Mental Floss

ARCHAEOLOGY

Shipton et. al,

All that stood between them and better stone tools was a little hill. And yet.

iStock

It's calling into question what we thought we knew about the mysterious culture.

The Roman dodecahedron Brian Campbell found in East London

They've been discovered at Roman-era sites, but no one knows what they're for.

Alexis Pantos, University of Copenhagen

It's a little like a pita, but grittier.

iStock

Surveyors are taking advantage of the uncharacteristic weather.

iStock

And it hasn't gone out of fashion yet.

Evening Standard, Getty Images

The hoard would have been worth a fortune in the 1940s.

Jonathan Daniel, Getty Images

Project Recover tracked down aircraft in a bay near Papua New Guinea.

Peter Pfälzner, University of Tübingen

A team had been excavating the site for years before figuring out what it was.

Ben Curtis, AFP/Getty Images

It was once believed that his stepmother Queen Nefertiti may be hidden away at the same site.

iStock

Applications close today.

Graffiti of gladiators from Pompeii at the Naples National Archaeological Museum

"I visited and I did not like anything except the sarcophagus!"

Alex McCelland, Bournemouth University

Sloths—those symbols of loafers and loungers everywhere—weren't always so cute and cuddly.

C. Fritz/MC

Researchers now have a better understanding of how these paintings were created some 35,000 years ago.

Scientific Reports, Fernando Ramirez Rozzi

The practice of drilling holes into skulls goes back millennia.

Stefan Sauer, AFP/Getty Images

The oldest coin dates back to 714 CE.