gender

Excavations of ancient households and study of fingerprints in New Mexico reveal that men and women were equally involved in domestic pottery production. Source: John Kantner / UNF.

4 June, 2019 - 18:58 Ed Whelan

Fingerprints Overturn Ideas On Women In Ancient Native American Society – But What About The Third Sex?

Fingerprints are very important in criminal investigations , but it seems they are also increasingly important when it comes to archaeological studies . By studying 1000-year-old fingerprints ,...

Ary Scheffer (French, 1795-1858): ‘The Souliot Women’, 1827, Oil on canvas, Paris, Musée du Louvre. Around the world, ancient laws tended to favor men over women, often with dire consequences. Unfortunately, many would argue the problem still exists

12 November, 2018 - 18:58 ashley cowie

Ancient Laws and Women’s Rights: The 6000-Year-Old World War Continues

The term ‘legal rights of women’ refers to the social and human rights of women. There has never been a time in history where this subject has been more at the fore of politics. Social justice...

Illustration of Mahabharata (Public domain)

2 January, 2018 - 15:31 MartiniF

The Legend of Shikhandi, the Transgendered Warrior Who Paid the Price of Opposing Powerful Men

Chauvinism existed even in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. The ancient text depicts the legendary eighteen-day bloodbath, dubbed the Kurukshetra War, where the hero/heroine’s greatest feat was not...

Representation of a Bronze Age woman in Dartmoor.

6 September, 2017 - 13:58 Alicia McDermott

New Study Questions Archaic Views on Gender Roles, Showing Women as Cultural Leaders

Saying that someone with archaic views on gender roles lives in the Stone Age may not work anymore. A new study suggests that men and women in Lechtal, Germany during the Stone and Bronze Ages...

Hansanlu Lovers skeletons close up of torsos and skulls

30 August, 2017 - 19:01 Theodoros Karasavvas

The Eternal Kiss of the Hasanlu Lovers Throws Up Questions of Ancient Love: Romance, Bromance or Something More Familial?

Have you ever heard of the “The Hasanlu Lovers?” If not, don’t be too quickly seduced by the exotic and romantic sounding moniker this phenomenon has been awarded. Colorful and amorous images are...

Detail of the kudu engraving which is said to depict female initiation rituals in the Namib desert thousands of years ago.

18 August, 2017 - 14:00 Alicia McDermott

Rock Art Rituals: Namib Desert Engravings Provide Fascinating Insight into Ancient Initiation for Girls

When it is carefully examined, rock art in the Namib Desert may shine light on forgotten rituals and practices from thousands of years ago. One particularly interesting feature appears to show...

22 February, 2017 - 01:57 ancient-origins

Was a Key Ancient Puebloan Society Ruled by Women?

Discovering who was a leader, or even if leaders existed, from the ruins of archaeological sites is difficult, but now a team of archaeologists and biological anthropologists, using a powerful...

Left, Sisters Charlotte and Susan Cushman in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in 1846. Right, Male Kabuki actor in Japan

31 August, 2016 - 01:50 MartiniF

Ancient History of Cross-Dressing: From Ancient Religions to the Theaters

Ephippus, in a surviving fragment of his lost pamphlet depicting the court of Alexander the Great in 324-323 BC, alleges that Alexander liked to cross-dress as the Greek archer-goddess Artemis...

23 August, 2016 - 16:29 MartiniF

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...

An artistic representation of the burial at Paviland Cave.

9 February, 2016 - 22:11 Natalia Klimczak

The Peculiar Narrative of the Red Lady of Paviland, A Man from Paleolithic Wales

During the 1800s, archaeologists discovered human remains in one of the most famous caves in the world. The bones were dated to be 33,000 years old. This is one of the oldest ceremonial burials of a...

A family of Neanderthals in Eurasia, during the Pleistocene epoch

21 February, 2015 - 00:35 Mark Miller

Did light-skinned, redheaded Neanderthal women hunt with the men?

