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Cool Finds

The sling bullet measures just over an inch long.

New Research

Why Was This 2,000-Year-Old Sling Bullet Inscribed With the Word ‘Learn’?

The artifact is the first sling bullet of its kind unearthed at the ancient city of Hippos, though archaeologists have found dozens of other examples without inscriptions at the site

The intact cannonball weighs four pounds.

Archaeologists Discover an Intact Cannonball From the Battle of the Alamo—One Day Before the Pivotal Conflict’s 190th Anniversary

The projectile is made of bronze, which suggests it was fired by the Mexican Army during the siege leading up to the 1836 battle

Archaeologists have discovered at least five seated burials in Dijon, France.

Archaeologists Are Mystified by These 2,000-Year-Old Bodies Found Seated Upright and Facing West in France

Researchers previously discovered 13 sets of human remains buried in a similar manner at the same grave site in Dijon

An ostraca bearing a drawing of a shrew, the sacred animal of the Egyptian god Haroeris

Archaeologists Unearth More Than 40,000 Pieces of Pottery That Ancient Egyptians Used Like Scrap Paper

The ostraca, some dating back to the time just before Cleopatra, were discovered within the ancient ruins of Athribis

This 12,000-year-old butterfly clay bead was decorated with red ochre and marked with the fingerprints of a child.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Identify Traces of Children’s Fingerprints Still Visible on Clay Beads Created 15,000 Years Ago

Discovered in present-day Israel, the beads suggest that Natufian groups used clay for symbolic purposes many years earlier than scholars previously thought, according to a new study

Researchers from the Relicta Foundation studied the site using deep-core drilling, geophysical surveys and lidar scans.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Traces of a Mysterious Medieval City That Was Abandoned Under Puzzling Circumstances Hundreds of Years Ago

Found in a Polish forest, the town of Stolzenberg appears to have been built around the turn of the 14th century. Surveys revealed evidence of a town square, a main street and a moat

The entrance to the cellar was found beneath the golf course.

Cool Finds

A Groundskeeper Noticed a Sinkhole on a Golf Course. It Turned Out to Be a Wine Cellar Full of Empty Bottles, Untouched for More Than 100 Years

The cellar is located near the 13th hole of a course at the Davyhulme Park Golf Club in England. Staffers think it was previously part of a manor that was torn down in 1888

The three-foot-long iron sword is covered in sediment and shells.

Cool Finds

This Diver Stumbled Upon a Centuries-Old Sword Beneath the Mediterranean Sea. Years Later, He Found Another One Nearby

Shlomi Katzin, who unearthed a 900-year-old sword in 2021, recently discovered a similar artifact jutting out of the seabed off the coast of Israel

Prayers partially cover diagrams from On the Sphere and the Cylinder, a treatise written by Archimedes.

Cool Finds

Historians Say They’ve Discovered a Long-Lost Page From the Archimedes Palimpsest, a Treasure Trove of Rare Ancient Mathematical Treatises

Three leaves had been missing for more than a century. Researchers found one of them when they decided on a whim to check the archives of a French museum

This Late Bronze Age spearhead mold was found in 2007 in a garden in the Czech Republic.

Cool Finds

A Czech Man Used This Stone in His Barn’s Foundations. It Turned Out to Be a Rare Bronze Age Spearhead Mold

The rectangular object dates to around 1350 B.C.E. and was likely created by members of the Central European Urnfield culture

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

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