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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Queen Adelaide wax bust from 1830. Ancient wax sculpture. Funeral effigy. Source: Timothy Millett/CC BY-SA 4.0, © Trustees of the British Museum /CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Public Domain

Eerie Ancient Wax Sculptures For Hexing Enemies and Destroying Demons

The eerie, sightless stare of wax-figure mannequins disconcerts many an onlooker, but the famous wax museums of today which host hyper-realistic looking wax models of celebrities and historical wax...
The Nabatean woman, known as Hinat. Source: Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU)

Ground-Breaking Tech Brings Us Face-to-Face with a Nabatean Woman

For the first time in history, a team of archaeologists, forensic scientists, and model makers working under the Saudi Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) have reconstructed the face of an ancient...
Composite image of the rare mummy portraits unearthed in Egypt. Source: Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities

Huge Egyptian Tomb Discovered with Extraordinarily Rare Mummy Portraits

A huge funerary building has been excavated by researchers at the Gerza archaeological site in Fayum, Egypt. Rare artifacts were discovered, but a collection of mummy portraits represent the first...
Wax likeness of Madame Tussaud with her guillotine victims of the French Revolution in Paris, on display at the Royal London Wax Museum in British Colombia. Source: Herb Neufeld / CC BY 2.0

Madam Tussaud’s Breathtaking Waxworks Have a Blood-Soaked History

Behind the glitz and glam of modern-day waxworks of the likes of Donald Trump or Michael Jackson, lies the blood-soaked history of the French Revolution. In fact, the renowned Madam Tussaud franchise...
Mummy portrait, an ancient Egyptian style of post mortem portrait, of a woman from Egypt now housed in the Landesmuseum Württemberg Stuttgard. Source: CC BY-SA 4.0

Preserving Memories Through Time: The History of Post Mortem Portraits

People and cultures around the world have always understood death - the unavoidable part of everyone’s existence – in a multitude of ways. Some saw it as a gateway to a new life, while others viewed...
Hidden Medieval Portrait Discovered in a Famous Spanish Cathedral

Hidden Medieval Portrait Discovered in a Famous Spanish Cathedral

Imagine finding a selfie carved in stone in the high darkness of a medieval church! While working in one of the most famous churches in Europe, a British art historian discovered exactly that. She...
The reconstructed face of a Siberian Denisovan (right) alongside the Hebrew University’s own representation of a Sunda Denisovan (left).            Source: Left © Hernandez/Cartwright/Collins; b) © Maayan-Harel)

Two Faces of a Denisovan Revealed and Explained

Andrew Collins exclusively reveals the true face of a Siberian Denisovan. What the Denisovans might have looked like has been one of the hottest debates in paleoanthropology since the discovery of...
A preliminary portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Source: Maayan Harel

Face of the Denisovans? Portrait of a Teen Revealed by Her DNA

Based on ancient DNA methylation patterns, a portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan has been recreated. Only two weeks ago I wrote a news piece for Ancient Origins in which I listed all of the known...
Detail of the girl’s mummy portrait.

First-of-its-Kind Mummy Study Reveals Clues to Girl’s Story

Who is she, this little mummy girl? Northwestern University scientists and students are working to unravel some of her mysteries, including how her body was prepared 1,900 years ago in Egypt, what...
The archaeologists used a different method that incorporates facial data from around the world instead of data with a heavily European influence in creating the image of the woman from the Tham Lod rockshelter.

Researchers Reveal the Pretty Face of a Woman Who Lived 13600 Years Ago

Near the end of the last great ice age, the remains of a descendant of the first people to move into Southeast Asia were found in the Tham Lod rock shelter of Thailand’s northwestern highlands. Now...
Gone Without a Trace? Searching for the Tomb of the Famous Artist Diego Velazquez

Gone Without a Trace? Searching for the Tomb of the Famous Artist Diego Velazquez

Diego Velázquez was a standout artist amongst iconic Spanish painters and his artwork is famous around the world. As a painter in the court of King Phillip IV of Spain, Velázquez is best known for...
Detail of portrait depicting Ana de Mendoza

A Rebel in an Eyepatch and Gown - Ana de Mendoza, the Princess of Eboli

When one comes across her portraits, the first thing that is assumed is that the woman depicted within had to be a pirate. However, Ana de Mendoza was actually noblewoman and a rebel in a gown. It...
The Hidden Stories Behind Their Eyes: Unearthing the Secrets of Fayum Mummy Portraits

The Hidden Stories Behind Their Eyes: Unearthing the Secrets of Fayum Mummy Portraits

The famous Fayum mummy portraits of people who lived in Egypt during the Greco-Roman period contain many secrets and were very important for the dead buried with them. These magnificent portraits...
Mummy portrait of bearded man, encaustic on wood, Royal Museum of Scotland. Excavated in Hawara, Egypt in 1911.

Fayum Mummy Portraits Expose Information About Precise Painting Techniques and Possible Neurological Disorders

A group of researchers has uncovered telling clues about the underlying surface shapes and colors of 15 Fayum mummy portraits created during the Greco-Roman and Coptic periods in Egypt. Their...
Bearded Man Mystery

Unravelling the Mystery of the Bearded Man

“He looks almost Byzantine or Greek, gazing doe-eyed over the viewer’s left shoulder, his mouth forming a slight pout, like a star-struck lover or perhaps a fan of the races witnessing his favorite...