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Today, many Maya sites are polluted with toxic levels of mercury. The contamination likely originated from cinnabar paints and art.
Ice harvesters once made a living from frozen lakes and ponds, but the work was strenuous and dangerous. Then refrigeration changed everything.
The arsons were no accident, archaeological evidence suggests.
You could send your potential paramour a perfume bottle, a cigar cutter, travel plans — or maybe some cocaine.
Meet the masterful con-men who impressed the great and the good despite the astonishing fiction of their very existence.
Almost all royal lines try to legitimize their rule with legendary origin stories. Here are five of the strangest examples.
The Te’omim Cave in the Jerusalem Hills is filled with skulls and oil lamps — objects a new study says may have been used in dark rituals.
Fossil Cycad National Monument held America’s richest deposit of petrified cycadeoid plants, until it didn’t.
An X-ray offers a glimpse into the painter’s early years.
These clocks burn powdered incense along a pre-measured paths, each representing a different amount of time.
Probability, lacking solid theoretical foundations and burdened with paradoxes, was jokingly called the “theory of misfortune.”
Mounted on horses and armed with unique, powerful bows, the archers of Genghis Khan inspired terror wherever they rode.
Your whole body is part of the instrument.
A classical equivalent to Chanel No. 5.
The carnival spirit was in full swing when the priests got wasted and made indecent gestures while dressed like pimps.
Hybrid animals emerge when two different species from the same family reproduce. For many years, the kunga’s lineage was just another genetic mystery.
No, Gandhi did not single-handedly bring about Indian independence. Pacifism alone usually gets you killed.
Roosevelt had become president but not in the way he wanted. Still, he understood that he had been given the rare opportunity to make history.
People discovered prehistoric fossils long before Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species." The remains of these unknown creatures often puzzled their discoverers.
Debate is a verbal sport with winners and losers. As such, it is less about the truth and more about who looks and sounds the best.
When you turn a map of East Asia upside down, Beijing’s geographic constraints and regional ambitions become much clearer.
For better and worse, the Columbian Exchange plugged the Americas into the global system — and there was no going back.
They had the technology. So why didn't they use it?
Due to export controls from China, the Europeans had to invent their own forms of porcelain. One type involves dead cows.
Is the vast "Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area" the final resting place of Genghis Khan?
Gods and angels have been replaced with hi-tech extraterrestrials.
John Templeton Foundation
The documents that convicted the infamous traitor were all kept in this unassuming leather pouch.
Pessimism reigned supreme.