Free Republic

In the last few decades especially, archaeologists have been forced to admit a humbling truth: our timelines and tidy narratives are incomplete, and in some places, wildly so. Below are fifteen ruins and archaeological cultures that either emerged from total obscurity or still sit at the edge of what we can confidently say. Some are contenders for full-blown “lost civilizations,” others are enigmatic cities that do not fit neatly into our old stories. Together, they show just how much of human history is still hidden – literally – under our feet. Imagine a flash flood tearing through a quiet valley...

The Department of Transportation announced today a return to a technology of the past that feels like it's from the future. Supersonic flight is returning to commercial airlines once again. For too long, outdated rules based on old technology held back American aerospace innovation. Now, we are updating those rules for the first time since the 1970s.Today @USDOT announced a new proposal to enable civil supersonic flight by replacing speed limits with noise… pic.twitter.com/vwR4J88W1F— Director Michael Kratsios (@mkratsios47) June 30, 2026 Ever since the famous Concorde retired in 2003, supersonic flights - with speeds reaching well beyond the speed of...

A prankster at East Brook Middle School in Paramus, New Jersey, just pulled off what might be the most insane yearbook prank you'll ever see. Well, look who's burning books now! Yes, a child was supposed to send in a baby photo and sent in a photo of baby Adolf Hitler instead. And somehow, no one on the yearbook committee or in the middle school offices noticed the baby photo was over 100 years old. Here's more from the Post: 'Earlier today, after students had already received their yearbooks, we learned that the baby pictures section of the yearbook contained...

Sergey Brin spent a career building one of the most valuable companies on earth. It took Zohran Mamdani less than a year in office to convince him New York City real estate wasn’t worth the trouble. Amphitheatre LLC, the family office vehicle tied to the Google co-founder, quietly sold off its stake in a New York apartment fund late last year, according to filings first reported by Bloomberg. The fund, managed by A&E Real Estate, controls nearly 5,900 rent-stabilized units scattered across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Brin’s exit price was not generous. He accepted roughly six cents on...

Iran’s most senior clerics have called for the assassinations of President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declaring the leaders mahdour al-dam — or deserving of death. The 88-member Assembly of Experts issued a 10-point statement in which they said killing “the wicked prime minister of the Zionist regime” and “the criminal American president” was a religious duty that must be carried out “under any circumstances.” The clerics — who are constitutionally tasked with choosing and supervising the supreme leader — wrote that the call for their assassinations that avenging the death of supreme leader Ali Khamenei was of...

Zo’s busting the budget. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural, record-breaking nearly $126 billion budget passed late Tuesday — growing city spending by more than $10 billion from last year despite his past dire warnings about the Big Apple’s financial situation. The under-the-wire vote by the City Council came just hours before a Wednesday deadline and after frantic last-minute attempts to drum up votes for a spending deal that disappointed lefties and moderates alike. The budget, which includes no significant cuts, ballooned from last year’s roughly $116 billion spending plan, for an approximate 8.5% increase. It passed 45-6, largely on party lines....

Insurgent socialist candidate Melat Kiros defeated longtime Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) Tuesday in Colorado’s 1st District House primary, marking the latest blow to the establishment wing of the Democratic Party. Kiros came out on top of the incumbent, 49.3% to 43.5%, by the time the Associated Press called the race late Tuesday. Kiros’s win in the solidly blue district follows a string of victories by socialist and far-left candidates over incumbent and establishment-backed Democrats in New York in June, and it’s expected to tilt the political makeup of the House Democratic caucus even further to the left after the midterm...

Excavators of Tel Hadid recently released the discovery of a unique seal stamp from the seventh century b.c.e., the time of Assyrian domination of the Levant. It is not the first find from this remarkable site that gives us a better understanding of the people who were moved into Israel during the Assyrian period...The first thing to stand out about the small oval seal (less than 2 centimeters at its widest) is its unique material. Made out of the inner shell of a nacreous mollusk, also known as mother-of-pearl because of its role in the creation of pearls, it is...

The Socialists aren't just taking over New York. This happened in Colorado. A 29-year-old Democratic Socialist ousted a longtime Democrat incumbent in Colorado's 1st District in Tuesday night's House primary. Far-left candidate Melat Kiros defeated 15-time incumbent Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette on Tuesday night. Kiros, who was born in Ethiopia, was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). 🚨 It's crunch time in Colorado 🚨 We have just ONE more day to send @MelatKirosCO to Congress! We made 110k calls on Friday, but we're not done yet... Join us tonight @ 6 PM MT/8 PM ET to break Friday's...

The yen hit a fresh 40-year low against the dollar in Asia on Wednesday morning, keeping traders on high alert for possible currency intervention by the Japanese government. Ongoing expectations for a gradual pace of interest-rate increases by the Bank of Japan, combined with growing prospects for the Federal Reserve to raise the Fed funds rate this year, are pressuring the yen lower and the dollar higher. The dollar's fresh 40-year high against the yen is "leaving markets on watch for stronger verbal warnings or outright intervention from Japanese authorities," said Taylor Nugent, senior economist at National Australia Bank, in...

