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Arde Lucus Gladiatrix

Gladiatrix: Female Fighters Offered Lewd Entertainment in Ancient Rome

Female gladiators (gladiatrix) were just a thing of legend for many years. However, decades of research have made it possible to finally confirm their existence and importance in the Ancient Roman...
Mona Lisa Meets War Machines: Details on the Driven Life and Lesser-Known Talents of Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa Meets War Machines: Details on the Driven Life and Lesser-Known Talents of Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, known more commonly as Leonardo da Vinci, is arguably one of the most well-known figures of the Italian Renaissance. Leonardo’s primary claim to fame is in the field...
Pankratiasts fighting.

Pankration: A Deadly Martial Art Form from Ancient Greece

Pankration was one of the most popular combat sports in ancient Greece. It combined two other popular sports of antiquity, wrestling and boxing, but kicking was allowed as well. The name Pankration...
A painting entitled ‘Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard, 1718’.

Exposing the Real Treasure of the Infamous Pirate Blackbeard

Edward Teach / Tache / Thatch, better known as Blackbeard, is arguably one of the world’s most notorious pirates. Like most other pirate tales, the story of Blackbeard also involves a treasure that...
One of the smashed skulls from Lake Nataruk, Kenya.

Earliest War Grave Found with 27 Slain People Dates Back 10,000 Years

The world’s earliest known mass-homicide grave of 27 adults and children shot with arrows and bludgeoned to death about 10,000 years ago has been found west of Lake Nataruk in Kenya. The authors of a...
Aerial view of excavations at the fortress in Ahtopol, Bulgaria.

Bulgarian City Named for Love has a Long History of Being Attacked and Bombarded

Archaeologists have excavated an ancient fortress on a small peninsula in Bulgaria occupied since at least the Neolithic and have found the Roman-occupied town was destroyed by barbarian tribes in...
Mitanni invaders

A Forgotten Empire: The Ancient Kingdom of Mitanni

Mitanni was a state that existed between the 16th and 13th centuries BC. This state occupied the land of the Hurrians. This area is located in the upper Tigris-Euphrates basin, and corresponds today...
Stone palette depicting Yuezhi king and attendants

Fighting Their Way Westward: The Nomadic Yuezhi People

The Yuezhi were an ancient nomadic group of people from Central Asia who spoke an Indo-European language. It is likely that most people today are unfamiliar with the Yuezhi Civilization. As they were...
Painting of María Pita (1987) by Fernández Cersa

Maria Pita: The Woman Who Saved a Galician Town from the British

At the end of 16th century the fleet of Queen Elizabeth wanted to take control of the waterways from England to Portugal. The group of galleons headed by Sir Francis Drake were the dread of the ports...
Side B of the Enigmatic Phaistos Disc. Figurine of goddess Astarte with horned headdress

Enigmatic Phaistos Disc may be Ancient Hymn to Astarte, Goddess of Love

An enigmatic clay tablet pulled from the ruins of an ancient Minoan palace has been one of the most puzzling mysteries in archaeology. But now a linguist believes a goddess is the key to unlocking...
16th Century depiction of execution of a prisoner by Ottoman soldiers.

Execution by Elephant: A Gory Method of Capital Punishment

Elephants have played a number of important roles in human history. In some cultures, the elephant is a revered creature. In Buddhism, for example, the vivid dream of Buddha’s mother which foretold...
The pit of arm bones (Antiquity photo)

Pit of Amputated Arms in France from 6,000 years ago Suggest War and Trophy-Taking

About 6,000 years ago in France some hostiles in an apparent act of warfare and trophy-taking killed a group of adults and children, amputated their arms and buried the limbs in a circular pit...
Samuel Scott’s painting titled “Action off Cartagena, May 28, 1708,” executed before 1772.

Gold, silver, jewels - Spanish galleon with $1 billion in treasure located off Colombian coast

Underwater explorers in Colombia have found what they believe is the richest shipwreck in the world, The San Jose , a Spanish galleon blown up by the British about 300 years ago, killing most on...
Portraits of Huáscar and Atahualpa from Peruvian stamps issued in 2004. Photo source: Stamps Peru

The War of the Two Brothers: The Division and Downfall of the Inca Empire

On the 26th of July 1533, the last ruler of the Inca Empire, Atahualpa, was executed by the Spanish with a garrotte (a device used to strangle someone). This marked the end of the once mighty Inca...
A painting of Bà Triệu on her elephant.

The Heroic Warrior Ba Trieu: A figure of Resistance Against Patriarchy and the Enemies of Vietnam

Warfare is a field that has long been dominated by men. Yet, in the history of war, there are a number of women who have emerged as great warriors or military leaders. One of the lesser known female...
Google Earth image shows the general vicinity of the islands, near Bademli Village in Turkey on the Aegean Sea

Researchers locate Submerged Lost Ancient City where Athens and Sparta Fought a Battle

Researchers have found the location of the lost island city of Kane, known since ancient times as the site of a naval battle between Athens and Sparta in which the Athenians were victorious but later...
A painting depicting the Battle of Kosovo (1870) by Adam Stefanović. Prince Lazar is seen dying with his horse at the left.

Serbia and the Ottoman Empire: The Loss and Recuperation of Independence

During the second half of the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire was extending its rule into the Balkans. One of the regional powers that the Ottomans encountered during their conquest of the Balkans...
Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle

The Dramatic History of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle in Ukraine: From Castle to Prison

It has been claimed that Kamianets-Podilskyi is the city with the most places of architectural interest in Ukraine after Kyiv and Lviv. This city is located on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine,...
Sack of Rome

Exploring the Origins of the Vandals, The Great Destroyers

The word vandal today may be defined as a person who deliberately destroys or damages property. Historically speaking, a Vandal was “a member of a Germanic people who lived in the area south of the...
Mix of ancient weapons

Ten Diabolical Weapons and Strategies of War from the Ancient World

Warfare has been a part of the human condition throughout recorded history. While weapons, strategies, and tactics have changed, there are a number of methods that have been used across the millennia...
An obsidian point is embedded in prehistoric human remains from a burial in central California.

The American Wild West had been wild for thousands of years

America’s Wild West may have been just as wild before the white man arrived with horses, guns and liquor. Analysis of more than 16,000 skeletons of Native Americans buried across 2,500 years shows...
A Philistine warship.

Kunulua: Homeland of the Philistine Sea Peoples Finally Found?

The Sea Peoples were a group of tribes that arose and battled against ancient Mediterranean communities from 1276-1178 BC. At the time the victims of their barrages called them: the Sherden, the...
The remains of soldiers from Napoleon's army

Hundreds of Bodies of Napoleonic Soldiers Unearthed in Germany

Hundreds of skeletons of soldiers in Napoleon's army have been discovered in the city of Frankfurt at a future construction site thanks to archaeological studies started decades ago. "We estimate...
Mosaic depicting Persian Archers

The Master Archers of the Powerful Achaemenid Empire

In the ancient Near East, archery became the predominant means of launching sharp projectiles, replacing spear-throwing. The history of archery, however, may have originated further down south during...

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