Flipboard 2025 World History

What happens when the ground beneath a national park holds enough power to rewrite the country? If a supervolcano snapped awake, ash could smother regions and disrupt everything people rely on.

Gold didn’t simply glitter in ancient Egypt—it carried a cost people rarely acknowledge. Archaeologists working at Ghooza, a remote gold mine in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, uncovered something far colder than treasure: iron ankle shackles built to stop laborers from escaping harsh desert work camps. Discoveries like these force a rethink of what truly fueled Egypt’s wealth. Those gleaming ornaments in museum cases began as ore hacked from blistering canyon walls by workers who had little to no freedom. Stay put, because those shackles reveal more about ancient power than any polished statue ever could.

In the picturesque town of Morlaix in northwestern France, archaeologists have made a remarkable discovery that has opened a window into medieval religious life. As researchers carefully excavated a 700-year-old Dominican convent, they found more than 200 burials and a wealth of religious artifacts that tell a fascinating story of faith, community, and daily life in medieval France. This significant archaeological site, explored by France's National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), has yielded insights that both question and expand our understanding of medieval religious communities and burial practices.

Could early signs of goddess worship be hiding in plain sight within ancient relics? Archaeologists keep finding symbols and objects suggesting a powerful female presence influencing spiritual life long before the mythologies we recognize emerged.

The kind of place that stops you mid-step usually has a story it’s been dying to spill. This one feels older and almost stubbornly quiet. Walk into the hush of an abandoned home to see what refuses to fade.

Discover the astonishing story of a $4 thrift-store vase in Maryland that turned out to be a genuine 1,200-year-old Maya artifact. Learn how the piece was identified, authenticated, and ultimately repatriated to Mexico, highlighting modern efforts to protect cultural heritage and the remarkable journey of an ancient treasure hidden in plain sight.

Something on Easter Island has sparked fresh debate among researchers, and the buzz isn’t fading. The newest findings hint at a deeper timeline and clues that don’t fit neatly into long-accepted theories.

Long before Denmark had shores or islands, a vast stretch of green plains joined Europe to Britain. Mammoths still roamed the north, and humans followed rivers that no longer exist. They hunted, built fires, and lived on land destined to sink beneath the rising sea.

Sometimes archaeology doesn’t require a dig site—it just needs a little weeding. That’s what happened when a New Orleans couple unearthed a mysterious stone in their backyard, only to discover it wasn’t just old—it was ancient. What followed was a globe-spanning investigation involving archaeologists, a viral news story, and one very misplaced Roman soldier.

You might not think ancient Egyptian art has anything to do with your modern-day hustle, but here’s a twist: while pharaohs were building empires, their artists were painting athletes in motion—tussling, training, competing.

Ancient civilizations approached passing differently. While today’s embalmers use just enough preservative for a dignified farewell, the Egyptians went all in. For them, passing to the afterlife required perfect preservation. And this find near Saqqara transports the process back to its origins. A rock-cut tomb had been turned into an industrial–style embalming/mummification area. It shows how ancient Egyptian undertakers combined incredible techniques to get the job done. Mummification and embalming weren’t the same, though. Modern embalming slows decay briefly for mourning and burial, using fluid preservatives and sometimes removing organs. Mummification, however, was a second step they took, aimed at achieving permanence and stopping decay entirely. Remember us saying Egyptians went all in? Well, they did, and mummification is all the proof we need.