Archaeology

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When Did Humans Come to the Americas?

Recent scientific findings date their arrival earlier than ever thought, sparking hot debate among archaeologists

Methane gas has impacted our atmosphere since the Romans.

Air Pollution Has Been a Problem Since the Days of Ancient Rome

By testing ice cores in Greenland, scientists can look back at environmental data from millennia past

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What’s Inside a 2,000-Year-Old, Shipwreck-Preserved Roman Pill?

Ancient Roman pills, preserved in sealed tin containers on the seafloor, may have been used as eye medicine

Clovis points were one of the earliest innovations in pre-Columbian America.

A Scholarly Approach to Innovation

The Secretary of the Smithsonian draws the connection between the Clovis tools and Silicon Valley

The "Venus of Hohle Fels" is a 40,000-year-old figurine and is so small it could be hidden in your fist.

The Cave Art Debate

The discovery of a 40,000-year old figurine reignites debate among archaeologists about the origins—and true purpose—of art

The woman of the year 2030, illustrated by Edward McKnight Kauffer in 1930

Lab-grown Babies in the Year 2030

A 1930 book argued that women's "liberation from the dangers of childbirth" would be a crucial first step toward gender equality

Today, nearly 1,000 Fayum paintings exist in collections in Egypt and at the Louvre, the British and Petrie museums in London, the Metropolitan and Brooklyn museums, the Getty in California and elsewhere.

The Oldest Modernist Paintings

Two thousand years before Picasso, artists in Egypt painted some of the most arresting portraits in the history of art

According to NOAA marine archaeologist Joe Hoyt, shown here, 50 to 60 Allied, Axis and merchant vessel wrecks rest off the North Carolina coast.

Diving for the Secrets of the Battle of the Atlantic

Off the coast of North Carolina lie dozens of shipwrecks, remainders of a forgotten theater of World War II

The Colosseum, inaugurated in A.D. 80, seated 50,000 and hosted gladiatorial games, ritual animal hunts, parades and executions.

The Secrets of Ancient Rome’s Buildings

What is it about Roman concrete that keeps the Pantheon and the Colosseum still standing?

Francesco Rutelli, then Italy's culture minister, examines vases repatriated to Rome in 2007.

Acquisition Guidelines

This past March, the J. Paul Getty Museum repatriated the 2,400-year-old statue—the most recent of more than 40 objects at the museum that Italy said had been illegally removed.

The Goddess Goes Home

Following years of haggling over its provenance, a celebrated statue once identified as Aphrodite, has returned to Italy

Inspired by recent archaeological research, the people in the Cuzco region of Peru are rebuilding terraces and irrigation systems and reclaiming traditional crops and methods of planting.

Farming Like the Incas

The Incas were masters of their harsh climate, archaeologists are finding—and the ancient civilization has a lot to teach us today

The Taj backs up against the once-vibrant Yamuna River, now often dried to the point where locals can walk in the riverbed.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

How to Save the Taj Mahal?

A debate rages over preserving the awe-inspiring, 350-year-old monument that now shows signs of distress from pollution and shoddy repairs

Ancient cultures used an array of ingredients to make their alcoholic beverages, including emmer wheat, wild yeast, chamomile, thyme and oregano.

The Beer Archaeologist

By analyzing ancient pottery, Patrick McGovern is resurrecting the libations that fueled civilization

After being abrupty sacked in an overhaul of the country's cabinet, Zahi Hawass has been reinstated, but only temporarily.

The Fall of Zahi Hawass

Removed as minister of antiquities, the high profile archaeologist no longer holds the keys to 5,000 years of Egyptian history

The peak of La Danta—one of the world's largest pyramids—pokes through the forest canopy. "All this was abandoned nearly 2,000 years ago," says archaeologist Richard Hansen. "It's like finding Pompeii."

El Mirador, the Lost City of the Maya

Now overgrown by jungle, the ancient site was once the thriving capital of the Maya civilization

Non-Muslims use a wood ramp to enter the complex, home to the gilded Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, and the Western Wall, holy to Jews.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What Is Beneath the Temple Mount?

As Israeli archaeologists recover artifacts from the religious site, ancient history inflames modern-day political tensions

Archaeologists have been recovering historical artifacts from the vessel possibly stolen by Blackbeard since 1996.

Did Archaeologists Uncover Blackbeard's Treasure?

Cannons. Gold dust. Turtle bones. For archaeologists researching the notorious pirate's flagship, every clue is priceless

During gladiatorial games in the arena, a vast network of man-powered machinery made animals and scenery appear from beneath a wooden floor as if by magic.

Secrets of the Colosseum

A German archaeologist has finally deciphered the Roman amphitheater's amazing underground labyrinth

Cave bears loomed large in the Cro-Magnon mind as shown in this Chauvet cave painting.

Fate of the Cave Bear

The lumbering beasts coexisted with the first humans for tens of thousands of years and then died off. Why?

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