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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Human Origins

Ancient Origins presents how human origins are explained through three different perspectives: a) science and scientific evidence, b) religions and creation stories and c) folklore and mythology.

An artist's rendering of the hypothetical impact of a planet like Theia and Earth. (Public Domain)

Theia—Greek Goddess of Light, the Sun, the Moon, and Wisdom

The Olympian gods are well known to most people in the Western world. A lesser-known deity is Theia. Theia is the primordial Greek goddess of light. She was considered one of the Titans. She is said...
Lake Superior glyphs. Source: YouTube Screenshot / America Unearthed

Who Mined Lake Superior? Ancient Glyphs Solve Bronze Age Mystery (Video)

For centuries, the shores of Lake Superior have held countless secrets, hidden in the depths of the lake and the surrounding wilderness. Recently, a team of archaeologists and linguists stumbled upon...
Ancient DNA analysis is unlocking secrets about the genetic legacy of the Levites of ancient Israel. Source: Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing/ CC BY-SA 3.0 overlayed and cropped onto ankreative / Adobe Stock

Ancient DNA Analysis Reconstructs Legacy of the Biblical Levites

The biblical Levites were a group of people from the tribe of Levi set apart for religious service in ancient Israel. The most famous Levite was Aaron, Moses 's big brother and the first priest. The...
Examples of an Oldowan percussive tool, core and flakes dating from roughly 2.9 million years ago and found at the Nyayanga site in Kenya are seen in this undated handout image. Source: T.W. Plummer, J.S. Oliver, and E. M. Finestone/Homa Peninsula Paleoanthropology Project

Results of Kenyan Dig Suggest Africa’s First Toolmakers Were Not Human

A multi-year series of excavations at a site near Lake Victoria in Kenya unearthed a collection of Oldowan stone tools that are likely the oldest ever found on Earth, dating back to the Pliocene...
The supposed giants ring, with condor decoration. Source: Courtesy of Celso García Vargas / Author supplied

An Extraordinary Discovery: A Giant’s Ring of the Inca Era?

A long time before the Inka reigned, there were in those parts men in the manner of giants, as grown as they showed the figures that were sculpted in the stones. Pedro de Cieza de León Crónica de...
The elephants hunted by the Neanderthal groups would have been even larger than this African elephant. Source: peterfodor/Adobe Stock

Giant Elephant Hunt Reveals Emerging Neanderthal Society

New evidence has emerged that Neanderthals were more advanced hunters and gatherers than previously thought. A study published in Science Advances reveals that these ancient humans hunted and...
The latest innovation in home DNA tests uses ancient DNA to reveal unique insights into ancestry. Source: cooperr / Adobe Stock

Are You Related To An Ancient VIP?

Home DNA testing has exploded in popularity in recent years, with millions of people around the world using these kits to learn more about their ancestry and genetic health risks. However, while...
Researchers have found evidence in South Africa that Homo naledi used controlled fire within caves. Insert: Homo naledi facial reconstruction.  Source: Brilliant Eye / Adobe Stock, Insert; Cicero Moraes (Arc-Team) et alii, CC BY 4.0

Shocking Evidence Homo Naledi Used Fire 230,000 Years Ago

Ground-breaking new evidence has emerged from South Africa that suggests that Homo sapiens may not have been the first species to use controlled fire. Fossil remains of Homo naledi were discovered in...
Top image: In the Norse creation myth, worlds of fire and ice emerge from the abyss at the beginning of the universe.	Source: ivanovevgeniy / Adobe Stock

Norse Creation Myth: Fire and Ice from the Abyss

The Norse people were the ancient tribal communities of Scandinavia, who in the modern day are often referred to or thought of as the Vikings (who were actually a subset of them). Like many other...
Image depicting South American migration patterns. Source: Florida Atlantic University

DNA Analysis Reveals Surprising South American Migration Patterns

A new study based on cutting-edge genetic analysis has revealed startling new information about South American migration patterns. By carrying out a complete genetic sequencing of DNA provided by...
Historic photo of the Stone figures found in Oxkintok, plus photo of one stone figure, now in Natural History Museum in Merida. Source: Author provided

Examining Out-of-Place Stone Figures from the Forgotten City of Oxkintok

I’ve had an affinity for the Maya civilization for almost 30 years, and between working with native elders, vacations, and leading tour group visits to Mexico, I can vouch for the mystical nature of...
New study suggests primordial life originated in sea spray. Source: Rysak / Adobe Stock

Chemists Suggest Primordial Life Began in Sea Spray

A team of chemists from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana have discovered a mechanism that could explain how the fundamental ingredients of living cells were first created in the...
A replica of the Peking Man skull, because all the originals vanished, from the Peking Man Site, on display at the Paleozoological Museum of China. Source: Yan Li / CC BY-SA 3.0

