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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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The 2,000-year-old iron knife, found near Odense on the island of Funen, Denmark, carries the oldest runic inscription known.  Source: Rogvi N Johansen/© Museum Odense

Denmark’s Oldest Runic Inscription Found on the Blade of a 2,000-Year-Old Knife

The discovery of a runic inscription on an almost 2,000-year-old knife sheds light on Denmark's early written language and cultural history – it’s the oldest runic inscription found so far in the...
Modified tiger shark teeth found in 7,000-year-old layers of Leang Panninge (top) and Leang Bulu’ Sipong 1 (bottom) on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Right; Shark tooth weapons from Kiribati and Hawai’i. Source: M.C. Langley/The Conversation, Right; The Trustees of The British Museum

Bringing a Shark to a Knife Fight: 7,000-year-old Shark-tooth Knives Discovered in Indonesia

Michelle Langley et al./The Conversation Excavations on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi have uncovered two unique and deadly artifacts dating back some 7,000 years – tiger shark teeth that were...
Fire and coal forging Japanese sword in a kiln of a blacksmith in Japan. Source: Karori Production / Adobe Stock.

The Ancient Art of Forging Japanese Knives (Video)

In the verdant countryside of Kōchi, Japan , the ancient craft of Japanese blacksmithing thrives, carrying a history that stretches back centuries . At the heart of this tradition are the Nata blades...
Elise, an 8-year-old student, found the Neolithic stone dagger while playing near her school in Norway.           Source: Vestland County Municipality

Eight-Year-Old Norwegian Girl Finds 3,700-Year-Old Stone Dagger at School

An eight-year-old girl from Vestland county in southwestern Norway was playing outside at her school when she found something unusual lying in a rocky section of the play yard. It was not a toy or...
Chinese knife money. Source: sytilin / Adobe Stock

Chinese Knife Money: Making Markets feel Murderous?

The days of ‘cash as king’ are fading. Today, credit, debit, and digital currency have begun to slowly replace cash as the primary forms of payment, but it was not always so. For centuries, paper...
The word 'happy' has Old Norse origins

Talk Like a Viking! 10 Everyday English Words with Old Norse Origins

Did you know that many words we use today such as “husband,” “happy,” and “egg” are of Old Norse origin? No? Well, this isn’t surprising, as in the minds of many people the Vikings were nothing but a...
Scottish Metal Detectorist Unearths Rare Medieval Knife

Metal Detectorist In Scotland Unearths Rare Medieval Knife

Metal detectorists dream of finding something of real historic value. One lucky detectorist in Scotland has made an astonishing find. He has found a very rare and beautifuly decorated early medieval...
Temple of Artemis in the ancient Roman city of Gerasa at the sunset, preset-day Jerash, Jordan. Source: vesta48 /Adobe Stock

Knifeman Stabs Tourists at Jordanian Site Jerash

Eight people, including four foreign tourists, have been stabbed in Jerash , an ancient tourist location in Jordan . Conflicting reports about the attack are presenting varying details about the...
Example of a “hand-shaped” knife during sharpening with a metal file after freezing. Source: Eren / Journal of Archaeological Science.

Scientists Recreate Inuit Knife Out of Their Own Frozen Poop

Recent hands-on experiments determined human feces cannot be made into frozen knives to dismember dogs. A new scientific paper opens with a story from the 1998 book Shadows in the Sun: Travels to...
Bone knife from Morocco oldest attributed to Aterians. Source: © Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London (2018), S. Bello and  Mohammed Kamal (Fotokam, Morocco)

Stone Age or Bone Age? Knife from Morocco is Oldest Specialized Tool of the Culture

90,000 years ago, a large mammal met its death and people of the Aterian culture skillfully fashioned this knife from one of its ribs. That bone knife has now found to be the oldest of its type to...
YouTube Screenshot from The Walking Dead Role Play Weapons by ThinkGeek

Like Something Out of The Walking Dead: Medieval Warrior Found with Knife Hand Prosthesis

In the American post-apocalyptic horror television series The Walking Dead , redneck hunter Merle Dixon fashions a knife attachment onto the stump where his hand used to be. While the storyline is...
10 Innovative Medieval Weapons: You Would Not Want To Be At The Sharp End Of These!

10 Innovative Medieval Weapons: You Would Not Want To Be At The Sharp End Of These!

Long before modern warfare, there was a time of knights in shining armor atop equally armored horses fighting for the hand of a maiden or in pitched battle. However, the weapons that these knights...
Moche Sacrifice Illustration

By the Cut of a Tumi: An Iconic Ceremonial Artifact of Ancient Peru

The tumi was a ceremonial knife used by several pre-Columbian cultures that inhabited the Peruvian coast, including the Moche, Sicán, Chimu, and Inca cultures, to carry out blood sacrifice and...
Precious Dagger of Tutankhamun Found to be of Meteoric Origin

Precious Dagger of Tutankhamun Found to be of Meteoric Origin

In an exciting new find, a team of researchers have confirmed that the iron in one of the daggers found in the tomb of Tutankhamun , as well as a number of other precious artifacts from Ancient Egypt...