Contemporary
Gouzenko Affair (1945): The Defection That Exposed Soviet Spies
Gouzenko's documents exposed a Soviet military intelligence network in Canada, leading to a royal commission, arrests and convictions in 1946.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Ebla Archives: The Royal Tablets of an Early Syrian Kingdom
The largest third-millennium archive found in Syria, revealing an unknown Semitic language and a major kingdom outside Mesopotamia.
Ancient World
Poverty Point: The Ancient Earthworks of Northeast Louisiana
The largest earthwork complex of its time in North America, built by people who did not farm; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014.
Ancient World
Zhengzhou Shang City: An Early Bronze Age Capital in China
The largest known city of the early Shang period, it shows the scale of royal power and bronze production before the move to Anyang.
Ancient World
Kalibangan: Fire Altars and the World's Oldest Ploughed Field
Excavations at Kalibangan revealed a pre-Harappan ploughed field, a planned Harappan town and rows of fire altars, shedding light on Indus farming and ritual.
Ancient World
Roman Forum: The Political Heart of Ancient Rome
The Forum became the political, religious and legal centre of Rome and is now one of the world's best-known archaeological sites.
Ancient World
Linear A: The Undeciphered Script of Minoan Crete
The Minoan language written in Linear A remains unknown; only numbers, some sign values and a few words such as 'total' can be read with confidence.
Ancient World
Memphis: Ancient Capital of Egypt and Its Ruins at Mit Rahina
Memphis served as Egypt's capital through the Old Kingdom and stayed one of its chief cities until Alexandria and later Cairo eclipsed it.
Ancient World
Uruk: The World's First Great City in Ancient Mesopotamia
Uruk grew into the largest settlement of its time, where monumental temples, mass administration and writing first appeared together, setting the model for Mesopotamian cities.
Prehistory
Jōmon Culture: Japan's Ancient Hunter-Gatherers and First Pottery
A long-lived culture of settled hunter-gatherers that produced some of the world's earliest pottery and gave way to the rice-farming Yayoi culture.
Prehistory
Natufian Culture: The First Settled Villages of the Levant
A late hunter-gatherer culture whose sedentary villages and intensive use of wild cereals laid the groundwork for the Neolithic Revolution.
Prehistory
Lomekwi 3: The Oldest Known Stone Tools, Found in Kenya
The Lomekwi 3 artefacts, published in 2015, pushed the known start of stone toolmaking back by roughly 700,000 years, to a time before the earliest known fossils of the genus Homo.