ancient Rome

17 December, 2019 - 02:01 Ed Whelan

Amman, One of the Finest Roman Theatres in the World

The Kingdom of Jordan has many historical sites. Many different civilizations have flourished in the area since ancient times. One of the most important and largest heritage sites is the Roman...

Some of the oak planks unearthed in the foundations of the portico. These planks are an example of those used for building Rome. Source: Soprintendenza Speciale Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Roma, Italy

6 December, 2019 - 02:21 Ed Whelan

Imported Timber is the Newly Discovered Secret to Building Rome

An analysis of some 2000-year-old planks of wood has provided amazing insights into the Roman Empire . Experts have been able to establish that timber found in the heart of Ancient Rome was imported...

Roman Painting - Villa dei Misteri, Pompeii, Italy. Miltos was used for yellow and sometimes red in many Greco-Roman paintings

16 December, 2018 - 22:50 Caleb Strom

Miltos, The Wonder Dust of the Ancient World

What pigment could be used for ship maintenance, art, agriculture, medicine, and cosmetics? In the Greco-Roman world, the multi-use ocher pigment called Miltos filled all these roles. The powerful...

This is the mouth of the well where modern archaeologists believe ancient Athenians invoked Apollo to tell the future in the water.

29 August, 2018 - 23:31 Mark Miller

Site in Athens revealed as an ancient temple of twin gods Apollo and Artemis

In 2015, an ancient well was uncovered in Kerameikos in central Athens, Greece, with inscriptions calling upon Apollo, the Greek god of prophecy. Archaeologists speculate that Kerameikos seers used...

‘Comet of 1680 over Rotterdam’ by Lieve Verschuier.

18 August, 2018 - 01:57 ancient-origins

Myths and Meteors: How Ancient Cultures Explained Comets and Other Chunks of Rock Falling From the Sky

Eve MacDonald / The Conversation Comets and meteors have fascinated the human race since they were first spotted in the night sky. But without science and space exploration to aid understanding of...

Hannibal crossing the Alps on elephants by Nicolas Poussin

1 June, 2018 - 03:33 Mark Miller

2,200-Year-Old Moat with Artifacts Linked to Hannibal Unearthed in Spain

Spanish university students trying to retrace Hannibal’s war march through northeastern Spain found a huge buried moat with ancient objects in it. The moat may have been meant to protect the ancient...

Sarah Bernhardt in Theodora (1902) by Georges Jules Victor Clairin (1843-1919)

19 March, 2018 - 14:15 MartiniF

Sex and the Roman Empire: Scandalous Literature about Empresses Euphemia and Theodora

Both Empress Euphemia and the succeeding empress Theodora transformed from sinners to Saints and although 5th to 6th century Roman society may have been more lenient, due to the empresses’ charity...

A boy holding a platter of fruits with a bucket of crabs, in a kitchen with fish and squid, on the June panel from a mosaic depicting the months (3rd century)

7 April, 2017 - 15:23 victor labate

Eating Like a Roman: Healthy Greens, Gritty Bread and Fish Paste – The Evolution of Ancient Roman Cuisine

While the reputation of ancient Roman dining features decadent drinking and feasting to a point of excess – leading to notorious purges in the vomitorium – those stories were largely anecdotal, or...

30 June, 2016 - 22:59 MartiniF

The Unusual Life and Death of Julia: A Woman Trapped in the Empirical Intrigues of Ancient Rome

Although they could not officially hold public offices, there were many women who were able to influence the course of Roman history from a position behind the scenes. Julia, the only daughter of...

Deriv; Defaced bust of Alexander Severus. The head and bust were mutilated during Antiquity, the memory of the outlawed emperor was to be extinguished and portrait of Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, painted over, as he was condemned to damnatio memoriae.

22 June, 2016 - 15:54 MartiniF

From Piso to the Baby Drusilla: The Legal Aspects of Damnation Memoriae - the Punishment of Non-Existence

The ancient Roman decree of damnatio memoriae (“damnation of one’s memory”) was a mark of great disgrace and a punishment, deemed worse than execution, for an ancient Roman. The object of the...

The ancient Roman coins, dating to the 1st century AD alongside the clay vessel in which they were found; the owner’s name is inscribed on the vessel.

7 September, 2015 - 21:53 Mark Miller

Nearly 3,000 Roman silver coins dating to 1st century AD found in Bulgaria

A trove of 2,976 silver Roman coins stamped with emperors and their family members has been unearthed in Sofia, Bulgaria, at an ancient Roman and Thracian city inside the city’s borders...

Wild carnivorous animals emerge from a trap door into the Colosseum. ‘The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1883.

