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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Ancient Writings

There are literally thousands of incredible texts that have survived from the ancient world, which are etched onto copper, beautifully inscribed on papyrus, chipped onto tablets, and even written using the ink of ground down gold and precious stones. Here we feature many ancient writings, which have served to open a window onto the daily lives of our ancestors and enhanced the knowledge we hold about our ancient past.

Quantum physics wave particles (pixabay) and writing in the Upanishads, a Hindu text. (Ms Sarah Welch/CC BY SA 4.0)

The Search for Deep Reality: Ancient Hindu Texts and Quantum Physics

“In 1929 Heisenberg spent some time in India (…) He began to see that the recognition of relativity, interconnectedness, and impermanence as fundamental aspects of physical reality, which had been so...
An authentic codex, left, as opposed to a modern forgery, right, which is crude by comparison and betrays all of the hallmarks of modern manufacture: not the uneven patina, which is obviously applied and not accrued by age.

Controversial Lead Codices With Earliest Written Account of Jesus Confirmed Authentic

In 2007, Jennifer Solignac and David Elkington were shown images of a newly discovered set of books, of codices. They were surprising in one particular way: they were composed almost entirely of...
Atlantis underwater ruins

3 Problems to Remember When Trying to Find Atlantis

It is perhaps the greatest unsolved mystery of all time: Did the lost city of Atlantis actually exist? And if it did once exist, where was it located before its watery demise? Fortunately, the...
The Rosetta Stone: One of Archaeology’s Greatest Treasures

The Rosetta Stone: One of Archaeology’s Greatest Treasures

The Rosetta Stone is one of the most significant discoveries in the history of archaeology. This artifact was created during the Ptolemaic Period, and was rediscovered at the end of the 18th century...
Mithra slaying the bull.

The Cult of Mithra: Sacred Temples, and Vedic Legends, and Ancient Armenian Understanding

Mithra was the god of light, purity, goodness, and truth and occupied an important place in the faith of the ancient Aryans. The Spread of Mithra There are various opinions on the spread of the...
Ancient Egyptian Goddess. Credit: tk0920 / Adobe Stock

Ancient Egyptian Sex Spell Invoked a Ghost to Entrap a Man

Ancient, magical spells of subjugation, love, and sex sounds like the opening lines to an adult fairy tale, but these steamy evildoings are also found on an 1,800-year-old ancient Egyptian “erotic...
Ogham sticks

The Celtic Ogham: An Ancient Tree Alphabet that May Disappear Before Showing its Roots

In secluded fields, on the walls of churches, and beneath construction sites, stones have been found with intricate markings that rise from the lower left up to the center and then down to the lower...
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden by Wenzel Peter, Vatican Museum

What Happened in Eden? Alternative Translation Tells a Very Different Story

All modern concepts of the Garden of Eden stem from a few verses in the biblical Book of Genesis, none of which is entirely free from ambiguity. The ancient Hebraic documents, from which the early...
Representation of ancient writing of one of the oldest languages in a book.    Source: Andrey Lavrishchev / Adobe stock

10 of the World’s Oldest Languages Still Used Today

Languages have always been the very fiber of humanity. The cornerstone of society, and the force that paved the way for civilization. Without it, societies could not have developed as they did - it...
A cuneiform tablets (representative image) Source: dimamoroz / Adobe Stock

Controversial Cuneiform Tablets Tell Tales of Security Dogs and a Lost City

An archaeologist has admitted that around 1,400 cuneiform tablets might have been stolen from Irisagrig, a 4,000-year-old lost Sumerian city in modern day Iraq. While the robbers obviously know the...
A depiction of Ahmose fighting back the Hyksos from Egypt.  Source: Public domain

Did the Hyksos Pull Off a Peaceful Invasion of Egypt?

