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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.

Giant Boabab Tree
24 June, 2018 - 13:57 ancient-origins

9 Oldest Trees in Africa, Some Over 2,000-Years-Old, Now Dead

Nine of 13 of Africa’s oldest and largest baobab trees have died in the past decade, it has been reported. These trees, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 years, appear to be victims of climate change...
Sir Isaac Newton and the Philosopher’s Stone
22 June, 2018 - 15:36 ashley cowie

Sir Isaac Newton’s Secret Quest for the God Engine

Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor and natural philosopher was one of the most influential and accomplished scientists in history. After Newton died, however, he...
A view of ruined fort of Tughlaqabad, created during the Delhi Sultanate, at sunset.
22 June, 2018 - 14:00 dhwty

The Delhi Sultanate: 300 Years of Muslim Power Over the Indian Subcontinent

The Delhi Sultanate was a Muslim sultanate that was existed between the 13th and 16th centuries. Based in Delhi, the territory of the Delhi Sultanate was mainly confined to the northern part of India...
Pliny the Elder
21 June, 2018 - 04:54 Riley Winters

The Illustrious Life of Pliny the Elder, Ancient Historian and Roman Commander

Gaius Plinius Secundus, better known in history as Pliny the Elder, was an influential administrator, officer, and author during his life. Although he was only fifty-six years old at the time of his...
Detail of a bronze statue presenting Shiva as the Lord of Dance. Nataraja from Tamil Nadu, India. Chola Dynasty.
21 June, 2018 - 01:56 dhwty

The Chola Dynasty: Exploring the Achievements of an Indian Empire Spanning 400 Years

The Chola Dynasty was a dynasty that ruled over the southern part of India for about 400 years. Although there were some up’s and down’s, including a time when Chola princesses were the only ones...
The Levite of Ephraim avenging the death of his wife as the victim of brutality by the Benjamites by Alexandre-François Caminade (1837)
20 June, 2018 - 15:25 Cam Rea

The Gibeah Incident: Ancient Israel’s First Civil War Over a Concubine

The first civil war among the tribes of Israel broke out over the Gibeah incident, which was between the Israelite confederation and the tribe of Benjamin. While this incident is normally placed...
Central shrine decor at Somapura Mahavihara, a Buddhist center of learning from the Pala empire.
19 June, 2018 - 14:01 dhwty

The Pala Empire: An Indian Dynasty Ruled by Protectors of Buddhism

The Pala Empire was an empire that was centered on the area of Bengal and Bihar, in the north and northeastern parts of India. This empire was founded during the 8th century AD and existed for about...
The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, painting by Edward Poynter, 1890, Art Gallery of New South Wales
19 June, 2018 - 02:36 Robin Whitlock

The Ethiopian Gold Mine that may have supplied the Queen of Sheba with her riches

Ever wondered where the Queen of Sheba got her gold from? Sudan and Ethiopia are both in the region of what was the kingdom of Sheba, and both have ancient mines. In fact, the Asosa zone of Ethiopia...
Tribal Shamanic Music
18 June, 2018 - 15:32 jim willis

Music, Math, Megaliths and the Dawn of Humanity

"Musick hath Charms to sooth a savage Breast, To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak. I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd, and, as with living Souls, have been inform'd, by Magick Numbers and...
Scene from the Rāmāyaṇa, northwest India, Gupta period, 5th-6th century, terracotta, Honolulu Academy of Arts.
18 June, 2018 - 13:58 dhwty

Gupta Empire of Ancient India Was Golden Age of Goodwill, Artistic Endeavors and Military Might

The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire that existed between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD. During this time India advanced, especially culturally. Achievements in architecture, sculpture, and...
A depiction of Sextus Empiricus.
17 June, 2018 - 22:47 ancient-origins

Sextus Empiricus: Suspending Judgement and Promoting a Skeptical Search for Truth

The following two quotes will help you gain a quick perspective on how the ancient philosopher Sextus Empiricus understood the world: Those who claim for themselves to judge the truth are bound to...
From the Shawangunk Mountains by S Gifford
15 June, 2018 - 15:33 Glenn M. Kreisberg

Spirits in Stone: Ancient Megalithic Culture Reveals Hidden Skyscape Clues to Sun and Goddess Worshiping

An American census on agricultural stone fence survey conducted in 1880, documented over 240,000 miles (386,242 kilometers) of stone walls in north-east America alone. That’s enough to reach to the...
Detail of Qin Shi Huang's imperial tour across his empire. Depiction in an 18th century album.
15 June, 2018 - 02:03 Mark Oliver

