Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Myth

Archaeologists created a curved support structure that mimics the ceiling’s original shape.

Cool Finds

See a Rare Ceiling Fresco From Pompeii That Archaeologists Are Carefully Reassembling, Piece by Piece, Like an Ancient Puzzle

Located in the banquet hall of a home with an adjoining bakery, the fresco shows the mythological romance of Dionysus, the god of revelry and wine, and Ariadne, the Cretan princess

Known as Yowjab to Indigenous Australians, the inshore reef covers about 100,000 acres.

For Three Hours Every Day, Open Ocean Transforms Into Australia’s ‘Ghost’ Reef

An isolated wonder some 1,200 miles from the nearest city, Montgomery Reef disappears as quickly as it appears, mirroring the supposed vanishing of its original owners, a tribe of Indigenous giants

Odysseus and Polyphemus, Arnold Böcklin, 1896

Was There Ever an Original Version of ‘The Odyssey,’ and Do We Need to Worry About What Homer Would Think?

The earliest surviving fragments of the epic poem—the subject of Christopher Nolan’s latest Hollywood blockbuster—date back more than 2,000 years. But oral storytelling about a hero named Odysseus is much older

This ancient Greek coin is now on view in Berlin.

Cool Finds

A 13-Year-Old Boy Found This Bronze Coin in a Field. It Turned Out to Be the First Ancient Greek Artifact Discovered in Berlin

Minted in Troy in the third century B.C.E., the object might have been buried as a gift to the dead. Archaeologists don’t know exactly how it ended up in modern-day Germany

Archaeologists in a barrow, or prehistoric burial mound, in Norfolk, England

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Didn’t Expect to Find Anything at This Site in England. Then, They Stumbled Upon a Roman Villa and a Bronze Artifact Dubbed ‘Norfolk Nessie’

Ahead of wind farm development on Britain’s eastern coast, excavations along an underground cable route uncovered the ruins of an ancient farming estate that boasted its own bathhouse

President William Howard Taft boards the Mayflower in 1909, the year that he supposedly got stuck in a bathtub on board the Oleander steamship.

Popular Lore Claims That William Howard Taft Got Stuck in a Bathtub. New Research Sheds Light on the Legend’s Forgotten Origins

A long-overlooked 1929 account contains the earliest known reference to the anecdote, suggesting that the 27th president found himself trapped in a tub during a Mississippi River voyage

Three large screens in the Rijksmuseum's "Metamorphoses" exhibition depict artist Juul Kraijer as Medusa.

See How Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ Inspired Centuries of Artists—From Caravaggio to René Magritte

A show at the Rijksmuseum brings together paintings, sculptures, film and other artworks that reinterpret the ancient Roman poet’s tales of transformation

Panel one of the Ketton mosaic, which was discovered in 2020 by a farmer's son

New Research

Historians Say This Rare Mosaic Found on a British Farm Depicts Scenes From a Long-Lost Account of the Trojan War

New research suggests that the illustrations may have been based on “Phrygians,” a tragedy by the Athenian playwright Aeschylus, rather than the “Iliad”

A savanna in western Maharashtra, India

Ancient Literature Suggests India’s Savannas Are Much Older Than Previously Thought

Plant species mentioned in texts from the past 800 years hint the wooded grasslands of western India have been there since ancient times, pushing back on the narrative that they are remnants of long-gone forests

The ˁAin Samiya goblet, pictured here as a replica, is currently held by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The real artifact is damaged, with some of the picture missing.

Scholars Thought This Ancient Silver Goblet Told One Myth for 50 Years. Is It Actually Telling Another Story?

A new study asserts that the Bronze Age goblet may be one of the earliest known depictions of cosmology, featuring gods creating celestial order from chaos

A romanticized depiction of the execution of Nathan Hale on September 22, 1776

America's 250th Anniversary

Nathan Hale, the Doomed Patriot Spy, Probably Never Said ‘I Only Regret That I Have but One Life to Lose for My Country’ Before His Execution

The young Connecticut schoolmaster’s intelligence-gathering mission was ill-fated from the start. But after he was hanged by the British in September 1776, his story became the stuff of legend

A romanticized 1975 depiction of Daniel Morgan's riflemen at the Battle of Bemis Heights in Saratoga, New York, on October 7, 1777

America's 250th Anniversary

How a Relentless, 484-Mile March From Virginia to Massachusetts Fueled the Legend of the Dashing Frontier Rifleman

In the early months of the American Revolution, Daniel Morgan and his soldiers raced north to join the Continental Army during the so-called Beeline March

Elisabeth was adept at crafting a persona that may not have promoted her standing in the Viennese court but certainly helped shape the public’s perspective of her to this day.

Based on a True Story

The Many Myths of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the 19th-Century Royal Whose Beauty and Tragic Death Transformed Her Into a Legend

The reluctant empress known as “Sisi” painstakingly crafted her image through portraits and photographs, ensuring she would be remembered in a specific way

An ancient vase depicting the death of Talos, the bronze automaton created by the god Hephaestus to guard the island of Crete

History of Now

Was Talos, the Bronze Automaton Who Guarded the Island of Crete in Greek Myth, an Early Example of Artificial Intelligence?

The mythical sentry was depicted as thinking like a human and showing some human-like tendencies

The goose briefly made a nest in a juniper planter next to the center-field seats in Wrigley Field's bleachers.

Meet the Chicago Cubs’ Newest Feathered Fan: a Canada Goose That Built Her Nest in Their Baseball Stadium

After the ballpark sent a crew of “geesekeepers” to protect her over the weekend, the bird appears to have moved on. But she earned a place in the hearts of Cubs fans—and in the team’s long history of animal-related lore

Tarot deck designed by Austin Osman Spare in 1906

Discover the Renaissance Origins and Mystical Evolution of Tarot Cards

An exhibition at London’s Warburg Institute traces tarot decks’ evolution from the 1450s through the present

A depas goblet excavated from the ruins of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s

Cool Finds

Who Drank Wine in Ancient Troy? New Research Suggests Just About Everyone

Chemical analyses revealed wine residue on both expensive goblets and common cups unearthed among the legendary city’s ruins

Ernest Shackleton salutes from the Endurance on August 1, 1914, when the ship set sail from London on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

Ernest Shackleton’s Famous Job Ad, ‘Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey,’ Is Probably a Myth

Citizen historians have spent decades searching for the original text of Shackleton’s advertisement. Now, some say it might never have existed

The Derveni Papyrus, named for the location where it was found, is believed to date to between 340 and 320 B.C.E.

On This Day in History

How Archaeologists Discovered Europe’s Oldest-Known Book, Revealing Never-Before-Seen Insights Into Ancient Religion and Philosophy

Charred by the flames of a funeral pyre, the Derveni Papyrus has proved to be a fascinating—and confounding—artifact

This gold ring features an engraving of Venus Victrix, or Venus the Victorious, a Romanized aspect of the goddess associated with imperial power and romantic conquests alike.

Cool Finds

Exceptionally Well-Preserved Gold Ring Featuring ‘Venus the Victorious’ Unearthed on Ancient Road in France

In addition to the 1,800-year-old piece of engraved jewelry, archaeologists discovered a trove of Carolingian coins, medieval pottery and more

Page 1 of 7