All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

Sea

Sacrificial virgin on altar. (heywoody / Adobe)

Throwing Virgins into the Sea and Other Ways to Appease the Gods: The Ancient Reasons behind Virgin Sacrifice

When the going got tough, it was believed sacrificing a virgin to the gods—by throwing them into the sea, burying them alive, or leaving them for hungry monsters—was the best plan. Virgin sacrifice...
Sea Silk

One Person Left on Earth Knows the Ancient Secret of Producing Sea Silk

Sea silk is a highly-precious fabric that is so rare only one woman left on earth knows the secret to its creation. Whilst silk is famously known to be obtained from the cocoons of the mulberry...
Piles of clamshells (Schvin/CC BY 2.0), background: men in a Curragh, a skin boat (WilliamMurphy/CC BY-SA 2.0);Deriv.

Seafarers and Shell Rings: Strange Formations on the American Coast a Hallmark of Faraway Visitors?

Just south of Awendaw, South Carolina, in the Francis Marion National Forest, is an example of a type of architectural artifact that still baffles archaeologists. For every explanation someone offers...
Native Americans traveling by boat

By Land or Sea? The Heated Debate on the Peopling of the Americas Continues…

Researchers should always be ready for the next big discovery, they never know where it may come from. Having an open mind and questioning peculiar finds is what sets things in motion. Take for...
A Chontal Maya sea craft.

Forgotten Voyagers: The Ancient Mexican Merchants Who Took to the Seas

“They were all young, well built and not black but fairer than the other natives I have seen in the Indies. They were handsome with fine limbs and bodies, and long straight hair cut in the Spanish...
Stone head of lord Buddha photographed during a dive at the Temple, near Pemuteran, Bali

The Underwater Temple Garden: A Unique Fusion of Bouyancy and Enlightenment

The Underwater Temple Garden is a unique dive site located in Bali, Indonesia. This underwater garden was created in recent years, and contains a Balinese Hindu temple compound. A photo of the site...
Raft in the Stone Age.

Did Ancient Humans Acquire Nautical Knowledge by Sailing the Prehistoric Megalakes of Africa?

There is increasing evidence that anatomically modern humans (AMH) left Africa 100,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence indicates that AMH were in Arabia, China, Crete, and Brazil over 100,000...
Stones arranged into a Native American medicine wheel pattern.

A Glimpse into the Intuitive Medicine of the Native American Tradition

Many centuries ago, in a land that is quite familiar to the modern American (in some forgotten, ethereal way).... A native boy scurries through a thicket of bramble bushes. His mouth stained with...
The Maiden Tower is the most recognized structure in the Old City of Baku, Azerbaijan.

A Fiery Maiden Guards Her Secrets

“At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, there was raised an 8-storied towered temple (Maiden’s Tower) devoted to seven gods, grandiose for those day… [possessing] seven sacred levels, [and] wall-...
The circular structure was first detected in a sonar survey of part of the sea in the summer of 2003.

Enormous Underwater Structure in the Sea of Galilee is a Mystery to Archaeologists

A gigantic monument at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee, as well as several mysterious structures, including a gigantic stone wheel and a moon-shaped monument, were recently found in northern Israel...
Illustration of a sea serpent. Credit: Tina Leyk / deviantart

In the Wake of the Stronsay Globster

More humans have walked on the moon than have been to the deepest parts of planet Earth and although the oceans cover 70% of Earth’s surface, we only know around 1% of the seafloor. Many a mystery...
New Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered: Archaeologists Excited to Unearth Two New Fragments in the Cave of Skulls

New Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered: Archaeologists Excited to Unearth Two New Fragments in the Cave of Skulls

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a set of nearly 1,000 manuscripts in Hebrew, Aramaic, and ancient Greek, which contain some of the oldest known versions of the Hebrew Bible and are said to be one of the...
Creatures of the Land, Sea and Heavens: Ancient Beliefs in Animal Counterparts

Creatures of the Land, Sea and Heavens: Ancient Beliefs in Animal Counterparts

Until the Age of Enlightenment, it was widely believed that every land creature had its counterpart in the sea (and perhaps even in the heavens). The classic example of this belief is the horse,...
The Marriage of the Sky and the Sea: Visayan Creation Myths

