STONES, BONES, AND WRECKS

Archaeologists Need Your Help to Study 100+ Graves in Philadelphia

With enough funding, they will analyze—and then reinter—the remains of people buried between 1707 and 1859 in a Baptist cemetery—and mental_floss will be in the lab with them.

18 Mummies From Peru and Egypt Come to the American Museum of Natural History

Opening March 20, "Mummies" lets visitors peer inside remains thousands of years old—all without disturbing or unwrapping them.

Despite its fame, Stonehenge remains one of the world's most mysterious megalithic sites.

6 of the World’s Most Mysterious Standing Stones

Perhaps even more puzzling than the meaning of their creation is how they were built in the first place.

St. Nick's Real Hometown Is an Ancient City in Turkey Entombed in Mud

Welcome to Myra, where a Greek bishop became a power player in early Christianity.

The Antikythera Mechanism is in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece.

15 Intriguing Facts About the Antikythera Mechanism

The mysterious Antikythera mechanism—sometimes called 'the world's first computer'—has fascinated scholars for decades.

Reproduction of woodcut, 1483. Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 4.0

Just How Old Is C-Section Birth?

And when did women and babies start surviving it?

UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

This Dress Is at Least 5100 Years Old

Though it came from an Egyptian tomb, it was originally created for the living, not the dead.

Archaeologists Unearth More of a Massive Underground City

We spoke to archaeologist Murat Gülyaz about the phenomenal dig.

7 Antique Forgeries Made in Antiquity

Forgery of art and antiquities is far from a modern phenomenon.

10 Amazing Archaeological Finds Discovered by Ordinary People (and One Badger)

Regular folks have found amazing treasures.

Tracing the Evolution of the Human Brain Through Casts of the Inner Skull

The brain imprints itself on the inside of the skull. These impressions have been key to the study of the evolution of the human brain.

Peter Schmid and William Harcourt-Smith / Wits University

Homo Naledi's Bones Were Made For Walking … and Climbing

The small-brained creature's feet and hands show an intriguing mix of modern and primitive.

Archaeologists Discovered Fully Dressed 350-Year-Old Body

Noblewoman Louise de Quengo was still fully clothed in a wool dress, cape, bonnet, and shoes.

Photo courtesy of G. Cole, C. Rando, L. Sibun, and T. Waldron; UCL Institute of Archaeology

Archaeologists Discover 7-lb. Calcified Uterus in British Cemetery

"I've never seen anything quite like that before, nor have my colleagues, and we were very excited."

Kennewick Man's genome was sequenced at the GeoGenetics lab at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen.

Kennewick Man's DNA Solves Scientific Controversy

Scientists have cracked the genome of a man who died in the Pacific Northwest 8500 years ago—and his descendants still live nearby.

7 Incredible Hoards Discovered in the Past 7 Years

For thousands of years, people have buried their treasures to keep them safe from authorities and marauders or as offerings to the gods. Every now and then, someone is lucky enough to find one of these long-lost hoards. Here are seven of the best finds in

Unearthing Richard III: The Luckiest Find in History

All it took to locate the bones of Richard III was 500 years, a psychic vision, and a grassroots movement.

5 Remarkable Things Discovered Under Parking Lots

There’s more to the common parking lot than broken beer bottles and fender benders from that guy who was texting. Oceans of asphalt, it seems, are hiding an astonishing trove of archeological treasures.

The Easter Island "Heads" Have Bodies

Because some of the statues are set deep into the ground, and because the heads on the statues are disproportionately large, many people tend to think of them as just big heads.