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Ancient Traditions

Ancient Origins brings you articles related to Ancient Traditions from all over the world. Find related articles in the sections of history, archaeology, human origins, unexplained, artifacts, ancient places and myths and legends.

Jousting demonstration/show/competition at the Renaissance Festival, Holly, Michigan, 2007
11 August, 2018 - 01:48 ancient-origins

From Jousting to Football: The Ideal Man Hasn’t Changed Much Since Medieval Times

Anyone with a moderate interest in history will know that in the later years of his reign, Henry VIII seemed to have an identity crisis. His personality change from a generous and virtuous prince...
Medieval Knights are viewed as moral do-gooders.
7 August, 2018 - 01:55 ancient-origins

Medieval Chivalry Wasn’t Just Knights and Valor

By Kathleen McGarvey / University of Rochester Our popular ideas of the chivalric world are off base, according to historian Richard Kaeuper. The gallant knights on horseback and banners unfurling...
Youth playing the aulos, detail of a banquet scene. Tondo of an Attic red-figure cup, ca. 460 BC–450 BC.
2 August, 2018 - 01:59 ancient-origins

So Now We Know What Ancient Greek Music Sounded Like

Armand D'Angour / The Conversation In 1932, the musicologist Wilfrid Perrett reported to an audience at the Royal Musical Association in London the words of an unnamed professor of Greek with musical...
Aztec Calendar Sun Stone, used by the Aztecs as well as other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico and Central America
1 August, 2018 - 01:56 Caleb Strom

Nahuatl, The Language of the Aztec Nation

Today, Spanish is the dominant language of Mexico and most central and South American countries. There was a time, however, when Nahuatl, a language spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of the Valley...
Tragic Comic Masks Hadrian's Villa mosaic
29 July, 2018 - 14:02 Ben Potter

Ancient Greek Theater: Is it a Man’s World?

By Ben Potter / Classical Wisdom The two major Athenian theatrical festivals, The Lenaia and The City Dionysia were held in honor of the god Dionysus . Calling them theatrical, whilst not misleading...
Ancient human remains.
28 July, 2018 - 22:59 ancient-origins

Nine Weird and Wonderful Facts about Death and Funeral Practices

It might not be something you want to think about very often, but it turns out that the way we treat our dead in the modern age is heavily influenced by the way our ancestors treated theirs. When you...
Ancient Egyptian men undergoing circumcision.
19 July, 2018 - 18:52 Caleb Strom

The Cutting Truth about Circumcision: It Was All About Rites and Religion

When was circumcision first practiced? How did it evolve? Why was it practiced? The earliest literary evidence of the practice of circumcision goes back to ancient Egypt. There are many hypotheses...
The Golfers by Charles Lee
19 July, 2018 - 14:17 lizleafloor

Ancient Pedigree of the Open Championship: Golf’s Long History and Hidden Beginnings

The Open Championship may be the oldest tournament in golf, but it is a very recent addition to the sport’s long and colorful history. Golf is a sport with ancient origins that has endured into our...
Barter, Bills and Banknotes: The 5,000 Year History of Money
18 July, 2018 - 22:37 Theodoros Karasavvas

From Barter to Bitcoins: The 5,000 Year History of Money

Money has come a long way in 5,000 years. While people once bartered for the items they desired, today people are buying and trading in cryptocurrencies like the bitcoin. In ancient times, people did...
Amiternum funerary procession relief.
16 July, 2018 - 22:58 Mark Oliver

Mimes, Paid Grievers, and Masks: The Insane Theatrics of Ancient Roman Funerals

Two thousand years ago, funerals weren’t the quiet, somber affairs we have today. They were loud, boisterous shows that started with a massive procession of people parading down the streets, pounding...
Medea with her children. The children became the focus of a hero cult in ancient Greece.
14 July, 2018 - 13:27 Carly Silver

Baby, Baby, Baby: Why Did the Ancient Greeks Turn Dead Children into Heroes?

