Antiquity was the pits. For every advancement in philosophy or mathematics, you had half a dozen crazed aristocrats high on mercury potions trying to remove your limbs in bold new ways. Here are five particularly egregious ways to kick it centuries ago — they involve (among many things) honey, wine, eels, and…

Called geoglyphs, these strange circular patterns etched into the rocky sands from Saudi Arabia to Syria have no known meaning or origin. Though archaeologists say they likely date back over 2,000 years, there are no records of who made them, nor why they would make such elaborate patterns that can only be appreciated …

Want to help transcribe ancient Greek texts from the comfort of your couch? Have no understanding of the Greek language? That's ok! With Egypt Exploration Society and Oxford University's Ancient Lives project, you can contribute to the work of researchers who are digitizing — and eventually decoding — the vast holdings …

A man was recently arrested while trying to steal a statue of the emperor Caligula. The would-be thief led the Italian police to a previously unknown tomb that might just be the final resting place of Rome's craziest emperor.

Few cultures are as sexually liberated as those of the ancient Amazon rainforest. Nearly 70 percent of the tribes practiced multiple paternity, in which all of a woman's sexual partners were fathers to her children.

Kuelap, in Peru, boasts an ancient mountain fortress surrounded by a massive stone wall. It's at the center of a once-thriving metropolis, abandoned half a millennium ago. The stone ruin remains a mystery - but now you can visit it.

In the depths of the Amazonian forest, long believed to be uninhabitable, archaeologists say there is evidence that a thriving civilization existed. 20 million people lived there, managing the forest, and left evidence of their complex lives behind.

National Geographic has just republished an essay written in 1923, by a journalist who ventured inside King Tut's tomb shortly after it was excavated - and told his tale with low-key swashbuckling flair.

Original Greek statues were brightly painted, but after thousands of years, those paints have worn away. Find out how shining a light on the statues can be all that's required to see them as they were thousands of years ago.

The Great Pyramid of Giza has been extensively studied (and looted) since its construction 4,500 years ago. But some tunnels are too small or too fragile for human archaeologists to explore - that's when they send in the robots.