June 07, 2022

FUNGI FUN  Ancient Cave Art and Psychedelic Mushrooms  Archaeologists have documented about 15,000 drawings and engravings in the Tassili n’Ajjer region, which is designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and is one of the most important collections of cave art in the world. Depictions include your expected menagerie of animals, wild and domesticated, as well as humanoid figures with oversized heads who appear to be flying. Dated from 9,500 to 7,000 BC, the images of levitating people, as well as masked “shaman” figures with large mushrooms sprouting from their bodies, may be the earliest depictions of the ritual use of psilocybin-producing, psychotropic mushrooms.  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA What Is ‘Caramel’ Pie? You’d think it would involve caramel, wouldn’t you? Joke’s on you. Damson caramel pie (sometimes simply called caramel pie) contains a generous measure of damson plum preserves—a jam with an intensely plummy, almost spiced flavor—blended into a rich base of butter, eggs, sugar, and a dash of vanilla extract. Today, however, most people would be hard pressed to even tell you what a damson is, much less offer a recipe for its signature jam pie. To explain the rise and fall of the pie, one needs to examine the history of the damson. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA PUZZLES Secrets of the Original Code-Talkers With about 7,000 speakers, Choctaw is one of the 10 most-spoken Native American languages in the United States. In autumn 1918, a group of Choctaw soldiers were dispatched to strategic positions in World War I. The Choctaw Telephone Squad began communicating in their mother tongue, and, say historians, their messages were instrumental in helping the Allies win key battles in the final weeks of the war. Now, you can try your own hand at translating. READ MORE → THE BRONX, NEW YORK West 230th Step Street Upper Manhattan and The Bronx are notorious for their many hills; to make things a little easier the city built stairs on slopes too steep for a regular road. While the step street at West 167th Street in Highbridge is probably the most famous thanks to its role in 2019’s Joker film, the step street at West 230th is famous in its own ways. Namely, for the fact that it’s the longest step street in the city. READ MORE → ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME Ancient Roman Road Networks In today’s terms, it’s hard to fathom how much of the world the Romans once controlled. At its peak, the Roman Empire spanned from Hadrian’s Wall in Scotland to Morocco, from the banks of the Rhine River bordering Germania, to Egypt, and east to the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia. Thousands of years later, monuments of Roman glory and imperialism still stand throughout Europe, but the Romans’ most impressive achievement, and most important contribution to modern Europe, lies underfoot. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA COURSES | STARTS 6/7 Mating Rituals of the Animal Kingdom In this 4-part lecture series, join science communicator Dr. Sarah McAnulty for a breathtaking spin through the myriad mechanisms species use to swap their genes and the spectacular, complex, and sometimes goofy approaches they take to get there. ENROLL TODAY → HOP TO IT Does America Have Kangaroos? As far as conventional science is concerned, kangaroos of any and all variety are endemic to the Australian continent. They are not found anywhere else. But if dubious reports of the elusive phantom kangaroo are to be believed, the iconic marsupials can be found all over the world. Also known as “Errant Kangaroos,” according to multiple (admittedly spurious) cryptozoology guides, reports of these mythic marsupials stretch as far back as the 19th century. READ MORE → MILFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE Caroline Cutter Headstone In Milford, New Hampshire, there’s a gravestone that just won’t stop talking. It belongs to one Caroline Cutter, who died in the mid-1800s. It’s simple, white, and rectangular, and is crammed with about 150 words of painstakingly etched accusation, courtesy of her husband, Dr. Calvin Cutter. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA TRIPS Scottish Highlands and the Trail of Tartan Experience the best of the stunning Scottish Highlands. Go behind the scenes of Scotland’s oldest and most revered kilt-makers, dine with the Earl of Cromartie the current chief of Clan Mackenzie, and dance to traditional Cèilidh tunes in Old Town Edinburgh. BOOK TODAY → NUTS HISTORY Origin of Macadamia Nuts The summer of 2018, a shocking discovery rattled the relatively stagnant field of commercial macadamia nut research. The vast majority of the world’s commercial macadamia crops originated from a single 19th-century tree in the tiny town of Gympie in Queensland, Australia, according to a study in Frontiers in Plant Science. It’s basically the Genghis Khan of macadamia nut trees, progeny-wise. READ MORE → MANHATTAN, NEW YORK A Hotel’s Secret Entrance Deep in the subway system below Times Square, there’s a white door that goes largely unnoticed, tucked away on the end of the platform of Track 1 on the S shuttle between Grand Central and Times Square-42nd Street. Atop the door is a faded metal sign which simply says “KNICKERBOCKER,” and behind it once lay a secret entrance to the bar of what was once one of New York’s most splendid accommodations: John Jacob Astor’s Knickerbocker hotel. READ MORE →