When we use the term “hero” today while discussing Greek mythological figures, it usually designates a man whose superhuman exploits and semi-divine parentage make him a person of legend. But in real...
Henry Wallis – Poet Thomas Chatterton’s death by arsenic.
7 July, 2018 - 18:44 Veronica Parkes

Death by Wallpaper: When Arsenic in the Walls Was Killing Children

Wallpaper isn’t as popular as it once was, and perhaps the reason for this falling out of fashion was its ability to kill! In 1778, a Swedish Chemist named Carl Scheele created a brilliant green...
Coming together for a solstice feast in ancient Peru. Robert Gutierrez.
5 July, 2018 - 22:55 ancient origins

How Feasting Rituals Helped Lead to a Civilized World

Charles Stanish / The Conversation “ The Epic of Gilgamesh ” is one of the earliest texts known in the world. It’s the story of a god-king, Gilgamesh, who ruled the city of Uruk in Mesopotamia in the...
Horses congregate near a deer stone site in Bayankhongor, in central Mongolia's Khangai mountains.
5 July, 2018 - 01:48 ancient-origins

Oldest Evidence of Horse Veterinary Care Discovered in Mongolia

Through careful study of thousands of skeletal horse remains found in ritual burial sites in Mongolia, a team of researchers has detected evidence of veterinary dental procedures being administered...
Children playing football in Thailand
4 July, 2018 - 14:02 lizleafloor

4 Billion People Can’t Be Wrong: The Record-Shattering Popularity of Football, an Ancient Game

This ancient sport isn’t just a game – it’s a way of life. Football (known as soccer in some countries) is no new kid on the block. The origins of people kicking a ball around for sport stretches...
"Delphic Oracle" Painting by Heinrich Leutemann. Image source: art-prints-on-demand.com
3 July, 2018 - 01:39 ancient-origins

Spells, Charms, Erotic Dolls: Love Magic in the Ancient Mediterranean

It was a well-kept secret among historians during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the practice of magic was widespread in the ancient Mediterranean. Historians wanted to keep the activity...
Chinese concubines
2 July, 2018 - 15:05 Veronica Parkes

The Ming Dynasty Concubines: A Life of Abuse, Torture and Murder for Thousands of Women

The Chinese Ming Dynasty lasted for 276 years (1368 – 1644 AD), and has been described as “one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history.” This dynasty became a...
Gladiators after the fight, José Moreno Carbonero (1882)
1 July, 2018 - 15:44 Julia Huse

Gladiators: Were any of them Christian?

The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire is no secret. Christians posed a dangerous threat to the security of the Empire by refusing to worship the pagan gods, whose favor was seen as...
The Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica) is a subspecies of Western honey bee.
29 June, 2018 - 10:26 Kerry Sullivan

After 2000 Years of Harmony, the Maya May Soon Lose their Stingless Bee Pets

For several years now, reports have circulated about the worrisome decline of the population of bees. Periodically, newspaper headlines lament the bees’ disappearance as an irreversible tipping point...
Detail of ‘The Introduction of the Cult of Cybele at Rome’ (1505-1506) by Andrea Mantegna.
25 June, 2018 - 22:45 Miranda Aldhous...

Candles in the Dark and Spice from the Orient: Mystery Cults

‘But what a small part of our dregs Is Greek! Long ago the wide Orontes of Syria poured into the Tiber And brought With its lingo and morals its flutes And harps...’ - Juvenal Rome did not sit...
More ancient skulls bearing evidence of trepanation - a tell-tale hole surgically cut into the cranium - have been found in Peru than the combined number found in the rest of the world.
11 June, 2018 - 22:57 ancient-origins

Ancient Peru's Cranial Surgeons Were Twice as Skilled as American Civil War Doctors

Even with a highly skilled neurosurgeon, the most effective anesthesia, and all the other advances of modern medicine, most of us would cringe at the thought of undergoing cranial surgery today...
Many factors influence body image
11 June, 2018 - 18:54 lizleafloor

The Ideal Woman’s Body – a Gift of the Gods?

We all know what the perfect woman’s body looks like. Or do we? Is it Kim Kardashian, with her popular ‘internet-breaking’ big behind, or Marilyn Monroe with her voluptuous movie curves? Is it a...
Paul Dominique Philippoteaux, Examen d'une momie - Une prêtresse d'Ammon, oil on canvas, Egypt, c.1895 - 1910.
30 May, 2018 - 18:59 dhwty

Disrespect and Desecration at Victorian Mummy Unwrapping Parties

A ‘mummy unwrapping party’ was a social event most commonly associated with the elites of Victorian England. As its name suggests, these parties involved the unwrapping of Egyptian mummies in front...
A Pazyryk horseman from the Asian steppe in a felt painting from a burial around 300 BC. (Public Domain). Krishna with cow. (CC BY 2.0) Hathor as a cow, Papyrus of Ani (Public Domain)
27 May, 2018 - 23:01 Steven Keith

Horses, Cows and Celestial Creatures at the Dawn of Civilizations

When I think of the Aryans of the ancient times, I think of Central Asia, the steppe, a horse culture that could enable their language, Sanskrit to spread, at a gallop, so to speak, westward and...

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