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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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amulets

Queen Adelaide wax bust from 1830. Ancient wax sculpture. Funeral effigy. Source: Timothy Millett/CC BY-SA 4.0, © Trustees of the British Museum /CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Public Domain

Eerie Ancient Wax Sculptures For Hexing Enemies and Destroying Demons

The eerie, sightless stare of wax-figure mannequins disconcerts many an onlooker, but the famous wax museums of today which host hyper-realistic looking wax models of celebrities and historical wax...
Ancient superstitions abound, including the belief that breaking a mirror can bring bad luck. Source: Ricky / Adobe Stock

10 Spine-Chilling Ancient Superstitions and Their Origins

Superstitions have long held a grip on human imagination, weaving threads of fear and fascination into the tapestry of our history. Today many of us no longer believe in them (or claim not to) but...
Bronze Age jewelry found in Swiss carrot field. Comprising of a necklace adorned with spiked discs, an amber necklace, finger rings, gold spirals, and distinctive discoveries like a bear tooth and an ammonite. Source: Canton of Thurgau

Stunning Bronze Age Jewelry Hoard Unearthed in Switzerland

“An important jewelry ensemble from the Middle Bronze Age” uncovered between August and now, has been announced in Switzerland’s Güttingen. It consists of several spiked jewelry discs (14 in total),...
CT images of the mummy revealed amulets were placed on or inside the mummified body of the Golden Boy mummy, including a two-finger amulet discovered next to the boy’s uncircumcised penis. (Saleem, Seddik and el-Halwagy / CC BY 4.0)

Scans Reveal Magic Amulets Inside Egyptian Golden Boy Mummy

CT scans conducted during a recent study of the “Golden Boy” mummy, which was discovered in 1916 in southern Egypt, has revealed a hidden collection of 49 magical amulets, including many forged in...
Composite image depicting the similitude between a replica of the Valencian slate owl plaque with inserted feathers (on the left) and the long-eared owl species which may have inspired numerous engraved owl plaques (on the right). Source: Juan J. Negro / CC BY 4.0

Enigmatic Copper Age Owl Plaques Were Made by Children, Study Claims

Decades of excavations in ancient burial pits in the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal) have unearthed more than 4,000 palm-sized slate owl plaques engraved with geometric images of...
The names Howard Carter and King Tutankhamun are interlinked but now old historical letters have revealed that Carter was also an antiquities thief. Anubis, the jackal-headed deity who presided over the embalming process and accompanied dead kings in the afterworld, next to two busts of King Tutankhamun. Source: Jiri / Adobe Stock

King Tut's Tomb Was “Raided” By Artifact Thief Howard Carter

New evidence suggests Howard Carter, the until now respected English archaeologist who excavated Tutankhamun’s (King Tut’s) tomb in Egypt in 1922, was a tomb-raiding “artifact thief.” On the 100th...
Artist’s photograph of Isaiah, 2014, as part of the photography series ‘Preservation’.  © Blake Little 2018. Photo prints can be purchased on the Blake Little website.

Egyptian Pharoah Pepi II Coated His Slaves in Honey to Use as Fly Traps

Pepi II was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Old Kingdom who succeeded to the throne at the tender age of six. Perhaps it was this privileged upbringing which ultimately resulted in him being one of Egypt’...
A closeup of the Tagar female grave (excavated in the Siberian steppe Minusinsk basin), which is an anomaly because the bone amulet next to her wrist is made with one piece of human bone, suggesting secondary burial grave manipulation.		Source: Evgeniy Bogdanov / Haaretz

Bronze Age Human Bone Amulet Found in Ancient Siberian Tagar Burial

How a culture buries its dead provides a crucial understanding of a culture across time periods, across historical divides, across geographical territories. Some of these ancient and prehistoric...
Ram-headed falcon amulet, gold, lapis lazuli, turquoise and carnelian. (1254 BC) Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre (Rama/ CC BY-SA 3.0)

Lustrous Gems As Amulets And Talismans Of Ancient History

Astrology is a very significant component of traditional magic. Although today it is marginalized even in magical practice, it played a significant role in determining when and how to implement a...
Though Egyptian hippos are now extinct in Egypt they still thrive in Africa. And these hippos are shown with lotus flowers, which often featured as decoration in Egyptian hippo figurines and paintings.                  Source: Faas / Adobe Stock

Egyptian Hippos: Ancient Symbol of Protection, Rebirth And Hunting

The ancient Egyptians had an undeniable and powerful connection to nature and the world around them. Almost every animal and plant had a specific meaning to their way of life, inspiring grand murals...
Thor's hammer amulet

How a Viking Amulet Solved the Mystery of Thor's Hammer

In 2014, archaeologists solved a long-running mystery through the discovery of a 10th century Viking artifact resembling Thor’s Hammer. Before then, they were only working with a hunch about the 1,...
Long Before Face Masks, Islamic Healers Tried to Ward Off Disease With Talismans

Long Before Face Masks, Islamic Healers Tried to Ward Off Disease With Talismans

Just as many now don face masks and do breathing exercises to protect against COVID-19 – despite debates around the science behind such practices – so too did the Islamic world turn to protective...
The team found 16 tombs containing 20 sarcophagi. Source: Egyptian Antiquities Ministry.

Egyptian Elite Sarcophagi and Unique Gold Treasures Unearthed

In Egypt, archaeologists have revealed a number of tombs that contain sarcophaguses . They also found a treasure trove of grave goods and other funerary figurines at the location. The sarcophagi, in...
The nature of the objects could indicate that they were used in Roman sorcery.

Evidence Suggests an Underground of Roman Sorcery in Pompeii

Experts have found a treasure trove of unusual objects concealed in Pompeii and it is theorized that the objects belonged to a Roman sorcerer who used them in the casting of spells . Pompeii is one...
Collection of Egyptian Art, design by Anand Balaji

Life after Life: Guidebook to Conquering Dangerous Demons and Dark Waters in Duat – Part II

One of the pivots for the successful implementation of ‘heka’, the ancient Egyptian term for magic, was words – both spoken and written – and the latter was considered the most powerful form. Scores...
Collection of Egyptian Art, design by Anand Balaji

Life after Life: In the Quest for Eternity, Death is Only the Beginning – Part I

The ancient Egyptians took great care to prepare for the Afterlife. In fact, they were so meticulous about getting every minute detail in order, that to us they come across as having been obsessed...
YouTube screenshot of what Maria Solina may have looked like

The Powerful Woman Known as Maria Solina - The Most Famous Witch of Galicia

Witchcraft has a very special place in the culture of Spanish Galicia. One of the most famous people related to the old magical traditions is Maria Soliña, a Galician witch who lived during the 17th...
Deliver Us From Evil: How Ancient People Protected Their Houses from Bad Spirits and Bad Luck?

Deliver Us From Evil: How Ancient People Protected Their Houses from Bad Spirits and Bad Luck?

Some people say it is not real, but try to tell them that bad spirits just entered their houses. They will feel insane and try to ignore it, but the unpleasant feeling will stay. In this case people...
Egyptian Tomb

New details emerge on latest discovery of Egyptian tomb and treasure trove

On Saturday, we reported on the incredible finding of an ancient tomb containing a well-preserved Egyptian mummy in a limestone sarcophagus and a collection of 180 ushabti figurines in a newly-...
Seals and Amulets in Turkey

More than 600 Ancient Seals and Amulets Found

Archaeologists have uncovered an unusually large quantity of amulets, stamp seals and cylinder seals in an ancient sanctuary in Turkey, which date back from the 7 th to the 4 th centuries BC. The...