Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Religion

Evidence of human settlement on the Urla-Çeşme peninsula, where the temple was found, dates back to the late Neolithic period.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Turkey Unearth 2,500-Year-Old Temple of Aphrodite

An inscription found at the site—dedicated to the Greek goddess of love and beauty—states, “This is the sacred area”

Father Reginald Foster celebrating his birthday in 2019

Father Reginald Foster Used Latin to Bring History Into the Present

Who speaks Latin these days? A surprisingly large number of people, thanks to the late friar, who died on Christmas Day at 81

The statue, which dates back to around 1348, likely depicts John de Belton, a priest who died of the Black Death.

Medieval Effigy Found Hidden Beneath English Church’s Pipe Organ

The newly restored carving is the oldest alabaster effigy of a priest discovered in the U.K. to date

Workers building a visitors' tunnel at the modern Church of All Nations discovered the ancient mikveh, or ritual bath.

Cool Finds

Researchers Unearth Ritual Bath Dated to Jesus’s Time Near Garden of Gethsemane

The 2,000-year-old “mikveh” represents the first Second Temple–era archaeological evidence found at the site

“Hogan in the Snow,” ca. 1985. Painted by Robert Draper (Diné [Navajo], 1938–2000). Chinle, Navajo Nation, Arizona. 26/6481

Smithsonian Voices

Christmas Across Indian Country, During the Pandemic and Before

This extraordinary year, we asked how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting people’s families and communities

A previous iteration of the museum focused on preserving memories of small-town Southern Jewish life as many Jews moved to larger cities. The new center will expand to cover the broader Southern Jewish experience.

Planned Museum Will Spotlight Jewish Communities in the American South

Set to open in New Orleans next year, the cultural institution will showcase stories spanning 300 years and 13 states

The altar's inscription suggests pilgrims traveled great distances to reach the religious site.

Cool Finds

Altar to Ancient Greek God Pan Found Embedded in Wall of Byzantine Church

Christians in what is now northern Israel may have repurposed the basalt structure as a deliberate affront to pagan worshippers

Student researchers analyzed this leaf from a Book of Hours (left), a devotional Christian manuscript that dates to the 15th century. The students found traces of French cursive writing beneath the visible text (right). The cursive was likely scraped away to make the parchment reusable for the illuminated Gothic script.

Cool Finds

College Sophomores Discover Hidden Text in Medieval Manuscript

Students at Rochester Institute of Technology used a self-developed UV imaging system to assess a 15th-century religious document

Erle Stanley Gardner is best remembered as a novelist. But he was also a lawyer deeply concerned about victims of injustice. “It is too easy to convict innocent persons,” he wrote in a 1959 letter to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

The Case of the Autographed Corpse

The author of the Perry Mason novels rose to the defense of an Apache shaman who was falsely convicted of killing his wife

The researchers found a statuette of a woman holding a musical instrument that appears to be a drum.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Golan Heights Unearth Fort Dated to Time of Biblical King David

Researchers say the newly discovered site was probably part of the enigmatic Kingdom of Geshur

The Sistine Hall, originally constructed as part of the Vatican Library

Vatican Library Enlists Artificial Intelligence to Protect Its Digitized Treasures

The archive employs A.I. modeled on the human immune system to guard offerings including a rare manuscript of the “Aeneid”

The Basilica di San Francesco di Paola is one of nine Naples churches in areas deemed highly susceptible to sudden collapse.

Sinkholes Threaten to Swallow Naples’ Historic Churches, Study Suggests

A new paper identifies 9 high-risk places of worship and 57 that are susceptible to “potential future cavity collapses”

A brightly-colored page in the Codex Borgia, one of the artifacts requested by Mexico's president

Mexico Seeks Apology for Catholic Church’s Role in the Spanish Conquest

In a letter to Pope Francis, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also requested the temporary return of a number of artifacts

Archaeologists found the remains of cabins, broken clay tobacco pipes, ceramic cups and other artifacts.

Maryland Archaeologists Unearth Jesuit Plantation’s 18th-Century Slave Quarters

Researchers are working with the descendants of enslaved people seeking to document their family histories

Art historians used clues in the paintings' artistic techniques to estimate their age.

Cool Finds

These Newly Discovered Buddhist Temple Paintings May Be Among Japan’s Oldest

Art historians used infrared photography to identify images that could date to around 685 A.D.

David Copperfield has sold more tickets than any other solo performer in history.

How Harry Houdini and David Copperfield’s Jewish Heritage Shaped Their Craft

The illusionists join Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Steven Spielberg in the National Museum of American Jewish History’s hall of fame

Archaeologists unearthed the friary's ruins beneath the site of a demolished parking garage.

Cool Finds

Long-Lost Medieval Monastery Discovered Beneath Parking Garage in England

Carmelite friars established Whitefriars in 1270, but the religious site was destroyed during the Protestant Reformation

A digital reconstruction of the newly unearthed Norse godhouse

Cool Finds

Ruins of Eighth-Century Pagan Temple Found in Norway

The structure—built to honor Norse gods like Thor and Odin—is the first of its kind discovered in the country

The second permanent First Baptist Church structure on South Nassau Street in Williamsburg was dedicated in 1856.

Archaeologists Unearth Foundations of One of the Nation’s Oldest Black Churches

A dig in the heart of Colonial Williamsburg revealed sections of the First Baptist Church, which was founded in 1776

Dionysus is the Greco-Roman god of wine, ecstasy and theater.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Turkey Unearth 2,400-Year-Old Dionysus Mask

The terracotta likeness was likely used in rituals associated with winemaking

Page 19 of 38