145 Items Tagged

Bones

Why is Everyone Fighting Over the Skull of 'Brigand Villella'?

The answer involves pseudoscience, politics, and a burglary at a windmill.

Dania Rodrigues November 4, 2022

Venice Is Almost One Big Plague Graveyard

A city built on water was always going to struggle with burials—especially when a deadly pandemic came to town.

Vittoria Traverso October 27, 2022

19 Catacombs Sure to Tingle Your Spine

These underground galleries bring the living to the world of the dead.

Jonathan Carey October 14, 2022

In Malta, ‘Dead Men’s Bones’ Are a Sweet, Spiritual Tradition

The cookies are just one way that the island nation remembers the dead.

Alice Levitt October 11, 2022

Magdeburg, Germany

Guericke-Einhorn (Magdeburg Unicorn)

This 17th-century "unicorn" was cobbled together from the skull of a rhinoceros, the legs of a mammoth, and the horn of a narwhal.

A ‘Weird’ Ancient Marine Reptile Surfaces Thanks to the ‘Bone Biddies’

The unique plesiosaur defies the fossil rulebook—just ask the “paleogrannies” who prepared it for study.

Gemma Tarlach September 28, 2022

7 Scientific Sites in Los Angeles

Laboratories, observatories, and museums to inspire curious minds.

Sponsored by Los Angeles Tourism

Rømø, Denmark

Whale Jawbone Fence

Danish whalers once brought back whale bones to use as building materials in places where wood was scarce.

North Berwick, Scotland

North Berwick Law

An amazing model of a whale's jaw bone pays homage to the region's seafaring traditions.

Following the Mysterious Trail of Europe's Last Wild Lions

Researchers use art and ancient bones to make the case for modern lions once freely roaming Southeastern Europe.

Katarina Zimmer January 31, 2022

Was René Descartes a Victim of Skull Blasting?

Centuries after the philosopher’s death, lingering controversy over his remains highlights a macabre practice of profiting from the dead.

Gemma Tarlach October 25, 2021

anatomy museums

The Eventful Afterlife of a Crowd of 19th-Century Skulls

Philadelphia’s famed anatomy showplace, the Mütter Museum, gets a facelift.

April White October 18, 2021

The Bone-Shaped Sweets That Honor the Dead in Spain

Make the marzipan "limbs" that commemorate loved ones on All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.

Vera Armus October 15, 2021

Saint-Pol-de-Léon, France

Les Étagères de la Nuit (Shelves of the Night)

Each of these hand-painted wooden boxes, which date to between the 16th and 19th centuries, contains a genuine human skull.

Podcast: Seashell Shrines and Bones With the Places Team

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

The Podcast Team October 7, 2021

Denver, Colorado

The Learned Lemur

A small store filled with animal skulls and other curiosities.

Araluen, Australia

Gympie Bone Museum

Australia's first and only museum dedicated exclusively to bones.

How Scientific Detective Work Pinned Down the Oldest Known Shark Attack

But mysteries about the 3,000-year-old bones from Japan remain.

Hannah Seo July 9, 2021