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Ancient Places

Ancient places can be found all over the world. Their fascinating histories and impressive artifacts open intriguing glimpses to times past, and visiting such ancient places in the world can be an unforgettable experience.

Science is constantly discovering new archaeological places and uncovering more evidence into what we once thought we knew about our history, therefore offering new pieces to the ever changing puzzle of humanity’s past and altering how we interpret it. This section will present the most interesting archaeological sites all over the world, as well as new discoveries of ancient places that are worth paying a visit.

Central Mayapan showing the K’uk’ulkan and Round temples. Source: Bradley Russell / Nature
19 July, 2022 - 17:00 Nathan Falde

Drought-Induced Conflict Caused Collapse of 15th Century Maya Capital

An international assembly of scientists with impressive credentials in a diverse range of fields has completed an extensive study of climate change in the post-classical Maya Empire, which existed...
Mosaic being revealed at the recently discovered Roman city site of El Forau de la Tuta, in Zaragoza, Spain. Source: Gobierno de Aragón
18 July, 2022 - 18:55 ashley cowie

A ‘Monumental’ Unknown Roman City Discovered In Spain

For over a decade, four teams of Spanish archaeologists have been digging at different excavation sites. Now they’ve realised it was all one thing - an enormous lost Roman city. You might never have...
The Nymphaeum of Illyria at the ancient city of Apollonia, Albania fed by underground water sources, built in the middle of the 3rd century BC. It is the biggest and best-preserved Apollonia monument covering an area of 1,500 square meters or 16,146 square feet. Source: Carole Raddato / CC BY 2.0
18 July, 2022 - 15:00 Jake Leigh-Howarth

Illustrious Post-Macedon Illyria and the Roman Illyrian Wars

The legendary and illustrious tribal kingdoms of Illyria were located in current-day Albania and Montenegro, just across the Adriatic from Italy. The Illyrian world was also an important strategic...
The Lascaux Taurus, with the Pleiades on its back. Source: Author provided
16 July, 2022 - 01:50 ralph ellis

Dating Lascaux Art by Precession

I did not realize until recently, that there may be some astrological imagery within the magnificent Stone Age paintings in the Lascaux Cave complex, in the Dordogne region of France. But although I...
Circular gate in the Suzhou gardens. Source: rudiuk / Adobe Stock
15 July, 2022 - 22:54 Lex Leigh

The Classical Gardens of Suzhou: A Sight to Behold

Some of the most beautiful sights to see in China are the classical Suzhou gardens. Suzhou, located in Jiangsu province in eastern China, is known as the home of these gardens, which are often called...
The medieval peasant off to work in the fields. Source: Demian / Adobe Stock
15 July, 2022 - 14:59 Molly Dowdeswell

The Hard and Dirty Life of a Medieval Peasant

The daily life of a medieval peasant in England and elsewhere was extremely difficult, long, and busy. They faced endless days of manual labor working on farmland starting as early as three in the...
The Tower of Babel. Source: Александр Михальчук / CC BY-SA 4.0
15 July, 2022 - 01:56 pkoutoupis

Gateway to the Heavens: The Assyrian Account of the Tower of Babel

The story of the fabled Tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis has come to inspire artists throughout history and to symbolize the idea of human ambition. Once a real-life ziggurat at the center of...
El Tepozteco temple in Mexico. Source: Tolo / Adobe Stock
14 July, 2022 - 22:59 Sahir

El Tepozteco – The Aztec Temple Dedicated to the Drunken Rabbit God

On a lonely peak of the Sierra de Tepoztelan in the state of Morelos in Mexico stands the Aztec temple of El Tepozteco. The temple is dedicated to an unusual deity, Ometochtli - Tepoztecatl, one of...
Colonial sources attest that Juan Cortés, slave of the soldier Juan Sedeño, was the first African registered in New Spain. He was part of the military consortium led by Hernán Cortés in 1519 (Bishop Diego Durán). Source: Arqueología Mexicana / Raices / Antiquity Publications Ltd
14 July, 2022 - 14:57 ashley cowie

Cross-Cultural Living and Dying in Colonial Campeche, But No Sex

2022 is shaping up to be a big year for colonial era discoveries in Central and South America. Only in May Ancient Origins covered the story of archaeologists studying “42 syphilis-ridden colonial...
A statue of Alfred the Great in Winchester. Descended from a long line of kings of the Kingdom of Wessex, Alfred the Great was the son of King Aethelwulf of Wessex. Source: Tony Baggett / Adobe Stock
13 July, 2022 - 18:44 Molly Dowdeswell

The Kingdom of Wessex and the Birth of England

The early history of England was characterized by instability, disorder and uncertainty. The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex was the first formation of the modern idea of England, and in its early...
The site of the old town Kaupang, a Viking village for tourists, is an interpretive center where visitors can learn about the Viking Age, as well as about archaeological techniques and processes. Source: J. P. Fagerback, BSD
12 July, 2022 - 22:57 Mark Johnston

An Archaeological Needle in the Haystack: The Viking Village of Kaupang

Ancient Norse literature is filled with place names of towns, farms, and fjords. While many of these names have survived to the modern day, making their discovery relatively straightforward, others...
The new Nottingham Market Wall augmented reality Android app, recreated using old maps, creates this ancient breast-high wall that kept the city’s French Normans and non-French Anglo-Saxons separated for nearly 700 years! Source: NTU
12 July, 2022 - 18:58 Sahir

