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Extraordinary people, discoveries, and places

DANUBIAN ROUTE OF YAMNAYA CULTURE PROJECT, NATIONAL SCIENCE CENTER, POLAND

The first Europeans weren't who you might think

The idea that there were once "pure" populations of ancestral Europeans has inspired ideologues since well before the Nazis. Now scientists are delivering answers to the question of who Europeans really are and where they came from. Their findings suggest that the continent has been a melting pot since the Ice Age.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

COURTESY DAVID RUMSEY MAP COLLECTION

How an obscure, anti-science religious sect mapped the cosmos

The Muggletonian view of the universe was based on their reading of Scripture, and they insisted against all evidence to the contrary that the sun orbited the Earth, not the other way around. While their worldview was dead wrong, it inspired beautiful maps with enduring appeal.

SEE MORE OF THEIR MAPS

ILLUSTRATION BY UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE, GETTY

Busting the myth of Friday the 13th and the Knights Templar

The medieval religious order of unmarried men was formed around A.D. 1119 to defend the Kingdom of Jerusalem and protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades. Eventually they were accused of heresy, and—on Friday the 13th—arrested. That's where the conspiracy theories begin.

FALSE ACCUSATIONS

PHOTOGRAPH BY GOVERNMENT OF YUKON

This 57,000-year-old wolf puppy is offering new insights into the Ice Age

The oldest and most complete wolf mummy ever discovered is a juvenile female, part of a vanished ecosystem dating to a time when northwestern Canada was home to American mastodons and other Pleistocene megafauna.

HER PREHISTORIC LIFE AND DEATH

QUOTE

Everything from hair and eye color to the inability to digest milk can be determined from a thousandth of an ounce of bone or tooth.

Andrew Curry, writer

FROM: The first Europeans weren't who you might think

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARY EVANS/SCALA, FLORENCE

How Egypt's ancient city of divine cats was rediscovered

The cat goddess Bastet was worshipped for thousands of years in ancient Egypt. Her sacred city is even mentioned in the Bible as a pagan shrine that will be destroyed by the wrath of God. After declining and falling into ruin over the millennia, this mysterious city captured the imagination of 19th-century European archaeologists.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

PHOTOGRAPH BY NIGEL HICKS, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Along Hadrian's Wall, ancient Rome's temples, towers, and cults come to life

New discoveries are still rising from the coast-to-coast wall that once marked the edge of the Roman Empire.

OTHER GREAT READS

The shipwrecks rewriting ancient history (BBC) ››

Did Jesse James bury Confederate gold? These treasure hunters think so. (Washington Post) ››

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