Features
Features May/June 2026
The Unexpected World of the Odyssey
Discovering the surprising inspirations behind Homer’s great tales of the Trojan War
RECENT Features
Features May/June 2026
Pioneers of Lakefront Living
Why Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers in the Alps built their villages on stilts
Features May/June 2026
The Last Maya Kingdom
On the shores of a lake in Guatemala, the Itzá people defied the Spanish for nearly 200 years
Features May/June 2026
Art for the Ages
A surreal style of painting endured for 4,000 years in the canyonlands of West Texas
Features May/June 2026
Bridge to the Past
The Yellow River brought both prosperity and calamity to China’s dazzling medieval capital By Ling Xin
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Features September/October 2025
Myth of the Golden Dragon
Eclectic artifacts from tombs in northeastern China tell the story of a little-known dynasty
Photograph courtesy Liaoning Provincial Museum, Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and Chaoyang County Museum -
Features September/October 2025
Remote Sanctuary at the Crossroads of Empire
Ancient Bactrians invented distinct ways to worship their gods 2,300 years ago in Tajikistan
Gunvor Lindström/Excavations supported by the German Research Foundation -
Features July/August 2025
Italy’s Garden of Monsters
Why did a Renaissance duke fill his wooded park with gargantuan stone sculptures?
Courtesy Cosimo Monteleone, Rachele Bernardello, and Paolo Borin -
Features July/August 2025
Setting Sail for Valhalla
Vikings staged elaborate spectacles to usher their rulers into the afterlife
Museum of the Viking Age, University of Oslo -
Features July/August 2025
The Home of the Weather God
In northern Anatolia, archaeologists have discovered the source of Hittite royal power
Tolga İldun -
Features July/August 2025
In Search of Lost Pharaohs
Anubis Mountain conceals the tombs of an obscure Egyptian dynasty
Photos by Josef W. Wegner for the Penn Museum