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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Detail; Byzantine Alexander Romance, Venice, 14th century.

Fact or Fiction? The Obscure Origins of the Greek Alexander Romance

The Greek Alexander Romance , often referred to as a ‘pseudo-Callisthenes’ production, is in one form or another one of the most influential and widely read books of all time; it has birthed a whole...
Craco, Italy

Craco: The Abandoned Medieval Ghost Town of Italy

For nearly fifty years, the town of Craco in southern Italy has stood uninhabited. Here, dark windows look out at potential travelers like empty eye sockets and the streets and buildings of this...
Nestor’s Cup was discovered on the Italian island of Ischia in 1954. Source: Marcus Cyron / CC BY-SA 4.0

Reopening Cold Case of Nestor’s Cup Burial Solves a Mystery

Homer’s Iliad , a classical ancient Greek tale from the 8th century BC, contains a brief, 6-line description of the famous 2,800-year-old Nestor’s Cup, which was the subject of a great deal of...
The temple of Zeus has been found amongst the ruins of the ancient city Magnesia (Magnesia on the Maeander), Turkey       Source: lic0001 / Adobe Stock

Temple of Zeus Gate Rises In Turkey’s Magnesia on the Maeander

Archaeologists in Turkey have excavated the entrance gate the Temple of Zeus at Magnesia. The site of Magnesia on the Maeander is relatively unknown in the annals of Aegean Region archaeological...
‘The gyri of the thinker's brain as a maze of choices in biomedical ethics.’ (Deriv.) An ancient Greek memory technique suggests imagining a pathway through a location to remember important information.

Enhance Your Memory with this Ancient Greek Memorization Technique

In Greek mythology, Mnemosyne was the personification of memory. In ancient Greece, prior to being written down, stories were recounted orally. Due to that, memory played an important part in the...
The poem preserved in a graffito from an upper-storey room in Cartagena Spain (2nd to 3rd century AD) is throwing light on the origins of poetry.

New Light On The Ancient Origins Of Poetry And Song

A Cambridge researcher has rewritten the history of the origins of song. A singular text has revealed modern poetry began hundreds of years earlier than was previously believed. A 2nd to 3rd century...
The 300-BC Mleiha silver coin hoard and the ancient jar it was found in. Source: Sharjah Archaeology Authority

UAE’s 2,300-year-old Mleiha Coin Hoard Reveals International Trade

It was a relatively normal ancient clay jar, until the team of United Arab Emirates (UAE) archaeologists weighed it. There was only one thing that could possibly have weighed 9 kilograms (19.8 pounds...
Reliefs of the Greco-Persian Wars found in the ancient city of Daskyleion western Turkey. Source: Anadolu Agency

2,500-Year-Old Reliefs Found in Turkey Portray Greco-Persian Wars

Archaeologists digging at the site of the ancient Anatolian city of Daskyleion in northwestern Turkey were delighted to discover skillfully carved stone reliefs dating back to the fifth century BC...
The partially mummified remains found in the tomb at the Porta Sarno necropolis, Pompeii.  Source:Pompeii Sites

Mummified Remains Of A Former Slave Discovered At Pompeii

The mummified remains of a prominent man who was remembered for having commissioned artistic performances that were performed in Greek have been retrieved from a tomb in Pompeii. The burial is...
The outlines of the Byzantine castle at the hillside Akyaka dig site in Western Turkey.		Source: Durmuş Genç / Anadolu Agency

Turkish Archaeologists Find Byzantine Castle at Akyaka, Western Turkey

A team of Turkish archaeologists have been busy since 2020 performing excavations at one of western Turkey’s richest historical and cultural sites. Within the borders of the coastal village of Akyaka...
The 6th century coins found at the ancient city of Phanagoria in Russia. Source: Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Coin Hoard Linked to Sudden Attack on Ancient City of Phanagoria

In the first half of the 6th century, the ancient city of Phanagoria on the Taman peninsula was attacked and destroyed. Someone who was living in the city at the time frantically tried to hide their...
Ancient Greeks Used Moveable Stage in Messene Theater!

Ancient Greeks Used Moveable Stage in Messene Theater!

