CATEGORIES
GHOST TRACKS OF WHITE SANDS
Scientists are uncovering fossilized footprints in the New Mexico desert that show how humans and Ice Age animals shared the landscape
GAUL'S UNIVERSITY TOWN
New excavations have revealed the wealth and prestige of an ancient center of learning
Who Were The Samaritans?
Investigating a once-powerful sect that has preserved its sacred traditions for millennia
Digs & Discoveries
Roman marble cutters, anglo-saxon giant, neanderthal hearing… and much more
SECRET RITES OF SAMOTHRACE
Reimagining the experience of initiation into an ancient Greek mystery cult
LAND OF THE PICTS
New excavations reveal the truth behind the legend of these fearsome northern warriors
The Pursuit of Wellness
How the ancients attended to mind, body, and soul
THE EQUESTRIAN'S CAVE
Recent discoveries in western Mongolia suggest that nomadic horsemen may have invented a revolutionary technology
THE PRICE OF PURPLE
Archaeologists have found new evidence of a robust dye industry that endured on the Mediterranean coast for millennia
IN THE REIGN OF THE SUN KINGS
Old Kingdom pharaohs faced a reckoning that reshaped Egypt’s balance of power
WEAVING FOR THEIR ANCESTORS
For 1,000 years, the Paracas people of Peru expressed their vivid conception of life and death through textiles
The Great Wall of Mongolia
A nomadic medieval dynasty constructed a 450-mile barrier to help manage their sprawling empire
CANADA'S FORGOTTEN CAPITAL
Beneath the streets of Old Montreal, the rubble of a short-lived Parliament building offers a glimpse into a young country’s growing pains
Anubian Kingdom Rises
Excavations at a city on the Nile reveal the origins of an ancient African power
A Rare Egg
Egyptian ostrich egg perfume case
WALKING INTO NEW WORLDS
Native traditions and novel discoveries tell the migration story of the ancestors of the Navajo and Apache
Wealth of a Medieval Power Broker
In England’s far northeast, a commanding bishop built a chapel rivaling the grandest in Europe
SOUTH AFRICA'S FATEFUL SHIPWRECK
A seventeenth-century vessel foundered off the coast and transformed a nation’s history
SIBERIAN ISLAND ENIGMA
It’s hard to imagine that a tiny tree ring could help solve one of the medieval world’s most puzzling mysteries.
RESISTING ROME
How a Celtic tribe fought to defend their Iberian homeland against the emperor’s legions
MOUSE IN THE HOUSE
Mice may have begun infesting European homes at least 2,500 years earlier than previously known.
INSIDE THE ROCK'S SURPRISING HISTORY
Before it was an infamous prison, Fort Alcatraz played a key role defending the West Coast
CLOSING IN ON A PHARAOH'S TOMB
Archaeologists excavating in the Egyptian royal necropolis of Deir el-Bahari, on the west bank of the Nile, believe they have found the long-sought location of the tomb of the early 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Thutmose II (r. ca. 1492–1479 b.c.).
A Sylk Road Renaissance
Excavations in Tajikistan have unveiled a city of merchant princes that flourished from the fifth to the eighth century A.D.
LETTER FROM NORMANDY: THE LEGACY OF THE LONGEST DAY
More than 75 years after D-Day, the Allied invasion’s impact on the French landscape is still not fully understood
Idol of the Painted Temple
On Peru’s central coast, an ornately carved totem was venerated across centuries of upheaval and conquest
THE EMPEROR OF STONES
In the language of the Vikings, Old Norse, rök means “monolith,” and no other runestone stands out from its peers in more ways than Sweden’s Rök.
HAGIA SOPHIA'S HIDDEN HISTORY
Unprecedented fieldwork in Istanbul has revealed new evidence of the cathedral at the heart of the Byzantine Empire
THE POWER OF SECRET SOCIETIES
Clandestine groups throughout history have used shadowy rituals to control the world around them
A Path To Freedom
At a Union Army camp in Kentucky, enslaved men, women, and children struggled for their lives and fought to be free