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Ancient Origins articles related to General in the sections of history, archaeology, human origins, unexplained, artifacts, ancient places and myths and legends.

Soldiers of Odin in Stockholm 2016.

Why is Odin the New God of Choice for White Supremacists?

Those who once worshipped the ‘great gods of the north’ would be ashamed if they knew their faith was used to support such hatred and violence as witnessed in Charlottesville, Virginia on 12 August...
What sounds did the people of Chaco Canyon hear during daily life?

Can You Hear the Past? Acoustic Archaeology is Beginning to Explore this New Historical Dimension

Picture an archaeological site, what comes to mind? Sandstone walls, standing in the desert heat? Stonehenge, watching over a grassy field? When thinking about archaeological sites, we tend to...
Sticker showing baby Krishna stealing milk from a cow.

Modern Hindus Forbidden From Eating Beef But Ancient Hindus Ate the Sacred Cow

Wendy Doniger / The Conversation Just this past June, at a national meeting of various Hindu organizations in India, a popular preacher, Sadhvi Saraswati, suggested that those who consumed beef...
The Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) provided an incredibly clear view of the medieval text.

6th Century Roman Law Text Discovered After Being Hidden for Centuries Inside Parchment Recycled as Medieval Bookbinding

The secrets within medieval manuscripts can be read once again, thanks to modern technology and new imaging techniques. Experts now suggest that computational imaging and signal processing advances...
Letters and shapes crudely scratched into prehistoric grinding slicks on the Petroglyph Point Trail, permanently damaging these artifacts.

Vandals Damage Ancient Artifacts in Mesa Verde Park in Colorado to Create Graffiti

Park officials from the Mesa Verde National Park in Montezuma County, Colorado, announced that vandals severely damaged archaeological artifacts in order to write graffiti on the side of a sandstone...
Detail of ‘The Martyrdom of St. Andrew’ (1646-1647) by Charles Le Brun.

The Violent Birth of ‘Martyrdom’ – How the Ancient Concept Informs Modern Religious Violence

Gervase Phillips / The Conversation The word “ martyr ” has evolved into one of the most emotive terms in the English language. The faithful venerate their memories, celebrate their feast days, name...
Hillside of Peruvian Ausangate mountain

Skeletal Studies Indicate Ancient Peruvians Resided Permanently at 12,500 Feet

After using many different scientific approaches for a study appearing in the July issue of Royal Society Open Science , a team of researchers concluded that humans lived throughout the year in the...
Ancient Bones of Mystery Creature Dug up by Children in Yakutian Village

Ancient Bones of Mystery Creature Dug up by Children in Yakutian Village

By The Siberian Times reporter Experts were called to check remains uncovered during road building excavations close to Tit-Ary in Khangalassky district. The remnants of the ancient creature were...
A fictional animal based on the glyptodon and a palaeoburrow (ichnofossil) found in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Scientists say that this mega-tunnel was created by a long extinct species.

What Giant Beasts Carved Out these South American Mega-Tunnels?

Immense tunnels found in the heart of the jungle in Brazil are thought to have been the den of a gruesome wild animal. Experts doubt that huge burrows were created by a natural geologic process and...
A photograph of the 14th Dalai Lama

Chinese Government Wants to Decide the Dalai Lama’s Next Reincarnation

The Chinese Government has said the Dalai Lama must reincarnate into someone that has their endorsement. The remarks were made during the Dalai Lama’s controversial visit to Tawang, an Indian border...
Cannibal feast on the Island of Tanna, New Hebrides by Charles E. Gordon Frazer (1863-1899).

Our Ancestors Were Cannibals – and Probably Not Because They Needed the Calories

James Cole / The Conversation In the recently released horror movie Raw , a lifelong vegetarian teenager arrives at a veterinary school and, after being forced to consume a rabbit kidney at a student...
Top News Stories

Missed This Week's Top News Stories? Read Our Quick Round-Up

Amid the rush of daily life, it’s easy to miss some interesting news stories. So to make it easy for you, we have compiled a round-up of the most important stories from the past week. Ancient Bones...
A painting of 14th century St. Roch shows the dracunculiasis worm exiting the upper part of his leg.

