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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.

Six of the Roman Emperors:
10 November, 2017 - 22:58 Riley Winters

A Succinct Timeline of Roman Emperors—400 Years of Power Condensed

To say that the Roman Empire had its ups and downs would be the understatement of all understatements. No “nation” was more abruptly destabilized or even more abruptly stabilized than that of ancient...
The imposing mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. Design by Anand Balaji.
10 November, 2017 - 15:30 anand balaji

Butehamun, Opener of the Gates to the Underworld: Dismantling Sacred Places of the Dead

At the very end of the Twentieth Dynasty and through to the beginning of the early Twenty-First Dynasty, one after another, the many royal dead in the Valley of the Kings were divested of their...
Some Saxon Queens had killer reputations. (Public Domain);Deriv.
8 November, 2017 - 14:57 Charles Christian

The Wicked Queen and Her Scandalous Daughter: How Murder & Mayhem Took a Saxon Princess from Palace to Poverty

While we might be gripped by the intrigues, the machinations, and the violence of the Lannisters and the Starks in the Game of Thrones television series and the Song of Ice and Fire series of novels...
A mandala.
7 November, 2017 - 14:01 Caleb Strom

The Mandala: Mapping the Cosmos and the Soul

Human cultures are replete with ways to depict or represent some aspect of the universe. Calendars, ordinary maps, star charts, and other diagrams are all examples of ways to make sense of or map...
Reconstitution of a prehistoric burial. Representative image.
6 November, 2017 - 15:29 Jason Jarrell

Bones of the Child, Tools of the Shaman: Ritual and Cosmology at the Hopewell Tunacunnhee Mounds

Near Trenton in Dade County, Georgia, is a place called Tunacunnhee , supposedly named after a Native American word meaning “Lookout Creek”. Located just a few hundred yards east of Lookout Creek is...
Detail of a relief of Herodotus by Jean-Guillaume Moitte, 1806. Cour Carrée in the Louvre Palace, Paris, France.
5 November, 2017 - 12:49 dhwty

Picking Apart the Words of Herodotus: Was He a Father of Histories or Lies?

“I owe it to tell what is being told, but I by no means owe it to believe it”. Herodotus, [Book 7.153-2] Herodotus was an ancient Greek writer who lived during the 5th century BC. He was born in what...
This bronze key from Heggum farm in Røyken in the Oslofjord is dated to the Viking Age.
4 November, 2017 - 00:49 ancient-origins

The Symbolic Key to a Viking Woman’s Independence

By ThorNews A large number of ornate keys from the Viking Age (c. 800-1066 AD) have been found in female graves and as individual findings. Bronze keys made with superb craftsmanship were used as a...
Charge of the 21th lancers at Ondurman. William Barnes Wollen (1857-1936)
3 November, 2017 - 14:29 Cam Rea

Might Makes Right on the Field of Death: The Bloodsoaked Battle of Omdurman — Part II

The British forces watched for the enemy to get within yards before opening up their artillery. They waited, breath held, for the Dervishes to cross into the killing zone. As the Dervish warriors...
Detail of a tomb painting depicting Meretites and Kahai – an ancient Egyptian couple who lived 4,400 years ago.
2 November, 2017 - 01:02 aprilholloway

The Priestess and the Singer: Locked in a Lasting Egyptian Love Story

A beautiful love story bloomed around a tomb painting found in Saqqara, Egypt. The image shows an ancient Egyptian couple in a tender scene. While sweet, this type of image isn’t a common one - so...
Left: Lilias reconstructed face as she may have looked when alive. (Dundee University) Right: 3D imagery created from the photo of Adie’s skull. (National Library of Scotland)
1 November, 2017 - 21:53 Theodoros Karasavvas

Face of Notorious “Witch” Digitally Reconstructed 300 Years after her Death

A group of elite forensic scientists from the University of Dundee, has reconstructed digitally the face of one of Scotland's most notorious “witches”, Lilias Adie. The only documents that helped...
"The Charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman", by Richard C. Woodville
1 November, 2017 - 19:28 Cam Rea

Swords Versus Machine Guns: The Lopsided Battle of Omdurman — Part I

Victorian imperialism reached its apex on 2 September 1898, when the modern British army faced off against an army of poorly equipped Islamic fundamentalists known as Mahdists, and the battle would...
Tutankhamum’s Golden Coffin
1 November, 2017 - 13:01 Kaya Johnson

5 Important Egyptian Archaeological Discoveries that Provided Leaps in Our Knowledge of the Past

When it comes to archaeological discoveries, very few countries can measure up to the wealth of Egypt. From the Rosetta Stone , to the Valley of the Kings, to the great ancient pyramids at Giza,...
16th or 17th century painting of the ‘Dance of Death.’ The living weren’t always scared of the dead.
1 November, 2017 - 01:01 ancient-origins

