History Scavenger Hunt Pop culture has its crocodile hunters, ghost hunters, and more. But Matthew Moore is something different. He’s become a statue hunter, seeking out the places where since-relocated Soviet monuments once stood, and then the monuments themselves. It’s harder than you might think: in most places, all remaining traces of Soviet occupation have been erased. But Moore has an eagle eye for the nearly-invisible, with his search taking him all over Eastern Europe. By identifying these spaces, he hopes to examine how societies control historical narratives through interventions in the landscape.  READ MORE →

GASTRO OBSCURA Beer Cans and Archaeology For most people, archaeology conjures images of timeworn tombs and temples. But archaeologists have long relied on garbage for its insights into the society that produced it. In one particular case, archaeologist David Maxwell has zeroed in on one particular form of trash: beer cans. Maxwell is the world’s foremost—and probably only—archaeological scholar of beer cans, and collects them to decipher chronological and cultural data that could yield valuable insights. READ MORE →

URSVIK, SWEDEN Gunpowder Track These pathways, found in the cities of Solna and Sundbyberg, were once home to train tracks that were used to transport important military cargo across the countryside. The tracks ran from the Northern Main Line just north of Ulriksdal to Tygförvaltningen, and were hidden in the forest to move munitions. The track was so secretive, it was omitted from all maps. READ MORE →

Miniature Quran This miniature Quran, currently on display in the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a marvel: the totality of a divine scripture within the space of a matchbox, forming part of an enameled gold locket that’s bedecked with diamonds and rubies. But look beyond its opulence, and you’ll find that it’s an artifact of devotion, wealth, and empire. READ MORE →

WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT Abandoned Fairy Village Nestled into the woods at the end of a service road, in view of a major interstate highway in Connecticut, is the crumbling ruins of a fairy village. Forgotten by most, and overlooked by the rest, the “Little People Village” of Waterbury, Connecticut, slowly sinks back into the forest. READ MORE →

FROM THE ARCHIVES A Missing Grave Margaret Corbin was a Revolutionary War veteran, and is the only woman veteran honored with a monument at West Point. For years, the location of her exact burial was known only by word-of-mouth, passed down through generations. Her remains were exhumed in the 20th century and delivered to West Point to be reburied with a military funeral. And that was the end of the story—until 2016, at least, when an emergency forensic archaeological excavation revealed that the bones in Corbin’s supposed grave were not Corbin’s at all. READ MORE →

QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA The Red Ghost of Quartzsite In the 1880s, stories spread throughout Arizona of a giant red horse with a devil on its back. The Red Ghost trampled a woman to death, tore through a second campground, and supposedly flipped over two freight wagons at a third. At the scene of each event were signs of the creature: enormous hoof marks larger than any horse, and strands of red hair. READ MORE →

SPONSORED BY NISSAN The Astronomer Who Sketched the Sun As World War II raged, and guided by a path lit by a rogue spirit deep within, Hisako Koyama made her first forays into the work that would captivate her all her life. She initially wanted to study the moon, but when her telescope wasn’t strong enough, she turned her attention to the sun, tracking sunspots consistently over time which eventually earned her a job at the Tokyo Science Museum. READ MORE →