Britain

Stonehenge (Albo /Adobe Stock) and the reconstructed face of Whitehawk woman from the Neolithic period.

17 April, 2019 - 23:00 Ed Whelan

Stonehenge Builders Were Immigrants From What is Now Turkey

A study is throwing new light on the population and history of Neolithic Britain. It provides evidence that Stonehenge’s builders were the descendants of farmers who had temporarily settled in modern...

The skeleton of a woman was found in an ancient death pit in Oxfordshire, England, and it may be related to ritual human sacrifice.

16 April, 2019 - 19:00 ashley cowie

Ancient Death Pit of Sacrificed and Butchered Humans Found in England

Sometimes archaeologists happen upon discoveries that are stark reminders to our animalistic past and such was the case last week in Oxfordshire, England. A team of Thames Water engineers laying...

8 March, 2019 - 13:59 ancient-origins

Powerful Female Figures of Britain: The Real Life Women of ‘The Favourite’

Amy Froide / The Conversation One of the challengers at this year’s Oscars was “ The Favourite ,” a film set in the early 18th-century court of British monarch Queen Anne . Focusing on the political...

4 February, 2019 - 18:54 Ed Whelan

Oldest Evidence of Beer in Britain Found By Accident During Road Project

A road construction project in Britain has uncovered the first evidence of the brewing of beer . Workers uncovered some evidence of charred residue and other matter that would indicate brewing,...

A micrograph of the spliced textile from Over barrow, Cambridgeshire. Credit: M. Gleba, S. Harris, with permission of Cambridge Archaeological Unit

31 July, 2018 - 01:50 ancient-origins

Unraveling the Secrets of Bronze Age Thread: Textile Reveals Highly Advanced and Complex Process Used 3,800 Years Ago

A new study published this week in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences has identified that the earliest plant fibre technology for making thread in Early Bronze Age Britain and...

Two actors from the History Channel series “Vikings.”

2 July, 2018 - 14:58 Mark Miller

Survey Shows About Half of Brits Wish They Were Descended from Vikings…and Many Probably Are!

If you’re from the British Isles, do you ever wonder if you’re a descendant of the marauding Vikings known sometimes to rape and pillage far from home and other times to set up settlements and...

9 June, 2018 - 18:59 ancient-origins

More than Blood and Bling: Our Many Visions of the Vikings

Steven Ashby / The Conversation Does the popularity of the Vikings simply emerge from the romance of mythology and adventure, or is something more interesting at play? The Vikings have an enduring...

27 March, 2018 - 01:56 ancient-origins

Glastonbury: Archaeology is Revealing New Truths About the Origins of British Christianity

Roberta Gilchrist/The Conversation New archaeological research on Glastonbury Abbey pushes back the date for the earliest settlement of the site by 200 years – and reopens debate on Glastonbury’s...

17 March, 2018 - 21:56 ancient-origins

In Medieval Britain, If You Wanted to Get Ahead, You Had to Speak French

The study of modern languages in British secondary schools is in steep decline. The number of students taking French and German GCSE has more than halved in the last 16 years. But as the UK prepares...

Reconstruction of a Beaker burial, (National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid).

23 February, 2018 - 02:02 ancient-origins

90% of the Neolithic British Gene Pool Was Replaced by Beaker Immigrants

Scientists once could reconstruct humanity's distant past only from the mute testimony of ancient settlements, bones, and artifacts. No longer. Now there's a powerful new approach for illuminating...

17 February, 2018 - 19:20 Riley Winters

Magic into Myth: Avalon, Mystical Isle of Medieval Arthurian Literature

The Isle of Apples, Isle of the Blessed, and the Otherworld. These titles have long been associated with the magical resting place of the early medieval king, Arthur Pendragon. A realm imbued with...

Close up of the model of Cheddar Man rendered by Kennis & Kennis Reconstructions

7 February, 2018 - 18:38 ashley cowie

Blue Eyed, Black Skinned British Hunter Closes Race Debate

A 10,000-year-old hunter had “dark to black” skin, a groundbreaking DNA analysis of Britain’s oldest complete skeleton has revealed. The Cheddar Man fossil was unearthed in Gough’s Cave in Somerset...

30 January, 2018 - 13:59 ancient-origins

Britannia, Druids and the Surprisingly Modern Origins of Myths

The new TV series Britannia, which has won plaudits as heralding a new generation of British folk-horror, is clearly not intended to be strictly historical. Instead director Jez Butterworth gives us...