Moveable theater props and three stone tracks have been discovered at the ancient Greek Messene Theater in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece . These new findings related to ancient Greek...
Healing Temple of Aesculapius (Asklepios) by Robert Thom

The Healing Power of Dream Incubation in Ancient Greece

In the ancient world, many cultures built elaborate temple complexes dedicated to their healer gods - Imhotep in Egypt and Asklepios in Greece for example. These gods were recognized as having the...
A composite image of various photos of the headless Greek statue recently unearthed in the ancient city of Metropolis, Turkey in the spring of 2021.    Source: Anadolu Agency

1,800-year-old Headless Greek Statue Found At Turkey’s Metropolis Site

In the ancient Greek classical city of Metropolis or “The City of the Mother Goddess,” located in the Torbali region of Turkey’s Izmir province, archaeologists have unearthed an 1,800-year-old marble...
Three Greek youths wonder where the wine has gone. Paestum, 470 BC. Source: BlackMac / Adobe Stock.

Heavily Seasoned: Why did the Ancients Like Salty Wine?

The history of wine stretches back to around 6,000 BC in the country of Georgia near the Caucasus mountains. However, knowledge of the wine and the wine-making process is scant at best. The most in-...
King Menelaus, seen here finding Helen at Troy, is best known as her husband.

Why We Should Remember Menelaus, the King Lost in his Wife’s Shadow

Menelaus, the mythological king of Mycenaean Sparta, is perhaps best remembered as the husband of Helen of Troy. While lost in his wife’s shadow, his story is inexorably entwined with that of the...
How did the Greeks Measure the Earth’s Circumference?

How did the Greeks Measure the Earth’s Circumference?

It is considered obvious today that Earth is roughly a sphere and that it can be measured like any spherical object. Scientists technically call it an oblate spheroid, but it is still sphere-like in...
Prophecy has had a strong influence since ancient times

Prophecy Through the Ages: Society, Power and Legend

“Prophecy is an emanation sent forth by the Divine Being through the medium of the Active Intellect, in the first instance to man's rational faculty, and then to his imaginative faculty.” -...
The Statue of Socrates at the Academy of Athens. Work of Leonidas Drosis (d. 1880). (C messier/CC BY SA 4.0) Background: This NASA image shows Earth from space. The image is a combination of data from two satellites.

Was Socrates in Space? A Question of Ancient Spaceflight

The ancient Greeks are credited with having made many early advancements in science and mathematics which influenced later western civilization. Aristarchus of Samos proposed an essentially...
Achilles’ Shield: What’s the Meaning of the Iliad’s Most Symbolic Object?

Achilles’ Shield: What’s the Meaning of the Iliad’s Most Symbolic Object?

The Iliad is one of the most famous epic poems created by the Greek poet Homer and the piece recounts the last weeks of the Trojan War. In book 18 of the series, Homer writes about Achilles’ shield...
Unravelling the Roots of Hera, the Wrathful Goddess of Marriage

Unravelling the Roots of Hera, the Wrathful Goddess of Marriage

Hera, also known by her Latin title as Juno, is best known in Western culture as the wife of Zeus, king of the gods. While technically subordinate to him, Hera is never a submissive figure, in fact...
The 2,500-year-old terracotta relief discovered on St. Cyricus depicts marching hoplites. Source: National Institute and Museum of Archaeology

Archaeology Hot Spot on St. Cyricus Yields Yet Another Greek Treasure

Over the last few years, excavations on St. Cyricus, near the Bulgarian town of Sozopol, have been particularly fruitful, unearthing a long and eventful history in the area. Now, on the St. Cyricus...
The five female Olympians of the Ancient Greek Pantheon. Source: local_doctor / Adobe Stock

Five Female Olympians of Ancient Greece: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Greek Mythology consists of numerous gods and goddesses, although the Greek pantheon itself is comprised of just twelve main gods ruling Mount Olympus. Among the twelve, there are five female rulers...
Exploded model of the cosmos gearing of the rebuilt Antikythera Mechanism.

The Rebuilt Antikythera Solves Secrets Of The World’s First Computer

The famous ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the “Antikythera Mechanism” is a mechanical device created to predict astronomical events. Now, UCL scientists have recreated the tool which...

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