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Archaeology

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Vikings Never Wore Horned Helmets — One Costume Sketch in 1876 Fooled the World
Featured · Long Read

Vikings Never Wore Horned Helmets — One Costume Sketch in 1876 Fooled the World

The iconic horned Viking helmet traces back not to Norse warriors but to a single 1876 opera costume sketch — and the only real Viking helmet ever found is plain riveted iron…

Enslaved People Buried Under Charleston Streets Get a Ceremony Before Digging
American History

Enslaved People Buried Under Charleston Streets Get a Ceremony Before Digging

Thousands of enslaved and free Black Charlestonians lie beneath 106 Coming Street, where a college dormitory is planned. Before archaeological…

WWII Torpedo Sank SS Cornwallis in Minutes — Lost 80 Years in Gulf of Maine
Archaeology

WWII Torpedo Sank SS Cornwallis in Minutes — Lost 80 Years in Gulf of Maine

A German U-boat torpedo sank the merchant vessel SS Cornwallis near Mount Desert Rock in 1944, killing 43 of 48…

Paleontologists Unearth 4 Dinosaur Species Near Moab — One May Be New to Science
Ancient History

Paleontologists Unearth 4 Dinosaur Species Near Moab — One May Be New to Science

At a newly discovered site in southeastern Utah's Morrison Formation, paleontologists have identified fossils from four distinct dinosaur species —…

Caracol’s 1,700-Year-Old Royal Tomb Is Dismantling What We Knew About the Maya
Ancient History

Caracol’s 1,700-Year-Old Royal Tomb Is Dismantling What We Knew About the Maya

Deep in Belize's Chiquibul forest, the ancient Maya metropolis of Caracol has spent decades handing archaeologists evidence that contradicts nearly…

,000-Year-Old Saqqara Tomb With Three Sealed Sarcophagi Defied Looters
Ancient History

,000-Year-Old Saqqara Tomb With Three Sealed Sarcophagi Defied Looters

A new Saqqara excavation has uncovered a 4,000-year-old Middle Kingdom tomb built for a high-ranking official, complete with three sealed…

How a Baltimore Hairdresser Cracked an Ancient Roman Hairstyle Mystery
Ancient History

How a Baltimore Hairdresser Cracked an Ancient Roman Hairstyle Mystery

Classical scholars had insisted Rome's towering braided hairstyles had to be wigs — until a Baltimore hairdresser with no archaeology…

Utah Geologists Excavate What May Be North America’s Oldest Cretaceous Bonebed
Ancient History

Utah Geologists Excavate What May Be North America’s Oldest Cretaceous Bonebed

The Utah Geological Survey has begun excavating a dinosaur bonebed dating back 138 to 141 million years on a Utah…

World’s Oldest Shipwreck May Have Been Found — 4,700 Years Old
Ancient History

World’s Oldest Shipwreck May Have Been Found — 4,700 Years Old

A wooden cargo vessel discovered in the sheltered waters off Kekova Island, Turkey has been dated to between 4,400 and…

Karahantepe’s 11,000-Year-Old Carvings Are Rewriting Stone Age History
Ancient History

Karahantepe’s 11,000-Year-Old Carvings Are Rewriting Stone Age History

A cluster of Stone Age sites in southeastern Turkey — including Karahantepe and Göbekli Tepe — has produced sky burials,…

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