The Past

Missing link? More like the weakest link.

Washington believed that particular Thanksgiving in 1789 was a crucial occasion.

The early colonists thought they were being pulled by God into a void left by plague.

The insurmountable contrasts between their visions help explain Russia’s stunted development and hint at its destructive future.

The decades-long conflict is best understood not through secondhand accounts of historians, but the primary accounts of people who actually experienced it.

Fittingly, the skull was found in the Rising Star cave of South Africa, itself located at a site known to UNESCO as the Cradle of Mankind.

From textiles and transportation to chemicals and microchips, a group of researchers proposes a new way to measure the impact of innovation.

Although many dinosaurs never left the ground, they still possessed the basic structural framework for flight.

Though these ancient settlers of China were culturally cosmopolitan, their DNA turns out to have been completely distinct from the communities with which they interacted.

Looking with lasers, researchers discovered that many Olmec and Mayan ruins seem to have been constructed from the same blueprint.

Discover the history of homemade sugar skulls, home altars, and fantastical spirit animals.

The mad dog’s bite caused a hideous metamorphosis, which transformed its human victim into a nefarious monster.

The poisoned candy legend is just one way that American fears manifested: as an easily understood threat to innocence.

Will and Ariel Durant were praised for their ability to look at the big picture without losing sight of its little details, even if they did miss some of them.

The findings at L’Anse aux Meadows mark the the earliest known year by which human migration had encircled the planet.

Going door-to-door on All Hallows Eve to beg for ‘soul cakes’?

A recent discovery pushes back the date on when dinosaurs first engaged in social behavior.

Historians know how military technologies evolved, but the reasons why remain poorly understood.

Long assumed to be a devoted vegetarian, ancient sloths were fine with some meat.

Time and again, studies have found a connection between authoritarian ideals and meaning in life — a notion backed up by historical documents.

The microscopic tardigrades are an elusive species. Fossils are rare, but each new find adds a piece to their unsolved evolutionary puzzle. 

The new book “Lost Cities, Ancient Tombs” documents 100 archaeological discoveries that changed the world.

Air conditioning may keep a room cool, but using it is heating up the planet. It is time for something new — or old.

During World War II, Nazi engineers allegedly tried to create UFO-shaped military aircraft.

Often called modern-day dinosaurs, cassowaries are one of only a few birds known to have killed humans.

A 5,300-year-old mummy teaches us the global history of tattoos.

The stone camel sculptures, seven in total and originally uncovered back in 2018, far predate more famous monuments.

Our ancestral cousins far more intelligent than we credit them for, and they did things most of us cannot.

As Russia’s youth welcomed a new era of capitalism in the 1990s, their parents and grandparents clung to fleeting memories of Soviet life.

An unexpected finding shows us how little we know about the early human story in our region.