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Prayer Flags on Tomb of Songtsen. View of Chongye Valley to the South from the Tomb.

Tibet's Valley of the Kings: What Hidden Treasures Lie Within This Imperial Tibetan Graveyard?

Chongye Valley is known also as Tibet’s Valley of the Kings. This site adjoins the Yarlung Valley (about 180 km (111.85 miles)) to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. The Chongye Valley is famed for its...
Terra Cotta Soldiers (CC BY 2.0), and Qin Shi Huang in a 19th century portrait (Public Domain);Deriv.

The King Who Made War Illegal! Challenging the Official History of The Art of War and the Terra Cotta Army–Part II

Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of a unified China. His remarkable success in ending 200 years of war and founding the empire through peaceful means had followed a methodology fully articulated...
Penglai, depiction of one of the mythical islands (Public Domain), and Qin Shi Huang in a 19th century portrait (Public Domain);Deriv.

The King Who Made War Illegal! Challenging the Official History of The Art of War and the First Emperor –Part I

There are two great mysteries about the life of Qin Shi Huang, First Emperor of China—and a grand conspiracy. And these tightly related events are of profound significance extending way beyond the...
Roman soldier

How a third-century Roman soldier named Carausius was behind the first ‘Brexit’

From the first to the fifth centuries AD, Britain – though not officially Scotland, which lay beyond the frontier at Hadrian’s Wall – was part of the Roman Empire. It was situated at the empire’s...
The Best Preserved Roman Temple? From Emperors to Founding Fathers, Elite Connections Maintained the Maison Carrée

The Best Preserved Roman Temple? From Emperors to Founding Fathers, Elite Connections Maintained the Maison Carrée

The Maison Carrée (which means ‘Square House’ in French) is an ancient monument located in Nîmes, a city in the Occitanie region of southern France. This building was built during the 1st century BC...
The Byzantine coins found near Jerusalem have been dated to around the time of a 614 siege.

1,400-Year-Old Coins are the Forgotten Remnants of a Terrifying Siege on Jerusalem

Israeli archaeologists have announced the discovery of a hoard of rare Byzantine bronze coins from a site dating back to 614 AD. The coins were discovered during excavations for the widening of the...
Shennong: The God-King of Chinese Medicine and Agriculture

Shennong: The God-King of Chinese Medicine and Agriculture

Shennong, which means “God farmer” or “God peasant”, is a deity in Chinese religion. He is a mythical sage healer and ruler of prehistoric China. Shennong is also known as Wugushen “five grains,” or...
Mythbusting Ancient Rome – The Truth About the Vomitorium

Mythbusting Ancient Rome – The Truth About the Vomitorium

After gorging on a feast of sausages, blood pudding, young sow’s udder, sea bream, lobster, mullet, Attic honey, and Syrian dates, all washed down with a few glasses Falernian wine, it is little...
Little Emperors and Their Regents: Child Rulers & the Supportive and Destructive People Behind Them

Little Emperors and Their Regents: Child Rulers & the Supportive and Destructive People Behind Them

Some babies shake rattles and others shake up kingdoms. We hear many stories of the unhappy lives and ends of child rulers. Most recently, in 1908, Puyi became the last emperor of China at only two...
The Legend of the Imperial Jade Seal of China, An Heirloom Lost in Time

The Legend of the Imperial Jade Seal of China, An Heirloom Lost in Time

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...
Mythbusting Ancient Rome – Throwing Christians to the Lions

Mythbusting Ancient Rome – Throwing Christians to the Lions

CHRISTIANS TO THE LIONS! rang without end through all quarters of the city. So writes Henryk Sienkiewicz in his novel Quo Vadis (1895). By the end of the 19th century, the image of cowering...
Seers, Women of Action: The Sibyls of the Ancient World

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)...
The royal tomb unearthed in Henan province, which may belong to the empress of Cao Rui (news.cn)

Royal Tomb from The Three Kingdoms Period Excavated in Central China

An enormous tomb thought to be that of an empress during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD) was discovered in central China's Henan Province. Situated to the south of Xizhu Village in the Luoyang...
A War That Pail-s in Comparison to Any Other: The Medieval Bucket War

A War That Pail-s in Comparison to Any Other: The Medieval Bucket War

The medieval city-states of northern Italy were more competitive than any given Kardashian battling her sister for more Snapchat followers. Time and again, the cities of Modena and Bologna put their...
Monks, Hermits and Ascetics: The Little-Known History of Women in Desert Asceticism

Monks, Hermits and Ascetics: The Little-Known History of Women in Desert Asceticism

Theodoret of Cyrrhus (423–457) tells us that when little girls played games in forth-century Syria, they played monks and demons. One of the girls, dressed in rags, would reduce her little friends...
The Unusual Life and Death of Julia: A Woman Trapped in the Empirical Intrigues of Ancient Rome

The Unusual Life and Death of Julia: A Woman Trapped in the Empirical Intrigues of Ancient Rome

Although they could not officially hold public offices, there were many women who were able to influence the course of Roman history from a position behind the scenes. Julia, the only daughter of...
Agrippina and Germanicus (Rubens), 1614.

Germanicus and Agrippina: The Golden Couple, Parents of the “Mad” Emperor Caligula

Roman Emperor Caligula fell severely ill six months into his rule. When he recovered, he abandoned the toga for silk gowns and often dressed as a woman. He also declared himself as a living god...
Horses as Symbols of Power in History and Mythology

Horses as Symbols of Power in History and Mythology

There are many hypotheses regarding history of the domestication of the horse. Horses first appeared in Paleolithic cave art around 30,000 BC. These were wild horses that were hunted for their meat...
Remains of Disgraced Chinese Emperor Undergo DNA Analysis as more Treasures of His Tomb Are Revealed

Remains of Disgraced Chinese Emperor Undergo DNA Analysis as more Treasures of His Tomb Are Revealed

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...
Spanish Archaeologists Continue Works to Recover the Elaborate Villa of the Emperor Hadrian

Spanish Archaeologists Continue Works to Recover the Elaborate Villa of the Emperor Hadrian

In the second century AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a villa for his personal enjoyment as he was not content in his official palace on Palatine Hill. Located on the...
The extremely rare gold coin.

Hiker Finds Extremely Rare Gold Coin in Israel

A woman in the Galilee region of Israel stumbled across a rare gold coin while hiking with friends. The coin dates back to the year 107 AD and depicts the Roman Emperor Augustus. Only one other coin...
Statue of emperor Qin, China (reconstitution).

The Ruthless Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang: How He Unified and Tyrannized His Subjects

Qin Shi Huang Di (秦始皇帝, translated as ‘the First Emperor of the Qin’) (often shortened as Qin Shi Huang) is arguably one of China’s best known emperors. It is undeniable that Qin Shi Huang was an...
Monument to Cuauhtémoc in Veracruz, Mexico.

Cuauhtémoc, The Last Aztec Emperor to Fight Against the Spanish

Cuauhtémoc (meaning ‘Setting Sun’ or ‘Descending Eagle’) was the 11th Tlatoani (literally meaning ‘speaker’, but may also be translated as ‘king’) of Tenochtitlan, and the last ruler of the Aztec...
The Statue of Marcus Aurelius (detail) in the Musei Capitolini in Rome.

Marcus Aurelius: Life of the Famous Roman Emperor and Philosopher

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known more commonly as Marcus Aurelius, was the 16th emperor of Rome, who reigned from 161 AD to his death in 180 AD. Marcus Aurelius is remembered as the last of the Five...

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