In many countries around the world, New Year’s Day is celebrated on January 1st with fireworks and festivities the evening before. But this is not the only type of New Year’s celebration and not...
A University of York researcher has developed a new framework for interpreting collections of everyday objects found during archaeological excavations, specifically at sites linked to Iron Age...
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...
Described as a discovery of “great historical and archaeological value,” Serbian customs officials have seized a hoard of over 2,000 ancient artifacts. According to Archaeology News Network , on the...
Christmas is a very popular holiday tradition that is celebrated by some 2 billion people worldwide. This popular celebration is of course linked closely to Christianity and is intended to honor the...
A historic English medieval church site has been overtaken by a Brexit overflow lorry park and plans to restore the Grade-1 sacred site have been scrapped, in a controversial government move...
The Igorots are an indigenous tribe living in Sagada, Luzon Island, Philippines. The Igorots practice unique funerary customs, in which the dead are buried in coffins which are tied or nailed to the...
Our ancestors had many practices that we may find inexplicable, one of these being the intentional reshaping of skulls until they were egg-shaped. In China, archaeologists have found elongated skulls...
Getting married is an age-old celebration, which commemorates the joining of two individuals together in matrimony. For many in today’s society it represents picking out invitations, dresses,...
A cluster of 113 hanging coffins dating back 1,200 years have been discovered on cliff-faces and in caves in Zigui county, Hubei province, close to the site of the Three Gorges Dam in China. The...
Archaeologists investigating a religious complex in Bolivia have discovered an ancient mortuary where human body parts were boiled, stripped of their flesh, and cleaned. Experts believe the practice...
Evidence for burial rituals has been found dating back 100,000 years and since then numerous examples of funerary customs have been from the ancient world, from Egyptian mummification to bodies...
Amid the stark beauty of Mongolia’s varied landscapes lives one of the world's last surviving nomadic cultures, whose customs pre-date the age of Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire (1162 –...
Excavations at Caherconnell in County Clare, Ireland, have uncovered ancient burials that reflect a fusion of Pagan practices with Christianity . Although it was initially believed that Christianity...
The Tana Toraja is a regency of South Sulawesi in Indonesia, a picturesque mountainous region that is home to an indigenous group known as the Torajans. For the Toraja people, life very much revolves...
Most of the articles published on Ancient Origins advocate for the preservation of ancient cultures and customs around the world. But what happens when ancient customs conflict with modern-day...