Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. About 2,200 years ago, a Roman Republic ship sank off the coast of modern-day Croatia, with wood and amphorae (ancient storage containers) of wine on board. Scientists are not sure why it sank, but the Ilovik–Paržine 1 shipwreck was…
Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The entire field of archaeology hinges on what can withstand the test of time. This typically means that most excavations center on hard evidence including structural remains, pottery, weapons, or metalwork. Occasionally, researchers discover something softer that’s been preserved…
Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Egyptian mummies were frequently embalmed using repurposed bits of papyrus with religious texts and other spiritual passages written on it. Amid the ruins of an ancient city roughly 120 miles south of Cairo, archaeologists have identified the first Greco-Roman…
Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. (Left), the axonometric hand drawing of the polybolos, by A.R., was partially colored by V.C. using the graphic post-production software GIMP 3.0.4.; (right), the 3D model by C. Formicola based on the surviving module of the Scorpion of Ampurias…
Examining 31 ancient societies across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, researchers found that democratic systems were more widespread than once believed — and not determined by population size or geography. The Acropolis at Athens by Leo von Klenze. The word ‘democracy’ was, of course, invented by the Greeks — demokratia meant simply that people (demos)…
