Smart News History & Archaeology

This illustration of Venice accompanied a manuscript of one friar's journey from Venice to Egypt and Jerusalem.

Cool Finds

14th-Century Illustration of Venice Is the Oldest Found Yet

The drawing accompanied one friar's first-person account of a trip from Venice to Jerusalem and Egypt

With the number of visitors projected to keep rising, the Netherlands tourist board has decided to shift its focus from promotion to crowd control.

Why the Dutch Government Wants You to Stop Referring to the Netherlands as 'Holland'

In a push to redirect tourists to other parts of the country, officials are dropping "Holland" from promotional and marketing materials

June Bacon-Bercey on Buffalo's WGR-TV, where she became the first African American female meteorologist to forecast the weather on television.

Remembering June Bacon-Bercey, a Pioneering African American Meteorologist

She is believed to be the first African American woman with meteorological training to deliver weather news on TV

Sweden's 1,200-year-old Rök stone is inscribed with more than 700 runes, some of which may discuss climate change.

New Research

Viking Runestone May Trace Its Roots to Fear of Extreme Weather

Sweden’s Rök stone, raised by a father commemorating his recently deceased son, may contain allusions to an impending period of catastrophic cold

“Their bone size indicates that they were probably militiamen,” says archaeologist Nicholas Bellantoni. "Their femur bones show that they clearly walked a lot and carried a lot of weight back in their day.”

Cool Finds

Skeletons Unearthed in Connecticut May Belong to Revolutionary War Soldiers

If confirmed, the bones would be the first remains recovered from Revolutionary War soldiers in the Constitution State

The Heslington brain, revealed intact within a 2,600-year-old skull unearthed near modern day York, England

New Research

Super Resilient Protein Structures Preserved a Chunk of Brain for 2,600 Years

After death, most brains decompose within months or years. This one lasted millennia

Church ruins from Norse Greenland's Eastern Settlement

New Research

Did Over-Hunting Walruses Fuel the Collapse of Norse Greenland?

A new study has found that Norse hunters began pursuing smaller animals at increasingly risky distances in "a classic pattern of resource depletion"

Most of the graves were lined with stone curbs and closed with slabs.

Cool Finds

High-Status Roman Burials Found in Britain

The discovery provides insight on how Iron Age Britons adopted the Roman lifestyle

“Becoming Jane: The Evolution of Dr. Jane Goodall” is a multimedia exhibition charting the life and career of the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees.

Immerse Yourself in Jane Goodall's Wondrous, Chimpanzee-Filled Life

A new multimedia show includes the primatologist's childhood possessions, a 3-D film and a "Chimp Chat" station

The excavation at Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains on the Kwazulu-Natal/eSwatini border

Humans Were Roasting Root Vegetables 170,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests

The find may challenge modern notions about the starch-starved “paleo diet”

Giichi Matsumura was one of 11,000 Japanese-Americans interned at the Manzanar War Relocation Center during World War II.

Remains of Japanese-American Internment Camp Detainee Found on California Mountain

In 1945, Giichi Matsumura set off for the Sierra Nevada mountains. He never came back

An undated composite sketch of Joseph Henry Loveless, whose headless torso was found in a remote Idaho cave 40 years ago

DNA Evidence Identifies Headless Corpse in Cave as 1916 Axe Murderer

Joseph Henry Loveless murdered his wife with an axe more than 100 years ago. Now, his dismembered remains have been identified

The inspector of measurements and weights, called the agoranomos, was a common job throughout the Roman Empire.

Cool Finds

2,000-Year-Old Measuring Table Points to Location of Ancient Jerusalem Market

The table ensured standard measurements for buying and selling in the first century A.D.

Formalin-fixed lung collected in 1912 in Berlin from a 2-year-old girl who died of measles-related pneumonia

Century-Old Lungs May Push Origin of Measles Back 1,500 Years

The viral infection may have made its first hop into humans when large cities arose

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

Most of the newly discovered warriors were sculpted into one of two positions: either clutching pole weapons, with their right arms bent and fists partially clenched, or carrying bows, with their right arms hanging at ease.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Excavate 200 More Chinese Terracotta Warriors

The clay figures are part of the vast subterranean army built to protect the formidable emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife

Otzi carried 14 arrows in his quiver, but only two had arrowheads and feather fletching.

What We Can Learn From Ötzi the Iceman's Hunting Pack

The famed Copper Age mummy's bowstring is the world's oldest known specimen

John Addington Symonds, whose 1873 essay "A Problem in Greek Ethics" helped lay the foundation for the modern gay rights movement

Cool Finds

Researchers Recover an Early Copy of a 19th-Century Gay Rights Essay

This once-lost copy of "A Problem in Greek Ethics" is only the sixth of its kind

The October 31 fire destroyed seven buildings and was probably started by an electrical fault.

Volunteers Digitally Revive Japan's Shuri Castle Following October Fire

The group is seeking one million images in order to create a high-quality reconstruction

Composer and pianist George Gershwin, whose 1924 composition "Rhapsody in Blue" entered the public domain on January 1, 2020

Start of 2020 Ushers Thousands of Once-Copyrighted Works Into the Public Domain

After 95 years of exclusivity, these films, books and compositions are now free for use by everyone

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