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Cultural Preservation

Reproduction of early English vessels at Jamestown, Virginia.

Age of Humans

Rising Seas Threaten to Swallow These Ten Global Wonders

Climate change-induced increases in sea level are forcing archaeologists and communities to get creative and make tough calls

Cool Finds

Preserving Old Computer Games Is Harder Than it Seems

There’s an art and a science to resurrecting now-defunct PC games

Trending Today

Construction Workers Found, and Then Tried to Hide an Ancient Sarcophagus

It turns out the now-damaged coffin is actually quite a find

Trending Today

There’s new Hope for Preserving the Wreck of the Titanic

30 years after its discovery, the Titanic is crumbling.

The Rama travel their coastal homeland with wooden dories and small motorboats, which would be eclipsed by megaships traversing the Nicaragua Canal.

Age of Humans

How an Indigenous Group Is Battling Construction of the Nicaragua Canal

The Rama community’s efforts offer a glimmer of hope for opponents of the canal project planned by a Chinese billionaire

The temple of Baalshamin in Palmyra, Syria in its former glory.

Trending Today

ISIS Recently Blew Up an Ancient Temple in Palmyra

The temple of Baalshamin was over 2,000 years old

Trending Today

These Academics Are Outracing (and Outwitting) ISIS

Historians, archaeologists and librarians scramble to save precious cultural capital before it can be sold or destroyed by militants

Trending Today

Here’s What the First Lady Has to Do if She Wants to Redecorate

A few throw pillows and a touch of new paint? No way.

Trending Today

Why Is there Wine on the UNESCO World Heritage List?

Bordeaux, Champagne wine regions get world heritage designations

Little Havana, Miami, Florida.

Urban Explorations

These Are the Most Threatened Historical Places in America

The Grand Canyon, The Factory and the A.G. Gaston Motel are just a few of the 11 names on the list

The famous Cyclone roller coaster in Coney Island, New York.

Urban Explorations

Ride America’s Most Historic Roller Coasters

This summer, ride the coasters that add history to their thrills

Inspired by the quote “you must be the change you wish to see in the world, the artists of the S.A.G.E. Coalition in Trenton, New Jersey transformed an abandoned lot into a vibrant community garden and gathering space.

Commentary

Growing a Digital Garden Archive

The Smithsonian issues a call to preserve American garden heritage with a website that collects personal stories, photos, video and audio

Librarian Aboubakar Yaro examines an Islamic manuscript from the 17th century at the Djenne Library of Manuscipts, in Djenne, Mali, September 2012. Djenne is thought to have at least 10,000 manuscripts held in private collections, dating from the 14th to 20th centuries.

Why We Have a Civic Responsibility to Protect Cultural Treasures During Wartime

With the recent deliberate destruction of cultural treasures in the Middle East, we remember the measures taken in the past to preserve our heritage

One of the colossal Buddha statues, before it was destroyed.

Planned Afghan Cultural Center Will Honor Ancient Statues Destroyed by the Taliban

The winning design will memorialize two ancient Buddha statues demolished in 2001

Ganden Sumtseling Monastery in Shangri-La was built in 1679 at the direction of the Fifth Dalai Lama.

Retracing the Footsteps of China’s Patron Saint of Tourism

Travelers are discovering the Ming dynasty’s own Indiana Jones, an adventurer who dedicated his life to exploring his country’s Shangri-Las

The details of the replica (under construction last year), its area nearly the size of a football field, are based on 700 hours of laser scanning in the actual cave.

Finally, the Beauty of France’s Chauvet Cave Makes its Grand Public Debut

A high-tech recreation of the immortal artworks shines a new light on the dawn of human imagination

A mummified corpse of a Chinchoro girl between 4,000 and 8,000 years old gets a cleaning.

New Research

Saving the World’s Oldest Mummies From Rot in a Warmer, Wetter World

Why are the ancient bodies of the Chinchorro people stored in a Chilean museum rapidly degrading into black ooze?

Last year at a celebration of International Mother Language Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh, thousands attend a monument commemorating those killed during the Language Movement demonstrations of 1952.

The Human Right to Speak Whatever Language You Want is Worth Celebrating

With an ever increasing lack of language diversity, There Needs to Be More Recognition of February’s International Mother Language day

James Joyce in 1938.

Cool Finds

Save the Voices of Tolkien, Joyce And Tennyson

The British Library is fighting time and budget constraints to save its vast collection of audio recordings

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