Satellite Photos Reveal Undiscovered Roman Forts
Historians and archaeologists have held many debates about the purpose of hundreds of Roman forts throughout what today is Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Many scientists thought Romans built the forts during the 2nd and 3rd centuries to protect the Roman empire’s eastern border from attack. However, researchers recently used Cold War era satellite images to […]
Mapping the Underwater Eighth Continent
For hundreds of years, explorers and researchers believed Earth had an eighth continent, but they couldn’t find it. Then in 2017 scientists discovered an underwater landmass located southeast of Australia, under the islands of New Zealand. They named the underwater continent Zealandia. They began mapping parts of the landmass in 2019. Now in 2023, an […]
Artifacts in Buddhist Monastery Inform Nepal’s History
Nepal is a country located high in Asia’s Himalayan mountains. In the capital city of Kathmandu, a hidden treasure of religious objects was recently discovered at the Itumbaha monastery. This Buddhist monastery has a rich history dating back to the 1000s B.C.E. Precious objects had been lost for many years, buried in storage rooms under […]
Indiana Limestone: An Important Building Material
Architects have chosen limestone from Indiana to construct many buildings in the United States. Some of the buildings constructed with Indiana limestone include the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and the Tribune Tower in Chicago. City halls, stadiums, and a variety of monuments throughout the country are also built of Indiana limestone. Why Is Indiana […]
The Pima Canals: A Solution for Modern Water Problems in the Southwest
As early as the 1600s, Spanish missionaries considered the Pima people in southern Arizona as the gardeners of the dry American Southwest. The Pima used canals dug by their ancestors to water their fields of wheat, corn, beans, and fruit trees. That is, until American settlers upstream diverted the water of the Gila River, which […]
An Englishman in Genghis Khan’s Empire
Stories of people leading glamorous lives full of adventure are not just for movies: there are real-life examples throughout history, including this one from the 1200s about an English citizen who served as a diplomat for the Mongol Empire. Background During the early 1200s, Genghis Khan formed an empire in the area of present-day Mongolia. […]
Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks Named Ohio’s First UNESCO World Heritage Site
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced the addition of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks to the list of World Heritage sites. The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are made up of eight locations throughout southern Ohio. The earthworks are Ohio’s first World Heritage Site and one of only 25 sites in the United States. […]
An Ancient Comb Tells Us Something About Language
Recently, researchers began reporting on a remarkable discovery that was made during an archaeological excavation in June 2016. The site of the discovery is in the ancient Canaanite city of Lachish, about an hour drive south from the city of Jerusalem, in Israel. In their dig, archaeologists found what initially looked like a small bone. […]
The Johnstown Flood of 1889
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam in southwest Pennsylvania collapsed. The waters of Lake Conemaugh burst from behind the earthen dam with the force of Niagara Falls. When the 40-foot wall of water reached Johnstown, located in a valley 14 miles below the dam, it had already carried debris, people, and animals from […]
A Pause in Seismic Blasting off Australia’s Western Coast
Australia’s federal court recently ruled that Woodside Energy, Australia’s largest oil and gas company, could not start looking for natural gas deposits under the ocean floor. The court ruled that Woodside Energy failed to discuss the plans with all the affected indigenous groups. Indigenous groups are descendants of the earliest known inhabitants of a region. […]