Some archaeologists in China have analyzed the makeup of elements in the bones in a prehistoric cemetery and say the people buried there were probably war captives who were forced into slavery before...
Wei Zhongxian is often considered to be the most powerful and notorious eunuch in Chinese history. He had powers almost equivalent to that of the emperor’s and those who opposed him were ruthlessly...
A team of archaeologists has uncovered more than 1000 tablets inscribed with Buddhist scriptures and over 500 pieces of stone sculpture, as well as glazed tiles with inscriptions, at the site of a...
Centuries removed from the prehistoric Indus Valley Region, the Mauryan and Kushan dynasties are among the most significant cultural and artistic regimes in Indian history. The prominence of the...
A team of Egyptian archaeologists found a cartouche of the last native Egyptian pharaoh under the home of a man in Abydos, Egypt. The man and his accomplices were doing an illegal excavation...
The Xia Dynasty is traditionally regarded as the first dynasty of China. This dynasty is believed to have been founded by Yu the Great towards the end of the 3 rd millennium BC, and lasted until...
The Battle of Gaixia was an important battle that occurred in 202 BC. It was the last battle in the Chu-Han Contention, which lasted between 206 BC and 202 BC. This was the period between the end of...
The ancient city of Pingyao is a county-level city located in the center of China’s Shanxi Province. This ancient city has been described as an exceptionally well-preserved example of a traditional...
Egyptian archaeologists excavating in the Dahshur Necropolis at an area north of King Senefru's Bent Pyramid, have made an exciting discovery – a 13 th dynasty pyramid that experts never knew existed...
Golestan Palace (which means the ‘Roseland Palace’ in Persian) is a palace complex that once was part of a group of monuments situated within the mud-thatched walls of Tehran’s Arg (citadel). The...
You might call ancient Chinese royalty of the Han Dynasty jaded. Some aristocrats of around 2,000 years ago enjoyed a lusty sex life that included bronze dildos and jade butt plugs. And the presence...
The long and glorious history of ancient Egypt gave the world an array of pharaohs whose qualities spanned the entire spectrum of human emotions and achievements: the builders, the warriors, the...
Of the many renowned Chinese seals, none is more famous than the Heirloom Seal of the Realm. This artifact was carved out of the He Shi Bi jade - a stone which one man lost his feet for. The seal was...
A large area for animal sacrifices by Chinese emperors dating from the 3 rd century BC to the 1 st century AD in western China has been excavated and found to contain many cultural artifacts. Called...
The Habsburg family is one of the most important royal families in the history of Europe. This may be somewhat surprising, as many of the rulers from this family behaved strangely, had some weird...
Chinese archaeologists have restored the crown of a 6 th century Chinese empress of the short-lived Sui Dynasty that shared the land with peasants, instituted the Buddhist religion, and united north...
With the death of King Cambyses II, the Persian Empire was in a state of war and confusion over who was the rightful heir. Even though the populace agreed that Gaumata was the rightful heir to the...
The burials of the Attalid Dynasty, which ruled the city of Pergamon after the death of Lysimachus, General of Alexander the Great, have been known about for the last 200 years. However,...
Ardashir proclaimed himself king of Persis by 208 CE. His brothers protested this and Ardashir disposed of them. If his brother challenges were not enough, many local petty kings of Persis refused to...
Incredibly, the end of the Parthian Empire started with a fake wedding. Before the wedding took place, a civil war had been raging in Parthia between Vologases VI and his brother Artabanus V. After...
Last month, archaeologists found a hint of an amazing discovery while excavating in the Forbidden City in China. While the researchers were somewhat hesitant then to confirm the finding of Kublai...
The few remaining bones and teeth of a man who briefly ruled as emperor of ancient China and then was forced out for moral failings will undergo DNA analysis to shed light on his health, diet, and...
Archaeologists working in China have been pretty lucky recently. One of the discoveries they have made may be the oldest wet rice field in the world. Another is the possible location of the imperial...
Oracle bones (known in Chinese as 甲骨, transliterated as ‘jiǎ gǔ’, and literally translated as ‘shells and bones’) are a type of artifact best known for its association with the Shang Dynasty (roughly...
![: Relief on the Apadana Staircase on the eastern wall [of the Apadana Palace] from the ruins at Persepolis, “the Persian City”, ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire. Deriv](https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_optimized/public/field/image/Darius-Hijack.jpg?itok=lILarhA2)
