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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.

From The Ashes Of Angels – The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race

From The Ashes Of Angels – The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race

“And after some days my son, Methuselah, took a wife for his son Lamech, and she became pregnant by him and bore him a son. And his body was white as snow and red as a rose; the hair of his head as...
Reading the Rich Symbolism in Aboriginal Art

How to Read the Symbolism in Aboriginal Art

For thousands of years, an art form has existed that includes works in a wide range of media, including bark painting, ceremonial clothing, painting on leaves, rock carving, watercolor painting, and...
The Historic Tale of a Huge Crystal Ball and a Qing Dynasty Empress

The Historic Tale of a Huge Crystal Ball and a Qing Dynasty Empress

The Dowager Empress Chinese crystal ball (or crystal sphere) is an unusual and valuable artifact believed to have belonged to Empress Dowager Cixi, the de facto ruler of China in the last decades of...
Tilapia Stew: Egyptian Recipe Found in 6000-year-old Stomach

Tilapia Stew: Egyptian Recipe Found in 6000-year-old Stomach

This recipe is based on an archaeological discovery made in an upper Egypt tomb dating to around 3500 to 4000 BC. Differing from a typical mummy, which would have had its organs in canopic jars, the...
Ice Age Diorama. From left to right: Equus hemionus, Mammuthus primigenius, Coelodonta antiquitatis, Bison exiguous skeletal mounts at the Tianjin Natural History Museum. (Jonathan Chen/ CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Younger Dryas Impact Research Debate – Are We There Yet?

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis has received considerable attention since its publication in 2007 in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)...
Neolithic Revolution Challenged! Are These The Real Roots of Civilization?

Neolithic Revolution Challenged! Are These The Real Roots of Civilization?

Conventional wisdom tells us that civilization began with the so-called agricultural revolution - AKA the invention of farming , but I suggest a different story. From my perspective, the roots of...
Ancient history podcasts bring the past to the present

The Top Ten Ancient History Podcasts You May Not Have Heard

There are podcasts on every subject these days. Even the ancient world has been brought into the modern one through this medium. If you are looking for another way to learn about the past, check out...
Voyage Compass

Who Reached America First? Hint: NOT Columbus!

Even today, many people still believe that Christopher Columbus was the person who “discovered” America when he landed there in 1492. That belief overlooks the fact that indigenous people had already...
Roman gladiators lived fascinating, brutal, lives

The Real Lives of Roman Gladiators

Roman gladiators are some of the most iconic characters in history and have defined how we think of entertainment in ancient Rome. Their portrayal in films and stories has turned them into archetypal...
Detail of ‘The Number of the Beast is 666’  by William Blake (1805). Rosenbach Museum & Library ( Public Domain)

666 Sanctified: The Beast Was Fake News

The number 666 has been sanctified and this should bring sighs of relief to all those who were wary at the number of the beast fearing it symbolised satanic forces. It has transpired that the number...
The Little Ice Age and Its Giant Impact on Human History

The Little Ice Age and Its Giant Impact on Human History

The Little Ice Age is a period tentatively defined as running from the 13 th /14 th to the 19 th century in which the northern hemisphere of Earth endured a limited but substantial cooling period...
The Birth of the Renaissance: Understanding the Genesis of a New Era

The Birth of the Renaissance: Understanding the Genesis of a New Era

“I tell you: one must still have chaos within oneself, to give birth to a dancing star” (Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra). By conservative estimates, the European Renaissance spans the historical...
Gallo-Roman mosaic

How Gaul ‘Barbarians’ Influenced Ancient Roman Religion

The continental neighbors of the Romans, the Gauls were considered barbaric entities which the Republic and Empire attempted to colonize multiple times. Caesar’s numerous conquests on the mainland...
Were Asclepian Centers Powered By Magical Ritual or Holistic Healthcare?

Were Asclepian Centers Powered By Magical Ritual or Holistic Healthcare?

Doctors the world over take the Hippocratic oath swearing to do no harm to patients. In doing this, to quote the words of the oath itself, they “call upon Apollo the physician and Asclepius, Hygeia...
Hermetic Individuation: The Way Of Hermes and The Rite of Rebirth

Hermetic Individuation: The Way Of Hermes and The Rite of Rebirth

There are only a handful of surviving texts that describe what could be termed true “rites of passage” along the Way of Hermes. One such text—which contains what many consider the essential Hermetic...
Man drinking alcohol. Credit: Rainer Fuhrmann / Adobe Stock

Infamous Ancient Irish Spirit Is Now Legal and Sales Are Booming!

An Irish spirit that was until recently illegal is making a big comeback. Poteen which is pronounced as potcheen is a potent alcoholic drink and was notorious because it was so strong. Distillers in...
Eat Like a Viking: Ancient Gruel Was Tastier Than it Sounds!

Eat Like a Viking: Ancient Gruel Was Tastier Than it Sounds!

Gruel . Indecipherable grey mush slopped on a plate? Not necessarily! Viking food was simple but that was just the beginning. Porridge and gruel made from whole or cracked grains were popular meals...
Was Napoleon’s penis his biggest secret?                  Source: denissimonov / Adobe Stock

The Journey of Napoleon’s Penis: Here’s the Long and the Short of It

Perhaps the only thing more satisfying than a “big” story is one where celebrity and bizarre personal details combine to create an even bigger story. This is certainly true in the fascinating and...
Zheng He’s fleet Cheng Ho Cultural Museum – Exhibition (CC0)

Zheng He, The Eunuch Who Became A Ming Dynasty Admiral

In 1127, the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279) lost control of northern China and, with it, access to the Silk Road and Persia's riches. After overthrowing the Song Dynasty and rising himself to the imperial...
Could the origins of Jewish New Year really lie in the coronation of Akhenaten? Source: On the left Jon Bodsworth. Background image Arthur Szyk / CC BY-SA 4.0

Surprising Links Between Pharaoh Akhenaten and the Jewish New Year

The origin of Jewish New Year celebrations has long been shrouded in mystery. Families around the world celebrate it during autumn with sweet delicacies, joyous prayers, and the blasting of the...
The Adoration of the Golden Calf – Picture from the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg (12th century) (Public Domain)

Early Jewish Monotheism and Egyptian Atenism – One And The Same?

The religious influences upon both Akhenaten and his brother Tuthmose from the temples of Heliopolis went a long way in fashioning their comparative belief systems. By encouraging the older solar...
Romulus and Remus placed in the river

Romulus and Remus, Osiris and Moses: Are the Storytelling Similarities a Mere Coincidence?

The stories of Romulus and Remus, Osiris, and Moses all share a common element. Why is it that the overarching theme surrounding ancient people and the start of their legacy is a male floating down...
Igor of Kiev wasn’t the most successful ruler of the Kievan Rus’. Source: Public domain

Prince Igor of Kiev (Kyiv): War and Diplomacy in the Early Rus’

The early beginnings of the Kievan (Kyivan) Rus’ are a highly researched subject that is a defining part of the history of the eastern Slavic peoples. The roots of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia are...
Charon accompanies the Souls across the Styx (CC0)

Psychopomp: Crossing Over Passage in Ancient Ghostlore

Modern science has, for the last two centuries, replaced most of the spirits, entities, demons and ghosts of the ancient world with logical explanations demonstrated through scientific...

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