April 25, 2022

MUSEUM MANUSCRIPTS  Armenia’s Culinary History  The Matenadaran, a museum in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, contains over 23,000 of Armenia’s oldest, rarest, and most valuable documents. Just 10 of these manuscripts relate to food. Its modest collection of food manuscripts is helping researchers like Sonia Tashjian discover how Armenians ate and lived in centuries past. Guided by documents like these, she aims to recover an essential part of the country’s threatened history.  READ MORE → FOREST SCIENCE The Joys of Canopy Soil The Hall of Mosses, a looped hiking trail in Washington State’s Hoh Rain Forest, is known for a kind of otherworldly lusciousness. Most people recognize the trees for their beauty, but on the tree branches and beneath the trailing moss, is a soil formed from fallen leaves, airborne particulates, and moisture. Built up over decades or centuries, this canopy soil provides a home for insects, fungi, birds, worms, and epiphytes, which are plants that grow on other plants—and much of this life never touches the ground. It’s an aerial ecosystem, a network of life that’s only possible in old-growth forests. READ MORE → ISTANBUL, TURKEY Viking Runes at Hagia Sophia Graffiti has been around since forever. A key example of this is at the massive basilica of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, where a bored Viking mercenary carved his name into the white marble parapet that surrounds the balcony of the church’s upper gallery. His runic inscription is still visible today. They read, approximately, “Halfdan carved these runes,” or “Halfdan was here.” Some things just never change. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA VIDEO The Legacy of Wine in Cincinnati Kate MacDonald is on a mission to make wine that connects to its place, and that’s just what she’s done with Skeleton Root. This winery was created to resurrect American heritage grape varieties that filled her hometown of Cincinnati in the mid-1800s, starting with the wines that put America on the wap: dry still white Catawba and Catawba bubbly. WATCH NOW → THE SPICE OF LIFE Wasabi as Ant Repellent? Have you ever been bitten by a fire ant? Our sympathies, if so. It can take up to a week to recover from their fierce stings, which cause large, hot welts, intense itching, and just a very unhappy outlook toward life. But a team of Japanese and Taiwanese entomologists might have a pungent solution at hand involving wasabi. Researchers found that lacing ant traps with a microencapsulated form of allyl isothiocyanate (AITC), an organic compound that causes the pungency in wasabi, horseradish, and mustard, kept fire ants away. That’s a spicy take, alright. READ MORE → HALLANDALE BEACH, FLORIDA Pegasus and Dragon Pegasus and Dragon is an eye-catching attraction at Gulfstream Park, a racetrack and casino in Hallandale Beach, Florida. At a staggering 110 feet tall and weighing more than 700 tons, it’s no surprise the artwork clocks in as the second-tallest statue in the contiguous United States. Pegasus is thought to be the largest bronze equine statue in the world. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA TRIPS Exploring Puerto Rico, the Island of Enchantment Explore beyond the beaches and shopping districts to discover the rich heritage of Puerto Rico. Get a glimpse into the island’s African roots and their influence on modern-day culture and immerse yourself in the authentic island life — enjoying local cuisine, lush green nature, and exploring the local art and music scenes. BOOK YOUR TRIP → MYSTERY MESSAGES The Secret of Toynbee Tiles Believed to be made of linoleum and asphalt crack sealant, the license plate-sized, colorful mosaic tiles have been seen in about two dozen major American cities since the 1980s. Typically inscribed with the phrase “TOYNBEE IDEA IN MOViE `2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER,” these tiles were originally discovered in Philadelphia but have also been documented in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Margate, New Jersey, Chicago, Boston, Kansas City, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., New York City, and even South America. They’re known as the Toynbee Tiles, and their origin and purpose are a bit of a mystery. READ MORE → EHLANZENI, SOUTH AFRICA Adam's Calendar Known to only a select few and accessible solely by rough dirt roads past the wild horses of Kaapschehoop, this megalithic stone calendar is dubbed Adam’s Calendar. With the shape of a circle and a diameter of 100 feet, it is nicknamed the “Birthplace of the Sun” and dubbed “Africa’s Stonehenge.” As of now, the true age, origin, and purpose of Adam’s Calendar remains a mystery that is yet to be solved. READ MORE →