History & Archaeology

No “empire sine fine”

Emperor Hadrian commissioned the construction of a border structure in northern Roman Britain, later named Hadrian's Wall (Aureus, 125–127). BPK / coin cabinet, SMB /...

How egg yolk improved the colors of da Vinci and Co

Painting "Lamentation for Christ" by the Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, color samples from this painting were analyzed. © Bavarian State Painting Collections in...

Monkeys inadvertently make stone tools

Macaques cracking nuts with stones. © Lydia V. Luncz Macaques often use stones to crack hard-shelled nuts. Some of their tools break during use -...

Remains of the earliest horsemen discovered

Grave of a Yamnaya man with clear evidence of regular horseback riding. © Michał Podsiadło The use of horses as mounts and for transportation was...

Haithabu: Hoard with gold jewelry discovered

These golden earrings were buried at Haithabu 800 years ago. © ALSH Around 800 years ago, a traveler buried gold jewelery and around 30 silver...

Bow and arrow 54,000 years ago

This stone arrowhead is around 54,000 years old. © Laure Metz/ Ludovic Slimak The invention of the first firearms such as the bow and arrow...

Laser treatment for medieval cathedral

View of the Halberstadt Cathedral. © Wlad74/ iStock The Halberstadt Cathedral is one of the few Gothic cathedrals in the French architectural style in Germany,...

Friedrich Daniel Bassermann – Level-headed string puller

Friedrich Daniel Bassermann was elected to the National Assembly in the Franconian constituency of Stadtprozelten. The 37-year-old Mannheim publisher's bookseller had considerable parliamentary experience....

Encrypted letters of Mary Stuart discovered

Mary Stuart after a portrait by François Clouet. club/iStock A famous author is emerging: “Codebreakers” have identified 50 encrypted letters from a French archive as...

Recent Articles