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Cool Finds

The illustration depicts the scribe Ramose and a jackal figure that may represent the god Wepwawet.

Cool Finds

The Egyptians Used an Ancient Version of Wite-Out to Correct Their Mistakes on This Papyrus Scroll 3,300 Years Ago

An ancient artist applied a white substance to an illustration of a jackal, slimming down its appearance, according to researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum in England

Kat Baxter, curator of archaeology and numismatics for Leeds Museums and Galleries, poses with the 2,000-year-old coin.

Cool Finds

Someone Used This Mysterious Coin as Bus Fare in the 1950s. It Turned Out to Be 2,000-Year-Old Currency Minted by the Phoenicians

A public transit official working for the city of Leeds found the coin while counting bus and tram fares. Now, his grandson has donated it to Leeds Museums and Galleries

A 2,000-year-old inscription by Cikai Korran

Cool Finds

This Traveler From India Graffitied His Name on Five Ancient Tombs in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings 2,000 Years Ago

Researchers have discovered 30 inscriptions written in Indian languages, which provide new evidence that visitors from India spent time in Egypt between the first and third centuries C.E.

These recently discovered portrait miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard are believed to depict Elizabeth Knollys, Lady Leighton, and Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton.

Cool Finds

Tudor Courtiers Exchanged Portrait Miniatures as Love Tokens. Centuries Later, New Research Is Unlocking the Secrets of These Intimate Artworks

Over the past few years, art historians have identified several previously unknown paintings by Elizabeth I’s favorite artist, Nicholas Hilliard

Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633

Cool Finds

They Joked About Discovering a Forgotten Masterpiece. Now, Experts Say They’re the Unwitting Owners of an Original Rembrandt

“Vision of Zacharias in the Temple” had been removed from the Dutch painter’s oeuvre in the 1960s. But when the owners brought it to the Rijksmuseum, scholars decided to conduct a close analysis

The Roman stone pictured with pieces that were not found with the artifact.

New Research

This Ancient Roman Game Board Was a Mystery. Researchers Used A.I. to Figure Out How to Play

The limestone oval is carved with a dark, thin rectangle on which ancient people repeatedly moved game pieces

Galileo's handwritten notes in a 1551 copy of Ptolemy's Almagest

Cool Finds

A Scholar Recognized the Inscriptions in the Margins of This Manuscript. The Scribbles Turned Out to Be Galileo’s Handwritten Notes

Found in a 16th-century copy of an ancient astronomy treatise, the annotations suggest that the trailblazing scientist studied Earth-centric models before lending his support to heliocentrism

Archaeologists discovered the bottle while excavating Alta's historic Water Street, which was a bustling thoroughfare during the town's silver mining heyday.

Cool Finds

What Does This 150-Year-Old Bottle of Mystery Booze Taste Like? Fruity, With a Hint of Leather

Experts in Utah recently sipped the murky liquid, which was found during excavations at a historic ski area

Self-Portrait in a Fur Cap, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1630

Cool Finds

A Woman Found a Folder in a Drawer. When She Opened It, She Discovered 35 Forgotten Rembrandt Etchings

Charlotte Meyer’s grandfather acquired the artworks between 1900 and 1920. Now, they’re going on view for the first time in more than a century

Researchers think some of the footprints were made by barefoot humans roughly 2,000 years ago.

Cool Finds

A Couple Walking Their Dogs Noticed 2,000-Year-Old Footprints on the Beach. They Were Visible for Just Days Before Waves Erased Them Forever

Archaeologists raced to document the semi-fossilized tracks in eastern Scotland. They were likely made by humans, deer and other animals during the late Iron Age

The passage is located beneath the bottom drawer of this built-in dresser.

Cool Finds

Why Did a Man Build This Secret Passageway Below a Dresser Drawer Nearly 200 Years Ago? Historians Think It Was Part of the Underground Railroad

Staffers at the Merchant’s House Museum in Manhattan are unraveling the mysteries of the narrow tunnel, which is hidden beneath a piece of built-in furniture on the second floor

Archaeologists think the cannon may date to the late 17th or 18th century.

Cool Finds

Construction Workers Digging in Northern England Stumble Upon a 2,200-Pound Cannon That May Be More Than 300 Years Old

Crews unearthed the artifact while working on a restoration project at Queen’s Gardens, a public park that was once the largest dock in the United Kingdom

The camera, a Zeiss Ikon Baby Ikonta from the 1930s, and the newly developed images, which were likely taken in the 1950s

Cool Finds

A Man Bought a $13 Camera at a Thrift Shop—and Found 70-Year-Old Film Still Inside. Do You Recognize the Faces in the Photos?

Staffers at a photography shop in England carefully developed the negatives, which depict a ski trip in the Swiss Alps. Now, they’re searching for clues to help identify the people pictured

A painting by Henri-Paul Motte depicts Carthaginians using elephants during the Battle of Zama in North Africa, which Rome won, ending the Second Punic War.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearthed a 2,200-Year-Old Bone. They Say It Could Be the First Direct Evidence of Hannibal’s Legendary War Elephants

The Carthaginian general famously used elephants during the Punic Wars. But until now, archaeologists had never found skeletal remains linking the animals to the conflict

The 24-carat Tudor Heart is decorated with a red and white Tudor rose, a pomegranate bush, and the initials “H” and “K.”

Cool Finds

A Metal Detectorist Unearthed This Heart-Shaped Tudor Pendant. Now, the British Museum Has Raised Millions to Put It on Public Display

The only surviving piece of jewelry associated with Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon is now in the museum’s permanent collection after a months-long fundraising campaign

An artistic representation of T. heberti snacking on some greens.

Cool Finds

A Football-Size Creature That Lived 307 Million Years Ago May Have Been One of the First Land Vertebrates to Eat Plants

“Hebert’s tyrant digger” had teeth built for grinding tough veggies, a new study suggests

New research is providing unique insights into the love notes, drawings, jokes and political commentary scratched into the ancient city's walls.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Say They’ve Identified Traces of a 2,000-Year-Old Love Note Still Etched Into a Wall in Ancient Pompeii

Advanced imaging technology has revealed 79 new pieces of graffiti on a wall in the city’s theater district. Until now, these inscriptions had been too faint for the human eye to see

The timbers on display in 1954

New Research

Archaeologists Are Finally Unraveling the Secrets of the Shipwreck Discovered 20 Feet Below the Streets of Manhattan

Researchers are opening a new investigation into the timbers, which may have once belonged to the “Tyger,” a Dutch trading vessel that sank in 1613

Portrait of a Canon Regular (1552) depicts an unidentified clergy member.

Women Who Shaped History

Historians Thought This Rare Renaissance Portrait by One of the First Famous Female Artists Was Lost to History—Until It Surfaced in North Carolina

Sofonisba Anguissola’s 16th-century painting of a clergyman was known only through a black-and-white photo. However, the original had been hiding in a private collection in North Carolina since 1977

Archaeologists discovered a fragment of a reusable slate tablet with letters scratched into the surface.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth a Reusable School Slate Still Covered in the Scribbles of Victorian Children

The slate was found alongside other evidence of young students’ schoolwork and play at the site of a new development in London

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