Category: Science
Scientists Say Lead in Ink Could Finally Crack Herculaneum’s Burnt Scrolls—So They Baked a Fake One as a Test
The Herculaneum scrolls were discovered in the 1700s. It's taken centuries for researchers to read one of them...
We’ve Been Giving the Parthenon’s Architects Credit for a Trick They Might Not Have Even Used
The Greeks probably were very intelligent, innovative architects—but we're also probably overestimating the extent of their scientific awareness.
Archaeologists Just Opened a Pre-Incan Tomb Sealed for 600 Years. Here’s What They Found
The mausoleum miraculously evaded colonial and contemporary looters—but not the careful eye of experts working at the historical...
We Were Wildly Off About Pre-European Indigenous Populations in Australia
This also implies that we've been wildly undermining the true scale of the crushing impact colonization had on...
A Woman Ruled Ancient Egypt as King 5,000 Years Ago, Research Claims
A blurry old photo is reviving a decades-old debate over Egypt's First Dynasty.
Scientists Studied 185,896 Miles of Roman Roads—and That’s Still the ‘Tip of the Iceberg’
After developing the biggest-ever map of Roman roads, a team of archaeologists has found that some of our...
Wildfires May Have Inspired the Invention of Pottery, Scientist Says
The “natural kiln hypothesis” argues that intense wildfires taught prehistoric humans that fire hardened clay—and that this could...
A Metal Detectorist Just Discovered Finland’s Largest Hoard of Viking Age Silver—But Was It Plunder?
Though not yet fully assessed, Finland’s new record-breaking discovery of Iron Age silver coins would be worth nearly...
Archaeologists Thought Prehistoric Cannibalism Was Always the Same. The Bones Tell a Very Different Story
The Neolithic was an evolutionary and social turning point for humans—and these changes sometimes took a dark turn.
This NASA Color Trick Was Meant for Mars. Now It’s Unveiling Rock Art on Earth
Rather than simply raising the contrast between colors, the decorrelation method maps the original colors to an expanded...
