We tend to assume that simple things are old things. If an object is uncomplicated and useful, surely someone thought of it long ago. In fact, the gap between when…
Look at Earth from orbit today and you see the famous blue marble: oceans, cloud swirls, green continents. Run the clock back roughly 700 million years and an observer in…
Walk through the storage areas of any museum with a substantial Egyptian collection and you will find, among the pottery and the alabaster, vessels that once held food. Most of…
Source: Wikipedia
In the spring of 1974, farmers working land in Lintong District, near Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, were digging a well when they hit something hard. It was a fragment…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 1739, a local historian digging in a field in the English countryside turned up an odd piece of ancient metalwork alongside some Roman coins. It was hollow,…
Source: Wikipedia
Vanilla has an image problem. We use the word to mean plain, basic, ordinary, the default flavor, the opposite of exciting. Vanilla ice cream is the safe choice; a…