Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

History

The coin offers a rare glimpse into Olaf's life and royal power.

Cool Finds

In a Hoard of 5,500 Viking Age Coins, Archaeologists in Norway Found One So Rare That They Already Consider It a ‘National Treasure’

Fewer than 20 coins minted under Norwegian King Olaf II Haraldsson have ever been found. “We can almost imagine Olaf himself holding this coin in his hand,” one researcher says

The Voynich Manuscript is named for the antiquarian who purchased it in Italy in 1912.

New Research

This Mysterious Medieval Manuscript Has Stumped Scholars for Well Over a Century. Could Its Pages Have Been Bound Out of Order This Whole Time?

A new study claims that the pages of the Voynich Manuscript, thought to be written by several different scribes in 16th-century Europe, alternate irregularly. It may change the way codebreakers approach the text

Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan with a map showing the route of their final flight

Researchers Claimed a Blurry Object on Apple Maps Was ‘Very Likely’ Amelia Earhart’s Missing Plane. It Turned Out to Be a ‘Collection of Large Trees’

A 17-person crew traveled to a remote atoll in the South Pacific to investigate the so-called Taraia Object. After surveying the site, the team announced that the anomaly was not a fragment of the long-lost Lockheed Electra aircraft

The park's unique rock formations were formed by an ancient volcanic eruption.

Arizona’s Otherworldly ‘Wonderland of Rocks’ Is Now America’s Newest National Park

Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona is now Chiricahua National Park, the 64th national park in the United States. Its striking geologic landscape and biodiversity have drawn humans for thousands of years

Boulevard du Temple, Louis Daguerre, 1838

Cool Finds

Where Exactly Were the First Humans to Be Captured in a Photograph Standing? Three Obsessed Filmmakers Solved the Nearly 200-Year-Old Mystery

The sleuths spent two years digging into archives and building 3D models of 19th-century Paris. The location is now immortalized by a bronze plaque celebrating the historic site and the “poetic” early photograph

Researchers examined three cemeteries across the Peak District.

Cool Finds

To Understand Social Divides in Medieval England, Archaeologists Examined Tooth Enamel From Lead Mining Communities

Some residents of the Peaks District in the 13th century may have experienced worse lead pollution than city-dwellers during the Industrial Revolution. Female skeletons showed higher lead levels and earlier ages of death

Researchers used artificial intelligence to read through old British port records.

A Vast New Database Shows How Britain Built a Global Empire by Trading Goods Like Coal, Wine and Wood Closer to Home

Using AI to comb through hundreds of thousands of handwritten pages of port records, historians have constructed an interactive map of Britain’s maritime trading routes. Even as it expanded in Asia and the Americas, Britain’s commerce with Europe remained overwhelming

The archaeologists were thrilled when they found the human remains.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Searching for Evidence of a Norse Church in Greenland Have Found ‘the Smoking Gun’ Near Erik the Red’s Settlement

The site was first identified as a possible church decades ago, but researchers did not confirm that hunch until they found human remains there this summer. It could offer another clue to the Viking’s unexplained 15th-century disappearance

The late-19th-century Limoges city hall burned extensively over the weekend.

The Burning of This French City Hall Was a ‘Catastrophe for Heritage,’ Tragically Reminiscent of the Notre-Dame Fire

French authorities say that the Limoges city hall, built in the late 19th century and celebrated as an architectural gem, was the victim of an arson attack amid mass protests in France over the weekend

Archaeologists and volunteers took part in excavating the dike near Glasgow.

Cool Finds

When a 19th-Century Scottish Landowner Blocked a Public Footpath, Locals Rebelled. Now, Archaeologists Have Unearthed Parts of His Controversial Wall

The rebellion against “Harvie’s Dyke,” a pair of stone walls erected in the 1820s, was a triumph for the workers and middle classes of Glasgow, who used riots, boycotts and lawsuits to win back access to the River Clyde

Authorities think one of the statues might have originally stood nearly 28 feet tall.

