Artifacts

The exterior of the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery in London. The controversial columns stood inside the ground-floor foyer.

Workers Find Mysterious Letter Hidden Inside a Concrete Column at London's National Gallery

John Sainsbury hoped the note would be found when the "unnecessary columns" were finally demolished

Museum officials say that jars of this size and age are rarely found intact.

This 4-Year-Old Shattered a Bronze Age Jar. Now, He'll Get to See How Experts Restored It

The 3,500-year-old artifact had been on view at an Israeli museum, which wants to use the mishap as a teaching opportunity

The 700-year-old text is in “exceptionally fine condition,” according to Sotheby’s.

Hebrew Bible From Medieval Spain Could Sell for $7 Million

After years of painstaking work, Rabbi Shem Tov Ibn Gaon finished the illustrated manuscript in 1312

The front of the postcard features a print of The Challenge (1844) by English artist Edwin Henry Landseer.

See a Mysterious Postcard That Was Delivered 121 Years Late

The handwritten note, which bears a 1903 postmark, recently arrived at a building society in Wales

Self portrait, Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, 1917

A New Exhibition in Amsterdam Explores the Holocaust Through Looted Objects

"Looted" examines how the Nazis systematically plundered Jewish cultural items during World War II

The bangles were found in a field where archaeologists have made other Viking-era finds.

Archaeology Student Discovers Trove of Silver Viking Age Armbands in Denmark

The bangles, which date to around 800 C.E., are now on display at the Moesgaard Museum

More than 10,000 Clovis points have been discovered in North America, but researchers still aren't sure how early humans used them.

How Did Ice Age Humans Kill Huge Animals Like Mammoths? Probably Not by Throwing Spears, Study Finds

New research theorizes that hunters used pikes planted in the ground—with their sharp tips pointing upward—to impale approaching wildlife using the creature's own weight and momentum

Along with stretches of cobblestone path, researchers found pottery and Roman coins.

A Roman Road Was Hiding Beneath a Primary School Playing Field in England

The 2,000-year-old cobbled pathway was likely built after the Romans invaded Britain in the first century C.E.

Carpentry waste inside one of the Roman-era wells discovered in England.

Two Ancient Wells Discovered in England Suggest Even the Romans Used Trial and Error

After the first well collapsed, the local builders incorporated wooden planks to hold up the walls of the second

A case in the Green Vault's jewel room

Dazzling Jewels Stolen in Green Vault Heist Go Back on Display in Dresden

In the early morning hours of November 25, 2019, thieves made away with 4,300 valuable diamonds and other stones

Andreane Rellou is an actor and filmmaker who saw the photos at the museum and took it upon herself to identify the two women.

Amateur Sleuth Identifies the Mystery Women in a Museum's Fabergé Frames

The portraits were on display at a museum in England, where staffers had been wondering about the two subjects for years

The ancient complex was unearthed in Corinth, Greece.

Ancient Prisoners Carved Graffiti Into the Floors of a Roman-Era Prison

An archaeologist has identified vengeful inscriptions etched into a 1,600-year-old prison in Greece

Is the Smithsonian Castle haunted? The Institution's founder, James Smithson, is said to be among the otherworldly visitors.

Busting 13 of the Smithsonian’s Most Persistent Myths

From castle hauntings to hiding evidence of giant humans, the Smithsonian has long been the subject of wild rumors and tall tales

Video footage captured by a remotely operated underwater vehicle shows the cable winch of the S.S. Dellwood, a 3,500-ton U.S. Army vessel that had been installing communication lines when it collided with a submerged rock pinnacle.

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Battle of Attu, the 'Forgotten Battle' of World War II

Underwater archaeologists discovered three shipwrecks submerged near the small Alaskan island, which was the site of one of the deadliest conflicts in the Pacific

The anonymous sender secured the artifacts in foam cut-outs inside a cardboard flapjack box.

The Mystery of the Bronze Age Ax Heads Mailed Anonymously to an Irish Museum Has Been Solved

A farmer stumbled upon the 4,000-year-old artifacts while working in his field in central Ireland

Each of the Persian darics features an image of a crouched archer.

Archaeologists Stumble Upon Ancient Pot of Gold Coins in Turkey

Researchers think the hoard, which dates to the fifth century B.C.E., may have been buried during a time of upheaval

Part of the 17th-century foundation will be visible through a glass floor section in the new archaeology center.

17th-Century Home Unearthed in Colonial Williamsburg

Crews were constructing a new archaeology center when they stumbled upon the historic structure's foundations and accompanying artifacts

Researchers translated the cuneiform writing, which is characterized by symbols gouged into moist clay.

Researchers Decipher Cuneiform Tablet—and Discover It’s a Furniture Receipt

The small clay rectangle is engraved with an ancient Semitic language known as Akkadian

As well as frescoes of Cerberus, the guard dog of the underworld, the tomb was decorated with paintings of marine centaurs.

Archaeologists Crack Open a 2,000-Year-Old Coffin in Italy's ‘Tomb of Cerberus’

The stone coffin likely contains the leader of the family that built the frescoed chamber in Naples

More than 200 artifacts are returning to Mexico this month.

Nashville Museum Returns Hundreds of Pre-Columbian Artifacts to Mexico

The items also went on display in an exhibition that detailed the repatriation process

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