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!
The Celtic Otherworld has always been a mystery; a strange, mysterious, and elusive place. What is not always appreciated is the extent to which the Celtic Otherworld, especially the magic Island of...
The high priests of the Inca Empire of ancient Peru used their sacred texts, known as the Codes of Sacred Geography, to build sacred community centers ( wakas ) along 42 long-distance ceque lines...
One of the largest Bronze Age archaeological sites in Crete is the palace ruins at Knossos. The passageways have an elaborate layout and one can still see murals that show a sport in which men would...
The temples of ancient Egypt represent one of the most enduring monumental expressions of religion and cosmology in the history of the world, serving as the very heart of pharaonic culture for nearly...
In the aftermath of the Romans’ departure from Britain in the fifth century AD, the coast of the former Roman province was left vulnerable to various invaders who sought to establish kingdoms of...
By 190 AD, the debauched life of emperor Commodus had reached a sinister summit. Never had the Roman Empire been led by such a disgraceful character. Probably mad, he identified himself with the god...
A young Indigenous man, a Pilgrim, has been walking all day carrying a large bundle basket on his back. His long black hair is tied up in a bun at the back of his head, and he has new, round,...
While much appreciated by the plebeians and especially by the army, Emperor Domitian was hated by the aristocracy and the Senate, which he himself despised. His absolutist attitude, his austere...
The Tuatha Dé Danann is one of the most mysterious peoples of the British Isles. Fascinatingly enough, some Celtic traditions place the prehistory of the Tuatha Dé Danann on the Greek islands in ages...
Diodorus Siculus’ Library of History is a mine of information about the ancient world, its peoples, histories, legends, and myths. Most interesting in Book 3. 52. is the narration of the myth of...
The founding of the Delian League in 478 BC moved the Athenians closer to the idea of democracy. However, although the Athenians believed that all men were created equal in political power and the...
The journal of a certain Edward Underhill offers a rare insight into the intrigues and intricacies of the Tudor court, for as a member of the monarch’s personal guard, he interacted with all the...
The missing gold of Montezuma, ninth Emperor of the Aztec Empire was buried by the Aztecs, the Utes protected it, the Spanish killed for it, and the Mormons looted it, but is the bulk of it still out...
Sacsayhuaman Archaeological Park, located above the ancient city of Cusco in Peru, hides a secret. Hidden beneath the archaeological sites are some very strange and beautiful stone vestiges, many...
The only child of Cleopatra and Marc Antony ’s to reach adulthood, Queen Cleopatra Selene (40 BC- 5 BC) of Mauretania was one of the most important women of the Augustan age— exceptional in and of...
I am the bull of Knossos, where rich Minoans live amidst painted splendour. On the island of Crete I am surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, by mountains and plains, by bronze, by plaster, by...
William Shakespeare’s Roman play Antony and Cleopatra impresses upon the audience a vast universe which includes Rome, Alexandria, and Athens. In contrast, his other Roman play, Coriolanus, is...
The Byzantine Emperors witnessed the disintegration of the western Roman Empire which did not survive past the fifth century. Contrary to the latter, the Byzantine Empire would subsist the successive...
Gods and goddesses revealed themselves rather remarkably often to the privileged and chosen ancient Greeks, even if it was in disguise to hide their blinding brilliance. Like English, Greek did not...
In 1294, after almost 30 years of peace, England and France went to war. This sowed the seeds of the conflict known as the Hundred Years War, the era of the longbow and the famous Battles of Crécy...
Queen Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII’s second wife, was executed on 19 May 1536 on charges of adultery with five men, including her own brother, and plotting the King’s death. She was believed to have...
The Nibelungs are one of the most mysterious peoples of the ancient world. Some scholars regard them as a race of dwarfs or elves. On the other hand, their close identification with giants suggests...
The first mention of the famous ‘Sword in the Stone’ of the Arthurian tradition is found in Robert de Boron’s Merlin , a medieval French poem, part of the 13th-century Lancelot-Grail cycle of French...
Typical of cats, the leonine goddesses of ancient Egypt, including Sekhmet are very elusive, despite countless research papers. A review of the attestations of the cult of feline deities in Egypt...
