famine

Human skull and bread. Source: Samitanun / Adobe Stock.

24 November, 2023 - 13:54 Joanna Gillan

Human Bones Were Ground into Flour to Make Bread in 16th Century France

In human history, there are some tales so bizarre they surpass the wildest fiction. One such story, rooted in the grim realities of 16th century France, reveals a desperate and macabre solution to...

Cleopatra giving a speech in Egypt. Source: unai / Adobe Stock.

10 November, 2023 - 19:52 Robbie Mitchell

44 BC was a Terrible Year for Cleopatra and Egypt (Video)

In 44 BC, Cleopatra and Egypt faced a catastrophic event that would shape their destiny. A volcanic eruption , with far-reaching global consequences, struck the world, impacting Egypt severely. The...

536 was a year of climate cataclysm. Winter landscape by Caspar David Friedrich. Source: Public domain

11 January, 2022 - 01:00 johnblack

Year of Darkness: The Climate Cataclysm of 536 You’ve Never Heard Of

During 536 the world was beset by a long winter. Dubbed “the year of darkness” in the New Scientist , temperatures plummeted and the sun was dimmed by a vast fog which blocked its rays from hitting...

A duck effigy vessel made by mobile farmers during the period just prior to the climate catastrophe anomaly of 536 AD. Water birds hold great significance for modern Pueblo peoples, who were the descendants of ancient innovators that survived serious climate change. Source: R. J. Sinensky / Antiquity Publications Ltd

23 November, 2021 - 23:00 Sahir

How Ancestral Puebloans Thrived After The 536-541-AD Climate Catastrophe

A massive volcanic eruption in 536 AD resulted in dramatic climate catastrophe and the volcanic ash significantly cut the sunshine reaching Earth. As a direct result, temperatures dropped leading to...

The Battle of Rocroi, by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau.

6 November, 2020 - 23:55 dhwty

Social Consequences of the Thirty Years' War: Was it Worth it?

The Thirty Years’ War was a major European war that occurred during the 17th century. While the conflict took place mainly in the area of modern day Germany, it involved many of the great European...

24 September, 2020 - 21:55 jason and sarah

The Birth of the Renaissance: Understanding the Genesis of a New Era

“I tell you: one must still have chaos within oneself, to give birth to a dancing star” (Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra). By conservative estimates, the European Renaissance spans the historical...

1110 AD was the year volcanic eruptions caused the disappearance of the Moon and sparked global famine. Pictured: representation of the Moon over a volcano. Source: Daniel / Adobe stock

19 May, 2020 - 13:59 ashley cowie

1110 AD, The Year Volcanoes Vanished the Moon and Sparked Global Famine

Scientists finally explain the Moon's mysterious disappearance and the cause of a global famine in 1110 AD. While the opening line of this article sounds like a bait and switch classic, every written...

The newly uncovered wall carvings found in Vichama, Peru.

21 August, 2019 - 01:55 Alicia McDermott

3800-Year-Old Carvings Show Starving City’s Pleas To Water God Were Answered

3,800 years ago, the people living in what is now called Vichama, Peru carved snakes and human heads into their walls alongside depictions of emaciated people. They were starving and dying and hoped...

The coast of the 1847 Carricks shipwreck at Cap-Des-Rosiers beach in Quebec. Source: Amqui / CC BY-SA 2.0.

10 June, 2019 - 18:29 ashley cowie

Child Remains From Tragic Irish Shipwreck Washed Up On Canadian Beach

The Canadian government has confirmed that a collection of human remains has been washed up on a beach, belonging to victims of a ship that sunk with a boatload of people fleeing the ravages of the...

The recently unearthed medieval priest’s skull and coffin lid.

18 April, 2017 - 22:58 ancient-origins

Latest Thornton Abbey Discovery: Did the Great Famine take a Medieval Priest and Leave an Elaborate Grave?

The remains of a Medieval priest who died 700 years ago has been uncovered at Thornton Abbey in Lincolnshire. Research shows he could have been a victim of the Great Famine. Archaeologists from the...

The scene at the supermarket, before the bones were removed

13 May, 2015 - 17:40 Mark Miller

Archaeologists piece together final moments of hundreds of Medieval Parisians

The skeletons of more than 200 medieval Parisians have been moved for further study to a warehouse of the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research in a suburb north of Paris,...

Archaeologists with the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) plan to test the DNA of the remains.

4 March, 2015 - 11:59 Mark Miller

Old skeletons, possibly plague victims, found under Paris grocery

Archaeologists have unearthed the skeletal remains of 200 people underneath a supermarket in Paris on the site of an old hospital where victims of the Black Plague had been known to be buried. It was...

A painting depicting the Irish potato famine

9 January, 2015 - 21:05 lizleafloor

Bones of Children Found on Canadian Beach Reveal Tragedy of Irish Famine

Bones belonging to children have been discovered on a beach in Canada, their condition underscoring the desperate circumstances many Irish people fled during the Irish Hunger of the 1840s. The bones...

5 October, 2013 - 12:10 aprilholloway

New Study shows it was Feast or Famine for Europe’s First Farmers

A new study based on a catalogue of radiocarbon dates has shown that populations plummeted after periods of agricultural booms in Europe, a finding that contradicts previous beliefs that agriculture...