Frozen for 2,500 years in Siberia’s Altai Mountains, a Pazyryk mummy’s tattoos reveal a world of artistry that would enchant modern tattooists. This mummy belongs to that of a 50-year-old woman whose skin (that was preserved in an icy tomb) bears vivid images of fauna found in her environment. Animals shown on her skin include
For 4,400 years, a small clay tablet lay hidden inside the ruins of the Ancient Sumerian city of Nippur (in what’s now southern Iraq). This tablet may be miniscule but it reveals a forgotten myth that expands Mespotamian storytelling. Today, this ancient tablet (labeled Ni 12501) rests in Turkey’s Istanbul Archaeological Museums, where University of
In a dusty archive at the University of Zürich, a Swiss teenage victim’s preserved lung dating back to the 1918 Spanish Flu has spilled genetic secrets on one of history’s deadliest diseases. Swiss researchers (spearheaded by paleogeneticist Verena Schünemann at the University of Basel) managed to sequence the full genome of the 1918 flu virus
Imagine yourself flipping through a worn and wrinkly 1,000-year-old book, before spotting a scribbled note in the margin about curing a headache with crushed herbs. That’s not the “Dark Ages” of superstition we’ve all heard about. This is a glimpse into a world where medieval Europeans were clever with their health and had surprisingly resourceful
July 1916 remains an unforgettable moment in maritime history, when the coastline of New Jersey became the site of underwater horror. Over a span of twelve days, a series of shark attacks—two in open ocean waters and three in the brackish Matawan Creek—sent shockwaves across the nation. The mysterious predator, nicknamed the Matawan Man-Eater, spurred
Imagine yourself stumbling upon a jagged triangular stone glinting in the Mediterranean sun, with its sharp edges hinting at a mysterious past. What you’ve just stumbled upon was once known as glossopetrae or “tongue stones”. For centuries, people across Europe believed these objects were the petrified tongues of mythical serpents or dragons. Glossopetrae had been