An early third century CE Greek inscription recovered from the ancient town of Oinoanda in southwest Turkey reveals that the Roman army relied on the services of Lucius Septimius Flavianus...
The National Museum in Quito, Ecuador exhibits an otherworldly collection of sheet-gold masks representing the Andean sun god Inti. Zig-zag rays of golden light burst from his face and some end in...
Throughout history, women have always been healers. They were pharmacists, cultivating healing herbs and exchanging the secrets of their uses. They were also nurses, counselors, midwives who traveled...
Nefertiti is one of the most iconic persons of ancient Egypt. She is still extremely famous and faith in her great personality is visible in pretty much any book that mentions the queen. But who was...
Some babies shake rattles and others shake up kingdoms. We hear many stories of the unhappy lives and ends of child rulers. Most recently, in 1908, Puyi became the last emperor of China at only two...
Lions are often said to be the kings of all animals. They are also a symbol of power and popular archetypes for influential rulers. Most civilizations have depicted these regal animals in their...
The ancient Egyptians created a sophisticated economic system thousands of years ago. Although they may seem far removed from modern life, their inventions in the monetary realm provided the basis...
In 1996, a team of researchers unearthed a unique burial of a mysterious man. The odd remains and specific funerary equipment thrilled the archaeologists. Was the man who lived 2,000 years ago an...
The supreme being of the pharaohs’ pantheon was associated with the sun’s disk and, according to the myth, he emerged from the ocean of the Nun, carried by the goddess Mehetueret, the Celestial Cow...
Ahuitzotl was a tlatoani (meaning ‘speaker’) of the city of Tenochtitlan, and the eighth ruler of the Aztec Empire. This emperor reigned from 1486 AD to 1502 AD, a period which is regarded by some...
Alexander the Great was apparently fascinated with everything that could be seen as a symbol of power. Stories about his interest in animals are well known too. He was probably intrigued by other...
Over the last two centuries, Egyptologists have proposed a host of certainties on Egyptian burial customs with the study of abundant literature found within the tombs, built during the Ancient and...
There is scarcely any concrete information about the man widely credited with the foundation of medieval Scotia, the precursor to today’s Scotland. There are facts about battles that occurred and...
The Ipuwer papyrus, also known as the ‘Admonitions of Ipuwer’, is a controversial text that describes starvation, drought, death, and violent upheavals in ancient Egypt, with some maintaining that it...
The Habsburg family is one of the most important royal families in the history of Europe. This may be somewhat surprising, as many of the rulers from this family behaved strangely, had some weird...
Ramesses II is considered one of the greatest pharaohs of Egypt. Regardless if this is an exaggerated statement or not, his reign had very distinct stages. With the disappearance of two of the most...
Devil or angel? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. The concept of demons is an old one, harking back to the confiscation of pagan nature deities by the Roman Empire, which turned them into something more...
Chapter XVII of the Egyptian Book of the Dead highlights an indisputable detail: ritual formulas hid proofs of prehistoric events. They were handed down orally, and after millennia they inspired the...
From ancient times and even to this day, people consider fire one of the basic elements of the universe. Interpretations of fire in ancient mythologies vary greatly, with fire viewed as a creative...
It is not always easy to read the stories of real people from the artifacts they left behind. This is especially true if they lived 5,000 years ago. However, the story of a remarkable woman from that...
Until very recently, the London Stone was set into a shop wall in Cannon Street, nearly opposite the entrance to the railway station, but a few weeks ago it was removed and on 13 May this year [2016...
Mitanni was a state that existed between the 16th and 13th centuries BC. This state occupied the land of the Hurrians. This area is located in the upper Tigris-Euphrates basin, and corresponds today...
An enchantress from Welsh mythology, Cerridwen is regarded as a woman of incredible power and magic. She pervades Welsh and Irish culture as an emblem of wisdom and rebirth, remaining today as a...
The prehistoric religious temples of Hawaii are being dated by researchers with the help of small sea creatures. Indigenous temples of Hawaii, known as heiau , can be found across the islands. Dr...