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Why We Can’t Resist the Lure of Mermaids

Why We Can’t Resist the Lure of Mermaids

Mermaids are everywhere. In the past month alone they have surfaced in New Brighton, caused controversy in Asda, reinvigorated toast, partied with the Kardashians , transformed maternity and wedding...
The Smelliest Women of Ancient Greece: Jason and the Argonauts Get Fragrant

The Smelliest Women of Ancient Greece: Jason and the Argonauts Get Fragrant

We all know Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty, made sure that she was worshipped by punishing those who ignored her altars. One brief appearance of this wrath in the tale of Jason and the...
Archaeologists Uncover Spine-tingling New Hoard of Roman Letters at Vindolanda Fort

Archaeologists Uncover Spine-tingling New Hoard of Roman Letters at Vindolanda Fort

Archaeologists have spotted a stockpile of Roman letters at Vindolanda, the fort below Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England. Experts can’t hide their excitement about the newly found 25 tablets and...
‘Creation of Man’, (Public Domain) Cosmos (Public Domain); Deriv.

Science Versus Religion on Our Ancient Origins: What if They’re Both Wrong?

"The universe began when God said, 'Let there be light'!" "No, the universe began with the big bang!" "God created life as we know it largely in the forms we now recognize!" "No, evolution is the key...
Wisconsin Community Pharmacy supply of natural remedies

Modern Science Confirms Ancient Chinese Remedy Provides Effective Non-Addictive Pain Relief

With innovations appearing in our lives seemingly every day it seems that new breakthroughs in science are the only ones we trust. New is always considered better. With this prevalent thinking those...
Discovery of Two Boat Burials Changes Viking Timeline

Discovery of Two Boat Burials Changes Viking Timeline

According to accepted accounts, the Viking Age began in 793 AD off the coast of northern England when the first raid of Scandinavian warriors is recorded to have taken place. The Vikings emerged...
Ötzi’s Ancient Axe is from Tuscany, Giving Firm Evidence of Neolithic Travel and Trade

Ötzi’s Ancient Axe is from Tuscany, Giving Firm Evidence of Neolithic Travel and Trade

Scientists have officially verified that copper used to make Otzi the Iceman’s axe blade did not come from the Alpine region as was initially suggested, but instead it came from southern Tuscany in...

The Greatest Discovery Never Made – Ancient Civilizations Thrived With NO Ruling Elite

There is a remarkable discovery that has not yet emerged from our renewed interest in ancient civilization. Yet few remark upon this glaring omission from the relics and records we dig up and...
Burial at the Aztec site of Colhuacatonco belonging to the time of Spanish contact

Archaeologists in Mexico Unearth Evidence That Aztecs Resisted Spanish Rule Even In Death

Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered what they speculate was a dwelling where Aztecs of the higher socioeconomic classes that fought against the Spanish conquistadors tried to preserve their...
Sip Like a Sumerian: Ancient Beer Recipe Recreated from Millennia-Old Cuneiform Tablets

Sip Like a Sumerian: Ancient Beer Recipe Recreated from Millennia-Old Cuneiform Tablets

Nowadays, people drink beer for its good taste and feel-good effects. However, thousands of years ago, beer played a much more central role in society. The Sumerian word for beer appears in many...
The new 3D printed reconstruction of the face of the Lady of Cao

Lady of Cao Comes to Life: Face of Peruvian Priestess Reconstructed from 1,700-Year-Old Mummy

Scientists in Peru have managed to recreate the face of a female Peruvian leader who died 1,700 years ago, with the use of 3D printing. The Lady of Cao was discovered in the ruins of the Huaca Cao...
Satyr Playing the Pipe (Jupiter's Childhood) (fragment) Jacob Jordaens 1639

War, Death and the Wrath of Gods: How Satyr Plays Helped Ancient Greeks Cope With Life

Before Shakespeare, there were the Greeks. The infamous "all the world's a stage" quote attributed to the Elizabethan writer in the 16th century far more accurately describes the world of ancient...
Dramatic mask with tusks and feathers, Ninghai, Zhejiang, China

Ferocious Beast-Head Masks, Heavy Robes & Swirling Colors: What are the Unspoken Messages in Ancient Chinese Opera?

