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European History

Revelers throw tomatoes during the annual Tomatina festival in Buñol on August 27, 2025.

How a Spontaneous Food Fight Became La Tomatina, Spain’s Annual Tomato-Throwing Festival

Thousands of people gathered in a small Spanish town this week for the event, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary

Some scholars argue that the sprawling medieval tapestry is too fragile to be moved.

French Official Rules That 1,000-Year-Old Bayeux Tapestry Isn’t Too Fragile to Travel to London

The 230-foot-long medieval tapestry is scheduled to go on view at the British Museum next year, but critics worry that transporting the delicate artifact is too risky

The church was towed at a speed of 0.31 to 0.93 miles per hour.

To Save This Historic Church, Workers Loaded It Onto Trailers and Rolled It Across Town. See How They Pulled It Off

The 672.4-ton church is one of several buildings that have been relocated in the Swedish town of Kiruna, where Europe’s largest underground iron ore mine is weakening the ground beneath the city center

The vessel's timbers are shrinking and its iron fittings are disintegrating.

America's 250th Anniversary

Watch as Experts Preserve a 249-Year-Old Gunboat That Sank During the American Revolution

Badly damaged during the Battle of Valcour Island, the “Philadelphia” is now the focus of a new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

The flip-flop mosaic decorated the floor of a cold pool room in the villa's bath complex.

Archaeologists Are Investigating an Ancient Mosaic Depicting Sandals That Look Strangely Like Modern Flip-Flops

The colorful artwork decorates the frigidarium of the Villa Romana del Casale, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Sicily

Italian officials with the five stones and brick fragment

Italian Police Catch Tourist Stealing Stones From the Ancient City of Pompeii

According to legend, travelers who remove artifacts from the historic Italian city are cursed to endure hardship. Many have even returned the stolen items years later

Archaeologists excavating the El Mirador cave in northern Spain have found physical evidence of prehistoric cannibalism.

Bones Found in Spanish Cave Suggest This Neolithic Group Butchered and Cannibalized a Rival Community

The 5,700-year-old remains exhibit signs of human consumption, including bite marks and traces of cutting, cremation and boiling

Insula Meridionalis, the neighborhood in ancient Pompeii where the excavations were conducted

Cool Finds

After Mount Vesuvius Erupted, Pompeii’s Poorest Survivors Lived Amid the Rubble of the Ancient City for Hundreds of Years

Some residents who couldn’t afford to resettle elsewhere returned to the city, where they occupied the upper floors of buildings that had been buried in ash, according to new research

The letter sold at auction in April and is now on display at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver.

See Rare Letters From a Titanic Passenger, Who Called the Vessel a ‘Fine Ship’ Days Before It Sank

Archibald Gracie’s letter, which recently sold at auction, is part of a new exhibition at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver

The building's shape is square-like, while Christian churches tend to be rectangular.

New Research

Archaeologists Thought This Ancient Site in Spain Was a Church. Was It Actually a Synagogue?

A new study examines artifacts and features of the site that may be associated with Judaism, though researchers caution that more work is needed

The Apollo fountain, which depicts the mythological god riding his chariot

You Can Now Have a Conversation With the Statues at Versailles Using Artificial Intelligence

Through the palace’s smartphone app, visitors can speak with nearly two dozen stunning sculptures and fountains at the historic site in France

An illustration of Thomas Stukeley kneeling in front of Pope Gregory XIII and Philip II of Spain, who urged him to raise a rebellion against Elizabeth I of England

The Swashbuckling Tudor Mercenary Who Was Killed in a Battle That Claimed the Lives of Three 16th-Century Kings

Englishman Thomas Stukeley offered his services to various Catholic powers. He died while fighting for the Portuguese at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir on August 4, 1578

Jewish refugees lined up outside of the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania, waiting to receive transit visas from Chiune Sugihara in July 1940

This Heroic Japanese Diplomat Defied His Government to Save Thousands of Jewish Refugees From the Holocaust

Stationed in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara granted transit visas that allowed holders to escape Europe and travel through Japan as they sought safety abroad

Based on the fragment, experts digitally reconstructed the piece of torso armor.

Cool Finds

Rare Fragment of 3,200-Year-Old Bronze Chest Armor Unearthed in Czech Republic

Bronze armor made by skilled craftsmen was reserved for elite warriors, according to experts from the Brno City Museum

The Dudderhouse Hill long cairn is located inside the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England.

Rare 5,000-Year-Old Neolithic Monument in Northern England Granted Protected Status

The Dudderhouse Hill long cairn is one of the oldest known sites built by humans in England. It now has the highest level of heritage protection available in the country

Researchers deposited the larvae into the hull of a shipwreck off the coast of Belgium.

Scientists Deposit 200,000 Rare Oysters in a Shipwreck 100 Feet Below the Surface of the North Sea

European flat oysters have nearly disappeared from the region. Now, researchers are helping them recover by depositing the oyster larvae on gravel beds off the coast of Belgium

The site was occupied by an unknown Celtic tribe.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Celtic Settlement Filled With Jewelry, Amber and Coins in the Czech Republic

The 62-acre settlement was likely established in the fourth century B.C.E. Researchers think it may have served as a major trading hub

The excavations are taking place at the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula while crews install an elevator to make the landmark more accessible.

Cool Finds

The First Major Excavation at the Tower of London in Three Decades Is Shedding New Light on the Iconic Landmark’s History

Archaeologists have discovered the skeletal remains of at least 25 individuals and possibly as many as 50, as well as various artifacts and architectural remnants

An ancient fragment of a bronze military diploma from Sardinia dating to the second century C.E.

New Research

Google Just Released an A.I. Tool That Helps Historians Fill in Missing Words in Ancient Roman Inscriptions

Known as Aeneas, the tool was trained on an extensive dataset of Latin epigraphy. Experts hope it will help decipher segments of text that have been lost to history

Anthropologist Aleksandra Pudło (left) and archaeologist Sylwia Kurzyńska (right) carefully excavated the knight's skeleton.

Archaeologists Discover Mysterious Medieval Knight Buried Beneath an Ice Cream Parlor in Poland

The well-preserved skeleton was buried under a rare limestone tombstone, which suggests the individual may have been an important member of Gdańsk society during the Middle Ages

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