https://www.smithsonianmag.com/rss/tag/mysteries/RSS feed for MysteriesenFri, 25 Jul 2025 13:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/google-just-released-an-ai-tool-that-helps-historians-fill-in-missing-words-in-ancient-roman-inscriptions-180987046/Known as Aeneas, the tool was trained on an extensive dataset of Latin epigraphy. Experts hope it will help decipher segments of text that have been lost to historyFri, 25 Jul 2025 13:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/an-archer-shot-this-bronze-age-human-in-the-back-4000-years-later-the-arrow-is-still-embedded-in-the-victims-rib-bone-180987036/The attack took place during a period of conflict between groups living in the Pyrenees mountains in modern-day SpainWed, 23 Jul 2025 19:10:35 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-discover-site-where-george-washington-stopped-a-friendly-fire-incident-by-blocking-muskets-with-his-sword-180987008/In 1758, during the French and Indian War, the future president saved lives by stepping into the middle of a deadly skirmish in PennsylvaniaFri, 18 Jul 2025 10:30:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-tiny-typo-may-explain-a-centuries-old-mystery-about-chaucers-canterbury-tales-and-troilus-and-criseyde-180986991/The medieval writer made puzzling references to a story called "The Song of Wade," which has been lost to history. Only a few lines quoted—or perhaps misquoted—in a 12th-century sermon surviveWed, 16 Jul 2025 19:50:07 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/have-eagle-eyed-experts-found-this-316-year-old-stradivarius-violin-that-was-looted-during-world-war-ii-180986962/Eight decades after the 1709 violin known as the "Small Mendelssohn" disappeared, experts think they've located it in JapanMon, 14 Jul 2025 20:14:12 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mysterious-red-sprite-appears-in-nasa-astronaut-photo-from-the-space-station-what-is-this-strange-electrical-flare-180986946/Red sprites are among a class of enigmatic weather phenomena that appear over thunderstorms, known as Transient Luminous EventsThu, 10 Jul 2025 17:36:54 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/four-bewildering-bronze-lions-heads-with-slightly-different-facial-expressions-found-in-ancient-roman-grave-in-israel-180986922/Similar examples of ancient lion artifacts appear to have been used as door knockers. But the newly discovered discs may have served a different purposeThu, 03 Jul 2025 17:47:45 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-dna-reveals-that-men-moved-in-with-their-brides-families-in-this-neolithic-settlement-180986915/A new study suggests that a 9,000-year-old society in Catalhoyuk, a proto-city in southern Anatolia, may have established a "female-centered" social structureWed, 02 Jul 2025 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/astronomers-detected-a-mysterious-radio-burst-it-turned-out-to-be-from-a-dead-nasa-satellite-180986884/The signal detected last year came from Relay 2, a communications satellite that has been defunct since 1967Fri, 27 Jun 2025 18:07:28 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-may-be-closer-to-discovering-the-origins-of-physics-defying-radio-pulses-180986860/Strange signals detected by a NASA instrument more than a decade ago have continued to confound scientists, but a new paper rules out cosmic neutrinos as a sourceThu, 26 Jun 2025 16:42:38 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-gold-coins-may-solve-the-mystery-of-the-worlds-richest-shipwreck-confirming-its-identity-as-a-legendary-18th-century-galleon-180986856/Minted in Peru in 1707, the money bolsters the evidence that the wreck is the Spanish ship "San José," which sank off the Colombian coast in 1708 with treasure worth billions on boardMon, 23 Jun 2025 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/tattered-pages-discovered-in-storage-reveal-an-enslaved-mans-daring-bid-for-freedom-and-his-second-life-at-sea-180986838/Historians are investigating the haunting handwritten manuscript, which chronicles Thomas White's escape from slavery in Maryland and adventures around the world nearly 200 years agoWed, 18 Jun 2025 18:56:17 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-are-recreating-the-long-lost-recipe-for-egyptian-blue-the-worlds-oldest-known-synthetic-pigment-180986778/Created 5,000 years ago, the mysterious color has been found on artworks and artifacts throughout the ancient world. But the pigment's recipe was eventually lost to historyThu, 12 Jun 2025 15:47:25 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/stolen-paintings-linked-to-retired-couple-who-supposedly-moonlighted-as-art-thieves-returned-to-new-mexico-after-40-years-180986765/Victor Higgins' "Aspens" and Joseph Henry Sharp’s "Oklahoma Cheyenne" had been missing since March 1985, when they were snatched in broad daylightTue, 10 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-discover-more-than-100-structures-linked-to-a-mysterious-pre-hispanic-civilization-in-the-remote-peruvian-andes-180986740/Based in high-altitude urban centers, the Chachapoya resisted conquest by the Inca Empire for centuriesWed, 04 Jun 2025 18:37:19 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/banksy-unveils-new-lighthouse-mural-with-the-words-i-want-to-be-what-you-saw-in-me-in-france-180986719/The anonymous street artist announced the uncharacteristically personal artwork on May 29. It's located on a wall in the French city of MarseilleFri, 30 May 2025 20:00:47 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-bewildering-byzantine-bucket-stumped-archaeologists-for-decades-now-theyve-finally-discovered-its-purpose-180986701/Fragments of the bucket were first found at England's Sutton Hoo burial site in 1986. New research has revealed that the 1,500-year-old artifact was probably used as a cremation vesselThu, 29 May 2025 18:20:16 +0000