June 30 (Reuters) - Gold edged higher from ‌a near seven-month low on Tuesday but remained on track for its worst quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2013, as the dollar remained firm amid expectations of U.S. interest rate hikes. Spot gold inched up 0.4% at $4,031.29 per ​ounce, as of 1150 GMT, after touching its lowest level since November 2025 earlier in the ​session. U.S. gold futures for August delivery lost 0.2% to $4,045.30/oz. "The failure to sustain ⁠gains (for gold) highlights the current fragile sentiment, where traders continue to sell into strength rather than buy ​into weakness,...

When Americans think of the beverage that fueled the American Revolution, they usually picture black tea — but it turns out that green tea was just as popular. The Founding Fathers and their contemporaries drank both types of tea, Bruce Richardson, the Kentucky-based founder of Elmwood Inn Fine Teas, told Fox News Digital. British subjects “were as likely to be drinking green tea as black tea, whether you were in Jane Austen [era] England … or you were in colonial Boston,” he added. “There were five teas, all from China, because that was the only country that was exporting tea,”...

Amelia Earhart’s disappearance in the summer of 1937 has remained one of aviation’s greatest mysteries for nearly 90 years. Since then, explorers and researchers have searched land, reef, lagoon, and deep ocean for any trace of the plane she flew with navigator Fred Noonan. One team has spent years looking west of Howland Island. Its newest lead comes from a strange place for a deep-ocean search: the airwaves. In 2020, the deep-sea exploration and historical research organization Nauticos procured and restored a radio system identical to the one that Earhart and Noonan used on their final flight: a Western Electric...

Dig explores whether the legendary figure Achilles has roots in late Bronze Age history. The video analyzes linguistic clues, Mycenaean-era records, and parallels between the epic hero and a renegade figure known from historical Hittite diplomatic texts, examining how oral traditions may have synthesized real events into myth. The Real Man Behind Achilles? | 26:08 Dig. | 37.8K subscribers | 32,790 views | June 19, 2026 00:00 Achilles Impact 00:57 Academic consensus? 02:15 Proto-Indo European background 05:03 Linear B and Etymology 08:13 Konstantinos Kopanias 09:19 A Biography of Achilles 15:36 A Biography of Piyamaradu 23:17 To [sic] similar to be...

NewsVCNews/X As Muslim college professor Loay Alnaji is set to be sentenced on June 30 for fatally assaulting a Jewish man, Paul Kessler, in November 2023, bodycam footage from the day of the attack exclusively shared with RedState contradicts the narrative his attorney has set. Alnaji, one of the leaders of a pro-Hamas contingent protesting against Israel in Thousand Oaks, California, on November 5, 2023, crossed two major thoroughfares to confront Kessler, who'd had the audacity to stand on a corner opposite Alnaji's group and wave an Israeli flag. As words were exchanged, Kessler took out his phone to video...

The Justice Department has launched an investigation into Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) related to luxury outings and family trips paid for with campaign donations, The Post confirmed. The DOJ probe into possible campaign finance violations by the potential 2028 Democratic presidential, first reported by Axios, stems from a whistleblower complaint out of Southern California. News of the investigation surfaced just hours after the Senate Ethics Committee rejected a complaint filed against the Arizona Democrat accusing him of campaign finance violations and sexual misconduct. “[President] Trump is targeting Senator Gallego while the most weaponized Department of Justice in history is turning...

The discovery of an Anglo-Saxon tool in Kent could reveal more about where Britain's "iconic archaeological treasures" were made, according to experts. A small copper-alloy die stamp was found by metal detectorist Stephen Newbury near Lynsted, which has officially been declared as treasure by a coroner for being of significant historical interest, Kent County Council (KCC) said.The sixth or seventh century item is believed to have been used to create decorative metal foils for military equipment such as helmets. It is the only confirmed example of its kind found in Britain, according to analysis from KCC and the British Museum,...

Even though it’s been nearly 250 years since the Continental Congress declared independence from Britain, the study of the American Revolution is far from over. For decades, archaeologists have dug at Revolutionary War battlefields across the country, yielding fascinating artifacts. From southern sites to northern battlefields, these places are still sharing secrets — and shedding new light on our country’s founding. As America celebrates its 250th, below are a few Revolutionary War battlefields that are still revealing new discoveries. 1. Bunker Hill One of the earliest military engagements of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought in...

The personal relationship between Jefferson and Adams had soured under the weight of political rivalry—exacerbated by the brutal campaign of 1800. For years after the election, the two men remained estranged. The physician and mutual friend Benjamin Rush played a pivotal role in bringing the two former friends back together. Encouraged by Rush, Jefferson and Adams began corresponding in 1812, initiating a remarkable exchange of letters that spanned 14 years and addressed topics ranging from politics and philosophy to their reflections on aging and legacy. Through this correspondence, Jefferson and Adams confronted their differences—both political and personal—with candor and a...

Archaeologists have uncovered six previously unknown Bronze Age mining sites in Extremadura in southwestern Spain. The discoveries were made during a February survey led by researchers from the Maritime Encounters program at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. These sites could help answer a long-standing question about where the metal used in Scandinavian Bronze Age artifacts originally came from.Fieldwork took place from February 9 to 16 in the region surrounding Cabeza del Buey in the province of Badajoz. The project was carried out in partnership with the Universidad de Sevilla and specialists from the Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Badajoz.Researchers documented...