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A modern take on the vampire image. Source: All You Need AI/Adobe Stock

The Great Vampire Epidemic: A Bizarre Chapter in History

Imagine a time when the fear of vampires wasn't just the stuff of horror movies, but a genuine epidemic that swept across Europe. Yes, you read right, - a vampire epidemic! This wasn't a small-scale...
Dogs being taken care of in an image from Livre de la Chasse (Book of the Hunt).  Source: The Morgan Library and Museum/Faksimile Verlag Luzern

Dogs in the Middle Ages: What Medieval Writing Tells Us About Our Ancestors’ Pets

Emily Savage /The Conversation In the Middle Ages, most dogs had jobs. In his book De Canibus , the 16th-century English physician and scholar John Caius described a hierarchy of dogs, which he...
Woman measuring her height.	Source: kei907/Adobe Stock

Cultural Practices Helped Make Women Shorter than Men in Neolithic Times

There is an assumption even today that height is determined almost exclusively by genetics. But this is based on a type of genetic determinism that underestimates the role of culture and environment...
Detail depicting of the famous crossing of the Alps by Hannibal’s elephants. Hannibal's Crossing of the Alps by Heinrich Leutemann. Source: Public domain

Unsolved Mystery: The Mysterious Origins of Hannibal's Elephants

The saga of the perilous journey of the Carthaginian general Hannibal across the Alps during the Second Punic War was immortalized not only by his military prowess but also by the awe-inspiring...
One of the circular earthworks and deep ditches like this one in northern Serbia, which covers at least 40 hectares.      Source: BARRY MOLLOY AND DARJA GROSMAN/ PLoS ONE

Europe’s Bronze Age Megaforts Revealed in Prehistoric Landscape

Archaeologists have uncovered a previously unknown network of massive sites in the heart of Europe that could explain the emergence of the continent’s Bronze Age megaforts – the largest prehistoric...
Photo of the Frankish warrior's grave and his weapons.	Source: City of Ingelheim (Christoph Bassler)

‘Armed to the Teeth’ Frankish Warrior's Untouched Grave Found

In a discovery that has left historians and archaeologists astonished, a completely untouched grave from the Merovingian period was uncovered in Germany. Hidden among other graves that were plundered...
Overview of the Mörigen arrowhead. Source: Thomas Schüpbach/Science Direct

Swiss Scientists Identify Bronze Age Iron Arrowhead Made from a Meteorite!

A team of scientists recently completed a study of prehistoric metal artifacts collected in Switzerland over the past couple of centuries, with a very clear purpose in mind. They were looking to see...
Grave goods from the Copper Age cemetery of Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. The copper and gold objects are considered the oldest in the world. Source: © Kalin Dimitrov/Max Planck Institute

Early Intermingling Helped Boost Copper Age European Progress

A key aspect of historic human prosperity was “mingling.” In a groundbreaking discovery, a new gene study sheds light on the fascinating interactions between Copper Age civilizations in Europe,...
Painting by Louis Le Nain from book cover of Death Control in the West 1500–1800: Sex Ratios at Baptism in Italy, France and England, by Gregory Hanlo.	Source: Taylor & Francis

Parents Murdered Their Children, “Routinely,” Claims New Book

A harrowing new study into the history of infanticide, child murder, in early-modern Europe, has presented a slate of horrific facts. It turns out child murder was so common in Italy, France and...
Fossil footprints from the Schöningen Paleolithic Site, and a close up of a suspected hominin footprint. Source: ©Senckenberg/Tuebingen University

Oldest Ever Hominin Footprints Uncovered in Germany Offer Insight to Ancient Life

Around 300,000 years ago, a family of early humans visited a lake bordered by an open forest in what is now Lower Saxony, Germany. The footprints left behind at the Schöningen Paleolithic site have...
Evidence from stone tools indicate earliest humans migrated to Europe in three waves. Source: Gorodenkoff/Adobe Stock

New Study Claims Earliest Human Migrants Came to Europe in Three Waves

As recently as 2021, most scholars still believed that modern humans first arrived in Europe about 42,000 years ago. But a 2022 research project produced evidence of an earlier wave of migrants who...
Ceramic strainer and collared flasks found to have high-curd content indicating the production of dairy products (Evans et al./The Royal Society)

Neolithic Solutions to Lactose Intolerance Revealed in New Study

During the Neolithic period up until the Late Bronze Age, lactose intolerance was prevalent among the European population. However, a genetic mutation eventually became widespread, allowing adults to...
Reconstruction of a hunter-gatherer associated with the Gravettian culture (32,000-24,000 years ago), inspired by the archaeological findings at the Arene Candide site (Italy). Source: Tom Bjoerklund/Nature

Ancient DNA Reveals Contrasting Fates of Hunter-Gatherer Groups in Europe

Ancient DNA gathered from the bones and teeth of hunter-gatherers who lived as the Last Glacial Maximum was waning, around 19,000-25,000 years ago, has revealed exciting new information about our...
The palace at Wat Phra Keaw, also known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, is located in Bangkok, Thailand. It was built in 1782 by King Rama I as the royal residence and center of government. The palace complex has undergone several expansions and renovations throughout the years and is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in Thailand. Source: Travel mania / Adobe Stock.

