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The bull-leaping fresco of Knossos palace, in Crete, Greece, dated to about 1600 to 1450 BC. The bull was an important animal in Minoan religion and closely related to the great goddess the Cretans worshiped.

Origins of the Mysterious Minoans Unraveled by Scientists

The Minoan people of Crete—Europe’s first high civilization—present a mystery that has long perplexed scholars and inspired much speculation: Where did these people, whose culture and artifacts...
'Along with the remains we found beads, and wooden decorations in gold foil. The wood is decayed, but the foil is preserved. There is horse gear with bronze elements.' Picture: Vasily Oinoshev.

2,500-year-old female Siberian warrior is beheaded by excavator

By Anna Liesowska An ancient wealthy young woman was found laid to rest with her horse and weapons by workers who accidentally dug up her burial mound. The excavator smashed the prehistoric...
Shiva carrying Sati on his trident. (1800s).

Manikarnika Ghat and the Role of Cremation in Traditional Indian Funerary Rites

India is renowned for having distinctive religious practices that coexist with one another. The numerous shrines and monuments allow one to contemplate the importance of faith for many. One of the...
Mid-Autumn Festival Decorations in Beijing, China.

The Mid-Autumn Festival: A Holiday of Mooncakes, Lanterns, Moon Worship, and Timeless Legends

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated annually by Chinese and Vietnamese communities around the world. As the name of this festival suggests, the day of its celebration falls exactly in the middle of...
Archaeologist David Jacques demonstrates how a tree root system could function as a wall for Stone Age people.

The Missing Link to Stonehenge: Stone Age Eco-Home Discovered near Famous Monument

In what archaeologists are calling the missing link to Stonehenge, the world’s first “eco” home, and the oldest settlement yet found in the prehistoric monument landscape has been discovered. Built...
The temples of My Son, built by the Kingdom of Champa.

The Ancient Kingdom of Champa: An Enduring Power that Lasted over 1500 years in Southern Vietnam

The Kingdom of Champa was located in mainland Southeast Asia, and occupies the area which is today southern Vietnam. Like a number of other early Southeast Asian cultures, the Kingdom of Champa is...
Engraving of the Colossus of Rhodes.

Project Launched to Revive the Colossus of Rhodes, Wonder of the Ancient World

A multinational team of professionals has launched an ambitious ‘Colossus of Rhodes Project’ to revive the tallest statue of the Hellenistic period. The planned 150-meter tall colossus would house a...
The world’s first-known abecedary in ancient Egyptian hieratic script has been deciphered by a Dutch Egyptologist.

Scholar deciphers oldest known alphabet primer, in ancient Egyptian

A Dutch Egyptologist recently deciphered the oldest known abecedary or alphabet-like primer on a 3,500-year-old shard of pottery from an Egyptian tomb excavated 20 years ago. The earliest alphabets...
The team found amphoras of a type that have never been found in shipwrecks before. They also found anchors, pottery used by the crew and cooking pots.

22 Shipwrecks spanning Ancient Era to the Renaissance discovered at Aegean archipelago

Archaeologists doing an underwater survey in the Aegean Sea in Greek territorial waters have found an amazing 22 shipwrecks of merchant vessels that sank between 700 BC and the 16th century AD. The...
Egyptian Mummy.

Mummies have had a bad wrap – it is time for a reassessment

As far as crowd-pleasers go, it is hard to beat mummies. When Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs opened at the Melbourne Museum in 2011, it broke all previous records for touring...
[Left], Photo of the Vulture Stone of Göbekli Tepe. (Alistair Coombs). [Right], Archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey.

The Vulture Stone of Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Pictogram?

A report in the Hürriet Daily News published in July of this year announced that the world’s earliest pictogram had been discovered at the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe, Southeast Turkey. It...
The tiny remains were found at the ancient Upward Sun River site in Alaska, USA.

Rare Bones and DNA of tiny children surprise scientists, support ideas about migration into the Americas 11,000 years ago

The small bodies of infants buried in an ancient campsite in the wilds of Alaska have given researchers a surprising and unprecedented look into the lives of prehistoric peoples and the ancient...
A vase depicting a scene from Aristophanes’ play ‘The Birds.

The Controversial Plays of Aristophanes: How the Ancient Greek Father of Comedy Created a Legacy

In the theater of Ancient Greece, one of the three main dramatic forms was comedy (the other two being tragedy and satyr plays). Greek comedy has been divided by the Alexandrian grammarians into...
An ivory comb found in the 3,500 years old warrior tomb unearthed in the Peloponnese region of Greece.

3,500-Year-Old Unplundered Warrior Tomb with Huge Treasure Hoard found in Greece

Archaeologists in Greece have made a rare and exciting discovery – an ancient unlooted tomb with the remains of an unknown warrior and a huge hoard of treasure. The Greek Ministry of Culture...
The Great Pyramid of Giza

Scientists to Scan Ancient Pyramids with Cosmic Rays to Find Hidden Chambers and other Secrets

Scientists are looking to uncover hidden chambers and other ancient secrets of Egyptian pyramids for the first time using powerful scanning technology. Ahram Online reports that the international...
Hatshepsut

Archaeologists identify Temple of Hatshepsut, the female Pharaoh the ancients tried to erase

King Thutmose III, sixth Pharaoh of the 18 th Dynasty in Ancient Egypt, tried to erase all memory of Hatshepsut, the “Woman Who Was King”, but he was unsuccessful as traces of this powerful female...
The skull of a young girl who suffered from syphilis; she would have been a candidate for treatment with mercury in the Middle Ages.

A Toxic Price to Pay: Wealthy citizens in medieval Europe had poisoning from lead-glazed plates

Rich city dwellers in medieval northern Europe had elevated lead and mercury levels that probably caused them serious health problems. Fewer rural people, who were poorer, had elevated heavy metals...
Snails appear to have holes drilled into them to make it easier to extract the meat, researchers say.

A delicacy now, snails in the human diet may have meant survival 150,000 years ago

Archaeologists digging in Libya have found evidence of human habitation going back at least 150,000 years and have had a glimpse into the people’s diet: snails whose shells were pierced to get at the...
Ruins of the Bahrain Fort and what may be the location of the old capital of the Dilmun civilization.

The Dilmun Civilization: An Important Location for Ancient Mythology and Trade

Dilmun (Telmun) was a civilization located in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Although this was quite an old civilization, it is much less famous than the four cradles of civilization of...
Sigurd and Fafnir (Public domain). Fáfnir was a son of the dwarf king Hreidmar. After being affected by the curse of Andvari's ring and gold, Fafnir became a dragon and was slain by Sigurd.

Outlaws, trolls and berserkers: Meet the hero-monsters of the Icelandic sagas

Iceland’s medieval literature is rich in many regards: in Eddas and sagas, it tells us about early Scandinavia and its expanding world-view, ranging from the mythology of the North, the legends and...
15th century the basement of a "market house" used as a prison

Prisons and Imprisonment in the Ancient World: Punishments Used to Maintain Public Order

One of the most well-known forms of punishment today is imprisonment. One could argue that for any society to function properly, public order has to be maintained. This is an important function of...
St Macarius of Ghent Giving Aid to the Plague Victims, 1673 painting by Jacob van Oost

The Plague that brought down mighty empires is thousands of years older than thought

The Plague is far older than previously known and later changed to become much more virulent—so virulent that it may have contributed to the decline of Classical Greece and the Roman and Byzantine...
Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth (1861) by Edward Burne-Jones

The Legendary Cretan Labyrinth Cave: Inspiration for the Story of King Minos and the Labyrinth of the Minotaur?

In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was a structure built by the famed craftsman Daedalus in order to hold a creature known as the Minotaur. The Minotaur was said to be a creature that was half-man and...
Sack of Rome

Exploring the Origins of the Vandals, The Great Destroyers

The word vandal today may be defined as a person who deliberately destroys or damages property. Historically speaking, a Vandal was “a member of a Germanic people who lived in the area south of the...

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