In “Civilization of China” (1911), Herbert Giles wrote that “for pleasure pure and simple, independent of gains and losses, the theater occupies the warmest place in every Chinaman's heart”. The fact...
Alejandra Molina, an archaeologist with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), works at a site where a sacrificed young wolf elaborately adorned with some of the finest Aztec gold has been discovered adjacent to the Templo Mayor, one of the main Aztec temples, in Mexico City, Mexico.

Sacrificial Young Wolf Adorned with Best Quality Aztec Gold Ever Found is Discovered in Mexico City

Archaeologists have discovered a sacrificial wolf carefully adorned with some of the best quality Aztec gold ever found. It is believed that the wolf was buried more than five centuries ago in the...
Ruins of Pompeii seen from the above with a drone, with the Vesuvius in the background

A Diet of Delicacies for the People of Pompeii Included Giraffe and Sea Urchin

Several years ago, surprising discoveries were made in a study , which drew on the findings of a sizable excavation of an area of Pompeii. The study, which was presented to the Archaeological...
The Flammarion engraving.

The Lost Knowledge of the Ancients: Were Humans the First? Part 3: Science in Antiquity

The achievements by modern science are phenomenal. But with our background of spaceships, skyscrapers, wonder drugs, and atomic reactors we are apt to minimize the scientific accomplishments of the...
Borgund Stave Church (Eduardo/CC BY-SA 2.0), pentagram, Vitruvian man, and serpent

The Viking Serpent: Serpent Worship, Sacred Geometry, and Secrets of the Celtic Church in Norway

Dan Brown wrote The Da Vinci Code, inspired by Henry Lincoln and his two co-authors’ The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail . The Norwegian researcher Harald Boehlke was inspired by the same book. Lincoln...
Main: A diver searches the Relitto del Pozzino shipwreck (Not Only Chemistry). Inset: One of the medicinal tablets. Image via PNAS/Giachi et. al.

Scientists Learn Ingredients of 2,000-Year-Old Roman Pills Found in Ancient Shipwreck

Discoveries of ancient shipwrecks are always exciting, but a small number of them are truly unique in the artifacts they yield, offering up items from the past that have been preserved for centuries...
Before Antibiotics:  Ancient Medical Procedures That Still Baffle Scientists

Before Antibiotics: Ancient Medical Procedures That Still Baffle Scientists

In the modern age, when we think of surgery, we think of doctors working in sterile environments using finely crafted tools on an anesthetised patient. That was not always the case. Early surgical...
Rembrandt - Christ with Hands Folded (Public Domain), and Nivedita, Sister - the Departure of Siddhartha

The Christ And The Buddha: How Can You Explain the Uncanny Similarities?

Buddhism and Christianity arose independently of each other, separated as they were by almost 3,000 miles and at least 500 years. In terms of religious belief systems they are even farther apart...
This Too Shall Pass: Will Jinichi Kawakami Be the Last of the Ninjas?

This Too Shall Pass: Will Jinichi Kawakami Be the Last of the Ninjas?

The ninja warriors seen in Hollywood are, sadly, born more of myth than reality. Truths were exaggerated and those exaggerations misconstrued as fact. One cannot wholly blame the screenwriters or...
10 Secrets About Ancient Greece That Are Rarely Recounted

10 Secrets About Ancient Greece That Are Rarely Recounted

The ancient Greeks have contributed so much to modern civilization, especially regarding education, philosophy, science, art, politics, and language, among other things. But, their legacy does not...
The Badlands Guardian and Other Uncanny Products of Pareidolia

The Badlands Guardian and Other Uncanny Products of Pareidolia

Amidst the rugged terrain of the badlands of southeastern Alberta, Canada is a geologic feature that, from the air, bears a striking resemblance to an indigenous Canadian wearing a headdress...
Collection of Egyptian Art, design by Anand Balaji (Photo credits: Heidi Kontkanen, Oliviero Piccinali, and Julian Tuffs); Deriv.

Akhenaten: Imperishable Art of an Iconoclast: Age of Extravagance in Amarna—Part II

The monuments Akhenaten constructed were no less impressive than those of his father, Amenhotep III. But all his buildings were dismantled and destroyed during the Amarna backlash—including the city...

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