All  

Store Banner Mobile

Store Banner Mobile

Artifacts

There are undoubtedly millions of ancient artifacts from the past that have served to shed light on the lives of our ancestors from many millennia ago. But some ancient mystical artifacts stand out for their uniqueness, their intrigue, or their ability to expand our knowledge about previously unknown aspects of our history. Here we feature many such ancient history artifacts, from amazing examples of ancient technology, to artistic masterpieces, unexplained objects, ancient texts, and mysterious artifacts that shed light on the daily lives of our ancestors.

Aristotle’s Masterpiece Completed in Two Parts.
21 February, 2018 - 02:01 ashley cowie

Ancient X-Rated Book of Perversion Goes Up For Sale. Any Bidders?

A perverted "sex manual" featuring shocking magical and mythical X-rated content will be sold at a UK auction next month. The first edition of this sordid book entitled Aristotle's Masterpiece...
Top: A petroglyph portrays multiple symbols on Har Karkom ridge, Israel. (CC BY-SA 4.0). Bottom left: Instances of names of god found in rock art of the Negev as sited by Yehuda Rotblum.
20 February, 2018 - 01:59 ashley cowie

Does the Negev’s Ancient Rock-Art Help Turn the Bible Exodus Story into Fact?

A chain of holy mountains with “god’s name” painted in ancient rock-art has led a scholar to claim he has finally identified the long sought after “lost region" inhabited by the proto-Israelies after...
13,500 year old carved bison bone dredged from the North Sea.
19 February, 2018 - 18:57 ashley cowie

13,500-year-old Artwork Saved from the Abyss of the Continental Shelf

Snared in a fishing net at the bottom of the North Sea, on the edge of the continental shelf, the “oldest Dutch work of art” has been found, according to an article published in Cambridge Antiquity...
Mammoth in the Royal BC Museum in Victoria (Canada). The display is from 1979, and the fur is musk ox hair.
16 February, 2018 - 18:57 Ingvar nord

Surprising Stone Age Knowledge Revealed on a Mammoth Bone Bracelet

In Sivershchina, close to the village of Mizyn in Ukraine is one of the oldest and most unique settlements of humans – and it was discovered in a parking lot. The now well-known archaeological site,...
Book of Kells, Folio 32v, Christ Enthroned. Scanned from Treasures of Irish Art, 1500 BC to 1500 AD, From the Collections of the National Museum of Ireland.
12 February, 2018 - 22:58 ashley cowie

Priceless Medieval Sacred Text Reveals Its True Origins

Arguably the world’s most famous medieval manuscript, the wonderfully illustrated Book of Kells , was “created in 2 parts over 50 years,” Dr Bernard Meehan of Trinity College, Dublin, told reporters...
The broken top and bottom sections of the Assyrian stele.
10 February, 2018 - 22:11 aprilholloway

British Museum Decided Against Uniting a Cursed Assyrian Stele and Bad Luck Fell to the Police

“Whoever discards this image from the presence of Salmanu puts it into another place, whether he throws it into water or covers it with earth or brings and places it into a taboo house where it is...
Section of tapestry discovered in the Oseberg ship burial mound showing a figure wearing a horned helmet.
8 February, 2018 - 01:55 ancient-origins

The Confusing Horned Helmets Depicted in the Oseberg Viking Age Tapestries

By ThorNews If you claim that Vikings did not use horned helmets, you are right. If you claim that Vikings used horned helmets, you may also be right. However, horned helmets were probably only used...
These Roman dice are not the sum of opposite sides of seven and are not symmetrical.
7 February, 2018 - 01:54 ancient-origins

It's not how you play the game, but how the dice were made

Whether at a casino playing craps or engaging with family in a simple board game at home, rolling the dice introduces a bit of chance or "luck" into every game. We expect dice to be fair, where every...
Handle of one of the wooden tools from the Poggetti Vecchi site.
6 February, 2018 - 22:56 ashley cowie

171,000-Year-Old Fire Forged Tool Discovered Beneath a Giant Elephant

171,000 years ago, in Tuscany, a set of ancient tools were crafted and forged with fire. Archaeologists in Florence, Italy, made an incredible discovery during construction work at Poggetti Vecchi. A...
Sun and Moon image,left; Lucian, the satirist. Engraving by William Faithorne, The Library of Congress
6 February, 2018 - 14:00 dhwty

Satire or the First Science Fiction? Lucian of Samosata’s A True History

A True History (known in its original Greek as Alēthē diēgēmata , or in Latin as Vera Historia ) is a story written by Lucian of Samosata, an author of Syrian / Assyrian origin who lived during the 2...
Bayeux Tapestry - Scenes 29-30-31: the coronation of Harold II of England. He receives orb and sceptre. On his left stands Archbishop Stigand.
6 February, 2018 - 01:59 ancient-origins

Bayeux and Brexit: What the tapestry says about the UK’s shared European heritage

Kathryn Hurlock / The Conversation The Bayeux Tapestry is finally coming to England , or so the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has promised . There have long been calls to bring the work to...
Obsidian projectile point sourced to Batza Tena, Alaska.
4 February, 2018 - 22:41 ancient-origins

