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Woman measuring her height.	Source: kei907/Adobe Stock

Cultural Practices Helped Make Women Shorter than Men in Neolithic Times

There is an assumption even today that height is determined almost exclusively by genetics. But this is based on a type of genetic determinism that underestimates the role of culture and environment...
A chimpanzee in contemplation.  Source: keks20034 / Adobe Stock.

Age of the Wise Men: What Distinguishes Homo Sapiens from Apes?

Homo sapiens represents the last of a long line of hominins that once consisted of five different species spanning four continents. Today, we are the last humans, that is, the last of the genus Homo...
Basque folk dancers. Source: Laiotz / Adobe Stock.

Exploring the Mystery of the Basques (Video)

Nestled between the rugged mountains and the vast ocean lies the Basque Country , a place steeped in mystery and cultural uniqueness. This distinctiveness emanates from its language , which sets the...
The Serpent Mound

The Great Serpent Mound of Ohio, the Largest Earthen Effigy in the World

The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,300-foot (396 m) long and 3-foot (91 cm) high prehistoric effigy mound located on a plateau of a crater along Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio, and is the largest...
Prehistoric Jomon dogu statue with large eyes and hips, Ebisuda Site in Tajiri, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.  1000–400 BC. Source: World Imaging/CC BY-SA 3.0

Ancient Dogu Figurines With Large Goggle-eyes Defy Scholarly Explanation

The Jomon Period is the earliest identifiable period in Japanese history and is broken into several categories—Incipient, Early, Middle, and Late. Comprised of a sedentary culture, the Jomon people...
Terracotta statues made by the Nok. (Public Domain)

The Highly Advanced and Mysterious Ancient Civilization of the Nok

The remarkable civilization of the Nok was first discovered in 1928 when a wealth of unique terracotta artifacts was unearthed by tin miners in the southern part of Kaduna state in central Nigeria...
Swastika symbol decoration of clay lamps (diya) in Varanasi, India on the festival of Dev Diwali. Source: ShishirKumar / Adobe Stock

History of the 12,000-Year-Old Swastika: Origin, Meaning and Symbolism

The swastika is a symbol that was used in the 20th century by of one of the most hated men ever to have lived, a symbol that now represents the slaughter of millions of people and one of the most...
Representational image of an Aztec warrior holding a double-ended spear. Source: Warpedgalerie / Adobe Stock

Aztec Weapons: The Horrifying Aztec Armory

The Aztecs were a native Mesoamerican culture that thrived in the forests, jungles, and plains of Central Mexico from 1300 until 1521, when their capital Tenochtitlan was seized by Hernán Cortés and...
The early Bronze Age Maykop culture of the Caucuses region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea dates to the 4th-3rd millennium BC and was connected to more places than you might think!		Source: Google Arts & Culture

The Maykop: Lost Bronze Age Culture of the Exotic Caucasus Region

In 1897, Professor Nikolay Veselovsky, a Russian archaeologist and orientalist, specializing in the history and archaeology of Central Asia, uncovered one of the greatest archaeological finds of...
Can Hair Act as a Sixth Sense, Protecting us from Danger

Legendary Locks: Can Hair Act as a Sixth Sense, Protecting us from Danger?

Humans have always styled their hair in a multitude of creative and symbolic ways, and the various cuts, colors, and presentations reflected across the ages are nearly unlimited. But does hair serve...
Antarctica (Public Domain) and Figure 7a © William James Veall: a drawn image of the very first portrait the writer discovered on Antarctica; Deriv.

Astonishing Human Heads: Do Satellite Photographs Now Prove Existence of Humans on Antarctica…6000 Years Ago? – Part I

Accurate geographical and cartographical information concerning the continent of Antarctica has only really been uncovered since AD 1822. However, in direct contradiction, ancient maps reveal...
A Chinchorro mummy

7,000-Year-Old Chinchorro Mummies are the World's Oldest

The mummies of ancient Egypt are arguably the most famous mummies in the world. They are not, however, the oldest. The Chinchorros of South America began preserving their dead about 7,000 years ago...
Anglo-Saxon chieftain. Who were the Anglo-Saxons? Source: Archivist /Adobe Stock

Who were the Anglo-Saxons? Peaceful Settlers or Barbarians?

The skull shapes of ancient Anglo-Saxons have revealed that they were bonded not so much by genetic heritage as their shared language and culture. What they farmed and how they fought is well...
105,000-Year-Old Kalahari Crystals Challenge Cultural Evolution Story

105,000-Year-Old Kalahari Crystals Challenge Cultural Evolution Story

New research at a rockshelter on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa challenges the assumption that modern human origins and complex behaviors were limited to coastal environments. A...
Five Legendary Lost Cities that have Never Been Found

Five Legendary Lost Cities that have Never Been Found

The story of Atlantis is one of the most renowned and enduring tales of a lost city, said to have been swallowed up by the sea and lost forever. Yet, the story of Atlantis is not unique, as other...
Mesopotamian relief of Assyrian warriors. Credit: kmiragaya / Adobe Stock

Ancient Mesopotamia and the Rise of Civilization

In ancient times, Mesopotamia, meaning ‘land between two rivers’, was a vast region that lay between the Tigris and Euphrates river systems, and it is where civilization emerged over 7,000 years ago...
Painting 'Young Gypsies.' Family is key in the Romani people’s culture.

The Real History of the Romani People and the Misnomer of Gypsies

Colloquially, and rather insultingly, known as 'gypsies', the history and culture of the Romani people is surrounded by stereotypes and misnomers, none more damningly pervasive than Esméralda from...
A Viking Burial. Credit: Igor Igorevich / Adobe Stock

Viking King Buried With a Pillow and Fine Silk, New Study Confirms

It’s amazing what we can learn from ancient textiles and other artifacts with scientific analysis. The Viking burial textiles in the coffins of two powerful Danish Vikings are providing us with...
Gallo-Roman mosaic

How Gaul ‘Barbarians’ Influenced Ancient Roman Religion

The continental neighbors of the Romans, the Gauls were considered barbaric entities which the Republic and Empire attempted to colonize multiple times. Caesar’s numerous conquests on the mainland...
Diorama of people in the ancient Harappan culture (Indus Valley civilization).

Climate Change, Not Aryan Invaders, Caused Dramatic Fall of Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Civilization was one of the most important Bronze Age civilizations. It was comparable in its achievements to the Egyptians and it is often claimed that it was very influential in the...
The Maya people still have so much to teach us. Source: Robin / Adobe Stock

The Maya People Still Have So Much to Teach Us

There’s overdue pushback these days on the notion that civilization began in the Americas when Columbus “discovered” the New World in 1492. In fact, the Maya people built one of the world’s most...
Chinese Votive Sword Found in Georgia

Chinese Votive Sword Found in Georgia suggests Pre-Columbian Chinese travel to North America

In July 2014, an avocational surface collector chanced across a partially exposed Chinese votive sword behind roots in an eroded bank of a small stream in Georgia. The 30 cm artifact is possibly a...
Did Denisovan ancestry reach European megalith builders? Source: adrenalinapura / Adobe Stock

The Far-Reaching Realms of Denisovan Ancestry Stretch to Iceland

This week it was announced that a new genetic study published in the journal Nature shows that the genomes of over 27,000 Icelanders display an admixture of modern human and Neanderthal DNA, along...
A compilation of lost cities that have since been found.

Ten Legendary Lost Cities that Have Emerged from the Past

The story of Atlantis is one of the most renowned and enduring tales of a lost city, said to have been swallowed up by the sea and lost forever. Yet, the story of Atlantis is not unique, as other...

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