Smart News History & Archaeology

Melting Glaciers Are Liberating Ancient Clothes, Like This 1,700-Year-Old Sweater

The well worn, patched up tunic turned up after sections of Norway's quickly-melting Lendbreen glacier retreated

Tourists explore the Crescent Moon Spring along the historic Silk Road trade route.

How Third-Century China Saw Rome, a Land Ruled by “Minor Kings”

Translations of a 3rd century Chinese text describe Roman life

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North Korea Reportedly Executed Pop Singers And Dancers

So far, only one South Korean outlet has reported on this latest possible atrocity, and unfortunately it will probably remain that way

The symbol for chemical weapons

The U.S. Knew Iraq Was Using Chemical Weapons, Helped Out Anyway

Recently declassified documents detail the CIA's knowledge of Iraq's chemical weapon program in the 1980s

Muriel Siebert, First Woman With a Seat on the Stock Exchange, Dies at Age 80

Siebert bought her seat in 1967, but she remained the only woman on the exchange for almost 10 years after that

The Last of the Watergate Tapes Show Just How Weasely Nixon Was

Nixon's public declarations and his private communications were a bundle of contradictions

There’s Now Evidence That Other Europeans Beat the Vikings to the North Atlantic

Someone, and we don't know who, beat the Vikings to the Faroe Islands by as much as 500 years

Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza with President Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1962

The CIA Finally Admitted It Orchestrated the Iranian Coup of 1953

A newly-released 1970s internal CIA report admits the agency's involvement in the 1953 coup

183 Children Died in a Stampede for Toys in 1883

Victoria Hall had at least one good outcome: the invention of outward opening emergency exits and the invention of the "push bar" emergency door

Before Robots, Japan Had Tiny Dolls That Tumbled Down Stairs And Served Tea

Automata paved the way for the creepy, lifelike robots we see today

Crashed Costa Concordia Is Still Sitting in the Water in Italy

It's been 19 months since the crash, but the ship is still in the water

Discoveries by European explorers that didn’t involve claiming land where people were already living.

These Are All the Places That Europeans Actually Discovered

Of all the places you think were discovered by Europeans, how many were actually discovered by Europeans?

The Royal Game of Ur is one of the oldest known board games, but newly discovered pieces may be even older.

These Complex, Beautiful Board Game Pieces Are 5,000 Years Old

With pigs and pyramids and dog-shaped tokens, what kind of game might they have been playing?

Just a year ago these people were celebrating Morsi’s election.

Three Things to Know About the Bloodshed in Egypt

Hundreds of people were killed in Egypt yesterday. Here's your primer

An ornamental copy of the Declaration of Independence

America’s Founders Were Scarily Young on July 4, 1776

How old were famous Revolutionary War figures on July 4, 1776?

An archeologist clearing debris away from an inscription on the newly discovered frieze.

Archaeologist Found This Huge, Beautiful Mayan Frieze Completely Intact in Guatemala

An incredibly well-preserved 26-by-8-feet frieze may shed light on Mayan political history around AD 590

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Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

The End of the Henrietta Lacks Saga?

The U.S. National Institutes of Health created an agreement with the Lacks family regarding access to the HeLa genome

In 1916, Georgia Tech Beat Cumberland College, 222 to 0

The story of the game is a bit more delicious than just an insane beat down. It involves revenge, baseball, clerical errors and thousands of dollars

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What Queen Elizabeth II Would Have Said If Nuclear War Started in the 1980s

Undelivered speeches give a glimpse into alternate realities that never came to pass

The coffin-within-a-coffin at Greyfriars

Mysterious Coffin-in-a-Coffin Found Under the Same Parking Lot as Richard III

The only marker on the coffin lid is a cross, but the person must have been of high social status to warrant such an elaborate burial

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