When the Black Death or bubonic plague epidemic ravaged London between the autumn of 1348 and the spring of 1350, it may have wiped out as much as half the city’s population. While the victims of...
Vlad Dracul, the infamous medieval Romanian ruler known as Vlad the Impaler and the inspiration for the character of Count Dracula , is considered one of the most bloodthirsty rulers in human history...
The skeletal remains of a woman who lived in Portugal between the 14th and 19th centuries show that she suffered a physical injury so severe that it caused an extraordinarily large growth to appear...
In order to understand the history of probiotics, one needs to imagine a time before modern medicine , when people looked to nature to heal their ailments. Many ancient civilizations consumed...
Is it time to kill the term “placebo effect”? A researcher looking at questionable medieval medicines, that are today shunned as placebos, has shown how early physicians triggered patient’s brains...
Visit any park in China over the last few hundred years and you’re likely to see dozens of people practicing qigong. What started as a traditional Chinese treatment over 4,000 years ago has become a...
The British Museum houses a tablet which provides a peek into work-life balance in ancient Egypt. It documents the number of sick days and why 40 workers took time off from their workplace in 1250 BC...
One of the most fascinating medical phenomena is the placebo effect. In medicine, a placebo is considered to be any medical treatment that is not “real.” This could be a fake pill, shot, or in some...
For all of Europe’s pretentions of progress with civil democracies and human rights, the archives are filled with anything but. From the blood of Roman gladiators being sold as a remedy for epilepsy...
When Tutankhamun’s tomb was first discovered in 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter was stunned by the astonishing array of grave goods – more than 5,000 artifacts were left for the boy king to use in...
Between Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, coffee is everywhere. If you’re a coffee lover, you may have wondered about how coffee came to be throughout history. In early times, however, some people...
The Black Death or Black Plague killed somewhere between 75 and 200 million people in just seven years, from 1346 to 1353. About 50 million died in Europe alone, which made it the epicenter of the...
Male impotence, commonly known as erectile dysfunction, is known today to have many causes, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, post-prostatectomy procedures, neurological or psychological...
It is well-known that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals during the time they co-existed in Europe and Asia. A 2018 study revealed an interesting and intriguing detail about that interbreeding...
The remains of an ancient hunter-gatherer unearthed long ago at the Rinnukalns archaeological site in Latvia, has tested positive for Yersina pestis, which is better known as the bacteria behind the...
Psychologists and religious leaders agree that the ancient Camino de Santiago is a great “way” to fight depression and mental health illnesses. The trail, whose English name translates into the “Way...
An indigenous people living largely undisturbed in the Bolivian Amazonian rainforest for centuries may hold the key to understanding (and possibly even reversing) the aging process. Previous research...
The Trotula is a very well-known 12 th century text, originally written for male medical practitioners treating gynecological or obstetrical issues, which reveals a great deal about how people...
The ancient Chinese healing practice of Gua Sha (pronounced gwashah) requires scraping your face, scalp or body with a specially shaped flat piece of jade or rose quartz. Now, Gua Sha has swept...
There has long been speculation about the true cause of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death on the island of St. Helena on May 5, 1821. As we mark the 200th anniversary of this event, a biochemist from De...
Archaeologists exploring an ancient Maya sweat bath in Guatemala say not only did this sacred chamber represent the goddess of creation , but it is the actual deity herself manifested on earth. What...
Although the word ‘Mandala’ simply means “circle” or “discoid object” in Sanskrit, the significance is far more complex. Traditionally, mandalas represented the intricacy of the universe and served...
A medieval toilet may not be the first place you’d want to dig as an archaeologist, but old latrines are surprisingly good at revealing secrets to life in the Middle Ages! A team of scientists...
A strand of Neanderthal DNA inherited by modern humans has been linked to your likelihood of falling severely ill with Covid-19 , but not everyone is convinced. The Neanderthal gene is only found in...