Ever wanted a taste of life in an ancient civilization? The oldest cookbook ever found was made sometime around 1600 BC in the ancient city of Babylon. It’s a set of cracked tablets engraved by an...
Local authorities in Egypt have announced the discovery of an ancient sphinx statue between two of the best known ancient temples in the country – Karnak and Luxor. The discovery was made by chance,...
Every year, the people of Peru host an elaborate celebration in the city of Cuzco at the time of the summer solstice. This festival is known as Inti Raymi – the Festival of the Sun. To spectators,...
Today, Eridu is often considered to be one of the oldest permanent settlements in Mesopotamia, and perhaps even in the world. The ancient Sumerians also believed that Eridu was the first city in the...
There is a cave in southern Mexico where the distant past, more recent past, and the present intertwine. It is referred to as the Cave of Ancestors, where locals continue to honor their distant...
Anyone with a moderate interest in history will know that in the later years of his reign, Henry VIII seemed to have an identity crisis. His personality change from a generous and virtuous prince...
The tooth fairy is rivalled only by Santa Claus in popularity among American children. She is famous for exchanging a few dollars for baby teeth that have fallen out. Belief in the tooth fairy has...
In 2010 the existence of a previously unknown archaic human population was revealed following the DNA sequencing of a finger bone over 41,000 years old. It was discovered in 2008 in the Denisova Cave...
Archaeologists in Bulgaria are fighting a battle against looting in the Black Sea town of Primorsko. Unfortunately, it seems grave robbers are getting ahead of the experts in the number of graves...
Long bouts of bad weather have been blamed as a cause for the downfall of ancient civilizations around the world. Now, researchers have proposed a hypothesis that seems to support the idea that the...
It has been announced that a collection of 5000-year-old priceless artifacts that were looted in the wake of the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 have been identified in London. Local police seized the...
Last week, Ancient Origins reported on the fascinating discovery of a golden treasure left by the ancient Saka people in a burial mound in Kazakhstan. It was called one of the most significant finds...
Archaeologists had no idea of the immensity of the project they had begun when they started excavating an archaeological site in Sântana, Arad county, Romania almost a decade ago. They’ve now...
[Read Part I Here] Following the conquest of Persia by the Arabs, the region lost its significance as the center of an empire, it was now a mere province in the larger Islamic Empire. The decline of...
Pia Purra / University of Helsinki The prehistoric settlement submerged under Lake Kuolimojärvi provides us with a clearer picture of the human occupation in South Karelia during the Mesolithic and...
The Icelandic Sagas tell of Erik the Red: exiled for murder in the late 10th century he fled to southwest Greenland, establishing its first Norse settlement. The colony took root, and by the mid-12th...
The standard school curriculum teaches that Native Americans descended from a small band of Paleo-Indian people from north-east Asia who walked across the now-vanished Beringia land-bridge between...
In northern Morocco the great ancient city of Volubilis is rising again and is becoming a major tourist attraction. The city that was once neglected and half-forgotten is now being opened to the...
The land of Persia (also known as Iran) has been the center of several important empires throughout history. Between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, this was the land from which the mighty Achaemenids...
The dragon is one of the most well-known creatures in ancient mythology, and many cultures have this creature (or one of its related forms) in their folklore. In East Asian countries, for instance,...
A surprising Google Doodle has greeted users of the search engine in the UK. The image celebrates the 1038th birthday of Persian polymath Ibn Sina. For many in the West, this may be the first...
An amateur treasure hunter has made a ‘stunning’ find from the Roman era in the south-west of England. With the help of a metal detector, the man discovered a golden ring at a site being investigated...
Today, only the ruins of the city attest to the important status Beni Hammad Fort once enjoyed in the history of Algeria. It saw glory as a Medieval stronghold and as the capital of a local dynasty...
By Kathleen McGarvey / University of Rochester Our popular ideas of the chivalric world are off base, according to historian Richard Kaeuper. The gallant knights on horseback and banners unfurling...
