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Cultural Preservation

The ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra after it was recaptured by the Syrian army in March.

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Unesco: Don’t Worry, Palmyra Is Still Authentic

The ancient city may have been destroyed, but it is still a treasured cultural site

Swiss yodeling choir Jodlerclub Echo during a competition.

Switzerland

How to Yodel Like a Local

The Swiss tradition is much more than a simple yodel-ay-ee-oooo

The Slovak Radio Building, an inverted pyramid completed in 1983, has been called “one of the ugliest buildings in the world.” Recording studios at the center are surrounded by outward-facing offices. Its heavy weight and rough texture seem to capture the grim, waning years of Communist Party rule.

Is Bratislava’s Communist-Era Architecture Worth Preserving?

For residents of Slovakia’s capital, Cold War structures recall a painful past

An Illustrated Map of Chicago, Youthful City of the Big Shoulders, Restless, Ingenious, Wilful, Violent, Proud to be Alive! by Charles Turzak, Boston, 1931. A whimsical map of the city including parks, planes, and even Lake Michigan sea monsters

Cool Finds

Eight Awesome Maps From Stanford’s New David Rumsey Map Center

A collection of 150,000 historic maps merges paper and digital images in new ways

For the first time in hundreds of years, some seders might include rice and beans.

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For the First Time in 800 Years, Rice and Beans Are Kosher for Passover

The Jewish Conservative movement relaxes a 13th-century ban on rice, corn and beans during Passover

Goulash began as a humble soup-stew, cooked over an open fire by Hungarian herdsmen. The addition of refined varieties of paprika from ground red chilies made the dish an international staple.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: The Danube

The Humble Beginnings of Goulash

The hearty soup-stew known around the world began as the everything-goes-in meal of Hungarian herdsmen

Cool Finds

An Italian Senator Wants Kids to Learn About Wine in School

A bill would add wine classes to elementary school curriculums

Rima Timbaryan collects dough for baking.

Armenia

Tastes of Memory: How to Bake an Authentic Armenian Lavash

Preserving Armenian culture, memory and identity in the kitchen

A self-portrait made by Johnny Rotten on the walls of the studio where the Sex Pistols recorded their first demos.

Cool Finds

Johnny Rotten’s Graffiti Made These Buildings Historic Landmarks

The Sex Pistols’ home and recording studio are now protected as a cultural heritage sites

A red pigment reference from the Forbes Pigment Collection helped prove that a supposed Jackson Pollock painting was a fake.

This Could Be the World’s Most Colorful Library

Harvard’s Forbes Pigment Collection preserves some of history’s most precious colors—and helps conserve the world’s greatest art

This 12,000-year-old city could soon be inundated thanks to a hydroelectric dam.

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These Are Europe’s Eight Most Endangered Cultural Landmarks

Unless things change, these historic sites could disappear from the map forever

On a remote plateau, researchers reveal a royal capital whose splendors prefigure the glories of the Angkor complex.

The Lost City of Cambodia

Deep in the jungles of southeast Asia, archaeologists have rediscovered the remains of an invisible kingdom that may have been the template for Angkor Wat

Wacky Victorian women play behind a clothing screen, ca. 1900.

Cool Finds

Researchers Seek Silly Sherlocks to Dig up Victorian-Era Jokes

Joke detectives are using the British Library to uncover what made Victorians chuckle

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Italy Thinks Its ‘Za Should Be a United Nations Cultural Treasure

Italy wants its Neapolitan pizza to be added to Unesco’s cultural heritage list

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Here’s Why French People Are Getting Riled Up About the Circumflex

Little accent, big debate

Virtual reality headsets at the 2015 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam allow visitors to view digital reconstructions of artifacts destroyed by ISIS.

The Heroic Effort to Digitally Reconstruct Lost Monuments

Scholars create a virtual archive of antiquities destroyed by extremists in Syria and Iraq

Tropical hardwoods wait to be milled into boards near the coastal city of Miri.

In Borneo’s Ruined Forests, Nomads Have Nowhere to Go

The island’s hunter-gatherers are losing their home to the unquenchable global demand for timber and palm oil

The statue of Abu Bint Deimun, from third century B.C. Hatra, Iraq. A global network of preservationists are teaming up to protect the world’s antiquities.

Crash Courses Prepare Art Conservators for Catastrophic Disasters

Smithsonian experts train a brave band of conservators in northern Iraq to brace buildings and rescue artifacts in a hurry

A human-headed winged bull from the eighth century B.C. Assyrian royal palace in Khorsabad. ISIS razed the city’s ruins last year.

The Race to Save Syria’s Archaeological Treasures

The deliberate destruction of antiquities by ISIS and others in the birthplace of human civilization is cultural genocide

Cool Finds

This Unfinished Film Highlights the Daily Lives of Black Americans in the 1960s

‘The American Negro’ shares stories of black surgeons, mothers and workers

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