8 June, 2015 - 22:08 Mark Miller

Complex Elevator and Trap Door System for Raising Wild Animals into the Colosseum Reconstructed

Many thousands of people suffered violent deaths in the gladiatorial contests of the Colosseum and other arenas of the ancient Roman empire. Innumerable animals killed and were killed in the blood-...

7 June, 2015 - 03:51 Mark Miller

Ancient Roman Tunnel from Gladiator Training School to Colosseum set to be Revived

Authorities hope to preserve some ancient Roman history with the restoration of a tunnel that runs from a gladiator training school to the Colosseum, where brutal gladiatorial bouts took place. Parts...

Some of the victims of Pompeii were sitting, some lying when the superhot gas cloud enveloped them.

25 May, 2015 - 00:48 Mark Miller

Frozen in Time: Casts of Pompeii Reveal Last Moments of Volcano Victims

The plaster casts of 86 agonized victims of the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD near Pompeii will go on exhibit May 26, 2015, in National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy. People of Pompeii, a...

The ruins of the temple of Cybele at the imperial Roman palace complex Felix Romuliana in what is now Serbia

31 March, 2015 - 22:27 Mark Miller

Vibrations and sounds may have enhanced worship of Great Goddess Cybele

In a mountain valley in Serbia around 300 AD, Romans built a palace complex to honor the Emperor Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximianus, who was born in the area. In this palace, called Felix Romuliana,...

The Temple of Mars Ultor, constructed under Caesar Augustus in Rome’s Forum of Augustus

7 March, 2015 - 00:20 Mark Miller

Researcher won’t render unto Caesar his claim of transforming Rome to marble

It turns out Caesar Augustus was an undeserving braggart. He claimed, “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” But new research by a university professor has found that only a...

Myths & Legends

Glastonbury Tor. Source: vlorzor / Adobe. Inset: Representational image of a skeleton.

The Glastonbury Giant: Who Did the Mystery Bones of A Nine Foot Skeleton Belong To?

When researching the reality of giants in the past, one story which has survived the ages is the apparent discovery of the ‘Glastonbury Giant’ which was allegedly unearthed in 1190, on orders of King Henry II, following rumors that the legendary King Arthur was in fact buried at that specific location.

Batman Existed in Mesoamerican Mythology and His Name Was Camazotz

Ragnar Lothbrok: A Real Viking Hero Whose Life Became Lost to Legend

Enki: The Epic Mesopotamian Water God Who Saved Humanity

Lilith: Adam’s First Wife in Eden or a Diabolical Demoness?

The Powerful Symbol of the Swastika and its 12,000 Year History

Human Origins

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...

The Secret Life of an Ancient Concubine

Rh-Negative Blood: An Exotic Bloodline or Random Mutation?

Sky Burial: Tibet’s Ancient Tradition for Honoring the Dead

Easter Island’s Birdman Cult: A Story of Struggle and Survival

Did Autism Make the Denisovans Savants of the Prehistoric Age?

Ancient Technology

Two small figures guard the table holding the Buddha’s relics. Are they spearmen, or robots?

Robots Guarded Buddha’s Relics in a Legend of Ancient India

As early as Homer, more than 2,500 years ago, Greek mythology explored the idea of automatons and self-moving devices. By the third century BC, engineers in Hellenistic Alexandria, in Egypt, were building real mechanical robots and machines.

Secrets Behind the Creepy Plague Doctor Mask and Costume

Was the Baghdad Battery a medical device?

150,000-Year-Old Pipes Baffle Scientists in China: Out of Place in Time?

Mysterious GodSelf Icon Found Worldwide: Lost Symbol of an Ancient Global Religion?

Norimitsu Odachi: Who Could Have Possibly Wielded This Enormous 15th Century Japanese Sword?

Ancient Places

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

Competing for the Title of the Oldest House in England - Luddesdown Court and Saltford Manor

Pindai Caves, Once Home to the Lapita People and Extinct Species

The Lost Gardens of Heligan: Rediscovering a Centuries-Old Paradise

Populating Palmerston Island: One Man, Three Wives and A Desert Island Paradise

The Ottoman Empire: 600 Years of Domination

Opinion

Naupa Iglesia: An Egyptian Portal in the Andes?

Halfway up a near-vertical ravine in the Andes, someone carved an inverted V-shaped entrance into the mountainside. Then they sliced the bedrock with great precision to create a shallow door that...

The Nephilim: Giant Offspring of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Man?

Mount Shasta: Spirits and Danger on a Sacred California Mountain

Mysterious Worlds: Travels to the Faerie and Shamanic Realms

Pharaoh Akhenaten: An Alternative View of the Heretic King

Changing Colors and Scampering Across the Night Sky: What Did the Ancients Say about Sirius?

Our Mission

At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained.

The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe.

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By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings.