An international assembly of scientists with impressive credentials in a diverse range of fields has completed an extensive study of climate change in the post-classical Maya Empire, which existed...
According to the Biblical Gospels , Joseph of Arimathea played a key role in the days following Jesus’ death and leading up to his resurrection . It is claimed that he removed Jesus’ body from the...
Movies, video games, and comic books have made mythological figures like Zeus, Hercules, and Hades household names across the globe. These gods and heroes of ancient Grecian myth have carved out a...
When it comes to pirates, most people think of iconic names like Blackbeard , Calico Jack, or William Kidd . But what about female pirates? Although female pirates are less well-known, they did exist...
For over a decade, four teams of Spanish archaeologists have been digging at different excavation sites. Now they’ve realised it was all one thing - an enormous lost Roman city. You might never have...
In the western-central arid heartland of ancient Anatolia, the river Sangarios snaked through the ancient Iron Age Kingdom of Phrygia , once a rival to Assyria in the south-east and Urartu in the...
The legendary and illustrious tribal kingdoms of Illyria were located in current-day Albania and Montenegro, just across the Adriatic from Italy. The Illyrian world was also an important strategic...
A low-cost, high-risk drug hiding in plain sight – in your kitchen cabinet! This is a highly aromatic spice that can change the trajectory of your food, and is sometimes used as a healing agent in...
Have you ever wondered what it was like to be a medieval monk? Perhaps you’ve wondered about the reasons behind becoming a monk, or what they do on a daily basis. Monasticism has existed for...
The remains of a Roman villa have recently been unearthed in Defne district of southern Turkey’s Hatay province. The ruins consist of broken-down walls and a well-preserved floor mosaic with...
For all of Europe’s pretentions of progress with civil democracies and human rights, the archives are filled with anything but. From the blood of Roman gladiators being sold as a remedy for epilepsy...
Hiding in plain sight – in the storage of Cincinnati Art Museum’s East Asian art collection, a seemingly unremarkable bronze mirror from the 15th and 16th century China. Part of a vast collection of...
Thuggees, from the Sanskrit word meaning “concealment”, were an organized gang of professional assassins – sometimes described as the world's first mafia – who operated from the 13th to the 19th...
I did not realize until recently, that there may be some astrological imagery within the magnificent Stone Age paintings in the Lascaux Cave complex, in the Dordogne region of France. But although I...
Some of the most beautiful sights to see in China are the classical Suzhou gardens. Suzhou, located in Jiangsu province in eastern China, is known as the home of these gardens, which are often called...
Genome sequencing of a human Late Pleistocene Fossil in southwest China dating back around 14,000 years is helping shed light on the ancestry of the very first Americans . The mystery surrounding the...
Christmas is for obvious reasons a thoroughly Christian holiday, that overlies the darkest time of the year around the Winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year with the least light in...
The daily life of a medieval peasant in England and elsewhere was extremely difficult, long, and busy. They faced endless days of manual labor working on farmland starting as early as three in the...
The story of the fabled Tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis has come to inspire artists throughout history and to symbolize the idea of human ambition. Once a real-life ziggurat at the center of...
On a lonely peak of the Sierra de Tepoztelan in the state of Morelos in Mexico stands the Aztec temple of El Tepozteco. The temple is dedicated to an unusual deity, Ometochtli - Tepoztecatl, one of...
For as long as humans have prayed, water has been a focus of divine adoration. Even the sight of water can spark wonder, terror and joy depending on whether it's a bubbling spring, the destructive...
2022 is shaping up to be a big year for colonial era discoveries in Central and South America. Only in May Ancient Origins covered the story of archaeologists studying “42 syphilis-ridden colonial...
The ‘Cadaver Trial’ of the dead Pope Formosus would have to be one of the most absurd events in Rome’s history. Nine months after the Pope died, his body was exhumed and his rotting corpse was placed...
One of the most sacred relics of the Catholic Church, known as the ‘Precious Blood of Christ,’ contained in an elaborate golden shrine, was stolen from Fécamp Abbey Church in Normandy, France on June...
