ARCHAEOLOGY

‘The Goonies’ turns 40 this year—and to make the film, director Steven Spielberg may have drawn inspiration from a real-life shipwreck that occurred off Oregon’s coast. It’s known as the Beeswax Wreck.

A sunken ship near Florida holds clues to the early history of cats in the U.S.

The ceramic pot was left in a garden for years. It was a genuine work of art hiding in plain sight.

A digital double promises fresh insight into the tragedy of the ‘Titanic.’

The Herculaneum resident, killed by the volcanic eruption in 79 CE, presents the only known vitrified brain on Earth. Now, researchers have a theory for how it happened.

Chaco Canyon was once the vibrant religious center of a Native American culture whose collapse long remained a mystery—until pack rat middens revealed an important clue. 

Without a Rosetta Stone for these centuries-old writing systems, the meaning of the texts may never be known.

Archaeologists used to think that the Clovis people were the first inhabitants of the Americas some 13,500 years ago. The evidence from these ancient sites says otherwise.

The practice of drilling or scraping a hole into the skull’s cranial vault has been performed for thousands of years.

In 79 CE, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 20 feet of ash, preserving amazing details about daily life in the Roman Empire.

The Inca stronghold of Machu Picchu has astounded and confounded visitors since it was unveiled to the wider world more than 100 years ago by an ambitious Yale professor.

Make sure your passport is current, book your flight, and let yourself imagine the lives of the people who called these ancient cities home.