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Cool Finds

The rusted metal casket that holds the preserved heart of Pierre David (1771-1839), former mayor of Verviers

Renovations Reveal 19th-Century Mayor’s Heart Entombed in Belgian Fountain

Workers unearthed a metal box thought to contain the local leader’s organ last month

Fragment of a 1,400-year-old chalice found near Hadrian's Wall in northern England

Cool Finds

Britain’s Oldest Example of Christian Graffiti Found Near Hadrian’s Wall

Researchers at Vindolanda unearthed a 1,400-year-old lead chalice covered in religious symbols

Head of a Bearded Man is believed to have been painted by a member of Dutch master Rembrandt's studio. Further research is necessary to determine if the work was painted by the artist himself.

Art Meets Science

Painting Deemed Fake, Consigned to Storage May Be Genuine Rembrandt

New analysis confirms the famed Dutch painter’s studio—and perhaps even the artist himself—created “Head of a Bearded Man”

Two volunteers found a cache of 425 gold coins that date back to the ninth century A.D.

Cool Finds

Israeli Teens Discover Trove of 1,100-Year-Old Gold Coins

The 24-carat currency dates to the ninth century, when the Abbasid Caliphate ruled much of the Near East and North Africa

L-shaped foundations of the medieval Great Sacristy, as seen from the roof of Westminster Abbey

Cool Finds

Lost Medieval Sacristy, Burial Grounds Unearthed at Westminster Abbey

Demolished in the 1740s, the 13th-century structure once housed the church’s altar linens, chalices and other sacred items

Archaeologists discovered these fossilized fragments of grass deep inside South Africa's Border Cave.

Cool Finds

200,000-Year-Old Bedding Found in South Africa May Be World’s Oldest

New study suggests ancient humans slept on layers of grass and ash, which was used to ward off insects

Oxburgh Hall, a moated Tudor manor house in Norfolk, England, is currently undergoing a major renovation project to fix its roof.

Cool Finds

Thousands of Rare Artifacts Discovered Beneath Tudor Manor’s Attic Floorboards

Among the finds are manuscripts possibly used to perform illegal Catholic masses, silk fragments and handwritten music

Archaeologists have excavated about one-third of the 66-foot wide timber circle, shown on the right. The other portion of this composite image draws on an aerial photograph to give a sense of the structure's size.

Cool Finds

Stonehenge-Like ‘Timber Circles’ Found in Portugal

The 66-foot wide circle of wooden posts predates the British monument by several hundred years

Archaeologists discovered a Roman coin and remnants of an ancient pub while renovating this extension of the Virgin Mary Assumption Church, known as Old Town Hall, in the Slovakian town of Spišské Vlachy.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Remnants of 18th-Century Pub in Slovakia

The team found a rare Roman coin, wall graffiti and ceramic fragments underneath the tiny village’s town hall

The helmet has been on view at England's Preston Park Museum since 2012.

Cool Finds

Millennia-Old Headgear Is One of Just Two (Almost) Intact Viking Helmets

A new study dates a piece of armor found in Britain in the 1950s to the tenth century A.D.

Amateur treasure hunter Mariusz Stepien found the cache of Bronze Age artifacts (including these pieces of a horse harness) while searching a field with a metal detector.

Cool Finds

Rare Bronze Age Sword, Horse Harness Unearthed in Scotland

The “nationally significant” trove of 3,000-year-old artifacts also includes a pendant, rings and chariot wheel axle caps

It's all about identifying cracks—microcracks, in this case—in the armor.

New Research

The Scientific Reason Why Razors Don’t Stay Sharp for Long

When soft hair hits the blade’s weak points, it causes the metal to chip apart

A bottle of whiskey, a diving helmet and bricks recovered from the wreck of the SS Politician, which sank off the coast of Scotland in 1941.

Cool Finds

Whiskey Salvaged From 79-Year-Old Scottish Shipwreck Is Up for Sale

A commercial diver recovered the intact bottle of spirits—which is no longer safe for consumption—in 1987

A high-resolution survey scan of U-Boat U-47 shows a remarkably well-preserved wreck.

Wreck of U-Boat Sunk Off English Coast During WWI Explored for the First Time

Researchers used deep-sea scanning to learn more about the German submarine’s history

The view from Dome A during daylight hours is shown here. At night, this spot might offer the best stargazing in the world, scientists say.

This Might Be the Best Stargazing Spot on Earth, According to Scientists

A frigid hill near Antarctica’s South Pole has all the qualifications to be a superior telescope site, researchers say

A hypothetical escape route for Regimbartia attenuata

When This Beetle Gets Eaten by a Frog, It Heads for the ‘Back Door’

New research details how this Japanese water beetle travels through the bowels of its predator to emerge out the other end, alive and unharmed

A box of offerings included a gold band reminiscent of a miniature bracelet and a llama or alpaca figurine made of the shell of a rare mollusk.

Inca Llama Carving Recovered From Depths of Lake Titicaca

The well-preserved artifact was likely used in a sacred ritual

A Dutch art dealer realized the vase's significance after appraising an elderly European woman's collection.

Cool Finds

Rare Chinese Vase Found in Pet-Filled Home Sells for $9 Million

The 18th-century artifact was made in a style specific to the Qianlong dynasty

The Ghent Altarpiece's Adoration of the Lamb panel

Cool Finds

New Research on the Ghent Altarpiece Validates Restorers’ Rendering of the Mystic Lamb’s Alarmingly Humanoid Face

The animal’s soul-penetrating gaze was painted over by a second set of artists in 1550 and spent the next five centuries under wraps

This "grain mummy" honors the Egyptian god Osiris.

Cool Finds

CT Scans Reveal Miniature Mummies’ Surprising Contents

One appears to hold the skeleton of a bird, while the other contains a tightly packed lump of grain and mud

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