A team of Spanish researchers theorizes, based on grooves and nicks on the teeth of Neanderthals, that gender roles among that species were similar to gender roles of modern Homo Sapiens. Neanderthal...

Reconstruction of the ancient city of Çatalhöyük

2 October, 2014 - 23:31 aprilholloway

Men and women held equal status in ancient city of Catalhoyuk

Overlooking the Konya Plain in Turkey lies the remarkable and unique ancient city of Çatalhöyük, the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date. At a time when most of the world's people...

Myths & Legends

The Legendary Emerald Tablet and its Secrets of the Universe

The origins of Western alchemy can be traced back to Hellenistic Egypt, in particular to the city of Alexandria. One of the most important characters in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes...

Helen of Troy, The Beauty Who Sparked the Trojan War

The Dramatic Life and Death of Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons

Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of the Land of the Dead, Tried to Stop the Recreation of Man

Jason and the Legendary Golden Fleece

The Ancient Pagan Origins of Easter

Human Origins

Borgund Stave Church (Eduardo/CC BY-SA 2.0), pentagram, Vitruvian man, and serpent

The Viking Serpent: Serpent Worship, Sacred Geometry, and Secrets of the Celtic Church in Norway

Dan Brown wrote The Da Vinci Code, inspired by Henry Lincoln and his two co-authors’ The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The Norwegian researcher Harald Boehlke was inspired by the same book. Lincoln’s tantalizing bait was religion and sacred geometry—specially the sacred pentagram.

Asherah: God’s Forgotten Wife

Is the Universe Only 6,000 years old? Young Earth Creationists Say Yes!

The Christ And The Buddha: How Can You Explain the Uncanny Similarities?

Creation Myth of the Maori – New Zealand

Return of the Ancient Gods: The Resurgence of Paganism

Ancient Technology

The Medieval ring found in Kavarna, Bulgaria (Image: Kavarna Municipality)

Jewelry to Die For: 14th-Century Bulgarian Ring with a Killer Dose

When a medieval ring was uncovered by Bulgarian archaeologists excavating the remains of the medieval fortress on Cape Kaliakra, near the town of Kavarna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, they were surprised to discover that it was not a simply a decorative piece but looked to have been designed for the far more sinister use of murder.

10 Innovative Medieval Weapons: You Would Not Want To Be At The Sharp End Of These!

Beaver's teeth 'used to carve the oldest wooden statue in the world’

The Ancient Invention of the Water Clock

Common Tools or Ancient Advanced Technology? How Did the Egyptians Bore Through Granite?

The revolutionary invention of the wheel

Ancient Places

Great Pillared Hall, Temple of Ramesses II, Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel: The Great Temple of Ramesses II was Almost Lost

The Abu Simbel Temple is an enormous rock temple complex located on Egypt’s border with Sudan. The two temples of this complex were built in the 13th century BC, during the reign of the great and powerful Ramesses II.

The Viking Serpent: Serpent Worship, Sacred Geometry, and Secrets of the Celtic Church in Norway

Was the Amazon Rainforest Once Home to A Massive Lost Civilization?

The Construction of Venice, the Floating City

Liu He and the Tomb of Two Million Coins

Risky Wealth: Would You Dare to Open the Mysterious Sealed Door of Padmanabhaswamy Temple?

Opinion

Mount Shasta: Spirits and Danger on a Sacred California Mountain

Mount Shasta, located near the Oregon border in northern California, holds the distinction of being one of the world’s preeminent sacred mountains. It is recognized as an eligible Native American...

Mysterious Worlds: Travels to the Faerie and Shamanic Realms

Pharaoh Akhenaten: An Alternative View of the Heretic King

Changing Colors and Scampering Across the Night Sky: What Did the Ancients Say about Sirius?

Cracking the Code to Discover Ancient Tarot Symbolism and Forgotten Universal Knowledge

The Secret Strategic Plans of Darius the Great

Our Mission

At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained.

The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe.

We’re the only Pop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out-of-the-box perspectives.

By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings.