grave week
4 Grave Secrets From New York's Past
In the spirit of Halloween, consider a tour of graveyards, memorials, and other places in touch with the afterlife.
All Stories
grave week
Medieval Europeans Didn't Have Tupperware, They Had Pastry Coffins
The barely edible container was the progenitor of pie.
mexico
The Ancient Mesoamerican City That Spawned Copies of Itself
New laser imaging shows Izapa's suburbs were like mini-capitals.
grave week
Bury Me in an Artificial Reef
One Florida-based company offers a second life at sea by adding cremains to something called a reef ball.
grave week
How a Dublin Pub Became a Haunt for Gravediggers and Ghosts Alike
The watering hole sits next to a cemetery and has stories to match.
loneliest graves
An Underwater Grave Site Was Untouched for 7,000 Years
Once far above sea level, this gravesite is now deep under the ocean.
installations
Virginia Has Its Own Stonehenge, But It's Made Out of Foam
It even works like its predecessor.
grave week
In 1590, Starving Parisians Ground Human Bones Into Bread
During a siege, desperation drove people to disinter skeletons from cemeteries.
pregnancy
A Fetus Can Turn to Stone in Its Mother's Body and Go Undiscovered for Decades
"Stone babies"—or lithopedions—are incredibly rare.
scary stories
8 Inspiring Stories of Getting Over a Food Fear
Conquering a culinary anxiety isn't always pretty, but it can be pretty tasty.
grave week
The Cucumber Horses and Eggplant Cows That Welcome Back the Dead
During the Japanese summer festival Obon, ancestral spirits come home.
oysters
How Oysters Kept a King Satisfied and Women in Charge
In Cancale, the seasonal absence of men meant women ran the show.
bronze
What's the Best Bronze Statue Where You Live?
Help us immortalize your favorite local monument.
teeth
We Always Thought This Dinosaur Was a Vegetarian, Then We Found Its Front Teeth
A sharp surprise from Montana's Hell Creek.
puzzles
Decoding (Most of) an 18th-Century 'Riddle Menu'
Our readers offer up their answers and theories.
grave week
What Can a Linguist Learn From a Gravestone?
Plenty, it turns out.
tortoises
Why Some Gravestones Are Shaped Like Tortoises
They originated as ancient Chinese funerary markers.
loneliest graves
The Abandoned Graveyards on a Thawing Arctic Island
Climate change is causing trouble on Herschel Island.
