The Hypatian Codex , known also as the Hypatian Chronicle , is said to be the main source of information for the history of the Southern Rus’ (Kyivan Rus’.) The Hypatian Codex was discovered by the...
Many people associate nursery rhymes with reading happy stories to children, or remember being children themselves and chanting them while they play. However, the popular explanations for the origins...
Scientists conducting a chemical analysis of four skeletons, with the support of information from historical documents, have now identified them as leaders of the first permanent English settlement...
Game of Thrones is a series of fantasy books by acclaimed author George R.R. Martin and a highly popular television show on HBO. It is a world unto its own, but like other popular fantasy series,...
Read part 1 . The ancients witnessed the awesome and raw power of erupting volcanos , and sent out warnings through time in the form of religion lessons, myths, legends and chronicles. These amazing...
When man grows overconfident and full of hubris in his accomplishments and importance, mother nature, or the gods, remind mankind who is really in charge. Or so it may have seemed to the ancients,...
‘Fold upon fold of the encircling hills, piled rich and golden,’ is how the writer (best known for her posthumous 1936 novel South Riding ) Winifred Holtby, described England’s Yorkshire Wolds...
History paints a bleak picture of the devastating effects that disease, contamination, or poison can have on humans. But with those hard lessons came experience and knowledge, and mankind has...
In this opinion piece exploring proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, guest writer William James Veall challenges the view that Christopher Columbus was the first foreigner to set foot in the Americas by...
An Italian man’s dream to open a modest restaurant became an archaeological obsession when he broke ground in order to repair a faulty toilet. The underground world filled with centuries of history...
Just a stone’s throw away from St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City is the Ponte Sant’Angelo. Today, this bridge is one of the famous tourist attractions in the city of Rome. Yet, this bridge hides...
The Sagas of the Icelanders have long been preserved as the most comprehensive specimen of the literary culture of the 13 th and 14 th centuries of Iceland. In writing these sagas, many attributes of...
The prehistoric religious temples of Hawaii are being dated by researchers with the help of small sea creatures. Indigenous temples of Hawaii, known as heiau , can be found across the islands. Dr...
According to tradition, the city of Rome was founded in the 8 th century B.C. by Romulus. The Roman historian Livy wrote that the city of Rome grew strong quickly, and was able to defend itself...
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure-dome decree…" Thus begins one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s three great poems, the unfinished “ Kubla Khan” . According to the poet, this poem was...
The Amarna period, roughly 1353-1336 BCE, introduced a new form of art that completely contradicted what was known and revered in the Egyptian culture. The pharaoh Amenhotep IV not only changed his...
The first dynasty of China described in classic texts and historical documents was the Xia Dynasty, established in 2070 BC in the Yellow River valley. However, the origins of Chinese civilization...
The Smithsonian Institution has released more than 44,000 images of precious artworks and artifacts from two of their museums of Asian art, many of which have never been shown publicly before. The...
By Simon Werrett , University College London. On New Year’s Eve fireworks manufacturers the world over will finally be able to relax after their biggest sale of the year. But this day has been a...
High heel shoes are today a form of footwear worn almost exclusively by women. Yet, the history of high heels shows us that this was not always the case. On the contrary, high heels were, at various...
The word "paganism" has come to refer to various pre-Christian religions belonging to a number of ancient cultures—those from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Scandinavia, and so on. It has come to also...
There are undoubtedly millions of amazing artifacts from the ancient world that have served to shed light on the lives of our ancestors from many millennia ago. But some stand out for their...
The ancient origins of Kava drinking is known to trace back at least 3,000 years and is associated with both social and ceremonial function. It was, and is, highly valued for its medicinal uses as a...
The discovery of more than 1,500 footprints and a number of graves dating back 8,500 years has shed new light on the Istanbul’s history, which was previously thought to have begun less than three...