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Mount Shasta, Photograph © Dustin Naef 2016

Legends of Mount Shasta: “The Abode of the Devil” Part 3 – Prehistoric Traditions of Giants and Mysterious Beings, Part One

There are countless Native American legends describing prehistoric giants, flood myths, lost civilizations, cataclysms, the star people, and other mysterious beings who belonged to some remote and...
Neanderthal

Ancient Human History More Complex Than Previously Thought, Researchers Say

Relationships between the ancestors of modern humans and other archaic populations such as Neanderthals and Denisovans were likely more complex than previously thought, involving interbreeding within...
Archaeologists from Mainz reveal new findings on the history of the early-Islamic caliphate palace Khirbat al-Minya

Archaeologists from Mainz reveal new findings on the history of the early-Islamic caliphate palace Khirbat al-Minya

Archaeologists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) started excavations in September 2016 at Khirbat al-Minya, an early-Islamic caliphate palace on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel...
The Secret Tunnels and Missing Manuscripts of Mont Sainte-Odile Abbey

The Secret Tunnels and Missing Manuscripts of Mont Sainte-Odile Abbey

The ancient monastery of Mont Sainte-Odile in the French region of Alsace is steeped in mystery. From secret tunnels to the strange disappearance of more than 1,000 ancient books, it has many a story...
Secrets of Ancient Scroll of En-Gedi are Digitally Unraveled

Secrets of Ancient Scroll of En-Gedi are Digitally Unraveled

University of Kentucky Professor Brent Seales and his team have further unlocked writings in the ancient En-Gedi scroll -- the first severely damaged, ink-based scroll to be unrolled and identified...
The Hidden Story of Poland: What Happened to the Forgotten Kingdom of Lechia?

The Hidden Story of Poland: What Happened to the Forgotten Kingdom of Lechia?

The history of Poland has been misunderstood for decades. Even now, many official texts say that Poland comes from the tribe called Polanie. And according to the stories written by Christian writers...
Mary Rose: Tudor Painting and Tidal Analysis Offer Clues as to why it sank

Mary Rose: Tudor Painting and Tidal Analysis Offer Clues as to why it sank

Skulls, the ship’s figurehead and other artifacts from the wreck of a 1545 Tudor warship have been made available to peruse online in 3D reconstructions. But why did she sink? The answer is more...
Personal ‘hygiene sticks’ used in toilets on the Silk Road. Hui-Yuan Yeh. Reproduced from the Journal of Archaeological Science

2,000-Year-Old Feces from the Silk Road Reveal Spread of Infectious Diseases

Once travelled by famous historical figures such as Marco Polo and Genghis Khan, the Silk Road was a hugely important network of transport routes connecting eastern China with Central Asia, the...
Edwin Long’s The Babylonian Marriage Market.

The Babylonian Marriage Market: An Auction of Women in the Ancient World

In the 5 th century BC, Greek Historian Herodotus wrote about the customs and traditions he witnessed while in Babylon. One of the more controversial customs he reports on is the Babylonian marriage...
Bradshaw rock paintings found in the north-west Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Australian Aborigine Creation Stories: Rainbow Serpent and Emus in the Stars

Down under all is still and dark, the spirits of the Earth are sleeping. It is the Dreamtime. There are many different Dreamtime stories that vary from region to region and from people to people...
End of the Enigmatic Christopher Columbus:  A Man at Last Emerges to Eradicate the Myth

End of the Enigmatic Christopher Columbus: A Man at Last Emerges to Eradicate the Myth

History is a record of the past – sculptured by omissions, interlarded with distortions, brazen lies and innocent befuddlement – forming an amalgam that's often stubbornly resistant to analysis. For...
The Mogao Grottoes in China, the Legendary Home to a Thousand Buddhas and a Hidden Library

The Mogao Grottoes in China, the Legendary Home to a Thousand Buddhas and a Hidden Library

The Mogao Grottoes, known also as the Mogao Caves, the Dunhuang Caves, or the Thousand Buddha Caves, are a network of Buddhist cave temples in China. This site is located near the city of Dunhuang in...
An Example of Unity: A History of Constructing and Reconstructing Religious Sites in Azerbaijan

An Example of Unity: A History of Constructing and Reconstructing Religious Sites in Azerbaijan

Modern day Azerbaijan is a country with countless religious sites, including mosques, churches and ancient temples, and for centuries the representatives of various religious beliefs have been...
Hawaiian sacrifice, from Jacques Arago's account of Freycinet's travels around the world from 1817 to 1820.

Why Did Early Human Societies Practice Violent Human Sacrifice?

Joseph Watts / The Conversation Human sacrifice was practiced in many early human societies throughout the world. In China and Egypt the tombs of rulers were accompanied by pits containing hundreds...
Hannibal crossing the Alps on elephants.

How Ancient Horse-Dung Bacteria is Helping Locate Where Hannibal Crossed the Alps

Chris Allen / The Conversation Despite thousands of years of hard work by brilliant scholars, the great enigma of where Hannibal crossed the Alps to invade Italy remained unsolved. But now it looks...
Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Pereslavl-Zalessky

List of Medieval Killers found Inscribed on Cathedral Wall may help solve Murder Mystery

A group of restorers working inside the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Russia, have discovered an ancient inscription on one of the walls which details the...
Country Church on Christmas Day

The Story of Silent Night

Walk into any public square or shopping mall at this time of year and an encounter with a traditional Christmas carol is well-nigh unavoidable. We may not sing them ourselves with anything like the...
Top Ten Historical and Archaeological Discoveries of 2015

Top Ten Historical and Archaeological Discoveries of 2015

2015 was another great year for archaeological and historical research. Amazing discoveries were made all over the world and provided more windows into the lives of our ancestors. Studies that...
A frog changes into a princess in the painting Tsarevna Frog ("The Frog Princess") by Viktor Vasnetsov

Forgotten Rituals and Magical Practices in Ancient History

Over the centuries, historic texts have recorded a large number of rituals – magical or religious – some of which have been preserved in modified forms, while others remain only in obscure, old books...
Glastonbury Abbey.

Researchers Claim Glastonbury Ancient Legends Made Up By Cash-Strapped Monks

The famous legends of King Arthur and his round table, among other ancient myths, were stories made up and peddled by enterprising monks at Glastonbury Abbey to make some cash, say researchers. What’...
Slaves cutting sugar cane. Island of Antigua (1823).

A history of sugar – the food nobody needs, but everyone craves

It seems as though no other substance occupies so much of the world’s land, for so little benefit to humanity, as sugar. According to the latest data, sugarcane is the world’s third most valuable...
The text resembles Cyrillic letters, according to experts.

Is The Book of Veles a great Slavic text or a charlatan’s forgery?

The Book of Veles is so controversial it is banned in Russia. Its supporters say it lays out cultural, religious and historical facts about Slavs from the 7 th century BC until the 9 th century AD,...
King Arthur

The Grail Cypher: A radical reassessment of Arthurian history

Walter Kayo sat at his desk in the scriptorium, the cold chill of winter half broken by a flickering fire in the hearth. The velum page before him was still not finished, yet already his eyes felt...
Chester country court record showing use of the name ‘Roger Fuckebythenavele’. Credit: Crown copyright, published with approval of Her Majesty’s Stationary Office.

Fuckebythenavele: Historians uncover oldest known use of the F-word in 1310 court records

A British historian believes he has found the earliest recorded use of the F-word, a swearword of Anglo-Saxon origin, where its meaning has a sexual connotation. The word was found in court records...

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