How do archaeologists determine how old something is?

Flip through centuries-old artifacts in this 3D library

Archaeology is hands-on work, giving researchers the ability to analyze artifacts from as many sides as possible to find marks left by those that came before us. While looking at pictures of artifacts gives you some insight, you're limited to...

What is Archaeology?

If you are up-to-date on your Jurassic Park lore, then you likely already know the answer to this question. But for those of us who didn't delve into the world in dinosaurs, it's easy to assume that professionals who study old stuff likely study the remains of what came before us, right? Find out in this article by the Society for American Archaeology.

How do we know what prehistoric humans ate?

Without recourse to ancient menus, how can historians know what our ancient human ancestors—as far as 3 million years ago—ate on a daily basis? Researchers evaluate several factors, including the type of teeth the species had evolved, chemical analysis of the teeth, patterns of wear and tear on teeth, as well as food scraps found in the vicinity of ancient remains. Learn the approach to discovering ancient hominin diets.

Why are archaeologists brewing ancient beers?

Archaeologists have managed to brew beer from yeast found inside jugs abandoned thousands of years ago. This article explores why scientists are recreating these ancient beverages and what they hope to learn. People have been drinking beer for...

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, explained

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded in 1870, houses 1.5 million works spanning centuries—from ancient Egyptian artifacts to impressionist masterpieces. Its iconic Fifth Avenue building, designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, and tranquil Cloisters location reflect its dedication to showcasing global creativity.

How old are stone tools?

The earliest evidence for stone tools currently dates back to 3.3 million years ago, long before modern humans started roaming about. These tools were made by stone flaking, a mode of tool creation that still is used today and is done by striking...

When did people start making and using glass?

This article details the search for the ancient origins of glass, a now-common item through which archaeologists can spot histories of trade and innovation. Bronze Age glass was made from crushed quartz instead of sand, and artisans could color glass with materials such as cobalt. These trace metallic add-ons have given scientists a vital clue into the origins of glass, which is currently debated as either Egypt or the Near East.

Investigating the death of a 5,300-year-old mummy

Authorities generally consider a case to have gone cold once they've run out of leads or the ability to collect and consider new evidence, usually within a few years of the instigating event. Now imagine being a detective charged with investigating a death that happened more than 5,000 years ago. This article details how Alexander Horn, a then-detective inspector, attempted to solve the mystery of Ötzi the Iceman's death.

A timeline of key events during each period of Egyptian history

This timeline shows the dates, periods, dynasties, and significant events in the history and art of ancient Egypt from the Predynastic Period (before 3100 BCE) to the end of the Roman Period (395 CE).

See artifacts from the ancient Olympics at the Met

For nearly a millennium, the ancient Greeks gathered every four years to participate in or watch sports, from footraces to a type of mixed martial art. These events—in some cases known as the Olympics—provided the basis for the modern event, which began in 1896 in Athens.

Radiometric dating uses radioactive isotopes to determine the age of objects

By comparing the amounts of parent and daughter isotopes and knowing how long it takes a sample of the former to become the latter, scientists can estimate when an organism was alive or when rocks formed.

The ancient engineers inspiring modern building practices

Modern concrete structures need replacing every 50 to 100 years, so why are buildings by the Maya, ancient Rome, and ancient China still standing strong? This article details how scientists are looking into humanity's past for clues on how to craft long-lasting structures. Part of the problem is adopting old material recipes to hold up to modern demands.

The oldest DNA recovered so far is 2 million years old

The oldest DNA recovered so far is about 2 million years old and has given scientists an unadulterated peek into ancient history. This nine-minute video explores the findings and implications of the DNA, which was pulled from frozen soil in...

Climate proxies reveal past climate patterns using preserved natural evidence

Scientists use physical, chemical, and biological materials preserved in sediments, ice, and fossils to infer historical climate data. These proxies are studied and calibrated against modern climate conditions to interpret ancient environments accurately.

Archaeologists discovered over 11,000 examples of graffiti in ancient Pompeii

Residents drew various figures and announcements on homes, temples, and walls, much of it preserved by volcanic ash. While some were clearly intended to be artistic, scholars have noted that the ancient graffiti has more in common with social media than with the tags and murals we associate today with the art form.

Nail art can be traced back to 5,000 BCE

Archaeologists discovered Egyptian mummies with nail art and henna-tinted fingertips. The trend would continue informally for centuries until Revlon introduced modern nail polish in 1932.

Archaeologists race to record ancient Nubia

Long ignored by white archaeologists as a mere footnote, modern scientists are now racing to document what’s left of the African civilization. Evidence of ancient Nubia is at risk of vanishing under environmental, societal, and political pressures. This Undark Magazine article walks you through archaeologists' fight to record ancient Nubia.

Photographer finds 120-year-old time capsule, develops the photos

Photographer Mathieu Stern found a century-old time capsule in his family home containing a little girl’s mementos and two glass plate negatives. He used Cyanotype to develop the photographs, unveiling images of the child’s pets. Stern documented the process in a video on YouTube and Instagram, showcasing the final prints of the animals.

The term “Middle Ages” was invented by Renaissance thinkers to belittle the era

The label “Middle Ages” reflects Renaissance writers’ admiration for ancient Greece and Rome, not medieval reality. They frame the post-Roman centuries as a cultural backslide—a view later reinforced by Edward Gibbon and modernized as the “Dark Ages” myth.

What (and when) was Imperial China?

China's first dynasty arose in 1600 BCE, according to current archaeological evidence, and its last dynasty fell in 1911. Learn more about Imperial China in this Smithsonian collection of articles and artifacts on each dynasty. According to...

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

The Antikythera mechanism: The oldest-known analog computer

A device now considered the world's oldest computer was pulled from a shipwreck more than 120 years ago. Known as the "Antikythera Mechanism," it is now believed to have allowed precise tracking of astronomical positions, and its sophistication overturned understanding of Ancient Greek capabilities.

Chronological versus biological age

Science has come to understand different types of aging. What we call age is simply the number of years since birth, or chronological age. At the cellular level, biological aging happens at different rates for different people, and explains why some seem to age more quickly (or slowly).

See original photos of King Tut's tomb in updated color

The 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt revealed new secrets about the civilization to a fascinated world, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Harry Burton captured the discovery in 2,800 black-and-white glass negatives. Nearly a century later, a selection of the images were colorized by experts .

Scientists used mass spectrometry to determine the materials in a 1690 painting

Previously used to map the distribution of molecules on biological tissue samples, researchers combined the technique with machine learning to uncover six layers of pigments, binders, and a thin gold leaf layer within *The Marriage of the Virgin*, from a collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The technique may help identify and track artists' material use to learn about pieces of unknown provenance. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

What one seventh-century European teen might have looked like

A 16-year-old girl believed to have traveled from Central Europe to England in the seventh century was buried with rare, expensive jewelry. Her body was found in Cambridge, England in 2012, and analysis revealed what her face likely looked like. See...

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.