How the Search for Immortality Killed the First Emperor of China

No man had ever risen as high as Qin Shi Huang. He was the first emperor of China - the first man to conquer its seven kingdoms and rule them all. There was only one threat left for him to overcome:...
Deriv. Image of Native American woman, believed to be Juana Maria, of the Nicoleño tribe
15 June, 2018 - 01:54 dhwty

Juana Maria, the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island

Island of the Blue Dolphins is a book written by the American author Scott O’Dell about a girl stranded on an island in the Pacific. This popular children’s novel is based on a real story of a woman...
Kamehameha the Great
14 June, 2018 - 02:56 dhwty

Secret and Safe: Hawaiian Royal Burials and the Missing Bones of Kamehameha the Great

The magical properties associated with the bones of Hawaiian kings were valuable to the ancient Hawaiians, and were even seen potentially dangerous. Great rites and elaborate ceremonies were...
Detail of a statue of Mahavira at Shri Mahavirji, Rajasthan.
14 June, 2018 - 01:57 dhwty

Mahavira: Abandoning Luxury to Revive Jainism

“A living body is not merely an integration of limbs and flesh but it is the abode of the soul which potentially has perfect perception (Anant-darshana), perfect knowledge (Anant-jnana), perfect...
The Denisova Cave in the Altai Krai region of southern Siberia. Here over the last decade archaeologists have uncovered anatomical evidence of a previously unknown hominin today known as the Denisovans. Inset, left, one of the two huge Denisovan molars found in the cave’s layer 11 and, right, one of the pierced ostrich eggshell beads along with the fragment of choritolite bracelet found in the same layer of archaeological activity (Wiki Commons Agreement, 2018).
13 June, 2018 - 15:21 Andrew Collins

The Lost Legacy of the Super Intelligent Denisovans Who Calculated Cygnocentric-based Cosmological Alignments 45,000 Years Ago

A chance discovery by archaeologists in 2008 of a finger phalanx of an archaic human found in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia has helped change everything we know about...
Several mass graves have been found at the site of one of the biggest battles of the Napoleonic Wars, during which some 55,000 soldiers died in July 1809.
12 June, 2018 - 19:00 ashley cowie

The Napoleonic Discovery of Mass Graves in Austria

A team of battlefield archaeologists near Deutsch-Wagram in Austria, working from a “makeshift detective's office inside a shipping container with photos of mass graves,” have discovered one of the...
The Young Lord Hamlet by Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1868)
12 June, 2018 - 14:49 MartiniF

The Princes and Heroes Behind Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Mad Prince Who Murdered His Uncle to Avenge His Father

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is a play written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1602. Set in Denmark, the play dramatizes the murder of king Claudius by his nephew,...
Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix.
12 June, 2018 - 13:57 dhwty

Did the Pleasure-Seeking Epicurus Really Prescribe Hedonistic Happiness?

Epicureanism is a philosophical system based on the teachings of Epicurus which is, in today’s world, often equated with hedonism. Whilst this may be true to some extent, it is an over-simplification...
More ancient skulls bearing evidence of trepanation - a tell-tale hole surgically cut into the cranium - have been found in Peru than the combined number found in the rest of the world.
11 June, 2018 - 22:57 ancient-origins

Ancient Peru's Cranial Surgeons Were Twice as Skilled as American Civil War Doctors

Even with a highly skilled neurosurgeon, the most effective anesthesia, and all the other advances of modern medicine, most of us would cringe at the thought of undergoing cranial surgery today...
Many factors influence body image
11 June, 2018 - 18:54 lizleafloor

The Ideal Woman’s Body – a Gift of the Gods?

We all know what the perfect woman’s body looks like. Or do we? Is it Kim Kardashian, with her popular ‘internet-breaking’ big behind, or Marilyn Monroe with her voluptuous movie curves? Is it a...
Philosopher Plotinus with his disciple
10 June, 2018 - 23:18 dhwty

Plotinus: Platonism with a Twist for Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Thinkers

Plotinus was an ancient Greek-speaking philosopher who lived during the 3rd century AD. He is generally considered to be the founder of Neoplatonism, though Plotinus may have actually considered...
A scene from In the Heart of the Sea
10 June, 2018 - 13:59 ancient-origins

In the Heart of the Sea: The Horrific True Story Behind Moby-Dick

A man winds his way through the muck and mire of a 19th-century American port – Nantucket, centre of the world’s whaling industry. He knocks on a door, enters, and begs an exhausted looking man to...

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