Alexander the Great is without a doubt one of history’s greatest and most famous figures. His deeds and the enormity of the empire he created were certainly a hard achievement to surpass. However,...
Craig Barker / The Conversation Rarely does L.P. Hartley’s dictum that “the past is a foreign country” hold more firmly than in the area of sexuality in classical art. Classic erotic art, erotic...
Herculaneum beach in the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum, buried along with Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on October 24th 79 AD, is to be excavated and restored. When the archaeologists...
Gold is arguably the human race’s most valued commodity and a lot could be written about the history of this metal. The luster, beauty, resistance to tarnishing, malleability, and overall brilliance...
Desperate to jump-start a stalled economy, in 2020 Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte revived a long-dormant infrastructure project. If approved, it would lead to the construction of the longest...
Doomed to forever roll a huge boulder up a steep hill, Sisyphus is a figure in Greek mythology who represents an impossible task. As his punishment in the Greek Underworld , each time Sisyphus neared...
Ancient legend paints a picture of a magical bird, radiant and shimmering, which lives for several hundred years before it dies by bursting into flames. It is then reborn from the ashes, to start a...
In ancient Greek mythology, Medusa is the most famous of three monstrous sisters known as the Gorgons. The earliest known record about the story of Medusa and the Gorgons can be found in Hesiod’s...
A 1,500-year-old Greek Christ inscription bearing the words “Christ born of Mary” has been discovered at an excavation at the ancient village of Taibe, in northern Israel . This finding has not only...
The Parthenon, proudly standing on the Athenian Acropolis , is considered by many historians and archaeologists alike as the undisputed symbol of Athenian democracy and the cradle of Western...
The famous city states of ancient Greece were filled with capable leaders, statesmen, generals, and heroes. Athens, one of the world’s oldest named and inhabited cities, became the leading city state...
Jaffa, or Yafo in Hebrew, is a city port and southern suburb of Tel Aviv, located on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. As one of the oldest ports in the world, the Bible says Jaffa was founded by...
The remains of what appears to have been a unique funeral ceremony and Greek burial have been discovered at the ancient colony of Gela in southern Sicily. Founded some time between 689 and 688 BC,...
Archaeologists exploring in an ancient burial cave in Croatia have discovered a warrior’s grave containing an exceptionally rare Greek-Illyrian type bronze war helmet. The open-faced, bronze, Greek-...
In days of old, the dead were buried with a silver coin (the shiner the better) so that the souls of the faithful departed could pay the toll to the deathless demon ferryman of the underworld: Charon...
Ancient Greece, and Athens in particular, played a crucial role in the development as well as the history of Western Civilization. The center of Athenian life was the Agora, an open space at the...
Today, bigger is widely regarded as better. But was this always the case? This article sheds some light on how the Western culture changed in its phallic preferences. Over the past few decades,...
Construction workers have made a remarkable discovery in Athens . The Greek Ministry of Culture has announced that the ancient bust of the Greek god Hermes was unearthed in remarkably good condition...
The Riace Warriors (or Bronzi di Riace) are a pair of Greek bronze statues that were discovered in the sea near Riace, in the southern Italian province of Calabria. The statues date to the 5th...
A rocky uninhabited Greek islet in the Aegean Sea is providing archaeologists with a treasure trove of finds, including new insight on the story of an ancient pirate king. There was once a small...
Creepy and more than a little uncomfortable to behold, one usually thinks of DC Comics' Joker when hearing the phrase "sardonic grin." A "smile" that pulls up the corners of the mouth in a way that...
Throughout time some people are remembered after they die for their achievements. But some individuals are celebrated both in life and death and they are especially important. What archaeologists...
Meteora means ‘suspended in the air’ in Greek. This site is one of the largest and most important Greek Orthodox monastic complexes. It is located in the north-western edge of the Plain of Thessaly...
For anyone familiar with the Bible, the story of the Israelite god Yahweh is a simple one. Yahweh appears to Abraham in the book of Genesis and enters into a covenantal alliance with him. Abraham's...