J. Clarke articles

For a long time, historians relied on Roman artwork and dramatic ancient texts to understand how wild animals were used in public spectacles. Bears, lions, and other predators appeared constantly in mosaics and writings—but there was always a lingering question about how literal those depictions really were. Were they exaggerated for effect, or did these events truly happen as described? A battered brown bear skull found in present-day Serbia has finally answered that question.

For a long time, the ancient Maya story followed a familiar script: powerful kings, stone monuments, and dynasties ruled almost entirely by men. Then archaeologists started carefully piecing together a badly eroded stone monument at the jungle-covered city of Cobá, and that script quietly fell apart. Hidden in fading hieroglyphs was the name of a woman who didn’t just exist alongside Maya power—she wielded it.

Perinthos has been quietly revealing its past for years—stone by stone, shard by shard. Archaeologists have uncovered theaters, temples, and fortifications on land, each discovery adding another layer to the city’s long story. But recently, the most surprising evidence didn’t come from the dirt. It came from beneath the water.

Let’s be honest—when you book a winter vacation, you’re probably imagining calm mornings, quiet walks, and that rare feeling of not being rushed anywhere. What you’re not imagining is standing in line behind 200 other people, dodging tour groups, or wondering how a place this small ended up feeling this busy.

Nothing tests a traveler’s patience quite like the airport baggage carousel. You stand there with hope, optimism, and a growing suspicion that your suitcase has betrayed you. Then, two days later, your bag finally appears on your doorstep looking like it moonlighted as a chew toy. Your clothes are ruined, your patience is shot, and now you’re wondering whether the standard baggage refund even begins to cover this chaos. The good news is that federal rules give you more protection than many travelers realize—if you know how to use them.

The latest discovery from the 1715 Treasure Fleet isn’t just glittering proof of Spain’s lost wealth. It’s a reminder that the ocean never forgets what we drop into it. Over 1,000 coins, centuries of mystery, and a story still unfolding beneath Florida’s waves.

For more than a century, people in Africatown insisted that the last slave ship ever to reach the United States hadn’t vanished—it was just hiding. The river knew where it was, the elders knew where it had been, and the rest of the country mostly shrugged. Then, in 2019, archaeologists finally caught up with the story that locals had been telling all along.

Before we dive into the chaos, picture this: you booked a great hotel deal through a third-party site, felt like a bargain-hunting genius, and then—disaster. Your dates are wrong, your room type isn’t available or maybe the system thinks you don’t exist at all. You call the website…they blame the hotel. You call the hotel…they blame the website. And somewhere along the way, you realize you’ve entered the hospitality version of a ping-pong match, except you’re the ball.

Some cities are all hustle, headlights, and high-rises. Others still have that, but with a twist—a whole lot of grass, trees, and trails sneaking in between the buildings. Green space isn’t just pretty scenery; it cools neighborhoods, soaks up stormwater, gives wildlife a fighting chance, and hands humans somewhere to breathe that isn’t a parking lot.