A Medieval Painting Depicts the Chilling Image of a Worm Eating Its Way Out of the Body of a French Saint

Imagine a 2- to 3-foot long (0.6- to 1-meter) worm slowly working its way out of your body… with the possibility of other worms doing so in the future. Such is the horror of the guinea worm, which...
Could Frozen Seeds Save the Future? Scientists Bring a 32,000-year-old Seed Back to Life

Could Frozen Seeds Save the Future? Scientists Bring a 32,000-year-old Seed Back to Life

Far away on the remote island of Spitsbergen in the Artic Svalbard archipelago lies humanity’s fail-safe storage of seeds. With the threat of natural and man-made disasters looming in the future, the...
Fairy circles in the Marienflusstal area in Namibia.

Secrets Behind the Namibian Fairy Circles May Finally Be Solved

Hundreds of strange circular patches of ground where nothing grows can be found amongst the thick grass of the vast Namib desert. These bald spots apparently exist, and sometimes grow, for years...
10 Strange, Unexpected, and Controversial Discoveries from 2016

10 Strange, Unexpected, and Controversial Discoveries from 2016

Anomalies have been documented for centuries, and while many odd events or unusual artifacts have been explained over the years, strange happenings continue to incite controversy and imagination...
Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2016: From Lost Cities to Ancient Tombs, Shrines, Maps and Unknown Species

Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2016: From Lost Cities to Ancient Tombs, Shrines, Maps and Unknown Species

This year has provided an array of exciting, and sometimes puzzling, discoveries for archaeologists and ancient history enthusiasts. Looking back to our most ancient ancestors, a few of the...
How the 1,000-Year-Old Mystery of the Druze People’s Origin Was Solved

How the 1,000-Year-Old Mystery of the Druze People’s Origin Was Solved

For 1,000 years, the mysterious origin of the Druze people – who live almost exclusively in the mountains of Syria, Lebanon and Israel – has captivated linguists, historians, and sociologists. There...
The Secret Tunnels and Missing Manuscripts of Mont Sainte-Odile Abbey

The Secret Tunnels and Missing Manuscripts of Mont Sainte-Odile Abbey

The ancient monastery of Mont Sainte-Odile in the French region of Alsace is steeped in mystery. From secret tunnels to the strange disappearance of more than 1,000 ancient books, it has many a story...
The British Museum Distorts History and Denies its Racist Past

The British Museum Distorts History and Denies its Racist Past

Thomas Melin/ University of Gothenburg The British Museum in London is rewriting history to appear in a better light and defend itself against demands to return objects to their countries of origin...
Help Save Elfdalian, the Ancient Viking Forest Language of Sweden

Help Save Elfdalian, the Ancient Viking Forest Language of Sweden

The ancient Viking language of Elfdalian has been almost entirely wiped out, with only 3,000 people in a tiny forest community in Sweden currently keeping it alive. People having been fighting to...
Mary Rose: Tudor Painting and Tidal Analysis Offer Clues as to why it sank

Mary Rose: Tudor Painting and Tidal Analysis Offer Clues as to why it sank

Skulls, the ship’s figurehead and other artifacts from the wreck of a 1545 Tudor warship have been made available to peruse online in 3D reconstructions. But why did she sink? The answer is more...
Image credit © Dustin Naef “The Confluence”.

Breaking Sacred Ground: The Confluence, and Disruption of the Balance of Origin Sites

The Four Corners region of the United States is too mediocre a name to describe so vast an expanse of the Southwest, representing the corners of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. The...
Cataclysmic natural disasters frame indelible human stories.

First Evidence of Legendary Great Flood in China May Rewrite History

David R. Montgomery / The Conversation Modern people have long wondered about ancient stories of great floods. Do they tell of real events in the distant past, or are they myths rooted in imagination...

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