books

Person holding an ancient grimoire filled with spells, curses, and incantations

13 November, 2020 - 20:44 Joanna Gillan

Magic of the Ancients: Five Incredible Texts of Spells, Curses, and Incantations

As long as humanity has had beliefs in a higher power, the use of magic, spells, curses, and incantations have featured widely across cultures. A number of influential texts or ‘grimoires’ (textbooks...

29 October, 2020 - 20:59 Ed Whelan

An Exceptional Medieval Irish Book Returns to Ireland

An incredibly significant medieval book of manuscripts has been returned to Ireland . The Book of Lismore is a collection of hand-written texts that was donated by an aristocratic English family to...

28 May, 2018 - 20:08 dhwty

The Search for the Lost Library of Ivan the Terrible

The thought of a lost library is a tantalizing one, as one can speculate and imagine the kind of knowledge it might provide to the person who finds it. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that there...

Scholarly tools from left: quills, styluses and book clasps.

6 March, 2018 - 13:55 ashley cowie

Tools of Medieval Wisdom Unearthed Beneath England’s Ancient Academic Hub

Archaeologists in England have unearthed in excess of 10,000 medieval artifacts in central Oxford and every single one of them is providing a clearer picture of day to day life at Oxford University,...

5 January, 2018 - 01:56 Winston Hall

A Masterful $2.5 Million Dollar Rare-Book Heist Stuns Community

In an unprecedented incident in 2017, a group of unknown thieves rappelled down into a specially secured warehouse in Feltham, Middlesex in the early hours of January 30 th and made off with 160 rare...

One of the first cultures to have books were the Maya codices written on doubled-over pages and covered by a layer of "stucco".

20 June, 2017 - 22:56 Veronica Parkes

The Maya Codices: The Precious Remaining History of an Eradicated Civilization

The Maya were a powerful pre-Columbian civilization who thrived between AD 600 – AD 800. They were literate, had a complex language including pictograms, glyphs, and phonetic representations. They...

24 February, 2017 - 01:58 Veronica Parkes

The Library of Pergamum: A Contender for the Greatest Library of the Ancient World

Pergamum, Anatolia, now the modern Turkish town of Bergama, was one of the most important cities in the Hellenistic Greek age. It was culturally rich, with an extensive library at its heart. The city...

1 January, 2017 - 04:11 ancient-origins

The House of Wisdom: One of the Greatest Libraries in History

Adding to the list of names among the greatest libraries of the past, the Bayt al-Hikmah (translated as ‘The House of Wisdom’) was established in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire, around...

22 November, 2016 - 02:08 MartiniF

Seers, Women of Action: The Sibyls of the Ancient World

Virgil, in his Aeneid , describes Deiphobe, better known as the Sibyl of Cumae, as coming from “a hundred perforations in the rock, a hundred mouths from which the many utterances rush” (43-5, 163)...

25 September, 2016 - 14:50 Kerry Sullivan

The Secret Tunnels and Missing Manuscripts of Mont Sainte-Odile Abbey

The ancient monastery of Mont Sainte-Odile in the French region of Alsace is steeped in mystery. From secret tunnels to the strange disappearance of more than 1,000 ancient books, it has many a story...

20 May, 2016 - 00:46 Alda S

The Icelandic Kvöldvaka: Cultural Phenomenon in the Twilight Hours

Iceland’s strong love of literature is a source of amazement to many people. In an era of declining book sales around the world, this small North Atlantic island continues to publish and sell more...

Baroque library hall in the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague. A collection of 13,000 occult and witchcraft books that were once part of Himmler’s “witch library” were found in the library.

21 March, 2016 - 20:52 Natalia Klimczak

Stash of Books from the Witch Library of Nazi Chief Himmler Found in Prague

A collection of 13,000 occult and witchcraft books has been found recently in the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague. It belonged to Heinrich Himmler, a SS Nazi chief. The collection...

19 December, 2015 - 21:43 valdar

The Hidden Origins of Il Separatio: Manuscripts Deemed Dangerous and Banned

Throughout history a large number of books have been banned only because they contained various uncomfortable truths or tales. Such books have been systematically hunted down and destroyed by...

A five-volume treatise concerning medical matters, Dioscorides, De Materia Medica, Byzantium, 15th century.

7 October, 2015 - 21:34 ancient-origins

Could ancient textbooks be the source of the next medical breakthrough?

The discovery that won the latest Nobel Prize for Medicine wouldn’t have been much of a revelation to doctors in ancient China. Pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou established that the compound...