The Tragic Story of the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian

Nothing sparks the human imagination quite like the question, what came before? Philosophers, theologians, and countless religions have spent millennia pontificating on what came before humanity as...
Breakthrough research into alternative dating technology using the Temporal Population Structure (TPS) tool could provide more accurate dating of ancient remains. Source: BillionPhotos.com / Adobe Stock

Successfully Dating a Mummy Just Got Easier. New Testing Revealed

It is no secret that in dating, timing is everything. When studying the past, whether finding coins, bones, or pathogens buried in a mound – the question of when they are from makes the difference...
Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. Source: Геннадий Кучин / Adobe Stock

Athena: Fiercely Feminine Goddess of War and Wisdom

Of all the Olympian gods and goddesses, Athena was arguably one of the most fascinating. The goddess of war, wisdom, and crafts, Athena was known for her many passions and abilities that made her...
The reproduced portrait of the Red Deer Cave People or Mengziren. Source: Xueping Ji / CC BY-SA

Pleistocene Fossil DNA Suggests Native Americans’ East Asian Roots

Genome sequencing of a human Late Pleistocene Fossil in southwest China dating back around 14,000 years is helping shed light on the ancestry of the very first Americans . The mystery surrounding the...
The entrance to Wayland's Smithy, one of the Cotswold-Severn Group Neolithic stone structures, seems primitive but megalithic mathematics can be found here, and experimental archaeology proves it. Source: Msemmett / CC BY-SA 3.0

Megalithic Mathematics Revealed at the Cotswold Severn Long Barrows!

During the British Neolithic, circa 4000-2500 BC, we witness the appearance of numerous ceremonial and domestic monuments dominating the prehistoric landscape. Providing an absolute total of how many...
Cave art depicting two figures copulating from Jabbaren, Algeria. Source: Trust for African Rock Art / Fair Use

Neanderthal-Human Sex Caused a Million Covid Deaths

About 60,000 years ago, a human had a sexual encounter with a Neanderthal. Now, a genetic scientist has claimed that this single sexual act caused the deaths of up to a million people during the...
Reconstruction of the Peking man skull. Source: kevinzim / CC BY 2.0

Peking Man and China’s Paleontological Nationalism

At the beginning of the 20th century, a team of international paleontologists prepared to excavate a cave located in a limestone formation known as Dragon-Bone Hill, a few hours outside of Beijing...
Rome’s National Museum of Oriental Art displayed the reconstructed face of a female skeleton which was found in Iran’s Burnt City wearing a fake eye. The museum closed in 2017 and its collections were transferred to the Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome.

World’s Oldest Fake Eye from 2800 BC Found in Iran’s ‘Burnt City’

Believe it or not, fake eyes have existed for thousands of years. Besides improving the physical appearance of the patient needing the artificial eye, fake eyes also prevent tissues in the eye socket...
Brown bear penis bones. Source: Didier Descouens / CC BY-SA 4.0

What Do Dogs and Other Mammals Have That Humans Don’t? A Penis Bone

In a place before time, life somehow emerged on Earth. It grew and flourished. It changed. It split, and some of it went its different ways. There was life in the water and life on the land. Some...
Petra, Jordan and Jerusalem are both much older than Islam’s holiest site and some say the original location of Mecca lies elsewhere in the mists of history before the prophet Mohammed finally established “his Mecca” in Saudi Arabia.

Where Is the True Location of Mecca?

Most people will recognize Mecca as the name for the Holy City of Islam. Do you know where the Holy City is? Do you know where it should be? Did it get lost? Was it ever found? Believe it or not,...
The ruins of the Enlil temple, or the Ekur, in Nippur, which was once the most important pilgrimage destination in Mesopotamia. The brick structure on top was constructed by American archaeologists around 1900.		Source: David Stanley /CC BY 2.0

Nippur: The Great Mesopotamian Holy City That Gave Early Ideas Of God

The ancient city of Nippur is one of the most interesting holy cities in the Middle East. Now only known as a dilapidated, prehistoric town, Nippur was once recognized as an essential religious...
Ezekiel’s Daniel may be Biblical, or it may be based on the Ugaritic Danel from the Tale of Aqhat, with evidence pointing in both directions. Prophets Daniel and Ezekiel on the south side of the medieval rood screen, St Firman's, North Crawley, Buckinghamshire, England.		Source: World History

Ezekiel’s Daniel: Biblical Hero or Ancient Ugaritic Legend?

Ezekiel’s Daniel could be a real person, or he could be the Danel of ancient Ugaritic legend, and evidence points both ways. In the Biblical prophecies of Ezekiel, Daniel is characterized as paragon...

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