Missing Pieces

In the 17th century news spread that the Jewish messiah had finally arrived. Within a year he had converted to Islam. Who was he, and what had happened?

A short telephone call between Joseph Stalin and Boris Pasternak sealed the fate of a fellow writer. What exactly transpired during that fateful discussion remains subject to debate.

Did Jesus have a difficult childhood? Was his youth spent in Egypt or England, India or Japan? The four canonical gospels are quiet on his early life, leading some to speculate.

The curious case of an apparent amnesiac in Collegno paved the way for forensic science to become one of the pillars of Italian law.

Attempts to decipher the lost script once used by the Rapa Nui of Easter Island leave more questions than answers.

First Tenochtitlán, then Cuzco, then Machu Picchu – why shouldn’t cities paved with gold be discovered in South America? At least Percy Fawcett believed so.

Almost three quarters of the golden age of Hollywood has been lost. Preservation only began when film came to be seen as art.

Could a pair of ancient looking coins reveal the existence of a previously unknown Roman emperor?

In 1820 the discovery of an ancient Greek statue with missing arms posed more questions than answers.

Aristotle’s lost treatise on laughter is a serious business. Could laughter lead to the downfall of society?