Know more. Stay curious.
How did we get here?
The people, inventions and ideas that have shaped our world.
CIVILIZATION / PEEK
The White Statue May Be the Faded Version
Many Greek and Roman marble sculptures were painted; losing that color helped unpainted stone become the modern classical ideal.
1 min read · Take a peek
CIVILIZATION / NEWS
Stone Crossed a Landscape Now Underwater
Two submerged sites at Murujuga preserve stone artefacts from a cultural landscape flooded at least 9,000 years ago.
2 min read · Read article
CIVILIZATION / EXPLORE
Roman Concrete Had More Than One Way to Endure
Ancient Roman concrete endured through several different chemical routes—not one magical recipe—and the mechanism depended on where and how the material was made.
4 min read · Read article
CIVILIZATION / PEEK
Royal Purple Began Inside a Sea Snail
An expensive marine dye turned geography, labor and trade into one of antiquity’s clearest signals of status.
1 min read · Take a peek
CIVILIZATION / NEWS
A Workshop Reveals Lismore’s Monastic Importance
Burials and specialist metalworking strengthen the case that Lismore was an influential early medieval monastic centre.
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CIVILIZATION / EXPLORE
Why a Viking Dig Can Keep Answering Questions for 50 Years
A wooden bowl is not as spectacular as a king's treasure. But a bowl, a workshop floor and a discarded shoe can tell us how a town actually worked.
3 min read · Read article
CIVILIZATION / PEEK
The Bayeux Story Is Also a Story About Copies
A copy of a famous object can become a historical object in its own right. Three Bayeux casts offer a neat example.
1 min read · Take a peek
CIVILIZATION / PEEK
A Medieval Skeleton Cannot Tell Us Which Side He Took
He lived around England's Norman Conquest. His bones, ancestry and burial can offer clues without revealing which side he believed was his.
1 min read · Take a peek
CIVILIZATION / NEWS
Researchers Challenge How the Anthropocene Was Rejected
The argument over the Anthropocene now includes a question about how scientific institutions make their decisions.
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CIVILIZATION / NEWS
New Burial Analysis Changes a Göbekli Tepe Puzzle
Scattered human bones can suggest a dramatic ritual. Before choosing that explanation, archaeologists must ask how the bones became scattered.
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CIVILIZATION / NEWS
Twenty Coins Bring Rome’s English Quarter Into View
A new report connects small finds with the working life of an early medieval community.
3 min read · Read article
CIVILIZATION / PEEK
What Would Survive If We Disappeared?
Your everyday objects might tell a very uneven story about you.
2 min read · Take a peek
CIVILIZATION / PEEK
Why Is the Old City Below the New One?
The ground beneath a street can hold several versions of the same place.
2 min read · Take a peek
CIVILIZATION / EXPLORE
When Humans Learned to Store Ideas Outside the Brain
A small clay tablet helped unlock a very big possibility: knowledge that could outlive its owner.
3 min read · Read article
CIVILIZATION / EXPLORE
Why Are Ancient Cities Buried Underground?
The street beneath your feet may once have been someone else's ground floor.
3 min read · Read article
CIVILIZATION / EXPLORE
How Do You Move a Stone That Weighs 100 Tons?
Before you add more muscle, ask a better question: what is resisting the movement?
3 min read · Read article
CIVILIZATION / PEEK
How did they build this?
The pyramids are an invitation to understand human ingenuity.
Take a peek