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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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History

From the powerful civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley, to the fearsome yet sophisticated society of the Vikings, the ancient world was a surprising and challenging place. Here we feature some of the most seminal and influential events and people throughout history, that have helped shape the world we know today.

Top of Statue of Saints Cyril and Methodius

Cyril and Methodius - Spiritual Fathers of Slavic Civilization

In many ways, Eastern Europe owes its cultural and religious shape to the two missionary brothers, Saint Cyril (827-869 AD) and Saint Methodius (826-884 AD). These two brothers were sent as...
An Angel leading a soul into heaven

Why the Christian Idea of Hell no Longer Persuades People to Care for the Poor

Although many of us now associate hell with Christianity, the idea of an afterlife existed much earlier. Greeks and Romans, for example, used the concept of Hades, an underworld where the dead lived...
The Dance of the Muses at Mount Helicon by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1807). Hesiod cites inspiration from the Muses while on Mount Helicon.

Hesiod’s Concerns About Economics and Polis During the Greek Dark Age

The Greek Dark Age fits between the Late Bronze Age Collapse - often alternately referred to as the Mycenaean Civilization Collapse, around 1200 BC - and the Greek Archaic Period, around 800 BC. The...
Hermitage Castle bei Carlisle, Südschottland.

Halloween Haunting: The Hideous History of the Hermitage Castle

It is Halloween and what better than a story about a sinister Scottish castle, its ghosts, its legends, and its blood-soaked history? Not referring to Glamis Castle with its notorious secret chamber...
Detail of Mughal Emperor Jahangir weighing Prince Khurram (later crowned Shah Jahan of the Mughal Empire). Page from Tuzk-e-Jahangiri. 1610-1615, British Museum, London.

The Mughal Empire: Tolerance, Taxes, Addiction, Art, and Other Acts of Genghis Khan’s Relatives in India

Mongols, Mughals, are they the same? No, but there is a link between the Medieval / Early Modern empire that ruled over large parts of the Indian subcontinent and the powerful Khan force that hailed...
A 17th century engraving depicting an ordeal by water.

Trial by Ordeal: A Life or Death Method of Judgement

In the modern judicial system, the innocence or guilt of an accused may be established based on the evidence brought against him or her. In ancient and medieval societies, however, a different way of...
A cloaked witch (Leo Lintang / Fotolia)

The Evolution of The Medieval Witch – And Why She’s Usually a Woman

Flying through the skies on a broomstick, the popular image of a witch is as a predominantly female figure – so much so that the costume has become the go-to Halloween outfit for women and girls...
Gawain represented the perfect knight, as a fighter, a lover, and a religious devotee. (The Vigil by John Pettie, 1884)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Landscapes, Symbols and Metaphysics in 14th Century England

‘The paths he would take were strange, With little cheer to glean, And his hopes would often change Till that chapel could be seen.’ Sir Gawain and Green Knight is a late 14th-century poem, set in an...
Timurid Emperor Ulugh Beg, an astronomer and khan, seen here with scholars in this statue.

Timurid Empire’s Arts and Culture Influenced Much of the Known World

When people think of the Mongol warriors of the Middle Ages, they might imagine wild, bloodthirsty savages marauding across Eurasia dealing slaughter from horseback with arrows, spears, battle axes,...
Subterranean water supply (cistern), Istanbul. Ancient rainwater harvesting sometimes included highly decorative cisterns, further demonstrating the importance of the element to human life.

Ancient Rainwater Harvesting: It Fell From The Sky and Became Worshiped by Every Civilization

Collecting and dispersing water has always been a matter of life and death for humans. In our informative years we must have cupped water from rivers, springs, and waterfalls while traversing wild...
Square faced mummy, The Louvre

Mummy À La Mode: Elaborate Treatment of the Square-Faced Mummy with Intricate Décor

Everybody knows the traditional wrappings of a mummy; long strips of fabric are wrapped around the body from head to toe. But this mummy from the Louvre has an intricately woven square design on its...
Tlingit Indian by Cenk Unver (Fotolia) and Alaskan background (Fotolia)

The Supernatural Traditions of the Alaskan Shaman

When the word ‘shaman’ is mentioned, it is common for one to visualize semi-naked cat-skin clad witchdoctors, wheeling around fires in mild southern climates. Less often does one picture holy men...
Kublai Khan: Mongol Warrior, Horseman, Hunter and Powerful Emperor

Kublai Khan: Mongol Warrior, Horseman, Hunter and Powerful Emperor

Kublai Khan is perhaps best known for his establishment of the Yuan Dynasty , and may be considered as one of China’s most famous emperors. Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan, the founder...
Modern Mongol horsemen at the eagle festival. Life may have been tranquil for hunters during the time of Pax Mongolica too.

