Explore 789 Found Collections - Atlas Obscura
Places near me Random place

789 Items Tagged

Found

Share
The note scribbled by William Melton of Joan's ruse and escape.
medieval

How a 14th-Century Nun Faked Her Own Death

Her escape was documented in the margins of a medieval manuscript.
Jonathan Carey February 18, 2019
The rolled up message read "BREAK" on one side, and "BOTTLE" on the other.
science

Found: A 50-Year-Old Scientific Message, Stuffed in a Bottle

Thousands were cast into the waves in the 1960s, and one turned up in Texas decades later.
Jessica Leigh Hester February 18, 2019
There's Merlin's name in the text recently discovered by librarian Michael Robinson.
libraries

Found: A 13th-Century Tale of Merlin and Arthur, Reused as Bookbinding

The early text can help scholars understand how the legend evolved over time.
Noor Al-Samarrai February 1, 2019
Our advice: When making quinoa, do not burn it, or keep it for 3,000 years.
ancient

Found: Really, Really Old Quinoa

These 3,000-year-old charred seeds are the oldest of their kind ever found in Ontario.
Matthew Taub January 18, 2019
The chart looks pretty good, all things considered.
science

Found: A Very Old Periodic Table, Rolled Up in Storage

The science-y magic of tidying up.
Jessica Leigh Hester January 17, 2019
They turned up during ongoing construction work.
military history

Found: A Slew of Cannonballs Below a Stockholm Street

They'd been there for centuries.
Jessica Leigh Hester December 7, 2018
The Thames mud can provide ideal conditions for the preservation of organic materials such as leather.
shoes

Found: Unfortunate 'Booted Man,' Who Met a Muddy End 500 Years Ago

The footwear would have been well-suited to tromping through the London mud that preserved it.
Anna Kusmer December 6, 2018
The delicate-looking ice is a fleeting wonder.
nature

'Hair Ice' Covered a South Carolina Park Like Beautiful, Gossamer Trash

A ranger initially mistook the clumps for wads of wet toilet paper.
Jessica Leigh Hester December 3, 2018
The entrance to Auschwitz.
music

Musical Arrangements Made at Auschwitz Have Been Uncovered in an Archive

Polish political prisoners played a song called “The Most Beautiful Time of Life" for the SS.
Sarah Laskow November 27, 2018
The largest projectiles weigh more than 20 pounds each.
military history

Found: Weapons From World War II, Uncovered by a Hurricane

A North Carolina beach had secrets from the 1940s buried deep in the sand.
Sarah Laskow November 19, 2018
The excavated mosaics.
ancient

Found: Vulgar Mosaics in a Roman Latrine

They offered bathroom-goers some raunchy entertainment.
Matthew Taub November 8, 2018
Minna Fernald's painting of fewflower milkweed.
paintings

Found: A Lost Painting Collection of Florida Wildflowers

An amateur artist captured now-rare flowers in great detail.
Sarah Laskow November 5, 2018
The Jell Mound hinted there might be a reason to look here.
cemeteries

Found: A Rare Viking Boat Buried in a Flat Field

The whole place was once a monumental graveyard.
Sarah Laskow October 16, 2018
Agelarakis and student researchers working with remains at the Eleutherna site.
archaeology

We Finally Know What Job This 3,000-Year-Old Skeleton Had

And it’s all thanks to her peculiarly damaged bones.
Cara Giaimo September 13, 2018
The caves beneath the castle.
castles

Found: A Secret Doorway to Caves Hidden Under a Castle

Archaeologists also discovered wine bottles in the caves.
Sarah Laskow August 31, 2018
This fragment of a mummy mask from the Egyptian Museum in Turin shows a mummification scene, dating to between 332 B.C. and 30 B.C. New research suggests that deliberate mummification rituals date back thousands of years further.
mummies

Found: A Mummification Recipe From Prehistoric Egypt

New research shows ancient embalmers were using resins and gums far earlier than we thought.
Jessica Leigh Hester August 16, 2018
You folks found a lot of dentures. (These were found by reader Tamara Lohrey.)
beaches

All the Bizarre Things Our Readers Have Found on the Beach

Functional light bulbs, messages from the dead, and lots and lots of dentures.
Cara Giaimo August 8, 2018
The construction site where the walls were found.
libraries

Found: The Oldest Public Library in Germany

Niches in the walls hinted at the building's past.
Sarah Laskow August 2, 2018