In the Middle Ages, animals were put on trial just like human beings. A wide range of crimes could be committed by these animals including murder, being an accomplice in bestiality , and damage of...
Thanks to recent attention in popular culture, the story of King Aelle’s violent death at the hands of Ivar the Boneless in a type of ritual killing known as the “blood eagle” is well-known. The...
Scientists have calculated that victims' screams would have stopped before their lungs were drawn through their backs. This is after discovering the brutal ‘Blood Eagle’ could have happened. Ancient...
Fans of the supernatural may have noticed a curious line in William Peter Blatty’s book The Exorcist. While talking about Satanism: "Well, there's William Stumpf, for example…a German in the...
Public order in ancient Rome was a priority for the elite, who contrived a range of gruesome punishments for purportedly serious crimes deserving the death penalty. As a result, a day of fun and...
A professor of radiology from Cairo University has uncovered new and fascinating details about the death of the famed Egyptian Pharaoh Seqenenre-Taa-II (or Seqenenre the Brave), who ruled the...
In the modern day and age, crime is no less present than it was several hundred years ago. Sure, the world did become a lot more civilized, but criminals still exist. But the truth is, that while...
Anne Boleyn is arguably one of the most famous women of the Tudor period. She was the second, and most notorious, wife of Henry VIII (whether she deserves her reputation, though, is a matter of...
Earlier this week I wrote an Ancient Origins news piece about Irish based artist Matt Loughrey who runs a creative visualization studio and the website mycolorfulpast.com , which bridges a gap...
Amphitheaters were a large part of the Roman culture and they were built in many of their cities across their empire, such as El Jem in Tunisia, Nimes Arena in France, and Leptis Magnus in Libya...
The Balkan nation of Bulgaria is blessed with many archaeological sites. One which played an important part in Bulgarian history is the Tsarverets (or Tsarevets) Castle. This bastion, now mostly in...
It has been announced that the silk shirt that was worn by the English king Charles I at his execution is going on public display. The garment is believed to still have the bloodstains of the monarch...
On the morning of Monday, September 14th, 1767, in the Tyburn Gallows , a 47 year-old Elizabeth Brownrigg stood in a cart awaiting her execution by a noose. So great was the uproar from angry crowds...
The skeletons of a woman and child have been discovered at London’s famous 1,000-year-old royal fortress and prison, the Tower of London. But while the Tower is notorious for imprisonments, torture...
The Scottish public is being consulted on a proposed national memorial in Fife for people condemned as witches. Scottish records inform that between the 16th and 18th centuries there were at least 1,...
Archaeologists in Milan have uncovered the shattered remains of a young man believed to have been broken on a wheel of torture. In medieval Italy different methods of torture were assigned depending...