All  

Store Banner Mobile

Store Banner Mobile

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.

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...
Viking in a boat
9 June, 2018 - 18:59 ancient-origins

More than Blood and Bling: Our Many Visions of the Vikings

Steven Ashby / The Conversation Does the popularity of the Vikings simply emerge from the romance of mythology and adventure, or is something more interesting at play? The Vikings have an enduring...
‘The Triumph of Bacchus’ (1628-1629) by Diego Velázquez.
9 June, 2018 - 14:03 dhwty

Emblems of the Spanish Golden Age: The Hapsburgs, Cervantes, Diego Velazquez, and El Escorial

The Spanish Golden Age (known in Spanish as ‘Siglo de Oro’) was a period when the arts experienced a great flourishing in Spain. Whilst this period is often remembered as the age when Spanish...
Vedic King Yudhisthira performs the Rajasuya Sacrifice.
9 June, 2018 - 02:00 dhwty

The Janapadas: Tribal Footholds in Bronze and Iron Age India

Changes were underway in India during the period of the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The Vedas were written, and ancient Indian culture, society, and religion were all being transformed. One of...
The entrance stairway of 16 steps viewed from the point where Howard Carter uncovered the first sealed doorway
8 June, 2018 - 15:35 anand balaji

Robbing Tutankhamun: Greed for Gold, Linen, Cosmetics and the Good Life—Part II

Against all odds, Tutankhamun’s tomb survived the ravages of time; when the magnificent burial places of his predecessors and successors were ransacked in antiquity, and their treasures stolen...
This artist’s impression shows Tutankhamun’s tomb in the process of being stocked in antiquity. The entire exercise seems to have been a rushed affair as Howard Carter noted.
6 June, 2018 - 15:25 anand balaji

Robbing Tutankhamun: Ransacking the Royals and Decline in Tomb Security – Part 1

Pharaohs built lavish sepulchers equipped with all manner of security arrangements that were aimed at misleading tomb robbers. However, more often than not, the elaborate ploys of esteemed architects...
Kings' Fairy Tale, 1909, by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis
5 June, 2018 - 15:26 nrushton

The Mabinogion: Ancient Welsh Tales Bridging the Celtic Mindset and the Otherworld

The Mabinogion is a collection of 11 stories from medieval Wales. Although only first committed to manuscript during the 13th century (the oldest surviving fragmentary manuscript dates to circa 1225...
arly human history (book illustration); Artist unknown; No date; History – Indians
4 June, 2018 - 15:37 jim willis

A Conspiracy of Silence: Are We Older Than We Think We Are?

Generally speaking, when archaeologists find something it's because they are deliberately looking for it. There are exceptions, of course, when someone in the field metaphorically trips over...
Discovery of Brazil. Pedro Alvares Cabral sees the land that would later be known as Brazil for the first time
1 June, 2018 - 18:50 dhwty

Pedro Alvares Cabral: The Lucky Lost Navigator Who Made Brazil Portuguese

Pedro Alvares Cabral was a Portuguese explorer and navigator who lived between the 15th and 16th centuries. He is generally given credit for being the first person from Europe to have ‘discovered’...
The body of Maria Adelaide.
31 May, 2018 - 18:58 dhwty

The Minor Miracles of Maria Adelaide, Folk-Saint of Brides

Maria Adelaide was a Portuguese woman who lived and died during the 19th century. Although not officially recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church, she is popularly considered to be one by the...
Paul Dominique Philippoteaux, Examen d'une momie - Une prêtresse d'Ammon, oil on canvas, Egypt, c.1895 - 1910.
30 May, 2018 - 18:59 dhwty

Disrespect and Desecration at Victorian Mummy Unwrapping Parties

A ‘mummy unwrapping party’ was a social event most commonly associated with the elites of Victorian England. As its name suggests, these parties involved the unwrapping of Egyptian mummies in front...
The Suicide of Saul by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1562)
30 May, 2018 - 15:28 Cam Rea

The Battle of Mount Gilboa: King Saul’s Defeat and Death

The Battle of Mount Gilboa (circa 1050 BC) was a turning point in Israel’s military and political history. The Israelite and Philistine armies would once again engage in exchanging bloodshed. However...
Detail of a portrait of the Kangxi Emperor in Court Dress.
30 May, 2018 - 02:01 dhwty

The Qing Dynasty Part II: The Final Dynasty

Read Part I Here The Kangxi Emperor ascended the throne in 1661, at the age of seven, after his father, the Shunzhi Emperor, died suddenly from smallpox at just 23 years old. Kangxi would go on to...
29 May, 2018 - 01:59 dhwty

The Qing Dynasty: Last of the Imperial Dynasties of China– Part 1

The last imperial dynasty of China, the Qing Dynasty, was established by the Manchus in 1636 to designate their regime in Manchuria. The Qing Dynasty came to rule over China in 1644, when the capital...
The Search for the Lost Library of Ivan the Terrible
28 May, 2018 - 20:08 dhwty

The Search for the Lost Library of Ivan the Terrible

The thought of a lost library is a tantalizing one, as one can speculate and imagine the kind of knowledge it might provide to the person who finds it. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that there...
28 May, 2018 - 15:35 Vanamali Mataji

The Mystery of Krishna: Was He Man or Myth?

For thousands of years, the people of India have believed in the divinity of Sri Krishna. But questions have constantly haunted their consciousness as to whether Sri Krishna was a historical...
A Pazyryk horseman from the Asian steppe in a felt painting from a burial around 300 BC. (Public Domain). Krishna with cow. (CC BY 2.0) Hathor as a cow, Papyrus of Ani (Public Domain)
27 May, 2018 - 23:01 Steven Keith

Horses, Cows and Celestial Creatures at the Dawn of Civilizations

When I think of the Aryans of the ancient times, I think of Central Asia, the steppe, a horse culture that could enable their language, Sanskrit to spread, at a gallop, so to speak, westward and...

Pages