Author: Ms. R.

This story is excerpted and adapted from the new book A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon, PhD, published by Abrams Press © 2021. Like all the best detective stories, the story opens with the body of a woman being found in Rome in the early hours of the morning, around A.D. 24. The sun was rising, the birds were singing, and a woman’s crumpled body was lying on……

Read More

Nafplio is a seaside town in the Peloponnese in southern Greece. It sits at the head of the Argolic Gulf and expands up into the nearby hills, which makes it one of the most strategic locations in the area both commercially and militarily. The town has been inhabited since ancient times, with mythological references being made to warriors from the area participating in the Trojan War. The area thrived until the seventh century B.C., when the nearby city of……

Read More

Helmut Scholle pushes open the narrow wooden door flanked by small windows and ducks his head as he steps into the cave. Behind the simple rocky exterior is a home, complete with distinct rooms, a chimney, and cozy furniture. Two things become obvious. Despite the frigid winter air, it’s relatively pleasant inside. And the marks on the rugged walls—signs of repeated chipping and chiseling—indicate that this home required a monumental human effort to make. The cave, Scholle reveals, was……

Read More

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. If you’ve ever wanted to walk a mile in Neil Armstrong’s shoes, this is the closest you can get to the real thing. On the grounds outside Purdue’s Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, several concrete boot prints are publicly available for you to follow an astronaut’s steps on the moon. Neil Armstrong received a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue in 1955, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in……

Read More

The mountains and forests surrounding the medieval village of Roccantica are wild and lush. They also hide several beautiful sights, such as hermitages and waterfalls but above all, the enormous and unusual sinkhole locally known as “U’revotano.” This enormous abyss is a common geological phenomenon in Central Italy, also known as doline, in which karstic processes of erosion cause the collapse of a limestone roof over an underground cavern. This natural occurrence has inspired a local legend in which……

Read More

In the canon of American Christmas symbols, Ralphie’s Red Ryder BB gun is as iconic as the Grinch or Currier and Ives, and it was made possible by the Daisy manufacturing company. This museum, which celebrates the company’s history that began in 1886, is truly a barrel of fun and information. Originally, the business was founded as the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company, and air rifles were given as free gifts to customers. Although windmill sales flagged, interest in the……

Read More

A couple of kilometers west of the ancient city of Axum stands the isolated hill of Gobo Dura, alternatively known as Gobedra. The city in Ethiopia is known for stonework, including elaborately carved stelae and a striking work of ancient art known as the Lioness of Gobedra. It was first described to the western world by German archaeologists in 1913, but had been known to locals for far longer. The origin of the three-meter-long sculpture, engraved on a huge……

Read More