift from the president’s sister, from an unlocked display case in 1987

A team of Italian and Egyptian archaeologists discovered the tombs along the west bank of the Nile.

Cool Finds

Trove of Tombs Sheds Light on How Ancient Egyptian Families Lived—and Died

The finds include mummies from many social classes, some of whom were buried alongside relatives after succumbing to disease

The vase dates to the Maya Classic period, which lasted from around 250 to 900 C.E.

Cool Finds

A Woman Thrifted This Ancient Maya Vase for $3.99—and Then Gave It Back to Mexico

Anna Lee Dozier started to wonder about the object’s origins when she realized it resembled artifacts in a Mexican museum

The rare bust of Caligula is only five inches tall.

Cool Finds

Curator Uncovers Lost Roman-Era Bust of the Emperor Caligula

The small bronze statue, which was unearthed at Herculaneum, had been missing for two centuries

Zorita de los Canes Castle in central Spain, where the 25 skeletons were discovered

Cool Finds

Was This Mysterious Woman a Medieval Warrior?

Buried at a castle in Spain, the woman was found alongside the remains of 22 men who likely died on the battlefield

Jacob Sharvit and Karnit Bahartan examine two amphorae recovered from the world's oldest-known deep-sea wreck.

Cool Finds

World’s Oldest Deep-Sea Shipwreck Discovered a Mile Beneath the Mediterranean Sea

Archaeologists recovered two amphorae from the 3,300-year-old wreck site, which sheds new light on ancient maritime navigation

Officials still don't know where the six-foot-five structure came from.

Cool Finds

Mysterious Monolith Appears Outside of Las Vegas

The reflective metal structure was found on a hiking trail in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge

The Judgement of Paris, Peter Paul Rubens, circa 1632–35

Cool Finds

This Rubens Masterpiece Was Significantly Altered by Another Artist

Important details in “The Judgement of Paris” appear to have been changed several decades after the artist’s death

The wine, made of crushed white grapes 2,000 years ago, turned red-brown with age.

Cool Finds

Oldest Wine Ever Found in Liquid Form Unearthed in 2,000-Year-Old Tomb

Researchers have concluded that the fluid preserved inside an ancient funerary urn is a white sherry-like wine

Archaeologists used manned and unmanned submersibles to recover artifacts from the wrecks.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Recover 900 Artifacts From Ming Dynasty Shipwrecks in South China Sea

The trove of objects—including pottery, porcelain, shells and coins—was found roughly a mile below the surface

False mermaid-weed is small and only emerges for a short window every spring.

Cool Finds

Rare ‘Absolutely Tiny’ Plant, Not Seen for More Than a Century, Found in Vermont

The last time a botanist recorded a sighting of false mermaid-weed in the state was in 1916

After Shackleton's death, the ship was used for seal hunting, Arctic research and rescue missions.

Ernest Shackleton’s Last Ship, Quest, Discovered Off the Coast of Canada

The famed explorer died of a heart attack aboard the ship near South Georgia Island in 1922, and it sank in the north Atlantic Ocean in 1962

Animal bones found at the site suggest it may have been used for ritual ceremonies.

Cool Finds

Discovery of 4,000-Year-Old Structure in Greece Stumps Archaeologists and Threatens Major Airport Construction

The mystifying Minoan structure, unearthed on a hilltop in Crete, is one of 35 newly announced archaeological finds in the area

These stones were shot from catapults during one of the longest sieges in British history.

Cool Finds

Catapult Shots Fired During 13th-Century Siege Unearthed at British Castle

Found on the grounds of Kenilworth Castle, the eight stones were used during a clash between rebels and royal forces in 1266

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