History and archaeology.

Scotland Island of Gruinard

This island has been banned for almost half a century.

Military tests with anthrax have left a Scottish island contaminated for decades.

India Mysore

This wooden tiger hides an organ... and a political message

An automaton of the Mysore court mingled noises and symbol of power.

United Kingdom Leeds

This royal helmet wears horns... whose origin the museum still doesn’t know

A diplomatic gift from Henry VIII preserves an enigma in its present form.

Egypt ancient objects

To understand these ancient false toes, volunteers tried them.

One experiment tested the possible function of two Egyptian objects.

United Kingdom Barnard Castle

This swan fishes in a river that is not made of water

At the Bowes Museum, an 18th-century automaton animates a landscape of glass and silver.

United States Washington

She was supposed to finish dinner... she became a Blanche House animal.

In 1926, the Coolidge received a raccoon whose fate changed radically.

United States Delaware

The danger of this old book was not hidden in its pages.

In Winterthur, analysis of a green blanket revealed an arsenic-based pigment.

United Kingdom Cambridge

This bridge draws an arch with straight pieces of wood

In Cambridge, an ingenious framework ended up attracting a false attribution to Newton.

United Kingdom Hereford

In this library, books are attached by chains.

In Hereford, the protection of structures has also changed their storage.

United States Harvard

Harvard removed the cover of this book after confirming the material.

A human binding led the library to review its preservation.

Europe World War II

These soldiers were moving tanks... inflatables

The Ghost Army used images, sounds and false signals to deceive the opponent.

United States Dearborn

Ford's "Soy Car" Hides a Lost Formula

The 1941 prototype had plastic panels on a metal structure.

Switzerland Neuchâtel

This mechanical writer can compose a text of forty signs

An 18th-century automaton records a message without a computer.

Zimbabwe Near Masvingo

In Greater Zimbabwe, stones hold without mortar

Monumental walls testify to a medieval African know-how.

Turkey Cappadocia

In Derinkuyu, the city continues under your feet

Galleries and excavated rooms organized an underground refuge.

Norway Svalbard

Seeds from the Arctic found fields

The world seed reserve has been used to replenish collections.

United Kingdom Vindolanda

In Vindolanda, an invitation has been waiting for almost two millennia

Claudia Severa just wanted to see her friend again for her birthday.

Iraq Ur

Ea-Nasir: This Disgruntled Customer Left a Clay Claim

The quality of copper is at the heart of a very old trade dispute.

Roman Empire 4th century

The cup of Lycurgus turns red when the light crosses it

Its secret lies in tiny amounts of metals in the glass.

Egypt Abu Simbel

To save Abu Simbel, we had to cut out the temples

The monuments were reassembled in an artificial cliff.

Germany Nebra

The sky of Nebra has been retouched several times

This bronze disc retains the traces of several versions of its decoration.

Norway Oseberg

Oseberg: the famous Viking tomb housed two women

The wealth of the tomb did not give their names.

Peru Andes

Inca khipus kept accounts in nodes

The cords were a real medium of information.

Antarctica Cape Evans

The ice made George Murray Levick's photo book

An object reappeared in 2012 has regained its place in the archives.

Byzantine manuscript 13th century

Archimedes was hiding under the lines of a prayer book

Reused scrolls have preserved older mathematical texts.

Italy - Pompeii

In Pompeii, a few words with coal shook the calendar

An inscription mentions October 17, before the burial of the house.

Micronesia Yap

In Yap, a fortune can change owners without moving

Rai stones do not work as pocket pieces.

Scotland Isle of Lewis

Lewis warriors bite their shield on the chessboard

These small medieval figures evoke the fearsome berserkers of Scandinavian narratives.

United Kingdom - Lincolnshire

Norton Disney: twelve faces, and still no instructions

This Roman dodecahedron retains an uncertain function.

Turkey Off Ka

Uluburun: A sunken ship carried much more than metal

Its cargo reveals the trades of the Bronze Age.

Italy Herculaneum

Herculaneum: read a charred roller without opening it

X-rays and computation make characters accessible.

China - Dunhuang

The Diamond Sutra displays its date: May 11, 868

A short mention gives a name and date to this printed scroll.

Iraq Mesopotamia

The royal game of Ur had left its rules on a tablet

A written discovery illuminates a much older family of games.

Alps South Tyrol

tzi kept an arrowhead hidden in his shoulder

The 2001 exam changed the understanding of his death.

Japan Average Jmonmon Period

Jmonmon pottery brings flames to the edge of the vase

These spectacular shapes were modeled in clay.

Peru Churunga Valley

Wari panels hid tropical colors in the desert

Aras feathers make up blue and yellow surfaces.

On the Isles of Scilly, a peace has been signed for a war whose existence is being discussed.

The 1986 ceremony is more certain than the legal status of the conflict it closed.

How did a severed ear give its name to a war?

Behind an almost absurd name are maritime violence, trade and political pressure.

In London, this flood came neither from the rain nor from the Thames.

In 1814, the rupture of a vat turns a brewery into a source of disaster.

Sweden Kiruna

This church has traveled five kilometers... without being dismantled

In August 2025, an entire building accompanies the relocation of an urban center.

North America San Juan

How did a pig trigger a crisis between two powers?

In 1859, a vegetable garden became the starting point for a military escalation.

Italy Rome

The accused was dead... we still organized his trial

In 897, the enemies of Pope Formosa attacked him.

Italy Modena and Bologna

Did a single bucket really start a war?

The trophy exists, but its history has become bigger than it.

China Shaanxi

Why did an entire army wait underground?

Thousands of figures accompanied an emperor in an immense funeral universe.

United Kingdom

Why did the trains force the clocks to agree?

A schedule quickly becomes confusing when each city follows its own time.

United Kingdom and Mexico

They were already teaching at Oxford before the foundation of Tenochtitlan.

Two landmarks that our imagination rarely places on the same line of time.

Australia Campion

Why were Australian soldiers sent against birds?

The "war of the emus" tells of an agricultural operation that has become an embarrassing episode.

France Paris

What invention helped save the Eiffel Tower?

His silhouette seems eternal. At first, his future was far from certain.

Zanzibar, Tanzania

A war ended before the end of an hour: what happened in Zanzibar?

The conflict of August 27, 1896 is often told with a timer too precise.

How to hide two Nobel medals in the eyes of the Nazis?

To subtract two gold medals from the Nazis, a chemist makes them lose their shape.

Why did this powerful ship sink on its first voyage?

The Vasa had to embody power. His first trip became a disaster.

Did you know that a king of England was found under a parking lot?

Archaeological research joins a forgotten tomb in the heart of Leicester.

What was this calculating machine doing in an ancient shipwreck?

A corroded object reveals an unexpected mechanical sophistication.

A boat, a treasure... but where did the deceased go?

In Sutton Hoo, the absence of a skeleton was not the last word of the investigation.

How did a wave of molasses ravage a Boston neighborhood?

In Boston, a familiar liquid reveals the violence that can take an immense amount of material.

How did a broken stone help decipher hieroglyphics?

Rosetta stone is precious because its text responds to itself.