The Pax Mongolica: When the Mongols Brought Peace to Europe and Asia

The Pax Mongolica (translated from Latin to mean ‘Mongol Peace’) refers to a period in history when a large part of Europe and Asia was under Mongol control as a result of the military campaigns of...
Detail of an illustration of a woman emptying her chamber pot out the window. Medieval sanitation wasn’t very sanitary.

Cheerio and Gardi Loo! Words of Warning Prompted By Medieval Human Waste Disposal

In 1775, the Scottish inventor Alexander Cumming was granted the first patent for the design of a flushing toilet. Although the Romans were known for their innovation in sanitation, which included...
We can understand the progression of decoration in an ancient Egyptian tomb by analyzing the images present in KV57, the tomb of King Horemheb - the last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty - in the Valley of the Kings.

Scribes in Egypt: Brilliant Practitioners of the Outstanding Profession – Part II

Scribes were counted among the elite in ancient Egypt and led charmed, yet challenging, lives. They influenced virtually every sphere of the public and private affairs of the citizenry to an...
Black magic ritual

Ex-Devil Worshipper Says: I'm Shocked Christians Celebrate Halloween

Hallowe’en, a shortened form of "All Hallows' Evening" is an echo of Celtic harvest festivals of pre-Christian Europe. Observed now in several countries around the world, it is the evening before ‘...
On the Southern Part of the East Wall of Horemheb’s Saqqaran tomb, military scribes, magnificently represented, scrupulously record the details of long files of prisoners escorted by Egyptian soldiers (not in pic). This depiction is often speculated to represent women scribes.

Scribes in Ancient Egypt: Custodians of the Voice and Words of the Divine – Part I

The rich scribal tradition of ancient Egypt was one of the foremost pillars of the development of that culture. At a time when much of the world could not read or write; these resourceful and erudite...
The Mongol ruler Hulagu in Baghdad interns the Caliph of Baghdad among his treasures. Hulagu founded the Ilkhanate.

The Ilkhanate Had Only Two Goals: Conquest and Power

The Ilkhanate was one of the four khanates that emerged after the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire. This khanate was founded by Hulegu Khan, one of Genghis Khan’s grandsons, and lasted from the...

The Genghis Khan Biography: Military Genius, Genocidal Maniac, Serial Abuser Of Women

Genghis Khan: the infamous 13th century Emperor of the Mongol Empire was one the most ferocious and ruthless people to have ever lived on planet Earth. If you read a Genghis Khan biography, it won’t...
A statue of Batu Khan in Turkey.

Batu Khan: The Leader of the Golden Horde Kept His Grandfather Genghis’ Legacy Going

Batu Khan was a Mongol ruler and the founder of the Golden Horde (known also as the Kipchak Khanate, and the Ulus of Jochi). He was a grandson of Genghis Khan through Jochi, the Great Khan’s eldest...
Artistic representation by Heinrich Harder of humans hunting glyptodon, a megafauna that lived during the Pleistocene period.

Pleistocene Epoch: Humans, Welcome to Earth

The Pleistocene epoch is a geologic epoch which began around 2.6 Mya (Million years ago) and came to an end around 11,700 BP (Before Present). It is characterized by lower sea levels than the present...
Fry in Eleusis, painting by Henryk Siemiradzki (1889).

Baubo, Great Goddess and Demeter’s Female Fool in the Eleusinian Mysteries

In 1898, a group of German archaeologists working in the Demeter sanctuary at Priene unearthed a peculiar set of Hellenistic female figurines. The head of each of these figurines sits directly on her...
‘Mongols at the Walls of Vladimir’ by Vasily Maksimov. Depiction of Mongols of the Golden Horde outside Vladimir - presumably demanding submission before sacking the city.

The Golden Horde and the Mongol Mission to Conquer Europe

Before Mongol emperor Genghis Khan died in 1227 AD, he divided his vast empire into four khanates (fiefdoms) among three sons and a grandson. The westernmost of these regions was ruled by the Golden...

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