The Morgue
The Archive
Every story we have printed, from the merely odd to the frankly impossible. Filter by strangeness, section, source or month.
32 stories match · page 1 of 2
-
Sphinx Rock Yields Long-Snouted Crocodile Missing Its Nose, Like the Sphinx Itself
Researchers name a 45-million-year-old gavial Herugavialis cairensis after reexamining skull fossils unearthed in the 1920s and long mistaken for a living species.
-
Roman Coffin at Westminster Abbey Holds a Medieval Abbot, Study Suggests
A new paper in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association names two 11th-century abbots as candidates for the skeleton found in a sarcophagus inscribed to a Roman Briton.
-
King of the Dutch Dolmens Keeps Its Counsel at Borger
The Netherlands' largest megalithic tomb, said to be over 5,000 years old, still guards a sealed chamber and a good many questions.
-
Wombat-Tunnel Robot Sent Beneath Turkish Mound Some Believe Holds Noah's Ark
A small Australian-built machine named Gopher has been lowered into boreholes at the Durupınar formation as a 90-day field season ends and laboratory work begins.
-
Louisiana Earthworks Said to Predate the Great Pyramid by Nearly a Thousand Years
A Reddit post holds that eleven mounds at Watson Brake, built by hunter-gatherers, still puzzle scientists some 5,500 years on.
-
Tiny Copper Ornament Said to Overturn Old Notions of Far Southern Metalworkers
A paywalled preview from Ancient Pages claims a paper-thin metal object has upended long-held assumptions about nomadic peoples of the far south.
-
Roman Coffin Beneath Westminster Abbey May Hold Saxon Abbot, Not Roman Gentleman
New study suggests the skeleton in a long-puzzling sarcophagus belongs to an 11th-century churchman, rather than the Briton named on its stone.
-
Roman Cave in Eastern Iberia Yields 120 Inscriptions to a Goddess Called 'the Lady'
Researchers report the largest collection of Latin cave inscriptions known from the Roman Empire, pointing to a sanctuary where women took a leading ritual part.
-
Lost Inca Roads Found Beneath Jungle Canopy Near Machu Picchu
A Polish-Peruvian team says laser scanning from drones has revealed more than 2.5 kilometers of forgotten pre-Columbian road on Mount Yanantin.
-
Smoky Workshop Beside Sudan Temple Suggests Kush Was No Mere Copy of Egypt
Archaeologists report a faience factory at the Sanam temple, and say it points to a distinctly Kushite form of royal control.
-
Windswept Island's Graveyard of Forgotten Kings Said to Hold a Curse and Restless Figures
A teaser for a members-only article describes cold spots, phantom chanting and unexplained magnetic readings, though the island itself goes unnamed.
-
Tennessee Farmer Said to Vanish Mid-Stride Before Five Witnesses in 1880
A podcast episode revisits the tale of David Lang, whose children were said to have heard his cries from a circle of grass months afterward.
-
Alaskan 'Base Camp' of 13,800 Years Past Offers Clues to Bridge Between Two Continents
A University of Kansas-led team reports that tools and living areas at Shég' Xdaltth'í' may link the peoples on either side of the Beringia Land Bridge.
-
Stone Clock of Puebla Said to Pre-Date Maya Rivals by Centuries
Archaeologists with Mexico's INAH report that a vast complex at Teteles de Ávila Castillo served as a solar observatory some 2,500 years ago.
-
Oldest Known Shipwreck Said Found Off Turkish Coast, Cargo Intact After 4,500 Years
Marine archaeologists report a Bronze Age wreck near Kekova Island that, if the dating holds, displaces a Greek find as the earliest on record.
-
Columbus 'Had Better PR,' Says Archaeologist, As Older Voyagers Await Their Due
A digest of recent reports ranges from Norse landings and an Inuit carving to a sunken ring at Alexandria, a pharaonic burial puzzle and a crocodile at the Sphinx.
-
Jungle Fortress With No Gates Proves to Be Work of Nature, Not Masons
A moss-draped wall of stone columns in Vinh Son, Vietnam, resembles a citadel but is said to be millions of years old and entirely natural.
-
Ancient Observatory, Oldest Shipwreck and a Moon Hole Lead Wednesday's Oddments
The Daily Grail's roundup for October 14 spans a 2,500-year-old Mexican observatory, a vampire older than Dracula, and a cavern said to lurk beneath the lunar surface.
-
Search Party Lands at Nikumaroro to Inspect Lagoon Object Thought to Be Earhart's Plane
An expedition has reached the remote Pacific island, where a five-day inspection of the so-called Taraia Object is to begin.
-
Hidden Stone Circles of Odd-Numbered Stones Emerge from Norwegian Burial Ground
Archaeologists at Hunnfeltet, near Fredrikstad, report circles of 9, 11, 13 or 15 stones whose purpose remains unsettled.
-
Royal Archive of 184 Clay Tablets Surfaces in Turkey, Bearing Fevers, Omens and Appeals for Chariots
Excavators at Kayalıpınar report that a 3,400-year-old Hittite archive records an epidemic, a dead infant princess and generals pleading for reinforcements.
-
Bronze Ring Bearing Lost Lighthouse Recovered From Sunken Palace Off Alexandria
Divers working among the drowned ruins of Antirhodos have found what is said to be the first known signet ring depicting the vanished Wonder of the ancient world.
-
Clovis People Found Living 9,000 Feet Up Montana Peaks, Earlier Than Thought Possible
An archaeologist calls the site a place and ecosystem that 'shouldn't exist,' as a digest of antiquity news also surveys glyphs, a possible female king and Mycenaean burials.
-
Hampshire Church Yields Labyrinth Hidden Beneath Altar Table for Over a Century
Heritage charity invites the public to help explain a 1,500-tile floor pattern and the curious behaviour of sunlight at St Mary's, Itchen Stoke.
-
Ice Age Carvers Copied the Tusk's Own Grain, Study of Ukrainian Venus Figurines Finds
An international team reports that ornaments on 18,000-year-old mammoth-ivory figurines from Mizyn echo the natural growth lines of the tusk itself.