The Hyksos were a dynasty of kings who ruled over the northern part of Egypt during the 2 nd millennium BC. They were not native Egyptians, but came from the East, most likely Western Asia...
The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. Source: The British Museum / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Mathematics of the Pharaohs: The Rhind Papyrus and Ancient Egyptian Math

Western civilization has always had a fascination with the civilization which grew up along the Nile River around 3,000 BC. Greek intellectuals, such as Thales, visited Egypt and were enamored by the...
Egyptian papyrus, Book of the Dead

Book of the Dead: A Magical Guide to the Egyptian Underworld

The Book of the Dead is not a book per se , but rather, a corpus of ancient Egyptian funerary texts from the New Kingdom . Each ‘book’ is unique, as it contains its own combination of spells. In...
The Book of Kells: An Immortal Cultural Heritage of the Gaels

The Book of Kells: An Immortal Cultural Heritage of the Gaels

Over the centuries, from its earliest beginnings, Christianity was the inspiration for some truly stunning art. From early frescoes, to illuminated manuscripts , magnificent churches and abbeys,...
The Flower of Battle is an Italian martial arts manual from the Renaissance. Source: sheikoevgeniya / Adobe Stock.

The Flower of Battle – A Medieval Manuscript of Martial Arts

The Flower of Battle is an Italian martial arts manual from the Renaissance. This manual was written by Fiore Furlano, a knight , diplomat, and itinerant fencing master who lived between the 14th and...
Painting by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Orientalism genre, representation of The Book of Exposition. Source: Jeangagnon / Public Domain.

The Book of Exposition and the Enigmatic English Bohemian

Though this title may make many an aspiring writer think it to be instructional for forbidding the writing of on the nose dialogue, The Book of Exposition is far from the case. The Kitab al-Izah Fi'...
Rabanus’ pattern poem a square text on angels. (Goodbichon / Public Domain)

Ancient Pattern Poetry – A Visual Story

Pattern poetry (known variously as figure poem , shaped verse, visual poetry, concrete poetry, and carmen figuratum) is a form of poetry that may be easily recognized due to the arrangement of its...
A dancers curse has been revealed on a Byzantine tablet.                  Source: par /Adobe Stock

Mysterious 1500-year-old Tablet Deciphered as Dancer’s Curse

An academic has finally deciphered the mysterious writings on a lead tablet after 70 years. They were shown to be a curse aimed at a dancer. The curse-tablet dates from the Byzantine era and is...
The Dead Sea Scrolls

Ancient Tech Preserved Dead Sea Temple Scroll

Among the thousands of pieces of parchment found in caves near the Dead Sea, one scroll was unique among the rest. The Temple Scroll was the best preserved and with the clearest writing. Now...
Piri Reis Map

Piri Reis Map - How Could a 16th Century Map Show Antarctica Without Ice?

On October 9, 1929, a German theologian named Gustav Adolf Deissmann was cataloguing items in the Topkapi Palace library in Istanbul when he happened across a curious parchment located among some...
Red runes carved from wood on the ground. There are 24 runes in the Elder Futhark.

Futhark: Mysterious Ancient Runic Alphabet of Northern Europe

Runes are the characters of the earliest written alphabet used by the Germanic peoples of Europe called Futhark. The runic alphabet was used within Germanic languages but primarily in Nordic...
The Vedas: Ancient Mystical Texts Offer Charms, Incantations, Mythological Accounts and Formulas for Enlightenment

The Hindu Vedas: Charms, Myths, and Formulas for Enlightenment

The Vedas are the sacred scriptures of Hinduism and are regarded as the oldest religious texts in the world. Thought to have been composed at least 3,500 years ago, the Vedas are a collection of...
Was King Solomon really the author of the Key of Solomon?

Grimoires by a Biblical King? The Magical Treatise of Solomon and the Key of Solomon

The ‘Magical Treatise of Solomon’ and the ‘ Key of Solomon’ are two grimoires (magic handbooks) commonly said to have been written by the biblical King Solomon . The latter grimoire has been...
A doctor performing eye surgery. The Ebers Papyrus discusses medical techniques and remedies. Source: Articles sur l’Egypte et son historie

The Ebers Papyrus: Medico-Magical Beliefs and Treatments Revealed in Ancient Egyptian Medical Text

The Ebers Papyrus is an ancient medical document that contains over 842 remedies for illnesses and injuries. It specifically focused on the heart, the respiratory system, and diabetes. The Papyrus...

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