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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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A Cycle of Life and Death: Slavic Goddesses Morana and Vesna

A Cycle of Life and Death: Slavic Goddesses Morana and Vesna

Forever intertwined, Morana, goddess of winter and death, and Vesna, goddess of spring and rebirth, could not exist without each other. However, they could not possibly exist in the same place at the...
Glanum, An Ancient Roman Town in France Renowned for Its Healing Spring

Glanum, An Ancient Roman Town in France Renowned for Its Healing Spring

We are fortunate to have access to many ancient Roman cities throughout the vast regions they once ruled. Their ruins tell us a great deal about their gods, their hobbies, their lifestyle, and their...
Remembering Winter in Kashmir: Shaping A Collective Memory of the Past

Remembering Winter in Kashmir: Shaping A Collective Memory of the Past

During nineteenth and first-half-of-the-twentieth century, a popular proverb on every Kashmiri’s tongue was Sountas na keneras, Te hardas na neeles , meaning “plough the soil in spring even if it is...
Do Akhenaten’s Links With Shavuot Shed New Light on Moses? – Part 2

Do Akhenaten’s Links With Shavuot Shed New Light on Moses? – Part 2

Buried beneath the themes of first fruits and wheat offerings lie deeper connections between Shavuot and Akhenaten. These are suggestive and persuasive and go far beyond delicious foods and...
The origins of the Jewish festival Shavuot’s traditions are obscure. But what if they could be linked to Pharaoh Akhenaten, offering a new view on Moses? Pictures: Representation of Moses’ famous crossing of the sea. 	Source: Vlastimil Šesták / Adobe stock

An Akhenaten Connection to the Harvest Festival of Shavuot - Part 1

The Jewish festival of Shavuot is taking place around the world. It is an ancient celebration of the spring harvest of grains and first fruits. It is the year’s first wheat harvest, and Jews around...
Spring Goddess

The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter

Easter is a festival and holiday celebrated by millions of people around the world who honor the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred three days...
On March 29th ancient people sharpened their swords and went to battle under the power of their resurrected sun gods. Source: Oleksandr /Adobe Stock

March 29: When Viking and Christian Sun Gods Drew Swords

Easter corresponds with the first Sunday following the full moon after the March equinox and as such the holy day occurs on different dates around the Christian world. However, the story of the...
Image of human foot demonstrating the arch.          Source: Alessandro Grandini

Scientists Study 3.5-Million-Year-Old Origins of Unique Human Spring

Scientists have proven the arch running across the top of the human foot evolved in a 3.5-million-year old human ancestor, enabling us to walk and run upright unlike all other primates. Sports...
Chichén Itzá’s shadow revealed during the spring equinox on Kukulcán.

Chichen Itza's Shadows: Unexpected Light Shed on Ancient Maya

What we see is not always what we expect, whether from nature or man-made. This is often true with archaeological remains of cities or human settlement, when new discoveries shed unexpected light on...
'A May Day celebration’ by William Powell Frith.

May Day’s Weird and Wonderful Pagan Roots

May 1st is an ancient Northern Hemisphere festival, now known as ‘May Day’, which traditionally marked the return of summer. It is believed that the celebrations originated in agricultural rituals...
Image representing Spring Equinox

How Ancient People Marked the Equinox Around the World

For those in the Northern Hemisphere, today marks the vernal, or spring equinox, while for those in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the time of the autumnal equinox . It marks the day when the sun...
Detail of ‘Xipe Totec.’ (Michael Jaecks/Deviant Art) Background: Aztec calendar

Xipe Totec: This Gory God Shows the Unique Way Aztecs Viewed Fertility and Renewal

‘Our Lord the Flayed One’ – following this god’s choice of attire, human skin - Xipe Totec would have been a terrifying sight. But this was an extremely important deity in the Mesoamerican pantheon,...
Fittings in the form of tigers, Baoji, Shaanxi province, Middle Western Zhou dynasty, c. 900 BC, bronze - Freer Gallery of Art.

The Zhou Dynasty: The Longest-Lasting Dynasty in Chinese History

The Zhou Dynasty was the longest-lasting dynasty in Chinese history. It persisted all the way from the 11th to the 3rd century BC. The rulers of this epoch were no strangers to battle, but they also...
Holy Yet Cursed Medieval Well Unearthed in England

Holy Yet Cursed Medieval Well Unearthed in England

Archaeologists working in England have excavated a holy well dated to the Medieval period. Local legends speak of pilgrims bathing in its waters to cure their eye and skin diseases. However, a later...
A well with clean water from the river Fleet has been revealed under Australia House, the diplomatic mission on The Strand in London.

900-Year-Old Holy Well Found Under London Building Still has Drinkable Water

Around the world, to all people, springs of fresh water are special places. Officials recently announced that a spring well with clean, pure water that is fit to drink was discovered in the basement...
Ancient graffiti found at the Gutmana Ala cave, Sigulda, Latvia

The Gutmana Ala: The Legendary Cave of the Good Man and the Rose of Turaida

The Gutmana Ala, or Gutman’s (Good Man’s) cave in English, is today located in the Sigulda region of the Gauja National Park in Latvia. Apart from Sigulda, this national park extends over several...
April Fools

Tracing back the ancient origins of April Fools’ Day

On 1 st April every year, people around the world celebrate April Fools’ Day, sometimes called All Fools’ Day, a day when merriment and joviality is supposed to reign and pranks, practical jokes, and...
Stonehenge

Scientists claim to have solved the mystery of Stonehenge’s location

Archaeologists who have been undertaking excavation work in the surrounding area of Stonehenge have claimed to have solved the mystery as to why the large circle of standing stones was constructed in...