All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

greece

Illustration of Anubis statues (MiaStendal / Adobe Stock)

Anubis, Egyptian God of the Dead and the Underworld

As god of embalming and the dead, the afterlife and lost souls, Anubis is one of the most prominent and mystical gods of ancient Egypt . He was known since the earliest periods in the history of the...
Origins of Aphrodite

Aphrodite: The True Origins of the Greek Goddess of Love, Sex, and Beauty

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, sex, and beauty and there are many tales of how she could entice both gods and mortals to lust after her. In one of the most famous images of the goddess, we...
Two small figures guard the table holding the Buddha’s relics. Are they spearmen, or robots?

Robots Guarded Buddha’s Relics in a Legend of Ancient India

As early as Homer, more than 2,500 years ago, Greek mythology explored the idea of automatons and self-moving devices. By the third century BC, engineers in Hellenistic Alexandria, in Egypt, were...
Commandaria wine was served at King Richard’s wedding in Cyprus. He proclaimed that it was “the wine of kings and the king of wines”.

Commandaria: The Oldest Wine in Production, Praised By Homer, and Richard the Lionheart's "King of Wines"

The first evidence of wine making is from the Caucasus Mountains bordering Eastern Europe and Western Asia around 6000 BC. From there it spread throughout the ancient Near East to gradually become...
The Palace of Knossos, Crete.

The Magnificent Palace of Knossos in Crete Was Stronghold of the Powerful Minoans

Knossos palace is a spectacular archaeological site which was once the center of the Minoan civilization on the Greek island of Crete . The site contains a number of ruins from the Minoan period, the...
Nineteenth-century painting depicting the Athenian politician Pericles delivering his famous funeral oration in front of the Assembly

The Ins and Outs and 'Idiots' of Greek Democracy

Greece, or more specifically the city state of Athens , is considered to be the birthplace of democracy. Athenian democracy is well-documented and served as a model for the democracies of other Greek...
One of the 40 monasteries on the Holy Mount Athos.

Mount Athos – Garden of the Mother of God and Holiest of Holy Mountains to Some

Mount Athos, known also as the Holy Mountain, is a mountain located in Greece. The site is a semi-autonomous republic of Eastern Orthodox monks and is considered to be one of the holiest places of...
The three Figurines – Cycladic Art

Pre-dating the Minoans: The Cycladic Civilization and Their Unusual ‘Modern’ Art

The Cycladic culture (known also as the Cycladic civilization) is an early Bronze Age culture located in the Cyclades. This culture thrived from around 3200 to 1100 BC, and predated two other major...
Statue of ancient Greek athlete

Before the Olympiad There Was The Panathenaea – The Greek Festival and Games to Honor Athena

The Panathenaea was an ancient and important festival celebrated in the ancient Greek city state of Athens. This festival was held in honor of Athena Polias , the city’s patron goddess, and...
Penteli cave, 2009.

The Penteli Cave Enigma – A Place of Unexplained Phenomena Since Ancient Times

Mount Pentelicus, a mountain near Athens, Greece, has been an important area for thousands of years. It is the location of the ancient quarry from which marble was cut to build the Parthenon and...
Petralona Cave - Greece

The human skull that challenges the Out of Africa theory

This is the account of the discovery of a skull that has the potential to change what we know about human evolution, and a suppression and cover-up which followed. In 1959, in an area called...
Ancient Khmer carving of childbirth.

Ancient Childbirth Beliefs and Rituals Thought to Protect Mother and Child

For much of human history, pregnancy and childbirth was an extremely dangerous period in a woman’s life. It was often believed that the expectant mother and her baby were vulnerable to malevolent...
Amphorae left on the seabed of one of the Mediterranean shipwreck sites.

Shipping Blackspot: Largest Find of Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Intensifies

In Greece, marine archaeologists have made an unprecedented discovery of shipwrecks in one area of seabed - now numbering 58. It is the largest such find in the history of the Mediterranean. The...
Representational image – does not depict artifacts recovered in Operation Demetra. Coins stolen by the Nazis, Jewish Museum of Greece (Athens)

Illegal Artifact Smuggling and Forgery Ring Smashed in Europe-Wide Police Swoop

After a hunt lasting several decades, a team of almost 250 top European criminal investigators and highly-trained police officers have busted a 24-man strong, ring of international illegal artifact...
A painting depicting a debate between Socrates and Aspasia, by Nicolas André Monsiaux, circa 1800.

Elite Companions, Flute Girls and Child Slaves: Sex Work in Ancient Athens

Marguerite Johnson / The Conversation In this sexual histories series, authors explore changing sexual mores from antiquity to today. When the Athenian politician Pericles delivered his famous...
"Delphic Oracle" Painting by Heinrich Leutemann. Image source: art-prints-on-demand.com

Spells, Charms, Erotic Dolls: Love Magic in the Ancient Mediterranean

It was a well-kept secret among historians during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the practice of magic was widespread in the ancient Mediterranean. Historians wanted to keep the activity...
Diver Alexandros Sotiriou finds a ceramic table jug and a bronze rigging ring from the Shipwreck.

Ancient Antikythera shipwreck has more secrets to reveal

In 2015, researchers began carrying out a five-year study of the ancient Greek shipwreck off Antikythera Island that had onboard the famous Antikythera mechanism, hailed as the world's first...
Ancient Greek theater (Segesta).

Ancient Greek Theater and the Monumental Amphitheaters in Honor of Dionysus

To the Ancient Greeks, theater was a form of entertainment taken very seriously. People would come from all across the Greek world to attend the popular theaters held in open air amphitheaters. In...
The Colossus of Rhodes: Ancient Greek Mega Statue

The Colossus of Rhodes: Ancient Greek Mega Statue

The Colossus of Rhodes was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the most ambitious and tallest statue of the Hellenistic period. The last of the seven wonders to be completed, it was a...
Detail of the statuette of the Lady of Auxerre

The Lady of Auxerre: What is the Story Behind Her Archaic Smile?

Elegant and alluring, the Lady of Auxerre has drawn in archaeologists and art enthusiasts alike. Her origins, probably on ancient Crete, provide an added element of interest. Was the female form...
Featured image: Elaborate and colorful fresco revealed at Akrotiri.

The precious remains of Akrotiri, an ancient city obliterated in the great eruption of Thera

The destruction of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 has been preserved in ancient times by an eye witness account, namely that of Pliny the Younger. The literary evidence and...
The famous Omphalos considered to be the center of the Universe for ancient Greeks, Delphi, Greece.

The Sacred Omphalos Stone, Navel of the World and Communicator of the Gods

An omphalos is a powerful symbolic artifact made from stone. Considered the ‘navel of the world’, the central point from which terrestrial life originated, an omphalos was an object of Hellenic...
Legends of The Sun: From Solar Gods to Flying Chariots

Legends of The Sun: From Solar Gods to Flying Chariots

Thanks to scientific discoveries, we know for certain that life on Earth depends upon the sun. But long before scientists even discovered that our planet revolves around it, ancient cultures...
Bones found in Magnificent Amphipolis Tomb belong to Five People

Bones found in Magnificent Amphipolis Tomb belong to Five People, Ministry Announced

In 2015, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced the long-awaited results of the analysis on the bones found inside the 4th century BC tomb uncovered in Amphipolis in northern Greece. The news was...

Pages