1130 Items Tagged

Archaeology

Podcast: Old Cahawba

We unravel the surprising tale of this onetime capital city in Alabama.

The Podcast Team April 30, 2024

A dramatic 2020 eruption of Kīlauea was nothing compared with Indonesia's Toba supervolcano eruption 74,000 years ago, the largest eruption of the past 2.5 million years.

How Indonesia’s Toba Volcano Changed Human Evolution

The massive supervolcano eruption 74,000 years ago has been blamed for nearly killing off our species. The emerging truth is much more interesting.

Gemma Tarlach April 29, 2024

Leicester, England

King Richard III's Car Park

More than 500 years after his death, a medieval ruler's remains were found buried under a parking lot.

Wisdom, a Laysan albatross (<em>Phoebastria immutabilis</em>) in her 70s, was spotted courting potential mates at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

Wonder Is Everywhere: the World’s Longest Snake, Disappearing Meteorites, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.

April White April 25, 2024

Kariong, Australia

Bulgandry Art Site Aboriginal Place

Aboriginal artists carved these unique figures into sandstone.

Remains of whalers' wooden coffins and gravestones at Smeerenburg, in the northwest region of the Svalbard Archipelago.

Svalbard's Lonely Whaler Graves Included Burial Kits With Pieces of Distant Homes

For centuries, the cruel industry decimated entire whale species—and claimed countless human lives. Whalers arrived prepared for their own deaths.

Nicky Nielsen April 17, 2024

The Viking Women With Intentionally Reshaped Skulls

Scientists posit how and why the ladies achieved the cone-head look.

Meg St-Esprit April 15, 2024

Stockholm, Sweden

Shipwreck of Kastellholmen

At low tide, you can see the remains of a 17th-century ship just off a Stockholm island.

Sapindya Mahadev Temple

An ancient temple of Lord Shiva was rediscovered in an excavation in 2003.

Is This the World's Oldest Eclipse Art?

There's something shady about the idea that an ancient rock carving on a Neolithic tomb in Ireland depicts the Moon blotting out the Sun.

Indi Bains April 4, 2024

A 1,000-year-old brain of an individual excavated from a 10th-century churchyard in Belguim is still soft and wet.

brain collections

The Mystery of 4,400 Preserved Brains—And One Scientist’s Quest to Solve It

The former undertaker collects human brains, talks to them, and hopes they won’t haunt her.

Olivia Young March 28, 2024

Chestertown, Maryland

Modern Stone Age Kitchen

Learn about our ancestral eating habits at the passion project of an archeologist.

All illustrations: John Mata for Atlas Obscura

The Atlas Obscura Crossword: Beyond the Moai

AO Puzzles March 25, 2024

'What Is It?'

This mysterious anthropomorphic statuette is on display at the National Museum of Oman.

Burial 19, or B19, contained the remains of a large dog and newborn infant girl.

When Did Dogs Become Our Best Friends?

A poignant, 2,000-year-old burial in northern Italy could be the latest evidence of an ancient friendship.

Gemma Tarlach March 20, 2024

Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker

A freedman baker’s lavish tomb has a relief showing various stages of Roman bread making.

The Crooked House pub in Staffordshire, photographed in April 2023. A brick-built public house. The building was severely affected by subsidence.

Wonder Is Everywhere: Return of the Crooked House, World's Oldest Bread, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.

April White March 15, 2024

Reading, England

Silchester Eagle

Once believed to be a sacred Roman legionary symbol, this bronze figure inspired the 1954 novel 'The Eagle of the Ninth.'