Enlarge / Anachronistic baroque painting of the pivotal Battle of Actium by Laureys a Castro, 1672. (credit: Public domain) Historians widely consider the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE to be the decisive event that led to Octavian defeating Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The couple committed suicide—Antony by stabbing himself in the stomach, and Cleopatra […]
Enlarge / A view of the tent as the rescuers found it on February 26, 1959. The tent had been cut open from inside, and most of the skiers had fled in socks or barefoot. (credit: Public Domain) In February 1959, nine young Russian hikers perished during a cross-country skiing trek through the northern Ural […]
Enlarge / This is the stern of the good ship Endurance, which sank off the coast of Antarctica in 1915 after being crushed by pack ice. The Endurance22 expedition has located the shipwreck in pristine condition after nearly 107 years. (credit: Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust/NatGeo) In 1915, intrepid British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his […]
An ecological model has been applied to estimate the number of lost medieval manuscripts in Europe. Those who study human culture must grapple with what amounts to an incomplete data set, since researchers are limited to poring over the books, manuscripts, paintings, sculptures, and other artifacts that have survived to learn about a given period. […]
Enlarge / Section of the so-called “Tavistock letter,” written by Charles Dickens in his idiosyncratic shorthand. The crowd-sourced transcription, now 70 percent complete, reveals a dispute between Dickens and The Times of London. (credit: Public domain) Last October, a collaboration called The Dickens Code project made a public appeal to amateur puzzle fans and codebreakers […]
Enlarge / Otto Frank’s copy of an anonymous note he received, allegedly identifying the person who betrayed the Frank family. The note is offered as evidence that a Jewish leader named Arnold van den Bergh was the most likely culprit in The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Rosemary Sullivan. (credit: YouTube/60 Minutes/CBS) Last month, we […]
Enlarge / Anne Frank in 1940. A new book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation , by Rosemary Sullivan, claims that a retired FBI special agent and a team of investigators have solved the mystery of who betrayed the Frank family to the Nazis. (credit: Public domain) Former FBI special agent Vincent […]
Enlarge / Rhys Darby stars as gentleman pirate Stede Bennett in the upcoming HBO Max comedy series Our Flag Means Death. (credit: YouTube/HBO Max) It’s no secret that Ars staffers are big Taika Waititi fans. He always brings his distinctly quirky sensibility to his projects, from What We Do in the Shadows, Wellington Paranormal, and Hunt for […]
Enlarge / The ship’s ram as it was found on the seabed off Sicily at a depth of nearly 90 m, covered in marine life. (credit: K. Egorov/SDSS-GUE) Shipwrecks hold an enduring fascination, both because of how they connect us to the past and because of the potentially priceless treasures that could be lurking within […]
Enlarge / A vessel from the Wari site of Conchopata features the tree and its tell-tale seed pods sprouting from the head of the Staff God. (credit: J. Ochatoma Paravicino/M. E. Biwer et al., 2022) Lacing the beer served at their feasts with hallucinogens may have helped an ancient Peruvian people known as the Wari forge […]