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Ancient Origins Premium offers a wealth of knowledge and a variety of learning methods (articles, eBooks, webinars, expeditions and more) that will help you embark on a journey you will never forget!

Komainu pair: Edo period, 17th-18th century, wood, Honolulu Museum of Art accessions (CC0)

Komainu Hybrid Lion-Dog Protectors Of Asian Temples And Shrines

Tattoo art and designs, like virtually everything else in Japanese life, are often based on traditional beliefs or historical events. In fact, some of the most popular Japanese tattoo designs are of...
Historic Pembroke Castle birthplace of King Henry VII, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK ( Marcin/ Adobe Stock)

Pembroke Castle Revealing A Secret Of Henry VII’s Birthplace

Situated on a high ridge between two tidal inlets in the south-west corner of Wales, Pembroke Castle, with its walls still standing sentinel after hundreds of years, dominates the landscape. These...
Res Gestae Sargonis: Sargon The Great King Of Akkad

Res Gestae Sargonis: Sargon The Great King Of Akkad

The Akkadian Empire, founded by Sargon the Great, was the very first empire the world had seen, established in ancient Mesopotamia in about 2370 BC. This empire was remembered as having been...
Christopher Columbus and His Son at La Rábida by Eugène Delacroix (1839) National Gallery of Art (Public Domain)

The Papal Public Relations Operation Behind Christopher Columbus’ Discovery Of The New World

Was there a Papal conspiracy around Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America? Is it possible that the history of the ‘discovery of America’ has been told omitting details that only now re-emerge...
Children playing cards by Rafael Romero de Barros (1876) (Public Domain)

Oriental Origins of Playing Cards: Ganjifeh And Yezi Xi

In 1392 France, Charles Poupart, a treasurer to king Charles VI (1368 – 1422), recorded a payment to a Parisian painter named Jacquemin Grigonneur for painting three illuminated packs of cards...
Great Wall of China stretching forever into the distance (MICHEL / Adobe Stock)

Ancient Frontiers: Boundary, Defensive And Offensive Walls

Long before great city walls were raised, 10,000 years ago, early hunter-gather-fishers as well as emerging farmers, built the settlement of Jericho (West Bank, Palestine) using adobe mud bricks,...
The Woman Clothed in the Sun. The Tapestries of the Apocalypse (Château d’Angers) by Nicolas Bataille and Robert Poinçon (1375 and 1382) (PMRMaeyaert/ CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Stellar Tableau Behind The “Woman-Child-Dragon” Apocalyptic Vision Of Revelation

Comprehending the meaning behind the mysterious imagery in the Book of Revelation remains one of the most challenging facets of New Testament scholarship, and one scene in particular continues to...
The illuminated Our Lady of Chartres cathedral, France (kovalenkovpetr / Adobe Stock)

The Allure Of Chartres Cathedral, An Aura Of Pagan Mysticism

Researchers say the celebrated Chartres Cathedral encodes lost information on the Knights Templar, the Ark of the Covenant, sacred geometry, alchemy and numerology. Innumerable books and articles...
Equivocal Pyramids All Over The World

Equivocal Pyramids All Over The World

There is perhaps no shape on earth so thought-provoking and awe-inspiring as a pyramid, and so mystical was this geometric form perceived in antiquity, that it was adopted for the graves and grand...
Mount Nemrut, Apex Of The Kingdom Of Commagene

Mount Nemrut, Apex Of The Kingdom Of Commagene

Crowned by Mount Nemrut , the territory of the Kingdom of Commagene, landlocked by Syria on the south, Cilicia on the west, Cappadocia on the north-west, Sophene on the north-east and Osroene on the...
The Curious And Precarious Life Of A Medieval Jester

The Curious And Precarious Life Of A Medieval Jester

The medieval jester has become an iconoclastic figure in society, regularly appearing in the TV shows, films, and video-games of the modern era. The classic jester, replete with flamboyant colorful...
Qesem Cave People And The Genesis of Innovation

Qesem Cave People And The Genesis of Innovation

In 2000, during the construction of a highway in Israel, controlled explosives revealed a Paleolithic cave site by a large rocky outcrop just beneath the Arab-Israeli city of Kafr Qasim. What makes...
Harran, City of Sin, Crusaders And Caliphs