Dance Macabre: How the Dead Danced with the Living in Medieval Society

Ashby Kinch / The Conversation In the Halloween season , American culture briefly participates in an ancient tradition of making the world of the dead visible to the living: Children dress as...
An illustration of the ‘Black Dog’ series by Dusty Crosley, a twisted Halloween tale of horror written by Terry Lambert.
31 October, 2017 - 17:57 ancient-origins

Tricking and Treating Has a Long History

Over the past few decades, Halloween celebrations have gained in popularity , not only with children and families, but with all those fascinated with the spooky and scary. As a scholar of myth and...
Julius Caesar by Peter Paul Rubens.
31 October, 2017 - 12:57 Riley Winters

“Veni, Vidi, Scripsi”: The Literary Conquests of Gaius Julius Caesar

A man who needs no introduction, Gaius Julius Caesar is more than well known for the stories he spearheads—namely, his numerous military victories. (Although, even his defeats somehow sound rather...
Ancient statue of Ramesses II.
30 October, 2017 - 18:01 ancient-origins

Oldest Recorded Solar Eclipse Helps Date the Egyptian Pharaohs

Researchers have pinpointed the date of what could be the oldest solar eclipse yet recorded. The event, which occurred on 30 October 1207 BC, is mentioned in the Bible, and could have consequences...
Elephant-headed goddess Vinayaki is often mistaken for a female Ganesha. Statue of Ganesha
30 October, 2017 - 14:37 MartiniF

Goddess… or Demon? Hidden History of Vinayaki, the Mysterious Elephant-Headed Woman of Hindu Myth

In one of the shrines of the Thanumalayan temple in Kanyakumari district, India, is the stone sculpture of a four-armed deity sitting cross-legged in Sukhasana (“easy pose” - similar to sitting in a...
A cross-shaped tattoo on Ötzi's knee.
28 October, 2017 - 19:00 aprilholloway

Acupuncture for the Iceman: Did Ötzi Get Inked for Health?

Ötzi the iceman was discovered in the Oetz Valley, Austria, in 1991 by some German tourists. When this 5,300-year-old mummy was first found it was believed the frozen corpse belonged to a soldier who...
‘A Player with a Hermit’ by Moritz von Schwind
28 October, 2017 - 02:07 Riley Winters

Revealing the Recluse: The Sad and Secret Lives of Hermits

The word “hermit” often elicits thoughts of men with long, scraggly hair and beards, eyes lined with wrinkles and filled with wisdom, and clothes a bit torn and dirty but otherwise, no worse for wear...
Image during part of the funeral ceremony for Thailand’s deceased King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
27 October, 2017 - 23:04 Alicia McDermott

The Grand Funeral of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Intricate Buddhist Funerary Rites

For Thai Buddhists, funerals are extremely important moments, as they represent rebirth and the passage from one existence to another. The elaborate funeral rites recently held in honor of Thailand’s...
Main image: Screen of Gameplay of the video game War of the Vikings (public domain). Inset: One of the skeletons found in the Sandvika sitting graves, Central Norway (Photo: NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, 1965-66)
27 October, 2017 - 18:48 ancient-origins

Who Were These Vikings Buried Sitting Upright?

BY THORNEWS Accidentally, in 1963 a burial ground with 24 graves deep inside the bay of Sandvika on the eastern side of the island of Jøa in Central Norway were discovered. The bodies buried in a...
Collection of Egyptian Busts and Shabtis, design by Anand Balaji
27 October, 2017 - 15:27 anand balaji

Nefertiti and the Perfect Serenity of Death: Mesmeric Shabtis of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun —Part II

Archeological records and a trove of recovered specimens inform us that shabtis (funerary figurines) produced from different materials were placed in the tombs of Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaoh...
A modern interpretation of King Solomon’s Temple.
26 October, 2017 - 18:56 dhwty

The First Temple: Crowning Achievement of King Solomon and Home of the Legendary Ark of the Covenant

The Biblical figure King Solomon was the son of King David, was reputedly both wealthy and wise. He is recorded as a prophet in both Judaism’s Talmud and Islam’s Quran and one of his major legacies...
Collection of Egyptian Shabtis, design by Anand Balaji
25 October, 2017 - 15:32 anand balaji

Deputies of the Dead from Amarna to Thebes: Mesmeric Shabtis of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun—Part I

Among the most important items that made it into the crypts of both kings and commoners alike were shabti figurines that served to ensure that the Afterlife was one long holiday for their masters...

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