Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Religion

The prayer book is written in Latin and French and features 40 miniature illustrations.

A Prayer Book Owned by Mary, Queen of Scots, Is Up for Sale

The ill-fated monarch inscribed the gift from her great-aunt with an affectionate inscription

Archaeologists found the two altars seen here featured burnt cannabis (right) and frankincense (left), respectively.

Archaeologists Identify Traces of Burnt Cannabis in Ancient Jewish Shrine

New research suggests the mind-altering substance may have been widely used in the ritual practices of the Kingdom of Judah

The 2,000-year-old subterranean system consists of a courtyard and two rooms.

Cool Finds

Underground Chambers Discovered Near Jerusalem’s Western Wall

Carved into bedrock, the mysterious rooms spent 1,400 years hidden beneath the mosaic floor of a Byzantine building

A Bar Kokhba revolt coin inscribed with the word "Jerusalem" and a picture of a date palm

Cool Finds

This 2,000-Year-Old Coin Commemorates a Jewish Rebellion Against Rome

Of more than 22,000 coins found in Jerusalem to date, just four are from the time of the Bar Kokhba revolt

New research from the Vatican Archives sheds light on Pope Pius XII's decisions during World War II.

Newly Unsealed Vatican Archives Lay Out Evidence of Pope Pius XII’s Knowledge of the Holocaust

The Catholic Church’s actions during World War II have long been a matter of historical debate

Worshippers, some of them wearing protective masks, take part in the Friday prayers at Mecca's Grand Mosque on March 6, 2020, a day after Saudi authorities emptied Islam's holiest site for sterilization.

Covid-19

This Pandemic Isn’t the First Time the Hajj Has Been Disrupted for Muslims

Plague, war and politics have altered the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca throughout history

A team of researchers has discovered carefully buried Iron Age chicken and hare bones that show no signs of butchery.

New Research

Hares and Chickens Were Revered as Gods—Not Food—in Ancient Britain

New research indicates that Iron Age Britons venerated brown hares and chickens long before modern Easter celebrations

The top of Zagreb Cathedral's southern spire toppled during Sunday's earthquake.

5.4-Magnitude Earthquake Damages Zagreb Cathedral, Museums

The tremors, which arrived in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, was the worst the Croatian capital has seen in 140 years

A chemical analysis of the stone slab has led a modern team of researchers to argue for a far less biblical origin story.

New Analysis Refutes Nazareth Inscription’s Ties to Jesus’ Death

The marble slab appears to be Greek in origin and may have been written in response to the death of a tyrant on the island of Kos

Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, considered one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the 20th century, are displayed 18 June 2003 at Montreal's Pointe-a-Callieres Archeological Museum

All of the Museum of the Bible’s Dead Sea Scrolls Are Fake, Report Finds

The new findings raises questions about the authenticity of a collection of texts known as the “post-2002” scrolls

Charles Lindbergh, Walter Winchell and Franklin D. Roosevelt (L to R) are among the public figures fictionalized in Philip Roth's The Plot Against America.

Based on a True Story

The True History Behind ‘The Plot Against America’

Philip Roth’s classic novel, newly adapted by HBO, envisions a world in which Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 presidential election

The thrift store find is part of the artist's Divine Comedy series, seen here during a 2014 exhibition in Frankfurt Oder, Germany.

Cool Finds

Thrift Store Find Identified as Original Salvador Dalí Print

The Spanish Surrealist painted a series of 100 watercolors inspired by Dante’s “Divine Comedy”

A digital reconstruction of a 2,000-year-old sarcophagus fragment adorned with the face of a leopard

2,000-Year-Old Leopard Face Painting Reconstructed From Egyptian Sarcophagus

To the ancient Egyptians, the big cat symbolized strength and power, demarcating a tomb of high status

A reconstruction image showing the scale and decorated interior of Bishop Bek’s 14th-century chapel at Auckland Castle

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Identify Site of Long-Lost Chapel Razed During English Civil War

The “sumptuously constructed” 14th-century chapel was roughly the same size as Sainte-Chapelle in Paris

The tapestries depict scenes from the lives of St. Paul and St. Peter.

For One Week Only, Raphael’s Tapestries Return to the Sistine Chapel

This is the first time all 12 of the Renaissance creations have been united in their original home since the 16th century

The remains of a pre-Hispanic temazcal recently found in Mexico City

Cool Finds

14th-Century Steam Bath Found in Mexico City

The discovery has helped archaeologists pinpoint the location of the ancient neighborhood of Temazcaltitlan

The Pachacamac Idol, a 1200-year-old wooden carving that held spiritual significance to the Inca

This Inca Idol Survived the Spanish Conquest. 500 Years Later, Archaeologists Are Unveiling Its History

A new analysis suggests the Pachacamac Idol, once thought destroyed, is probably older—and less bloody—than once believed

A scholar spotted the long-overlooked image (its horns and face are at left, its legs on the right) while conducting research at a Berlin museum.

Cool Finds

This Demon, Immortalized in 2,700-Year-Old Assyrian Tablet, Was Thought to Cause Epilepsy

The damaged drawing was hidden on the back of a clay cuneiform tablet

The floor of one of the coffins of Gua, a physician of the governor Djehutyhotep. The paintings, dated to 1795 B.C., show the “two ways”—land and sea—that the dead could use to navigate the afterlife. An even older “Book of Two Ways” has now been unearthed.

Cool Finds

4,000-Year-Old Guide to the Ancient Egyptian Underworld May Be Oldest Illustrated ‘Book’

Archaeologists recovered the remnants of an ancient “Book of Two Ways” from a sarcophagus

Some of the Callanish stones, which sit atop the Isle of Lewis in Scotland

Massive Lightning Strike May Have Inspired This Scottish Stone Circle

New geophysical evidence points to ancient burn marks that could have coincided with the building of Scotland’s Callanish standing stones

Page 21 of 38