Smart News History & Archaeology

Selection of gazelle bones from Space 3 at Shubayqa 6 displaying evidence for having been in the digestive tract of a carnivore.

Humans and Dogs May Have Hunted Together in Prehistoric Jordan

Bones at a settlement called Shubayqa 6 show clear signs of having been digested—but were much too large to have been eaten by humans

A man walks past the covered Confederate monument in Linn Park on August 18, 2017.

Alabama Judge Overturns Law That Protected Confederate Monuments

The city of Birmingham was sued when it erected plywood around a Confederate memorial in a downtown park

The Gardens of Agra

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Restored Mughal Gardens Bloom Once More Along Agra's Riverfront

Two of the 44 original historic gardens and structures have been rescued in an ambitious conservation project

Unidentified compiler, "Girlfriends' Album," 1905

Celebrate the Art of Scrapbooking With This New York Exhibition

The show at the Walther Collection Project Space features more than 20 volumes filled with quotidian images, scribbled notes and miscellaneous ephemera

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Easter Island Statues May Have Marked Sources of Fresh Water

A spatial analysis of the island's moai and ahu seem to line up with ancient wells and coastal freshwater seeps

Bernice "Bunny" Sandler

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Remembering "Godmother of Title IX" Bernice Sandler

Sandler, often known as "Bunny," played an important role in creating the landmark legislation

Cool Finds

Egyptian Schoolboy's 1,800-Year-Old Lesson to Go on Display

The British Library took the exercise out of storage as part of an upcoming exhibition on the history of writing

Icelandic horses today

Cool Finds

Burials Suggest Icelandic Vikings Had a Thing for Stallions

Adding some insight into their little-known funerary practices, DNA analyses confirm that sacrificial stallions were buried in Viking graves

Dental calculus on the lower jaw a medieval woman entrapped lapis lazuli pigment.

Blue Pigments in Medieval Woman’s Teeth Suggest She Was a Highly Skilled Artist

A new study posits the woman was licking brushes covered with pigments of lapis lazuli, a rare and expensive stone used to decorate illuminated manuscripts

Cromwell is a divisive figure alternately remembered as a heroic leader and a ruthless war criminal

Why British Lawmakers Are Fighting Over a Bust of Oliver Cromwell

It started in the fall of 2017

What Llama-Poop-Eating Mites Tell Us About the Rise and Fall of the Inca Empire

Lake-dwelling mite populations boomed at the height of the Andean civilization but dropped following the arrival of Spanish conquistadors

Joseph Lee received a patent for his automated kneading machine in August 1894.

The National Inventors Hall of Fame Announces Its 2019 Inductees

Joseph Lee, inventor of the automatic bread and breadcrumb makers, was posthumously honored alongside 18 other men and women

Market of Eminou Square and New Mosque Yeni Cami, with store signs in Ottoman Turkish, Armenian, Greek and French, 1884–1900, Sébah & Joaillier.

The Getty Digitizes More Than 6,000 Photos From the Ottoman Era

The images date to the 19th and 20th centuries, the waning days of the once-powerful empire

Woodside Mansion, home to the Rochester Historical Society since 1941

Rochester's 150-Year-Old Historical Society Hit Hard by Lack of Funding

The institution, which houses such precious relics as clothing worn by Susan B. Anthony, has furloughed its staff and suspended its programming

Founded in 1975, the space boasts a collection of some 7,000 books, 1,500 periodicals, and reams of pamphlets and assorted ephemera

London’s Feminist Library Lives

A successful crowdfunding campaign saved the institution from closure and is financing its move to a new space

On January 19, Borthwick Castle will host a six-course medieval banquet complemented by talks from local historians

How to Enjoy a Medieval Feast at Borthwick Castle, Former Refuge of Mary, Queen of Scots

The special event is timed to coincide with the U.K. release of the Stuart queen's latest biopic

Heavily Abridged ‘Slave Bible’ Removed Passages That Might Encourage Uprisings

The rare artifact is the focus of a new exhibition at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

The shell mound erected above the woman's grave prevented acidic soil from destroying her remains

Archaeologists Identify Oldest Known Human Burial in Lower Central America

The unusually muscular young woman was buried in what is now Nicaragua nearly 6,000 years ago

In this 2018 photo provided by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH, a skull-like stone carving and a stone trunk depicting the Flayed Lord, a pre-Hispanic fertility god depicted as a skinned human corpse, are stored after being excavated from the Ndachjian–Tehuacan archaeological site in Tehuacan, Puebla state, where archaeologists have discovered the first temple dedicated to the deity.

Archaeologists Find First-Known Temple of ‘Flayed Lord’ in Mexico

While the rituals associated with the site may not be entirely clear, identifying the ruins of a temple to the deity Xipe Tóte is an important discovery

President Barack Obama greets Richard Overton, with Earlene Love-Karo, in the Blue Room of the White House, Nov. 11, 2013.

Richard Overton, Nation's Oldest Living Combat Veteran, Dies at 112

The beloved World War II vet didn't let old age stop him from enjoying his 12 daily cigars, whiskey-spiked coffee and butter pecan ice cream

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