Nottingham Market Wall That Split the City Brought Back to Life With AR

A most peculiar medieval feature of Nottingham Old Market Square has been recreated using a new augmented reality (AR) app. Nottingham Market Wall divided the center of the city for almost 700 years...
Research at the site of Vista Alegre, has uncovered evidence that this was once a bustling port used by the coastal Maya. Source: lunamarina / Adobe Stock
12 July, 2022 - 15:00 Nathan Falde

Massive Research Initiative Reveals Truth about Ancient Coastal Maya

An international team of archaeologists, anthropologists, and marine scientists has just published a landmark article in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology that details their research into...
The mummified 2,000-year-old Egyptian woman at The National Museum in Warsaw, who has been examined as part of a medical project to better understand cancer origins. Source: Pawel Supernak / Science in Poland
10 July, 2022 - 18:47 ashley cowie

Ancient Egyptian Mummy Shows Evidence of Nose Cancer

Archaeologists in Poland have been studying the mummy of a 2,000-year-old Egyptian woman who died young and evidence suggests she died from nose cancer. Scientists suspect this mummy could provide...
Azerbaijan's Walled City of Baku holds centuries of bloody history and early oil wealth, and now its skyline is a mixture of ancient, modern and contemporary architecture. Source: Boris Stroujko / Adobe Stock
9 July, 2022 - 22:44 Robbie Mitchell

Blood, Tears, and Oil: The Bloody History of the Walled City of Baku

Today Baku is most well known for being the capital of the Azerbaijan Republic. Thousands of tourists every year flock to Baku to visit the Walled City of Baku and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and...
The half-human, half-plant caryatids in the tomb of Sveshtari; these sculpted female figures served as architectural support like a column in the stunning Thracian tomb design. Source: Nenko Lazarov /
9 July, 2022 - 18:56 Mark Brophy

The Staggeringly Well-Preserved Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari

In 1982, the now-famous Thracian tomb of Sveshtari was discovered by archaeologists just south of what is now Sveshtari, Razgrad Province in Bulgaria. The tomb of Sveshtari likely belonged to...
The aftermath of the Gezer fire of early July 2022 shown in this image reveals that ancient stone ruins can survive grass fires, but that climate change is making more fires overall. Source: Roee Shtrauss / INPA
7 July, 2022 - 22:56 Sahir

Gezer Fire Engulfs Canaan Site, But With Little Permanent Damage

The Gezer fire that broke out on Monday in Israel’s Biblical Tel Gezer National Park was fierce and swift. Initial reports of the fire at Gezer “proclaimed” widespread damage to this protected and...
Karnak temple in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Source: Calin Stan / Adobe Stock
7 July, 2022 - 18:58 Lex Leigh

The Ten Essential Ancient Egyptian Cities: Relics of Egypt’s Storied Past

The various civilizations which developed within ancient Egypt were some of the most technologically advanced and beautiful of their time, giving birth to some of the greatest cities the world has...
The Palace of Palenque, Mexico, seen from the Temple of the Inscriptions. Source: Mauricio Marat/ INAH
6 July, 2022 - 22:58 ashley cowie

A Red Palace for the Red Queen at Palenque, Mexico

Archaeologists and restorers working Mexico’s Palenque Palace have not only discovered a new entrance to the complex, but evidence that the roofs were painted red. Located within the Archaeological...
An imaginary depiction of Cerdic of Wessex from John Speed's 1611 "Saxon Heptarchy." Source: John Speed / Public domain
6 July, 2022 - 19:00 Mark Johnston

The Question of Ancient Kings: Cerdic of Wessex, First Saxon King of England?

Historians of the ancient world face a myriad of challenges when studying the past. Centuries of legends and myths become intertwined with recorded facts, leaving behind a complex web of mystery...
The 1274 and 1281 AD Mongol invasions of Japan were well equipped and favored overall but both times the samurai and their “magical” storms won the day! Two Samurai with a dead Mongol at their feet from a votive image (ema) at the Komodahama Shrine on Tsushima, approximately halfway between Kyushu and the Korean Peninsula. Source: Public domain
4 July, 2022 - 23:00 Jake Leigh-Howarth

When Mongols Met Samurai: The Two Failed Mongol Invasions of Japan

Throughout time, there are a few instances where the weather became a determining factor in the outcome of a battle. The Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 AD have often been cited as salient...
Baths of Caracalla Source: Fabio Caricchia / Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma
1 July, 2022 - 22:59 Sahir

2,000-Year-Old Frescoes Discovered Under the Baths of Caracalla

2,000-year-old frescoes dating back to the time of Emperor Hadrian will be on public display at the site of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. The frescoes, which belong to different time periods and...
The entrance to Wayland's Smithy, one of the Cotswold-Severn Group Neolithic stone structures, seems primitive but megalithic mathematics can be found here, and experimental archaeology proves it. Source: Msemmett / CC BY-SA 3.0
30 June, 2022 - 14:51 Dr. John Hill

Megalithic Mathematics Revealed at the Cotswold Severn Long Barrows!

During the British Neolithic, circa 4000-2500 BC, we witness the appearance of numerous ceremonial and domestic monuments dominating the prehistoric landscape. Providing an absolute total of how many...
Marble busts of Didius Julianus who bought the Roman Empire at the end of the 2nd century AD in a facial reconstruction artwork created by Daniel Voshart. Source: Daniel Voshart / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
28 June, 2022 - 22:44 Jake Leigh-Howarth

Didius Julianus, the Man Who Bought the Roman Empire

In the year 193 AD an auction took place that sent shockwaves throughout the ancient world, as buyers competed for the greatest prize of a generation, the Roman Empire. Following the murder of...

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