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European History

Speaking with BBC News, Frans Hals specialist Anna Tummers described the painting as a "wonderful example of his loose painting style. ... It was very playful, daring and loose."

Thieves Steal 17th-Century Masterpiece for Third Time in 32 Years

Frans Hals’ “Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer” was previously purloined in 1988 and 2011

El Greco, The Assumption of the Virgin, 1577–79

A History of El Greco’s Masterful—and Often Litigious—Artistic Career

A 57-work retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago charts the evolution of the 16th-century painter’s distinctive style

The Norse system of thralldom was not always complete chattel slavery, but most of the enslaved had little agency.

The Little-Known Role of Slavery in Viking Society

A new book looks at the legendary Scandinavians through their own eyes

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.

Group of Jewish partisan fighters in Soviet territories

The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust

A new exhibition at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London showcases accounts of resiliency and defiance

The 22-bedroom County Wexford estate sits on 63 acres of land.

You Could Be the Next Owner of Ireland’s ‘Most Haunted House’

Local legend claims that the devil visited Loftus Hall, now on sale for $2.87 million, during the 18th century

The main circular earthwork at Navan Fort in Northern Ireland measures roughly 130 feet in diameter. But archaeologists surveying the site have found signs of even larger structures that may have been temples.

Cool Finds

Evidence of Enormous Temples Found at Northern Ireland’s Navan Fort

Non-invasive survey reveals traces of Iron Age religious structures, early medieval royal residences

Aerial view of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia

Turkey Controversially Converts Hagia Sophia From Museum Into Mosque

The move has attracted criticism from Unesco, Pope Francis, the Russian Orthodox Church and others

Volunteers repair and re-chalk the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, England. The 180-foot figure has been on the grassy hillside as long as anyone alive can remember, but many wondered if it might be thousands of years old. Now, new evidence suggests the drawing dates not to the prehistoric period, but to medieval times.

Cool Finds

Snail Shells Date England’s Cerne Abbas Giant to Medieval, Not Prehistoric, Era

Researchers are conducting additional testing aimed at confirming the chalk figure’s age and origins

As protesters citing Louis IX’s history as a crusader call for the statue’s removal, counter-protesters ardently protect it.

History of Now

In St. Louis, History and Nostalgia Battle It Out

The city’s Catholic community faces off against protesters over a statue honoring the city’s namesake

“For the elite, the nobility, everything did change radically—the administration of the country, legal frameworks, the organization of the landscape,” says study co-author Richard Madgwick. “But at a lower level, people adapted to the new normal rapidly.”

New Research

How Did the Norman Conquest Change English Cuisine?

After the invasion of 1066, pork and possibly chicken spiked in popularity

Between 70 and 80 percent of the individuals interred at the site were children.

Archaeologists Unearth 16th-Century Children’s Cemetery in Poland

Some of the deceased were buried with coins in their mouths as payment for Charon, ferryman of the underworld

More than 500 people guillotined during the French Revolution may have been buried in the walls of this 19th-century chapel.

Remains Discovered in Parisian Chapel May Belong to Guillotined Aristocrats

New research suggests the bodies of nearly 500 nobles beheaded during the Reign of Terror are buried in Chapelle Expiatoire

A new study presents evidence that a massive eruption in Alaska may have influenced the rise of the Roman Empire.

New Research

How an Alaskan Volcano Is Linked to the Decline of the Roman Republic

New research suggests Mount Okmok’s eruption in 43 B.C. sparked extreme weather halfway across the world

A Roman lead ingot recently unearthed in Wales

Cool Finds

Local Man Finds 2,000-Year-Old Roman Lead Ingot in Welsh Field

Rob Jones’ discovery adds a tangible piece of evidence to the history of mining in Roman Britain

Replica of a Norse Viking longhouse in Scotland's Shetland Islands. Archaeologists in Iceland have uncovered the remains of two ancient Viking longhouses that may have been among the island's very first settlements.

Cool Finds

Newly Excavated Viking Dwelling May Be Oldest Found in Iceland

Archaeologists say the settlement, which may have housed a Norse chieftain, dates to roughly 800 A.D.

Bones that archaeologists say belonged to a large male sperm whale, alongside a 17th century cannonball. These items were discovered by archaeologists in Edinburgh, Scotland during excavations ahead of a new tram line.

Cool Finds

A Construction Project Reveals Whale Bones Beneath a Road in Scotland

Thought to have come from a large male sperm whale, they may be remnants of the whaling industry that once operated out of Edinburgh’s port

Henry VIII likely commissioned this painting of the Field of Cloth of Gold toward the end of his reign.

When Henry VIII and Francis I Spent $19 Million on an 18-Day Party

Five hundred years ago, the English and French kings proclaimed their friendship—and military might—at the Field of Cloth of Gold

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