March 30, 2023

UNDERWATER FINDS  A Drowned Medieval Spice Cabinet  Built in 1485, the Danish warship Gribshundenserved as the flagship for King Hans of Denmark and Norway as he sailed to Sweden. But on one of his trips, the ship mysteriously caught fire and sank to the bottom of the Baltic. In 2021, divers excavating the shipwreck discovered something remarkable: a treasure trove of spices, plant material, fruits, nuts, and cereals, that somehow survived underwater for more than 500 years.  READ MORE →   GASTRO OBSCURA ‘Red Passovers’ In the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet Union and its Communist Party was intent on pushing Soviet Jews to abandon religion in favor of a secular Jewish identity. In order to do this, the Party launched “Red Passovers,” Communist satires of the Jewish beloved springtime meal celebrating the Jews’ deliverance from Egypt. Today, the diaspora of Jews from the former Soviet Union are still feeling the impact of Red Seders and other projects targeting the Jewish religion. READ MORE →   BARNEGAT TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY Cedar Bridge Tavern Travel down a dirt road, not far from the festivities of the Jersey Shore, and you can find a historical relic: the oldest surviving bar in the United States, located at the site of the last skirmish of the American Revolution. READ MORE →   SPONSORED BY CHARLOTTE REGIONAL VISITORS AUTHORITY Get Curious in the Queen City Spark your curiosities with a trip to Charlotte. From history tours on foot, bike or Segway to braving Class IV whitewater rapids, the Queen City is home to an array of intriguing activities that are sure to pique your interest and ignite your inner explorer. DISCOVER YOUR CHARLOTTE ADVENTURE →   THE ATLAS OBSCURA PODCAST Odd and Amazing Public Art Atlas Obscura has always been fascinated with unusual examples of public art, and we’ve taken that interest to our award-winning podcast as well. From a hand-carved carousel in Colorado, to a controversial dog statue in London, to a Christmas tree made entirely of tumbleweed in Arizona, here are some of our favorites from the first two years of our daily audio stories. LISTEN NOW →   THỌ QUANG, VIETNAM Lady Buddha Buddhists the world over have built plenty of tall statues of Buddha. But “Buddha” does not just mean the man born Siddhartha Gautama. “Buddha” also means “Enlightened One,” and there’s no reason why a great sage can’t be a woman. The Linh Ung Pagoda, just outside Da Nang, Vietnam, hosts a statue of an indisputably feminine Buddha—the largest of its kind in Vietnam. READ MORE →   ATLAS OBSCURA COURSES The Art of Death In this online course, we’ll take an inquisitive and interdisciplinary approach to thinking about death and dying. We’ll learn about different practices in rituals surrounding dying, death, and mourning, and draw upon materials and experts in all kinds of death-related fields, from death doulas to scientists who use flesh-eating beetles to clean carcasses. By the end of the course, we’ll investigate not only what happens to the dying and dead, but also what happens to the living as we come to think deeply about the other side. ENROLL NOW →   FOODS FROM HISTORY 106-Year-Old Fruitcake It’s not uncommon to re-find forgotten holiday fruitcake months after the event—or in the case of one fruitcake from Antarctica, a century after the event. Conservators from the New Zealand-run Antarctic Heritage Trust found themselves faced with this kind of a figgy phenomenon while excavating an abandoned hut some 2,500 miles from the South Pole. The tin that the fruitcake was in had begun to deteriorate, but the cake looked, according to the researchers, “almost edible”. READ MORE →   WASHINGTON, D.C. Grace Hopper's Bug On September 9, 1947, Harvard’s Mark II Aiken Relay computer was malfunctioning. After rooting through the massive machine to find the cause of the problem, Admiral Grace Hopper, who worked in the Navy’s engineering program at Harvard, found the bug. It was an actual insect. READ MORE →   ATLAS OBSCURA TRIPS Iceland in Summer Between strange encounters with peculiar elves and supernatural creatures, Icelanders have their fair share of mythical tales. On this tour, we’ll traverse the paths of ancient legends, circumnavigating Iceland with a focus on storytelling as our expert guides reveal the geologic, human, and mystical history of this land. BOOK NOW →