Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

European History

Johann Baptist Schmitt, The Hermit in Flottbeck, 1795

Ornamental Hermits Were 18th-Century England’s Must-Have Garden Accessory

Wealthy landowners hired men who agreed to live in isolation on their estates for as long as seven years

King Willem-Alexander lays a wreath as part of a ceremony on the Netherlands' National Remembrance Day of Slavery, during which he gave a speech apologizing for the country's involvement in the slave trade.

Dutch King Apologizes for the Netherlands’ Role in the Slave Trade

The monarch’s statement coincided with the 150th anniversary of slavery’s abolition in the country’s colonies

Visited by millions every year, the Colosseum has already been vandalized four times in 2023.

Tourist Carves Girlfriend’s Name Into the Colosseum

Video footage shows a man using keys to scratch a message into the 2,000-year-old amphitheater’s wall

A walkway for visitors to tour the newly opened site

You Can Now Visit the Site Where Julius Caesar Was Stabbed

Rediscovered in the 1920s, the Roman square is now welcoming visitors for the first time

The hilt of a the recently discovered Bronze Age sword, which was extraordinarily well-preserved

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Find 3,000-Year-Old Sword So Well Preserved It ‘Almost Still Shines’

The Bronze Age artifact was discovered in a grave during excavations in southern Germany

An astonishingly well preserved mosaic was unearthed at the same site in early 2022.

Cool Finds

Rare Roman Mausoleum Unearthed in London

Archaeologists say it’s the most intact structure of its kind ever found in Britain

Portraits by a young Charles show his mother, Elizabeth II, wearing a striped dress and tiara, and his father, Prince Philip, wearing a dinner suit and bow tie.

See Charles III’s Childhood Drawings

Made by a young Charles in the ‘50s, the crayon and pencil illustrations sold for thousands at auction

Marine archaeologists first learned of the wreck from local fishermen in 2008.

Divers Are About to Pull a 3,000-Year-Old Shipwreck From the Depths

Found off of Croatia, the hand-sewn vessel will be the subject of extensive study once it’s back on dry land

Thomas Cromwell, Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon all owned a copy of the same Book of Hours.

Cool Finds

Prayer Book Owned by Thomas Cromwell, Adviser to Henry VIII, Was Hidden in Plain Sight for Centuries

The Book of Hours appears in a famous painting of the Tudor statesman

English Heritage will display the more than 50 sets of tweezers recovered in Wroxeter.

Cool Finds

The Ancient Romans Used These Tweezers to Remove Body Hair

A new exhibition explores Roman hair removal practices—and showcases 50 pairs of ancient tweezers

David Andrews of Historic England undertakes photogrammetry of the 6,000-year-old artifact.

Retiree Uncovers Wooden Artifact 2,000 Years Older Than Stonehenge

Markings on the timber may help piece together lost European history

The Charterhouse Warren site in Somerset, England, in 1972. Researchers detected the DNA of plague-causing bacteria in the 4,000-year-old remains of two people found there.

4,000-Year-Old DNA Is the Oldest Evidence of Plague in Britain

Scientists found DNA of the plague-causing bacteria in the teeth of three Bronze Age people buried at two different sites

A portrait of Prince Alemayehu in July 1868

Buckingham Palace Refuses to Repatriate Remains of Ethiopian Prince

Taken from his home as a small child, Prince Dejatch Alemayehu died in England at age 18

Dogs sunbathing at the Acropolis

Pets Will Soon Be Welcome at More Than 120 Archaeological Sites in Greece

The new policies won’t apply at certain high-traffic destinations like the Acropolis

In January 1923, a dollar cost 17,000 marks. In December, the exchange rate topped out at 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar.

How Hyperinflation Heralded the Fall of German Democracy

In 1923, the collapse of the Weimar Republic’s economy impoverished millions and gave Adolf Hitler his first chance at seizing power

Defendants sit next to their lawyers at the Higher Regional Court in Dresden on January 10, 2023.

Five Men Convicted in $100 Million Jewel Heist That Rocked Germany

The thieves who robbed Dresden’s Green Vault in 2019 are members of the Remmo crime family

Examples of classical influences include Heracles' assimilation with Vajrapani, one of the Buddha's most faithful attendants, and illuminated manuscripts created in the Byzantine style by Christian monks in Ethiopia.

The Myth of the ‘Dark Ages’ Ignores How Classical Traditions Flourished Around the World

The author of a sweeping re-examination of Western history reveals the global reach of Greek and Roman antiquity

Paris is working on an ambitious project to clean the Seine river for use during swimming events in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

The Paris Olympics

For the First Time in a Century, Paris Is Making the Seine Swimmable

The city’s ambitious project will allow Olympians, and later the French public, to return to the famous river’s waters

Sarah Bernhardt as Cleopatra in 1891

Why Actress Sarah Bernhardt Was the First Modern Celebrity

An exhibition in Paris revisits the life of the 19th-century thespian, who used the press to promote herself and eagerly capitalized on her fame

Starring Bel Powley as Miep Gies; Joe Cole (of “Peaky Blinders” fame) as her husband, Jan; and Liev Schreiber as Otto, “A Small Light” draws heavily on Gies’ memoir and the showrunners’ original research.

Based on a True Story

‘A Small Light’ Tells the Story of Miep Gies, Who Hid Anne Frank From the Nazis

The new series dramatizes the risks Gies and other helpers took to protect the Jewish residents of the Secret Annex

Page 33 of 81