FULL ARCHIVE

All files

Every case The Backtrack Vault has covered, newest first. Filter by category using the navigation above.

TOTAL FILES15
UPDATEDWeekly
15 FILES SORT BY
Historical Cover-ups

When Radiation Was Sold as a Health Product

Before the dangers were understood, radiation was marketed as healthy and modern. The story of the Radium Girls exposed how badly that went wrong.

FILE 0013 5 min
Lost civilizations

The Tower of Babel: Myth, Monument, or Memory?

Archaeologists have found a massive ziggurat in ancient Babylon whose bricks match Genesis exactly. Did the Tower of Babel really exist? Here's what the evidence shows.

FILE 0014 6 min
Forbidden discoveries

How Victorians Turned Egyptian Mummies into Commodities

Victorian England turned Egyptian mummies into entertainment, medicine, and paint. A look at the era's Egypt obsession and what it cost the ancient dead.

FILE 0015 5 min
Forgotten figures

Baldwin IV: The Leper King Who Stopped Saladin

How did a teenage king with leprosy defeat Saladin at Montgisard in 1177? The story of Baldwin IV, the Leper King of Jerusalem.

FILE 0005 5 min
Mythology

15 Everyday Words Rooted in Greek Mythology

Morphine, siren, atlas, mentor — discover how 15 common English words trace their origins directly to figures from Greek mythology.

FILE 0008 5 min
Lost civilizations

The tomb of Qin Shi Huang: what’s still sealed underground

Mercury rivers, crossbow traps, and a burial complex the size of a small city — and why archaeologists still won’t open the main chamber. A tomb the size of a city When Qin Shi Huang unified China’s warring states in 221 BCE, he didn’t just become its first emperor — he began building a burial […]

FILE 0001 5 min