In 1914, a Swiss amateur archaeologist, Ernest Roulin, approached the Museum of Science and Art in Ireland with an incredibly rare discovery – two ancient amulets made from fragments of human cranium...
Originating in China in the 1300s, plague arrived in Europe aboard a ship, bringing fearsome death in its wake. The Black Death ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, carrying away at least a third of...
In Sigtuna, Sweden, just north of Stockholm, seven well-preserved Viking tombs have been discovered, including the graves of two possible infant twins. As per the Swedish press release on this...
Papua New Guinea is one of the few places in the world where literal witch hunts still take place on a regular basis. Witch hunts continue to be practiced, even though engaging in a witch hunt was...
A Canadian woman has blamed her double mastectomy on “cursed” Pompeii artifacts that she stole from the famous Italian archaeological site earlier in her life. She was so convinced of their evil...
Oneiromancy is a form of divination in which dreams are interpreted in order to predict the future. This form of divination was practiced in many parts of the world, including the ancient...
By Joel Christensen / The Conversation In an age of deepfakes and alternative facts , it can be tricky getting at the truth . But persuading others – or even yourself – what is true is not a...
The Achaemenid Persian Empire is historically important for the Western world because of the influence of the Persian civilization on both the ancient Greeks and the ancient Jews. Because of this...
A 4000-year-old ancient Egyptian text illustrates the oldest map of the underworld in existence. In 2012 archaeologists opened a burial shaft in the Middle Egyptian necropolis of Dayr al-Barsha and...
The celebrated Mexican Day of the Dead means one thing for city dwellers and quite another for country folks. It is a day dedicated to the bittersweet remembrance of departed family members. It also...
The first civilizations didn’t have satellites in the sky, mapping every inch of the world in real time. They only knew the parts of the world they’d seen. Everything beyond that, they had to imagine...
According to Discovery News , a researcher from Belgium has discovered the oldest depictions of demons in ancient Egypt, showing that demonic entities populated the ancient Egyptians’ imaginations as...
A new study published in the journal Antiquity has revealed that a number of Bronze Age child skulls discovered around the perimeter of ancient settlements in Switzerland and Germany show signs of...
Unlike modern Man, the prehistoric people of Europe did not use mind-altering substances simply for their hedonistic pleasure. The use of alcohol and plant drugs – such as opium poppies and...
The Hopi live, move, and have their being in religion. To them the unseen world is peopled with a host of beings, good and bad, and everything in nature has its being or spirit. Just what kind of...
