The world’s first known board game was found in Mesopotamia (c. 2600 BC). Despite this, Egyptian beliefs help us best to understand the Royal Game of Ur’s board design, rules and all. Especially the...
The Earth of 3.2 billion years ago was a "water world" of submerged continents, geologists say after analyzing oxygen isotope data from ancient ocean crust that's now exposed on land in Australia...
Estonia-Russian border controls are actively “tearing apart” the ancestral traditions of the Seto people. Seto people are an indigenous Finno-Ugric ethnic and linguistic minority inhabiting south-...
Hattusa, also known as Hattusha, is an ancient city located near modern Boğazkale in the Çorum Province of Turkey’s Black Sea Region . This ancient city once served as the capital of the Hittite...
By Aarhus University Symbolic behavior - such as language , account keeping, music , art, and narrative - constitutes a milestone in human cognitive evolution. But how, where and when did these...
An Italian-Egyptian team have reconstructed a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian art. They have been able to virtually recreate the face of a leopard that was found on a sarcophagus lid in a necropolis...
The Panagyurishte Treasure is a set of gold vessels from Panagyurishte, a town in the southern Bulgarian province of Pazardzhik. The treasure was discovered by accident during the 20 th century. The...
The history of the Sahel in Africa is a rich and exciting one. Many remains of great empires and cultures have been found in the region, but one of the most remarkable sites is the old town of Zinder...
These days, the dusty, sunbaked ruins of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey do not receive a lot of attention, except from tourists and archaeologists, but around 9,000 to 7,000 years ago it was a busy,...
A bronze sculpture seized at a Mexican airport last week, and hastily returned to Nigeria, is now claimed to be fake. Last week the BBC reported on a supposedly ancient artifact believed to have been...
Xiwangmu (西王母), whose name means ‘Queen Mother of the West’ is a goddess in the Taoist pantheon, and worshipped in Chinese folk religion. Xiwangmu is considered to be one of the most prominent female...
No name in world history rings more familiar than that of Alexander the Great. A man that managed extraordinary feats, conquering huge swaths of the world and placing his banner in many a kingdom and...
Until recently, relatively little of the great civilizations of sub-Saharan Africa has been known. The archaeological site at Manyikeni in Mozambique has provided remarkable insight into the culture...
Uluru, or Ayers Rock , is the massive natural sandstone monolith standing at the sacred heart of Australia’s Northern Territory’s ‘Red Centre’ and after years of abuse, now, ancient Aboriginal rock...
Illegal treasure hunters are increasingly raiding ancient sites in England and authorities have petitioned for the public’s help in stopping these deplorable “nighthawkers robbing the past.”...
Saint David (known in Welsh as Dewi Sant) was a Welsh bishop who is recorded to have lived during the 6th century AD. Not much is known about Saint David and the main source of information about the...
In 1845, HMS Erebus and her companion ship, the HMS Terror, set sail from Greenhite in England with the mission of crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic . But this ill-...
Humans began developing a complex culture as early as the Stone Age . This development was brought about by social interactions between various groups of hunters and gatherers, a UZH study has now...
1974, Sinis region, Sardinia (Oristano): the plow of a farmer being blocked by a piece of stone marked the beginning of a series of excavations in the area of Mont'e Prama, near the village of Cabras...
Christine Judith Nicholls / The Conversation A rich inventory of monstrous figures exists throughout Aboriginal Australia. The specific form that their wickedness takes depends to a considerable...
In 2020, a historian discovered one of the oldest Anatolian swords in existence, in a monastery’s cabinet of ancient curiosities. San Lazzaro degli Armeni, or Saint Lazarus Island, is a small islet...
Human hair has always played an important role in culture and in society. For men and women alike, styling one's hair seems to be an innate human desire to emphasize their beauty and power. Thus,...
The most profound mystery of mankind is the origin of the universe. In juxtaposition, its origin is also the most profound event known to man. Since about 1200 BC the Bible has declared in its first...
A secret passage has been found in the world-famous House of Commons in London . This passageway was forgotten for at least 70 years. Its rediscovery is allowing researchers to better understand one...
