All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

body

Vestigial muscle in forearm. Source: YouTube Screenshot / Vox.

Proof of Evolution You Can Find on Your Body (Video)

The human body reveals compelling evidence of evolution . By examining its intricacies, we uncover remnants of our animal ancestors . One such example is the palmaris longus, a vestigial muscle in...
Healing Temple of Aesculapius (Asklepios) by Robert Thom

The Healing Power of Dream Incubation in Ancient Greece

In the ancient world, many cultures built elaborate temple complexes dedicated to their healer gods - Imhotep in Egypt and Asklepios in Greece for example. These gods were recognized as having the...
Mount Shasta: Sacred Mountain and a Strange Destination for Many

Mount Shasta: Mystery Mountain and Sacred Destination

Mount Shasta is not the tallest or most beautiful mountain in the Cascade Range; but it is the most legendary. In terms of weirdness and strangeness, the unusual stories surrounding the mountain will...
One of the two colorful painted pots, which were the only grave goods buried with the El Palmar diplomat.

Untold Suffering of the El Palmar Maya Ambassador Revealed

Archaeologists in Mexico have unearthed a 1,300-year-old diplomat’s corpse at El Palmar and his bones are telling a mixed story of rags and riches. While the man had lived a privileged adult life,...
Ice Age Figurines and the Sanctity of Prehistoric Obesity

Ice Age Figurines and the Sanctity of Prehistoric Obesity

While we all know too much icing can lead to obesity, a new study now says too much “Ice Age” can too, linking the famous Ice Age Venus figurines with a widespread prehistoric desire for “female...
An artist's rendering of the ancient wormlike creature called Ikaria wariootia. Source: Sohail Wasif/UCR

Rice-Sized Ancient Worms are the Ancestors of All Animals

Geologists have discovered the first ancestor on the family tree that contains most animals today, including humans. The ancient worm-like creature , Ikaria wariootia , is the earliest bilaterian, or...
Teeth of OH1 (John C Willman) and the proposed facial piercings. (Lou-Octavia Mørch)

Giant Facial Piercings Found On 12,000-year-old Face

The earliest evidence of facial piercing may have been found on the skeleton of a man who lived in East Africa towards the end of the Late Pleistocene (20,000 to 12,000 years ago). The key to the new...
A fourteen-sided die may have been used to play the ancient game of “bo”.

Mysterious board game found in ancient Chinese tomb, along with suspected dead looter

Looters seem to have rolled the dice and lost when they plundered the tomb of an ancient aristocrat in Qingzhou City, China. When archaeologists uncovered the 2,300-year-old tomb, they found pieces...
Stone block and decapitated skeleton

Decapitated Pompeii Man Was Not Killed By the Block

At the end of May, archaeologists working at Pompeii made a remarkable and grisly discovery when they unearthed the remains of a man who had apparently been decapitated by a huge rock that was thrown...
Many factors influence body image

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...
The body of Maria Adelaide.

The Minor Miracles of Maria Adelaide, Folk-Saint of Brides

Maria Adelaide was a Portuguese woman who lived and died during the 19th century. Although not officially recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church, she is popularly considered to be one by the...
The tattoo tool bundle unearthed at Fernvale, Tennessee, USA. This is the oldest tattoo toolkit discovered to date.

Turkey Bones, Shells, and Pigment: Signs of the Oldest Tattoo Kit in the World

About 3,600 years ago, someone decided to bury a collection of sharpened turkey bones and mussel shells. The items were unearthed in 1985 and then forgotten for almost three decades. However, a...
The CT scans were merged with 3D scans of the child mummy's surface to create a single 3D model.

New Tech Brings 2,000-Year-Old Mummy of Little Egyptian Girl to Life in Stunning Detail

CT and colorful 3D scans combine to create a stunningly detailed depiction of a mummy of a girl. She was only about five years old when she passed away 2,000 years ago. Her body was wrapped in fine...
Stones cover the body of the first remains of a woman found at copper mines in Timna, Israel - and she was pregnant.