Cool Finds

A Farmer in Egypt Stumbled Upon a Pink Stone and Called the Authorities. They Found the Remains of Two Colossal Statues of Ramses II Beneath the Property

Archaeologists recovered the head of one statue that might have measured nearly 28 feet tall. It could point to a major building site commissioned by the pharaoh

Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653

Rembrandt Turned Ancient Myths Into ‘Supremely Human’ Works of Art. An Upcoming Exhibition Traces the Inspiration He Took From Antiquity

“Rembrandt and the Ancients” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will unpack an “underexplored but vital” part of the Dutch master’s career, putting his paintings and drawings in conversation with the antecedents that inspired them

The museum's restoration includes necessary updates to conservation workshops and archive spaces.

Madrid’s Renewed and Expanded Sorolla Museum Lets the Paintings of the Spanish ‘Master of Light’ Re-emerge Into Public View

Dedicated to the works of Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, the museum is centered around his historic home and studio. The first phase of its yearslong renovation is complete, featuring expanded exhibition spaces

Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Mai, circa 1776 

A Monumental 18th-Century Portrait of a Young Polynesian Man—a ‘Supreme Work of Art’—Visits the U.S. for the First Time

The massive “Portrait of Mai” depicts the first Pacific Islander to visit Britain, a young man who became a quasi-celebrity in the 1770s after joining the expedition of explorer James Cook

Large sits on Île Seguin, the former home of the original Renault factory.

On an Island Outside Paris, a Sprawling Contemporary Arts Center Aptly Called ‘Large’ Prepares to Open Its Doors

The landmark institution’s first exhibition pays homage to a historic Renault automobile plant that once operated on the Île Seguin in the Seine River. “The project called for a great deal of perseverance,” one official says

Claude Nuttall's pocket diary measures just under four inches long.

This Soldier Kept a Diary in the Trenches of World War I. A Child Found It at the Dump Decades Later, Pierced by a Bullet and Stained With Blood

Corporal Claude Nuttall recorded his wartime experiences in the diary. Now, after decades of research, a museum curator is telling the soldier’s story in a new book

Canaletto's capriccio of a ruined Renaissance arcade and pavilion by a waterway

Venetian Artist Canaletto Merged Fantasy and Architectural Detail in This Previously Unseen Sketch, Heading to Auction This Month

The 18th-century painter was a key practitioner of “capriccio” artworks, which blended scenes of everyday life with bold, out-of-place structures. This work was not known to exist for centuries and could now fetch up to $80,000

Rules restaurant on Maiden Lane in Covent Garden, part of London's West End

London’s Oldest Restaurant, Frequented by Monarchs and Pop Stars Alike, Is a Site of ‘Living History.’ Now It’s Protected by the National Trust for Generations to Come

Rules, a historic restaurant where the likes of Charles Dickens and Madonna have dined, is changing hands for only the fourth time in over 200 years. Visitors can see artifact-covered walls and indulge in rich British cuisine

The North Dakota governor's residence in Bismarck was constructed between 2016 and 2018.

Cool Finds

Construction Work on the North Dakota Governor’s Residence Accidentally Unearthed Seven Coffins Dating Back to the State’s Early Settlement

The cemetery site was established in 1872, when the state capital Bismarck was a small frontier community called Edwinton. Most, but not all, of its gravesites were exhumed five years later to make way for a railroad

A diver handles a container during underwater archaeological excavations near Kekova Island in Turkey.

Cool Finds

A New Contender for the World’s Oldest Shipwreck Has Been Discovered Off the Coast of Turkey. Its Ancient Cargo Is a ‘Time Capsule’ From 4,700 Years Ago

The ship was likely transporting huge jars of olive oil or wine across the Mediterranean when it sank to the seafloor. One archaeologist “could not believe how much” residue remained inside

Page 1 of 129