Smart News History & Archaeology

A photograph of the Endurance stuck in ice before it sank to the bottom of the Weddell Sea in 1915

Wreck of Shackleton's 'Endurance' Gets New Protections

The vessel will be preserved beneath Antarctic waters inside a sprawling restricted zone

The blade, known as Durandal, was embedded in rock more than 30 feet above the ground.

Fabled Sword From Medieval French Folklore Disappears

Known as the "French Excalibur," the blade is said to have hung from a rock face in the village of Rocamadour for 1,300 years

Researchers Kabria Baumgartner and Meghan Howey at the dig site

Archaeologists May Have Found Home Built by One of New England’s First Black Property Owners

Pompey Mansfield was an enslaved man who won his freedom, purchased land, constructed a house and became a prominent community leader

The well-preserved statue is nearly seven feet tall.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Stumble Upon Marble Statue of Greek God in Ancient Sewer

The 2,000-year-old statue, which likely depicts Hermes, is a monumental discovery for Bulgaria

Ritual sticks, between 11,000 and 12,000 years old, were discovered in Cloggs Cave.

Sticks Discovered in Australian Cave Shed New Light on an Aboriginal Ritual Passed Down for 12,000 Years

Both Western analyses and traditional Aboriginal knowledge helped the research team learn about a cultural practice dating to the last ice age

The weapons are adorned with gold and silver designs and an engraved image of Napoleon.

Napoleon's Elaborately Decorated Pistols Sell for $1.8 Million at Auction

The French government has declared the artifacts national treasures, which means they can only leave the country temporarily

Created more than 2,000 years ago, the Antikythera mechanism tracked the movements of celestial bodies.

New Research

Gravitational Wave Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Analog Computer

A new study challenges a core assumption about the Antikythera mechanism, a 2,000-year-old device that inspired the latest "Indiana Jones" film

Barbies from the "Inspiring Women" collection, including dolls representing British model Adwoa Aboah and U.S. tennis player Billie Jean King

Travel Through Barbieland at London's Design Museum

A new exhibition traces the evolution of one of the world's most famous dolls over six decades

Victoria created this 1833 ink sketch when she was 14 years old. It's inscribed, "original sketch by the Royal Highness the Princess Victoria.

You Can Buy Four Drawings by a Young Queen Victoria

The sketches, which are heading to auction this week, showcase the teenage royal's devotion to the arts

The remains of the Bronze Age roundhouse are located in a park in Cardiff, the capital of Wales.

Northern Europe and the British Isles

An Excavation in Wales Paints a Picture of Home Life 3,500 Years Ago

Archaeologists have enlisted volunteers to dig up the remains of a Bronze Age roundhouse found beneath a park

Last May, the team uncovered a telltale sign of the long-lost palace: the base of a centuries-old wall and a foundation.

Cool Finds

Amateur Historians Unearth a Long-Lost Tudor Palace Visited by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I

Locals had long shared stories of Collyweston Palace. Then, excavations in England's Midlands revealed traces of the fabled estate

The watch is engraved with the words, "THEODORE ROOSEVELT FROM D.R. & C.R.R."

Cool Finds

Theodore Roosevelt's Long-Lost Pocket Watch Surfaces at a Florida Auction House

Thieves stole the timepiece, a gift from the president's sister, from an unlocked display case in 1987

A diver found the vessel off the coast of northern Cyprus in 1965.

New Research

How Researchers Solved the Mystery of This 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck

A new analysis of nuts, timber and other items found onboard the Kyrenia shipwreck is shedding new light on the vessel's timeline

A team of Italian and Egyptian archaeologists discovered the tombs along the west bank of the Nile.

Cool Finds

Trove of Tombs Sheds Light on How Ancient Egyptian Families Lived—and Died

The finds include mummies from many social classes, some of whom were buried alongside relatives after succumbing to disease

A circa 1846 portrait of Dolley Madison by John Plumbe Jr.

Women Who Shaped History

The Smithsonian Acquires the Earliest Known Photograph of an American First Lady

The National Portrait Gallery purchased an 1846 daguerreotype of Dolley Madison for $456,000

A previously discovered Viking ship from Oseberg features rivets of comparable size

Cool Finds

Is There a Viking Ship Burial Underneath This Norwegian Farm?

Archaeologists have uncovered around 70 iron rivets that may have once held together a boat belonging to a king

Ancient Egyptian statues and art depict scribes holding cross-legged or kneeling positions while working.

New Research

Ancient Egyptian Scribes Were Worked to the Bone

The administrators spent long periods writing in odd postures, which damaged their joints, researchers discovered

The vase dates to the Maya Classic period, which lasted from around 250 to 900 C.E.

Cool Finds

A Woman Thrifted This Ancient Maya Vase for $3.99—and Then Gave It Back to Mexico

Anna Lee Dozier started to wonder about the object's origins when she realized it resembled artifacts in a Mexican museum

Delos is a small, rocky island just west of Mykonos in Greece.

The Island Known as the Birthplace of Apollo Is Sinking

Researchers say climate change is to blame for the Greek island of Delos' slow demise

Researchers have previously found evidence of Neanderthals caring for sick and injured individuals.

Neanderthal Child May Have Had Down Syndrome, Fossil Suggests

The child's survival until at least 6 years old could be evidence of collaborative caregiving in Neanderthal societies, according to a new paper

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