Mystery Death in the Desert: What Was a Pregnant Woman Doing at an Ancient Mining Site?

3,200 years ago, a young Egyptian woman breathed her final breath before collapsing on the harsh desert sands near a copper mine. She was pregnant, and history suggests she probably wasn’t taking...
The skeletal remains found after stormy weather in Kilmore Quay, Ireland.

After the Storm: Hurricane Ophelia Reveals Ancient Mystery Skeleton in Ireland

Hurricane Ophelia sent strong waves beating against a coastal walkway in Ireland. This sped up erosion and revealed an unexpected discovery to people walking in the area the next day – human remains...
Cairn K -- Part of a 5000 years-old Passage Tomb Complex at Carrowkeel in County Sligo in the north-west of Ireland

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Irish Funeral Practices Involved ‘Deconstruction’ of the Body

New insights into the lifeways -- and death rites -- of the ancient people of Ireland are being provided through funerary studies led by a researcher at the Department of Anatomy at New Zealand's...
“The Painted Ones” hand-colored version of Theodor de Bry’s engraving of a Pict woman who is either painted or tattooed.

Power, Perils and Rites of Passage – The History of the Female Tattoo

Emily Poelina-Hunter / The Conversation Almost a quarter of Australian women now have tattoos - a trend some attribute to the influence of feminism. What I find interesting is that the mainstreaming...
Yorkshire Photo Walks (Tom Marsh/CC BY 2.0), and Grey Lady. (CC BY 2.0); Deriv.

Staked Through the Heart and Buried at the Crossroads – The Profane Burial of Suicides

I uncovered a curious tale about a scrubby patch of land while writing a book on the folklore and history of East Anglia. Marked on modern maps as Lushbush, you pass it heading eastwards out of the...
Busts of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

Why No Nose? The Ancient Breath of Life and Remarkably Powerful ‘Living Statues’

Why was is so important for bodies and images to remain intact after death in Ancient Egypt? And what was the power of ancient statues and reliefs – that they would be a danger to a Pharaoh? For the...
Cannibal feast on the Island of Tanna, New Hebrides by Charles E. Gordon Frazer (1863-1899).

Our Ancestors Were Cannibals – and Probably Not Because They Needed the Calories

James Cole / The Conversation In the recently released horror movie Raw , a lifelong vegetarian teenager arrives at a veterinary school and, after being forced to consume a rabbit kidney at a student...
Collection of Egyptian Art, design by Anand Balaji

The Magic, Mystery and Madness of Tomb 55: Shadowy Sovereigns and Risky Reburials–Part IV

The German Egyptologist Walther Wolf was unsparing in his description of Akhenaten, calling him a man who epitomized “sick ugliness and nervous decadence”. The greatest irony of the entire Amarna...
The Ill-fated Elling Woman: An Iron Age Sacrifice to Appease the Gods?

The Ill-fated Elling Woman: An Iron Age Sacrifice to Appease the Gods?

Elling Woman is the name given to a well-preserved bog body that was discovered in Denmark during the first half of the 20th century. By then, this type of remains had already been found in Denmark’s...
Osterby Man Still Has a Great Hairdo Nearly 2,000 Years On!

Osterby Man Still Has a Great Hairdo Nearly 2,000 Years On!

Since at least the 18th century AD, there have been discoveries in northwestern continental Europe and Britain of “bog bodies” - human remains which have been preserved in the anoxic environment of...
Tattooed Owners of the World's Oldest Carpets Get Health Check After 2,200 Years

Tattooed Owners of the World's Oldest Carpets Get Health Check After 2,200 Years

By The Siberian Times reporter A mummified potentate and his wife were found in a burial mound 42 metres in diameter. They went to the next life alongside nine saddled and harnessed geldings. Now,...

Pages