The Marriage of the Sky and the Sea: Visayan Creation Myths

Although there are different versions of the Visayan creation myth, they are similar in characters, conflicts and resolutions. The way the story was narrated and its different subsequent retellings...
Exhibition showing salt production in Museo do Mar in Vigo, Spain. Source: Natalia Klimczak

Salt: Treasure of the Ancient World and Highly-Valued Currency of the Roman Empire

Salt was one of the greatest treasures of the ancient world. Production facilities dedicated to the mineral provided work for many people, but now most of the sites are destroyed or hidden deeply...
More than a Goddess of Love: The Many Other Aspects of Aphrodite

More than a Goddess of Love: The Many Other Aspects of Aphrodite

The Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, has a very distinctive image in classical arts. In 458 BCE, the playwright Aeschylus, in his play Agamemnon , used the name of Aphrodite to denote “beauty, charm...
Crusader Hand Grenade and Bronze Knife Among Archaeological Treasures Retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea

Crusader Hand Grenade and Bronze Knife Among Archaeological Treasures Retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea

A treasure trove of priceless artifacts, the earliest of which are 3,500 years old, were recently turned over to the state of Israel by a family that inherited them from their father who passed away...
Clockwise from top left - Koh Ker, Cambodia (thomaswanhoff/CC BY SA 2.0), Pyramid of Khafre, Egypt (MusikAnimal/CC BY SA 3.0), El Castillo, Chichén Itzá, Mexico (Grand Velas Riviera Maya/CC BY SA 2.0), Pyramid of Cestius, Italy (Nicholas Laughlin/CC BY NC SA 2.0) Center: Replica of a wind rose from the chart of Jorge de Aguiar, 1492. (Alvesgaspar/CC BY SA 3.0)

The Pyramids Route: Was Knowledge of the Pyramids Spread by Ancient Castaways?

Jose Salvador Alvarenga was fishing off the coast of Mexico in late 2012 when a powerful storm sent his boat adrift. Marshall Islanders found the battered vessel nearly 16 months later, stuck on a...
The Caribbean Sea from space

Caribbean Sea Makes Mysterious Whistle Sound that Can Be Heard from Space

A study of the Caribbean Sea by University of Liverpool ocean scientists has revealed that, in the midst of all the noise of the ocean, this region behaves like a whistle, which blows so loudly that...
Archaeologists search for the last Dead Sea Scrolls in the Cave of the Skulls

Archaeologists search for the last Dead Sea Scrolls in the Cave of the Skulls

The Israel Antiquities Authority have initiated comprehensive archaeological excavations in the Judean Desert caves, in order to find the last Dead Sea Scrolls, which are among the earliest texts...
Three 16th Century English Cannons and the Remains of a Galley Discovered During Cleanup on a Spanish Beach

Three 16th Century English Cannons and the Remains of a Galley Discovered During Cleanup on a Spanish Beach

Three English 16th century cannons and the remains of a galley were discovered during the recent cleanup of a Spanish beach. The find was made in Calpe, a Spanish municipality in Valencia located on...
Deriv; A drowned land.

What Became of Atlantis: The Flood from Heaven

Skeptics and believers alike tend to overlook the fact that the story of Atlantis, as told by the Egyptian priests who related the story to Solon, is a complex narrative involving three civilizations...
Reconstruction of a Taíno village in Cuba.

The Exceptional Cuban Underwater City: Prehistoric Ramifications of its Origins – Part II

Submerged over 700 meters (2300 feet) underwater, the submerged Cuban city is thought to have been built originally built at a higher altitude and subsequently sunk to its present depth through...
Illustration of a range of 'sea monsters' in Carta Marina (Ocean Map)

Aspidochelone: A Giant Sea Monster of the Ancient World and an Allegorical Beast

In ancient Greece there was a large and dangerous sea monster called the aspidochelone , which could be translated as asp-turtle . The people who described it for centuries probably just saw a whale...

Pages