17 June, 2015 - 04:14 Mark Miller

Treasures of Mexico: The Mixtec, Aztec & Maya Codices that Survived the Conquistadors

When Europeans arrived in the New World, they did not only kill people with war, slavery and disease, they also attempted to destroy the cultures of the native peoples. Among so many cultural...

An unconscious naked man lying on a table being attacked by little demons armed with surgical instruments

4 June, 2015 - 21:51 Riley Winters

Devils, Demons, and Dangerous Creatures of the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum

Pseudomonarchia Daemonum , also known as the False Hierarchy of Demons , is a great compendium from the 16 th century dictating the names of sixty-nine demons. The title itself indicates that the...

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Myths & Legends

Were the Merovingians Descended from a Monster? Meet the Quinotaur

You’ve probably heard of a Minotaur (half-man, half-bull), but what about a Quinotaur? In early Frankish history, there was a “beast of Neptune,” which was said to look like a creature called a Quinotaur.

Edgar Cayce, Six-fingered Giants and the Supernatural Creation Gods of Atlantis: Part 1

The ‘Dynastic Race’ and the Biblical ‘Japheth’ – Part I: After the Deluge

The Last of the Siberian Unicorns: What Happened to the Mammoth-Sized One-Horned Beasts of Legend?

The Legends and Archaeology of Devil’s Lake: A Place of Ancient Power in Wisconsin

The Fearsome Wicker Man: An Eerie Way Druids Committed Human Sacrifice

Human Origins

Edgar Cayce (Credit: Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment, Author provided)

Edgar Cayce, Six-fingered Giants and the Supernatural Creation Gods of Atlantis: Part 1

For nearly 30 years I have returned to the famous “Sleeping Prophet” Edgar Cayce’s readings as a road map to try and piece together the complex origins of civilization and the creation of Homo sapiens. Cayce (March 18, 1877 – January 3, 1945) was an American Christian mystic born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky who answered questions on subjects as varied as healing, reincarnation, wars, Atlantis, and future events while in a trance state.

The ‘Dynastic Race’ and the Biblical ‘Japheth’ – Part I: After the Deluge

The origins of human beings according to ancient Sumerian texts

Rh-Negative Blood: An Exotic Bloodline or Random Mutation?

Ancient Anomalous Human Skeletons: Humanity Could be Much Older Than We Think

How the Universe Came to Be: The Bible and Science Finally in Accord?

Ancient Technology

Norimitsu Odachi: Who Could Have Possibly Wielded This Enormous 15th Century Japanese Sword?

The Norimitsu Odachi is a huge sword from Japan. It is so large, in fact, that it was said to have been wielded by a giant. Apart from the basic knowledge of it having been forged in the 15th century AD, measuring 3.77 meters (12.37 ft.) in length, and weighing as much as 14.5 kg (31.97 lbs.), this impressive sword is shrouded in mystery.

Secrets Behind the Creepy Plague Doctor Mask and Costume

Egyptian Blue – The Oldest Known Artificial Pigment

Han Purple: A 2,800-year-old artificial pigment that quantum physicists are trying to understand

A History of Timekeeping: Mankind’s Obsession With Time

The Evidence is Cut in Stone: A Compelling Argument for Lost High Technology in Ancient Egypt

Ancient Places

Birka: The Mysterious Demise of a Majestic Viking Trading Center

The Viking Age in Europe brought a lot of key events and innovations, and greatly shaped the future of things that were to come. But there is a popular misconception that the Vikings were all about...

This is What a Man from the Tomb of Sunken Skulls Looked Like

The Great Serpent Mound of Ohio, the Largest Earthen Effigy in the World

The Great City of Uruk Became Sumerian Powerhouse of Technology, Architecture and Culture

Witches, Monsters and Dragons, All at Frankenstein Castle

Tsarverets Castle, Bulgaria: The Rise and Fall of an Empire

Opinion

Petroglyphic Features of Portable Rock Art

Paleo rock art from around the world ranges in style, method, and age, and includes cave paintings, petroglyphs, pictographs, polished and engraved stones such as effigies, stone sculptures, and portable ceremonial objects.

The Northern Mysteries Current: Futhark and Mystery Schools of the Viking Age

Was There Ever a Trojan War?

Floki and the Viking Discovery of Iceland

Messiah on Temple Mount: Are We Nearing the End of Time?

3 Problems to Remember When Trying to Find Atlantis

Our Mission

At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained.

The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe.

We’re the only Pop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out-of-the-box perspectives.

By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings.