A parchment, part of a larger manuscript found in the library of the Bobbio Abbey in Italy, is believed to be authored by ancient Greek mathematician, astronomer, and geographer Claudius Ptolemy. It...
A new study suggests that the Chinese may have been the first to use synthetic skin-whitening makeup and were making it before the Greeks and Romans. Bronze jars excavated from an elite tomb in...
Remembered today as the God of the Sea, Poseidon is one of the most well-known Greek gods. Whilst he is immortalized in myths as a violent and hot-headed god who would brew up a raging sea, the story...
The legendary and illustrious tribal kingdoms of Illyria were located in current-day Albania and Montenegro, just across the Adriatic from Italy. The Illyrian world was also an important strategic...
Trojans are typically thought of as the archrivals of the Greeks. Their abduction of the beautiful Helen launched a thousand ships on Trojan shores, igniting a war that spanned ten years...
Olbia (also spelled Olvia) began as an ancient Greek colony on the northern coast of the Black Sea, in the southern part of modern-day Ukraine. Olbia was famous as an emporium, and the importance of...
A pair of sixth-century BC warrior’s helmets have been discovered along with a ruined temple at Velia in southern Italy. It is believed that these rare artifacts are relics from the legendary Battle...
Two rock chambers have been discovered deep beneath the House of Muses in Zeugma, Turkey. Signifying the intellectual level, wealth and power of a wealthy family, these two chambers can be seen as...
The Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) recently announced they were in possession of an ancient Corinthian helmet that had been worn by a Greek warrior in either the sixth or fifth century BC...
Researchers in Spain have unearthed the foundations of a rustic Roman residential seaside villa at Guardamar, like none other ever discovered. Why is it so unique? Well, this one had the later...
Was there ever a Trojan War? That is, the almost legendary battle fought between Greeks and Trojans. This question continues to go unanswered by the academic and archaeological world. If we read from...
Horus (also known as Heru) was one of the most important deities in the ancient Egyptian pantheon . The ancient Egyptians worshipped Horus mainly as the sky god and the god of kingship. In the cult...
A new pit sanctuary has been uncovered in Bulgaria during construction work. This site is up to 2500 years old and is thought to have been used by Thracian tribal groups, for ritual purposes. The...
Cyrus II of Persia (more commonly known as Cyrus the Great and called Cyrus the Elder by the ancient Greeks) was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Although there are various ancient sources for...
Lupus in fabula or perhaps more accurately in historia , given that historically the figure of the wolf is not marginal at all. The undisputed symbol of the forest, the wolf has always been strongly...
The Ionian Revolt was a series of revolts that broke out in Asia Minor at the beginning of the 5th century BC. At that time, the whole of Asia Minor was under the rule of the Achaemenid Empire. The...
In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy is known as the woman whose beauty sparked the Trojan War. But Helen’s character is more complex than it seems. When considering the many Greek and Roman myths that...
Beautification and cosmetology have been important to humans for many thousands of years. Obsessing over our appearance is something that seems to go back to the very roots of modern human behavior,...
Kom Ombo (meaning the ‘Mound of Ombo’) is an ancient Egyptian town located in what is today the Aswan Governorate of Upper Egypt, about 50 km (31 miles) to the north of Aswan. Kom Ombo is notable...
Breastfeeding is an infant feeding practice in which a child is fed breast milk directly from breast to mouth. Breastfeeding could be performed by the mother herself or by a wet nurse. Evidence of...
For much of human history, pregnancy and childbirth was an extremely dangerous period in a woman’s life. It was often believed that the expectant mother and her baby were vulnerable to malevolent...
A lost temple dedicated to the Greek and Roman god Apollo may be hiding in Sozopol, Bulgaria, known in ancient times as Apollonia Pontica - ‘Apollonia on the Black Sea’. Archaeologists with the...
A goddess of ecstatic and chthonic reproductive mysteries, Cybele was the primary mother goddess of ancient Anatolia, and Phrygia's only known goddess thus far. She was a "Mistress of Animals", "...
If one were to walk down a crowded street wearing a black conical hat, passersby would not question the wearer's intention. Obviously, the wearer would be playing the role of a witch. Yet as obvious...