All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

Human Origins

Ancient Origins presents how human origins are explained through three different perspectives: a) science and scientific evidence, b) religions and creation stories and c) folklore and mythology.

Shinto painting from manuscript of Todaiji, Nara, Japan

Purification as the Core of the Ancient Shinto Faith

A ritual based religion, Shintoism is defined as "the way of the gods" in Japan, from the Chinese Shendao. It is the indigenous religion of the country, and survives today as the state religion,...
Asherah - Veiled Mother of the World

Asherah: God’s Forgotten Wife

Those raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition may be surprised to learn that the god we were told was singularly sacred once had a wife. How do we know? Asherah figures prominently as the wife of El—...
ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) has captured this unusual view of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a planetary nebula located 700 light-years away. The Helix Nebula is sometimes called the “Eye of God.”

It Need Not Be Religion VS Science: Extra-Terrestrial Life and Religious Beliefs Combine

During Medieval times almost all Christian theologians accepted the Ptolemaic earth centered Greek view of the universe as an absolute universal truth of both nature and religion. The Catholic...
The original fossils of Java Man, National Museum of Natural History, Leiden, the Netherlands.

Java Man and the Discovery of the ‘Missing Link’ in Evolutionary Theory

The second half of the 19th century was an incredibly exciting and contentious time for exploring the origins of human kind. Darwin’s theory, ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’...
 Illustration of Dante’s Paradise by Giovanni de Paulo.

What is Heaven?

Joanne M. Pierce / The Conversation When a family member or a friend passes away, we often find ourselves reflecting on the question “Where are they now?” As mortal beings, it is a question of...
Detail of ‘God creating the Sun, the Moon and the Stars’ by Jan Brueghel the Younger.

Is the Universe Only 6,000 years old? Young Earth Creationists Say Yes!

Although most mainstream scientists and most of the developed world now accept the theory of evolution and the scientifically established age of Earth and the universe, there is still a group of...
Two actors from the History Channel series “Vikings.”

Survey Shows About Half of Brits Wish They Were Descended from Vikings…and Many Probably Are!

If you’re from the British Isles, do you ever wonder if you’re a descendant of the marauding Vikings known sometimes to rape and pillage far from home and other times to set up settlements and...
Picts, Gaels, and Scots: Exploring their Mysterious (and Sometimes Mythical) Origins

Picts, Gaels, and Scots: Exploring their Mysterious (and Sometimes Mythical) Origins

When the tribe of Chatti arrived in Scotland at the beginning of the Christian era and became the embryonic clan Keith, they assimilated with the people known to us by their Roman name, the Picts...
Glastonbury Tor, and Bull Nandi (Public Domain/Deriv)

Alchemy and Generating Lifeforce —Global Temples Made in the Shape of Lingams: Shaivite Bull Cult Part II

One form associated with the Bull Son of the Bull Cult was the Shiva Lingam, the sacred symbol that unites the phallus, the universal symbol of the male principle, with the ovum, the universal symbol...
Green Man (ElliotBrown/CC BY 2.0) and Bull Nandi (Public Domain)/Deriv.

From Green Man to Bull Son, The Universal Shaivite Bull Cult – Part I

In ancient times a new culture suddenly exploded across the vast terrain of Asia, Europe and Africa that was an evolution of the primeval Goddess Culture of the Neolithic Age that had previously...
Silhouette of a person under an arch. (CC0)  Background: DNA.

Twelve Degrees of Separation: Do Human Haplogroups Lead Us to Adam or Perhaps the Adityas?

From the creation of Adam, until the birth of Noah (as a significant proportion of the world believes), there are eleven generations of his line; Adam, Cain and his brother Abel, Seth, Enosh, Cainain...
Some say maya is a magical creative power of the Brahman

Maya: Science Only Acknowledges Now What Ancient Sages Knew About Reality 5000 Years Ago

Maya is a word which is very familiar to the western world, but very few know what it actually means. It is a word which was used by the rishis (sages) of ancient India to describe the nature of this...
Left: Pictish warrior (public domain) Right: Scythian Warrior with Axe, Bow, and Spear.