Main: The rough Cullinan Diamond (public domain). Inset: One of the nine stones it was cut into (public domain)

5 January, 2018 - 17:35 micki pistorius

Find of a Lifetime: 3,106-Carat Diamond Worth US $2 Billion Takes Its Place in History

Created an unimaginably distant time in the past, diamonds are the most coveted and valued of precious stones. The story of the discovery and destiny of the Cullinan diamond, to this day the largest...

Caesar's first invasion of Britain: Caesar's boat is pulled to the shore while his soldiers fight the resisting indigenous warriors. Lithograph by W. Linnell after E. Armitage.

30 November, 2017 - 02:00 ancient-origins

First Hard Evidence for Julius Caesar's Invasion of Britain Discovered

The first evidence for Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain has been discovered by archaeologists from the University of Leicester. Based on new evidence, the team suggests that the first landing of...

L-R: An iron involuted brooch, copper alloy horn-cap, dress pin and cauldron that were found at the site.

28 November, 2017 - 18:40 Theodoros Karasavvas

Ancient British Bake Off? Cauldrons Fit for Feasting Found at Iron Age Settlement

The wealth of evidence found suggests there were many mouths being fed at an Iron Age settlement in the UK that looks to have developed into a regional center for ceremonies and feasting. A Unique...

Pages

Myths & Legends

The Epic of Gilgamesh. Source: Luca Oleastri / Adobe.

The Epic of Gilgamesh Unveiled: Searching For a Way to the Home Planet

The Epic of Gilgamesh is regarded as one of mankind’s greatest literary and historical works. Many authors have studied the text in an effort to explain the nature of Gilgamesh’s tyranny and his erratic behavior.

The Epic of Gilgamesh Unveiled: Enlightenment and Source of Religions

Decoding Viking Signs: Nine Norse Symbols Explained

Skaði, The Norse ‘Giantess’ with a Godly Vendetta

Say the Magic Word: The Origins of Abracadabra

The Menhune of Hawaii – Ancient Race or Fictional Fairytale?

Human Origins

Work using the Statue of Gilgamesh and Lamassu. Source: CC BY 4.0

The Epic of Gilgamesh Unveiled: Enlightenment and Source of Religions

Part 1 of this interpretation of the epic told of the birth of Gilgamesh, his tyrannical rule and the creation of a being to rival his power and also become his companion.

The Pagan Wheel of the Year: What Elaborate Rituals and Events Mark this Sacred Cycle?

Unity in Diversity: Studies Reveal Surprising Stories for the Genes of Ancient Hindus and Jews

The origins of human beings according to ancient Sumerian texts

Mysterious Worlds: Travels to the Faerie and Shamanic Realms

Drugs in Ancient Cultures: A History of Drug Use and Effects

Ancient Technology

The passage of carts over decades could cause ruts (like the one shown), particularly in high-traffic areas of Pompeii.

Romans in Pompeii Repaired the Roads with Molten Iron

The buried city of Pompeii continues to provide many insights into Roman society , economy, and culture. The ash and pumice , that fell on Pompeii from Mount Vesuvius , froze the city in time. A...

Why Are There 365 Days in a Year? Organizing Dates with an Ancient Egyptian Calendar

Ancient Journeys: What was Travel Like for the Romans?

Ten amazing inventions from ancient times

The revolutionary invention of the wheel

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

Ancient Places

The destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria

Alexandria, one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, was founded by Alexander the Great after his conquest of Egypt in 332 BC. After the death of Alexander in Babylon in 323 BC, Egypt fell to...

Explaining the Fall of the Great Akkadian Empire

The Ain Dara Temple and the giant footsteps of the Gods

The 9,000-year-old underground megalithic settlement of Atlit Yam

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

The Construction of Venice, the Floating City

Opinion

Mysterious Worlds: Travels to the Faerie and Shamanic Realms

There are many accounts of a land of immortality and eternal youth in world myths and legends, as well as shamanic and indigenous spiritual traditions. Mysterious Worlds Writing in his recent work,...

Pharaoh Akhenaten: An Alternative View of the Heretic King

Changing Colors and Scampering Across the Night Sky: What Did the Ancients Say about Sirius?

Cracking the Code to Discover Ancient Tarot Symbolism and Forgotten Universal Knowledge

The Secret Strategic Plans of Darius the Great

The Secrets of the Kabbalists Garden

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.

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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.