European History

A children's seesaw stands among former apartment buildings in Pripyat, Ukraine. Pripyat, built in the 1970s to house the workers and families of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, now stands abandoned inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Thirty-Five Years Later, a First Responder at the Chernobyl Disaster Looks Back

In her new book, Alla Shapiro shares her experience of one of the worst nuclear disasters in history

The find marks the first ancient fingerprint recorded at the Ness of Brodgar archaeological site.

5,000-Year-Old Fingerprint Found on Pottery Shard Unearthed in Scotland

The Ness of Brodgar is home to a massive complex of Neolithic buildings

Workers at the famed Italian museum discovered two long-lost 16th-century frescoes while conducting renovations. Pictured here, a life-sized portrait of Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici depicts the ruler towering over two female figures who act as allegories for the cities of Siena and Florence.

Renaissance-Era Florentine Frescoes Spent Centuries Hidden in Plain Sight

Renovations at the Uffizi Gallery revealed two overlooked paintings of Medici dukes, among other intriguing finds

James Stanley supported the Stuart monarchy during the English Civil Wars, which pitted Royalists against Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarians.

17th-Century Gold Mourning Ring May Be Linked to Executed English Aristocrat

A piece of jewelry found on the Isle of Man may honor James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, who was beheaded in 1651

Bronze Age wedge tombs like the one pictured here are found throughout southwest Ireland. But the newly discovered burial “seems to be different,” archaeologist Mícheál Ó Coileáin tells the Irish Times. “Wedge tombs are usually visible above ground, [but] this one is completely concealed.”

Irish Farmer Stumbles Onto 'Untouched' Ancient Tomb

Archaeologists think the well-preserved burial dates to the Bronze Age—or perhaps even earlier

Currently, tourists can only view the archaeological site from street level.

Site of Julius Caesar's Assassination Will Be Transformed Into Open-Air Museum

Rome's "Area Sacra," a sunken square home to the ruins of four ancient temples, doubles as a sanctuary for stray cats

Researchers discovered 87 Neanderthal footprints, as well as a number of tracks left by prehistoric animals.

100,000-Year-Old Fossilized Footprints Track Neanderthals' Trip to Spanish Coast

Some of the imprints appear to have been left by a child "jumping irregularly as though dancing," researchers say

The villa's unique layout includes a central circular room and a bathhouse.

Archaeologists Unearth Sprawling Roman Ruins Unlike Any Found in the U.K.

An ancient complex in Yorkshire may have been a luxury villa, a religious sanctuary or a mixture of both

New research suggests that Swedish Bishop Peder Winstrup was buried alongside the remains of his grandchild, a stillborn fetus delivered at five or six months gestation.

Why Was This Mummified 17th-Century Bishop Buried With a Fetus?

The stillborn baby was likely the grandson of Peder Winstrup, whose well-preserved remains have been the subject of much study

Workers felling 150-year-old oak trees in the Villefermoy forest, near Echouboulains, France, on March 15. The wood will eventually used to reconstruct Notre-Dame Cathedral's roof and spire.

Hundreds of Centuries-Old Trees Felled to Rebuild Notre-Dame's Iconic Spire

French authorities cut down some 1,000 historic oaks as part of the Paris cathedral's ambitious reconstruction process

The markings on the slab may represent river systems, settlements, fields and barrows.

Is This 4,000-Year-Old Bronze Age Slab the Oldest Known Map in Europe?

New research suggests the stone, first discovered in 1900, may have represented the territory of an ancient king

The team used LiDAR scanning and computer modeling to recreate the acoustics of Linlithgow Palace's chapel.

Hear a 16th-Century Concert Recreated by a 'Musical Time Machine'

Researchers modeled the acoustics of Linlithgow Palace in Scotland to transport listeners back to a 1512 performance

L to R: Forged works attributed to Goya, Modigliani and El Greco

A Swindler Almost Sold These Forged 'Masterpieces' for $14.7 Million

Spanish authorities halted the sale of the three works, which were falsely attributed to El Greco, Modigliani and Goya

The warriors were buried with several layers of feather bedding.

These Iron Age Swedish Warriors Were Laid to Rest on Luxurious Feather Bedding

Researchers say the various types of bird feathers used may hold symbolic significance

Previously, the public only had access to about 30,000 listings of works in the Louvre’s collections.

You Can Now Explore the Louvre's Entire Collection Online

A new digital database features 480,000 works from the Paris museum's holdings

L to R: Anna, the eldest van Gogh sister; Elisabeth, or Lies; and Willemien, the youngest, who was better known as Wil

New Book Details the Lives of Vincent van Gogh's Sisters Through Their Letters

The missives reveal that the Impressionist artist's family paid for his younger sibling's medical care by selling 17 of his paintings

The genetic lineage of the plague that hit London in 1348 gave Green a data point to track the disease back to its origin.

Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?

Scholar Monica Green combined the science of genetics with the study of old texts to reach a new hypothesis about the plague

Hunter-gatherers in what is now Russia likely viewed the wooden sculpture as an artwork imbued with ritual significance.

This Wooden Sculpture Is Twice as Old as Stonehenge and the Pyramids

New findings about the 12,500-year-old Shigir Idol have major implications for the study of prehistory

François Pascal Simon Gérard, Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain, circa 1808

New Jersey Estate Owned by Napoleon's Older Brother Set to Become State Park

In 1815, exiled Spanish king Joseph Bonaparte fled to the U.S., where he lived in luxury on a sprawling, 60-acre estate

Violet Gibson, a 50-year-old Irish woman, attempted to assassinate Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1926.

The Little-Known Story of Violet Gibson, the Irish Woman Who Shot Mussolini

A free radio documentary tells the tale of the long-overlooked individual who nearly killed the Italian dictator in 1926

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