Piecing Together the Origins of Ancient Near East Names in Scotland

Thinking of Scotland, as I do from the somewhat similar mountains of northern India, which has been my home for nigh on twenty years, I do so from a rather Indian perspective; I think of families,...
Artists impression of a giant sloth being confronted by human hunters. Credit: Alex McClelland, Bournemouth University

How to Hunt a Giant Sloth – Ancient Tactics Revealed in Human Footprints

Rearing on its hind legs, the giant ground sloth would have been a formidable prey for anyone, let alone humans without modern weapons. Tightly muscled, angry and swinging its fore legs tipped with...
The Abyss of Hell, Sandro Botticelli, 1480s

What is hell?

The recent dispute over whether Pope Francis denied the existence of hell in an interview attracted wide attention . This isn’t surprising, since the belief in an afterlife, where the virtuous are...
A Neanderthal.

More than Brutish Grunting: Can One Bone Prove Neanderthal Speech Existed?

For a long time, the common depiction of Neanderthals was a group of unintelligent subhumans who could only communicate through wild gestures and loud grunts. But many researchers were not convinced...
Solar gods were worshiped in prehistoric Ireland.

Was Prayer to the Ancient Solar Gods enough to Change the Renowned Irish Weather?

Ireland’s history is rich in dramatic myth and mysterious legends. The significance of the natural world, and most importantly the sun, was obvious in the daily lives of the pre-Christian Irish...
Episodes in the book of Genesis. Oil painting by a Spanish painter. Iconographic Collections.

Can the Babylonian Calendar Help Explain the Ages of Patriarchs Recounted in the Book of Genesis? - Part 2

The ages of Adam and his descendants in the Book of Genesis appear incredulous when compared to the average lifespan of Man throughout history. Though there have been several attempts to justify the...
Episodes in the book of Genesis. Oil painting by a Spanish painter. Iconographic Collections.

Can the Babylonian Calendar Help Explain the Ages of Patriarchs Recounted in the Book of Genesis? - Part 1

The ages of Adam and his descendants in the Book of Genesis appear incredulous when compared to the average lifespan of Man throughout history. Though there have been several attempts to justify the...
Ket People, Native Peoples of Siberia. Black and White Photo, 1900s

The Inexplicable Origins of the Ket People of Siberia

The Kets are an indigenous people who live in Siberia and are regarded to be one of the smallest ethnic groups in that region. Their appearance, language and traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle has...
Comic illustration of previous industrial civilizations on Earth.

We think we're the first advanced earthlings - but how do we really know?

Imagine if, many millions of years ago, dinosaurs drove cars through cities of mile-high buildings. A preposterous idea, right? Over the course of tens of millions of years, however, all of the...
Limestone ‘tower’ karst region in the south of Sulawesi, where Leang Burung 2 is located.

Ancient Stone Tools Found on Sulawesi, but who made them Remains a Mystery

Adam Brumm /The Conversation Another collection of stone tools dating back more than 50,000 years has been unearthed on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Details of the find, at a rock-shelter known...
Fossil finger bone of Homo sapiens from the Al Wusta site, Saudi Arabia.

Ancient Human Fossil Finger Discovery Points to Earlier Eurasian Migration

Huw Groucutt / The Conversation The Arabian Peninsula is a vast landmass at the crossroads of Africa and Eurasia. Yet until the last decade almost nothing was known about early humans in the area. In...
Artist’s impression of elderly Neanderthal male based on fossil found at La Chappelle-aux-Saints

Neanderthals Cared for Each Other and Survived into Old Age – New Research

James Ohman & Asier Gomez-Olivencia / The Conversation When we think of Neanderthals, we often imagine these distant ancestors of ours to be rather brutish, dying at a young age and ultimately...

Pages