Our understanding and treatment of mental illness has come a long way over the centuries – and it’s just as well! In medieval times, people suffering a bout of ‘melancholia’ or those deemed ‘mad’...
The Thirty Years’ War was a major European war that occurred during the 17th century. While the conflict took place mainly in the area of modern day Germany, it involved many of the great European...
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...
In 2008 a team of archaeological excavators digging in the Stajnia Cave near Mirów in Poland, unearthed deeply-ancient tools among the remains of Neanderthal hunters. This discovery represented the...
The genetic background of modern day Europe can often be a complicated topic to talk about. History often brings the migrations of faraway peoples, which is how the Indo-Europeans merged with the...
Research undertaken on Bronze Age warriors who died in a battle in Germany has revealed something remarkable about the evolution of human digestion. It established that it is only in the past few...
Chinese-Flu, Kung-Flu and now Trump-Flu, according to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, but now, in the middle of all these politicized pseudonyms names for...
In the 1970s, archaeologists in Bulgaria stumbled upon a vast Copper Age necropolis from the 5th millennium BC containing the oldest golden artifacts ever discovered near the modern-day city of Varna...
In 1991, inspectors from the German government took aerial photographs of a small German town called Goseck and saw something strange. On the ground, there appeared to be a giant circular ridge...
As a professor of medieval Europe, I’ve taught the bubonic plague, and how it contributed to the English Peasant Revolt of 1381. Now that America is experiencing widespread unrest in the midst of its...
According to Scandinavian mythology, the Kraken is a horrifying giant sea creature said to be one mile long. Stories generally describe it as a terrifyingly enormous octopus or squid like creature...
There is a story dating back to the 1960s about a man who overdosed on LSD and became permanently insane. In his insanity, he believed himself to be a glass of orange juice. He was afraid to lie down...
One of the haunting images of this pandemic will be stationary cruise ships – deadly carriers of COVID-19 – at anchor in harbours and unwanted. Docked in ports and feared. The news of the dramatic...
When did modern humans reach the lands we now call Europe? When did those Late Stone Age humans replace the Neanderthals as the dominant hominins of the region? The answers to these questions about...
The early medieval world of our ancestors was built upon struggles and decisive battles. The emerging nations united the broken tribes, expanded their borders, conquered their enemies, and often...
It was a worldwide phenomenon during Prehistoric times for people to bury their dead under mounds (which are also known as tumuli ). The dead were buried along with their worldly possessions and...
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family that rose to power during the 8th century AD. Under the Merovingians , the Carolingians obtained the office of mayor of the palace. As the...
Medieval history is seldom kind. The decades and centuries slumbered onwards, each one bringing its own share of wars, crime , poverty...and disease. Happiness and prosperity were rare and almost...
Scientists have proven inbreeding brought about severe facial deformations and collapsed of one of Europe’s most powerful historical dynasties . The royal European Habsburg family sat on the throne...
The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic state that existed between the 4th and 1st centuries BC. It was established by Seleucus I Nicator (meaning ‘victor’ or ‘conqueror’), one of the diadochi, or...
A mega-continent has been discovered that slid beneath Europe hundreds of millions of years ago. While today we experience extreme weather patterns and the effects of the changing climate there has...
Runes are the characters of the earliest written alphabet used by the Germanic peoples of Europe called Futhark. The runic alphabet was used within Germanic languages but primarily in Nordic...
Archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious mass grave dating back 1,600 years in Wales containing the remains of 86 individuals. Researchers are now attempting to explain strange characteristics...
The Gundestrup Cauldron is an ancient silver vessel that was discovered in a peat bog in Denmark. This cauldron is notable for being the largest known piece of European Iron Age silver work. Thus,...