Hypericum
Teresa's life has always been a comfortable straight line, with every goal set for herself achieved right on schedule. It comes as little surprise when she wins a prestigious scholarship…
Cleanliness in the Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace
The Tudor kitchens at Hampton Court Palace served over 400 people a day in the court of Henry VIII. Lavish feasts for the King and courtiers, and meals for 200…
The Second-to-Last Mammoths Ever
About 5,700 years ago, on a small, isolated island off the coast of Alaska, a herd of woolly mammoths crossed a treeless tundra.
The Religion of Pre-Islamic Arabia
Before Islam, Arabs worshipped many gods. Using newly deciphered ancient desert inscriptions, we explore the forgotten religious world of pre-Islamic Arabia: The goddess Allāt, sacrifice, pilgrimage, fate, magic, and the…
The Atlas Obscura Podcast: Wonder in Your Backyard: The Aztec Ruins
A listener shares a wonder from his backyard, this time in the small town of Aztec, New Mexico.
PBS Eons: There’s No Single Cradle of Humankind
It would take decades for paleontologists to realize that maybe there wasn’t just one so-called "cradle of humankind," and realize that maybe they’d been asking the wrong question all along.
The Hazy Evolution of Cannabis
How did such a strange plant like cannabis come to be in the first place? When and where did we first domesticate it? And why oh why does it get…
When Did We Stop Being Naked?
Of course, the ancient Egyptians were probably not the first people to ever wear clothing, but we haven’t found any clothes older than the Tarkhan Dress. So how can we…
Growing up 30,000 years ago
Archaeologists have been trying to piece together the full human story for a long time, but some members of prehistoric societies have been largely overlooked: kids! It turns out these…