Harran, City of Sin, Crusaders And Caliphs

Dusty winds blow around the desolate ruins on the arid plain of Harran, and the mirage of the heat conjures up images of what was once the site of a medieval hub of science. Har means ‘fire’ in...
Christopher Columbus, map of the New World and Dante Alighieri (Deriv)

Discovering The New World: The Papacy’s Backing Of Dante And Columbus

A concerning trend has broken out in the world: that of rewriting history to one's liking by acclaiming or tarnishing historical figures of whom very little is actually known. For more than 30 years...
The Nightmare by John Henry Fuseli  (1781)(Public Domain)

The Dream Realms Of Morpheus, Sisig, Baku, And Njorun

‘ The Sandman’ a comic book written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics from January 1989 to March 1996, is considered one of the very best modern insights into sleep and dreams in the ancient...
Hera and her pet peacocks. Juno and Argus by Peter Paul Rubens (circa 1611) Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (Public Domain)

Elephants, Eels, Fawns and Ravens: Ancient Lives Of Beloved Exotic Pets

Unlike Aristotle who viewed animals as irrational creatures with lower moral standing, sent to earth solely to serve humans, Pythagoras regarded them highly and proposed that animals had reincarnated...
Baldr’s death by Odin is sitting in the middle of the Æsir by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckerberg. Yggdrasil and the three Norns can be seen in the background. (1817) Charlottenborg Palace (Public Domain)

Seidr Norse Magic And Noaidi Shamans Shaping Destinies

Controlling outcomes, steering destiny and reversing fate in ancient times was all about spells and old-school hands-on magic. Practitioners in ancient Greek and Rome commonly used ‘binding spells’...
Corpus Hermeticum: first Latin edition, by Marsilio Ficino, 1471, at the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam. (Public Domain)

Aion: The Demiurge and the Destiny of Man in the Teachings of Hermes Trismegistus

The Hermetica are a collection of ancient texts composed in Egypt between roughly 200 BC and 400 AD, attributed to the legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus and his followers. As is well known to...
Ancient Legacy And Future Applications Of Glass

Ancient Legacy And Future Applications Of Glass

Today, glass is a mundane material mostly used in construction but in history it was among the treasures of kings and their royal dynasties. The history of glass-making dates back to at least 3,600...
Zhang Qian leaving emperor Han Wudi around 130 BC, for his expedition to Central Asia. Mural in Mogao Caves, high Tang Dynasty (Public Domain)

A Tale of Silk and Faraway Lands: Did the Romans Meet the Chinese?

Although located on opposite ends of the globe, ancient Rome and China were remarkably similar in their stature, as both commanded respect from the weaker kingdoms enveloped in their spheres of...
Excavating Azekah: Defensive Bastion Of The Kingdom Of Judeah

Excavating Azekah: Defensive Bastion Of The Kingdom Of Judeah

Describing the fortress of Azekah 2,700 years ago the mighty Assyrian King Sennacherib wrote that “its walls were strong and rivalled the highest mountains…by means of beaten earth ramos, battering...
Scenic view of typical narrow alleyway lined laundry lines in the Medieval Centro Storico of Naples ( lazyllama/ Adobe Stock) and Munaciello according to popular imagery ( Lady of a times /CC BY-SA 4.0)

Mischievous Munaciello, A Folletto Character Of Neapolitan Folklore

Every country in the world has its own rich folklore , every city and village has its own legends about fantastic creatures and supernatural beings told by grandparents to parents to children,...
17th-century icon of the Translation of the Relics of Saint. Nicholas of Myra. Historic Museum in Sanok, Poland. (Public Domain)

Furta Sacra: Medieval Trafficking In Saintly Relics

It is hard to imagine that the gruesome topic of bodysnatching and the ghastly, gory and gorgeous world of relics would be a main focus of religious veneration throughout the Middle Ages. Through...
Urfa Castle, Şanlıurfa, Turkey (Bernard Gagnon/  CC BY-SA 3.0)

From Urfa To Edessa To Şanlıurfa: Spanning 10,000 Years Of History

During the Hellenistic Period from 312 BC to 63 BC, the Seleucid Empire was a major superpower and at its apex encompassed Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, (now modern Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan...

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