Reconstructing an Ancient Lethal Weapon

Archaeologists are a little like forensic investigators: They scour the remains of past societies, looking for clues in pottery, tools and bones about how people lived, and how they died. And just as...
The Lycurgus Cup.
3 February, 2018 - 01:55 aprilholloway

Romans Mastered Nanotechnology and Used it for Eye Catching Decoration

A strange chalice made its way into the British Museum’s collection in the 1950s. It is a 1,600-year-old jade green Roman artifact called the Lycurgus Cup. The image on the chalice is an iconic scene...
The Holy relic, St. Francis Xavier’s arm.
2 February, 2018 - 19:00 ashley cowie

Sacred Mummified Arm Traverses Canada on a Holy Relic Road Show

A highly-venerated sacred arm and hand once belonging to St. Francis Xavier is being displayed on Canadian soil for the first time ever, and Angèle Regnier, co-founder of Catholic Christian Outreach...
South Bridge, Dujiangyan, Sichuan, China.
2 February, 2018 - 01:50 aprilholloway

Dujiangyan: The 2,200-Year-Old Chinese Irrigation System That is Still Used Today!

The oldest irrigation system in the world is in China. Called Dujiangyan, it is also the only surviving monumental non-dam irrigation system from the ancient past. A marvel of Chinese science and...
The medieval chess piece found in Norway in December 2017.
30 January, 2018 - 22:51 Theodoros Karasavvas

Richly Adorned Arabic Influenced Chess Piece Unearthed in Norway

Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) have recently discovered a rare and richly decorated Arabic-inspired chess piece in Tønsberg. Arabic Inspired Chess...
Charter of Henry II: 1171-2.
30 January, 2018 - 02:01 Theodoros Karasavvas

Might This Small Ancient Manuscript Give Post-Brexit Bristolians Entry to Dublin?

Did you know that Bristolians are entitled to live in Dublin thanks to an 846-year-old charter written by King Henry II which has never been revoked? In other words, people from Bristol could remain...
Iron Age arrow from Trollsteinhøe used to study the relationship between climate variability and how humans used alpine landscapes in the past.
24 January, 2018 - 23:00 Theodoros Karasavvas

Thawing Ice Reveals Norwegian Mountains Littered with Iron and Bronze Age Artifacts

A group of researchers have reportedly discovered artifacts of wood, textile, hide and other organic material on Jotunheimen and the surrounding mountain areas of Oppland, which include Norway's...
Bust of Nefertiti (ca. 1370 BC – ca. 1330 BC), the Great Royal Wife (chief consort) of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten.
24 January, 2018 - 18:55 Gary Manners

Lady of Interest: Nefertiti Was no Pharaoh, Says Renowned Egyptologist

The bust of Nefertiti is one of the most iconic artifacts from ancient Egypt and the lady herself probably ranks second only to Cleopatra among the most famous queens of the Nile. As such she is...
60 pieces of scroll have been reassembled in the latest scroll.
23 January, 2018 - 22:58 Theodoros Karasavvas

One of the Last Two Known Dead Sea Scrolls Is Deciphered

Researchers from the Haifa University have reconstructed the contents of one of the last two undeciphered Dead Sea Scrolls , disclosing a distinctive calendar used by a Jewish sect that lived in the...
A carnivorous dinosaur track heading up the rock face at Cretaceous Park, Bolivia.
23 January, 2018 - 14:01 dhwty

Footprints on the Wall: Were Dinosaurs Actually Climbing the Cliffs in Bolivia?

Some ancient rock art shows the deliberate leaving of hand prints by our ancestors leaving a lasting impression of their existence. The surprising prints that are to be found on a rock face in...
San Lorenzo Colossal Head 1, Olmec culture, Museo de Antropología de Xalapa, Mexico.
19 January, 2018 - 18:57 ancient-origins

6 Discoveries that Show the Pre-Columbian Americas Traded Across the Oceans

Ancient civilizations look ever-more advanced with each passing year as new discoveries continue to showcase just how sophisticated they truly were. Yet, the idea that our ancestors were able to make...
Romano-British silver toothpick. (The British Museum) An ivory toothpick found in India. (The British Museum) A gold case with matching a tooth and earpicks.
19 January, 2018 - 01:58 dhwty

The Strange History of the Toothpick: Neanderthal Tool, Deadly Weapon, and Luxury Possession

A toothpick – the go-to little tool you select after a meal of corn on the cob, an object you absentmindedly chew on while listening to an unremarkable conversation, the piece of wood you carelessly...
Face of the coffin in which the mummy of Ramesses II was found. (Credit: Petra Lether, designed by Anand Balaji)
18 January, 2018 - 19:01 anand balaji

Living God in a Wooden Box: In Whose Coffin was Ramesses II Buried?

Usermaatre Setepenre Ramesses II, the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, was one of ancient Egypt’s longest-reigning monarchs. In an astonishing sixty-seven regnal years – the glory days of...

Pages