Photographic Marvels: 12 Stunning Historic Palaces You Need to See to Believe

Throughout history, palaces have been built by various civilizations and kingdoms to showcase the wealth and power of their rulers. These palaces are not only impressive in terms of their size and...
The Cairn of Barnenez in Brittany, France. Source: Eve / Adobe Stock

Timeless Beauty at Cairn de Barnenez – The Prehistoric Parthenon

For those looking to step back in time, the Cairn de Barnenez located in France’s Brittany is ideal. As one of the world’s oldest standing structures in the world, the Cairn de Barnenez is a marvel...
The Saxons spread across Europe from the 4th century, settling nearly every corner of the continent, here portrayed clashing with Vikings. Source: Justinas/Adobe Stock

The Saxon Conquest of Europe, and a Christian Conquest of Saxons

Anyone familiar with European history will have heard of the Saxons. Originally a Germanic tribe from the North Sea coast of the Netherlands, over the centuries they spread across Europe like...
Bocksten Man; The Tollund Man as he appears today; Osterby Man with hair tied in a Suebian Knot. At Archäologisches Landesmuseum; The face of the bog body known as Grauballe man;  Porsmose Man	Source: CC BY 2.0  / Tollundman.dk / CC BY 3.0 / Public Domain / CC BY-SA 3.0

Bog-Body Study Reveals Prehistoric “Overkill”

A new study analyzing 1000 bodies recovered from wetlands across Europe has concluded that the burial practice emerged in the deep-prehistoric period and continued until early modern times...
Underwater Kronan excavations that were one of the sources of ancient Scandinavian genes in the study. Source: Lars Einarsson/Cell Press

Irresistible Vikings? Charting Sex Bias and Gene Flows Into Ancient Scandinavia

A team of genetic scientists from Sweden turned their scanners on Viking DNA samples. They have now charted the “genetic flow” of ancient Scandinavia showing that incomers genetics didn’t fare so...
A very close up detailed portrait of a Scottish wildcat snarling and showing its teeth. Source: alan1951 / Adobe Stock

Wild Twist in the Story of Cat Domestication

A study has revealed new information about the ancient migration and domestication of cats in Europe following the arrival of their wild ancestors in Europe from the Near East (the modern Middle East...
A new study shows that humans and Neanderthals lived together in Europe for 2000 years. Source: athree23 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Modern Humans and Neanderthals Lived Together in Europe for 2,000 Years!

When Homo sapiens first arrived on the European continent about 42,500 years ago, the Neanderthals were still living there, and would remain there for another 1,400 to 2,900 years before finally...
A Scold’s Bridle used in Medieval Poland. Source: Fotokon / Adobe Stock

Scold’s Bridles: 12 Torturous and Humiliating Shame Masks of the Middle Ages (In Pics)

There was no end to medieval creativity when it came to torture , punishment and humiliation! The ‘scold’s bridle’ or ‘mask of shame’ was a concept developed in medieval Europe to punish people,...
A recent study has revealed that one particular Scottish settlement in the early Neolithic period didn’t use manure-based fertilizers though farmers adjacent to them did. Cow manure like this is still highly recycled and used all over Africa and Asia. Source: wisawa222 / Adobe Stock

Why One Neolithic Scottish Settlement Didn’t Need Any Fertilizer

People living in Western Europe and on the British Isles during the Neolithic Period (10000 to 2200 BC) had already discovered the powers of manure-based fertilizer to increase crop yields. In fact,...
The medieval Bojnice castle in Slovakia is one of many real-life fairytale castles in Europe. Source: radu79 / Adobe Stock

10 Real-life Fairytale Castles from Across Europe

The castles we see in movies and picture books were not just inspired by fantasy and imagination. In most cases they were based on real-life castles, many of which can be found in Europe. Evolving...
Charles II had a deathbed obsession with King’s Drops, which were made using powdered human skulls. Source: papi8888 / Adobe Stock

The King’s Drops: Charles II, Powdered Skulls and a Deathbed Obsession

For all of Europe’s pretentions of progress with civil democracies and human rights, the archives are filled with anything but. From the blood of Roman gladiators being sold as a remedy for epilepsy...

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