All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

Premium

Ancient Origins Premium offers a wealth of knowledge and a variety of learning methods (articles, eBooks, webinars, expeditions and more) that will help you embark on a journey you will never forget!

Deer, antelope and predators. Aberdeen Bestiary (12th century) (Public Domain)

Meaningful Sacred And Profane Medieval Bestiaries

Medieval European churches, constructed by men for the glory of the Creator, are adorned to varying degrees, with sacred and profane images. No figure nor detail in these stone encyclopedia is...
Mankind Is Mesmerized By Millennia Of Moon Mysteries

Mankind Is Mesmerized By Millennia Of Moon Mysteries

Over millennia humankind has been mesmerized by the moon, speculating as to what exactly the moon is and only in early-2022 a team of astronomers suggest the moon may have “formed immediately, in a...
Alchemist British Monks: Digging Up The Old Gunpowder Mills

Alchemist British Monks: Digging Up The Old Gunpowder Mills

16th-Century monks in Britain had a blast! They were the first to experiment with the recipe of saltpeter, Sulphur and charcoal to produce gunpowder in Britain. In the Battle of Crecy in 1346 the...
Main temple at Tulum with hieroglyphic stairway by Frederick Catherwood, from Views of Ancient Monuments (Public Domain)

Stephens And Catherwood: Adventurers Discovering the Ancient Maya

The astounding journeys of John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood to Central America in 1839 to 1842 introduced the ancient, unrecognized Maya civilization to the rest of the world. Their life-...
Mosaic of the Beauty of Durres (Enea shijaku / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Female Contenders For Alexander’s Crown: Cynane, Adea, Olympias

Behind every successful man stands an ambitious woman, the saying goes, more-so if she is a blood-relative of Alxander the Great, and a warrior. Claiming descent from Herakles, the son of Zeus,...
The Forgotten Arab Raid On Rome In 846 AD

The Forgotten Arab Raid On Rome In 846 AD

Throughout its millennia long existence, the illustrious city of Rome has been invaded many times, and changed hands just as frequently. The Gauls, Goths, Vandals, and Normans have all been...
From Pagan To Christian To Islam, Religious Wars In Ancient Sudan

From Pagan To Christian To Islam, Religious Wars In Ancient Sudan

A change in religion more often than not, leads to bloodshed and war as gods hold on to their powers, and their priests and kings and queens take up arms to defend them. The history of Sudan has seen...
Locals on camels near Meroe pyramids, Sudan (Matyas Rehak/ Adobe Stock)

Secrets in The Sands Of Sudan: The Kushite Kings’ Pyramids

After the decline of Egypt’s New Kingdom, the Kings of Kush established the 25th Dynasty by expanding their territory to include Egypt, and ruled as the Black Pharaohs for at least a hundred years...
The Three Niles And Cataract Settlements Of Ancient Sudan

The Three Niles And Cataract Settlements Of Ancient Sudan

On January 1, 1956, after centuries of foreign rule, Sudan finally gained its independence from Great Britain, three years after independence was granted to Egypt on June 18, 1953, and today the...
Sculpting The Geological, Archaeological And Cultural Landscape Of Papua New Guinea

Sculpting The Geological, Archaeological And Cultural Landscape Of Papua New Guinea

The sculpturing of the geography of Papua New Guinea did not end with the eruption of the volcanos. In their wake basins and valleys formed, where people settled, thousands of years ago. A large...
Men of the Asmat tribe are floating in a canoe on the river. Amanamkay. Village, Asmat province, Indonesia (gudkovandrey/ Adobe Stock)

Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River Rituals

Winding its way like a serpentine from its origin source in the Victor Emanuel Mountain Range in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea, the Sepik River receives many tributaries along its way...
Modern day lakatoi at the Hiri Moale Festival, a modern celebration of the previous Hiri trade cycle. (Steve Jurvetson / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Oceania’s Papua New Guinea: Forged In Volcanic Fire

The Australasian realm in the Pacific Ocean includes Australia, New Zealand, eastern Indonesia, and several Pacific island groups - including Papua New Guinea – all scattered along the Ring of Fire,...
The sun sets on the ruins of Persepolis burnt by Alexander the Great in 330 BC (Pav-Pro Photography / Adobe Stock)

The Aftermath Of The Achaemenid Empire

Between 550 and 520 BC Cyrus the Great had unified the Medes and the Persians and founded an empire that stretched from the Indus River to North Africa and from the Aral Sea to the Persian Gulf...
Reliefs based on the Pinelli engraving (1928). It depicts a scene from the everyday life and the campaign of Alexander the Great. Reliefs by the sculptor Pr. Tzanoulinos (bronze). Hellenic War Museum (Athens, Greece). (CC by 2.0 / Tilemahos Efthimiadis)

Archaeological Track of Alexander The Great’s Footprint in Persia

Archaeology in modern Iran tracks Alexander the Great’s footprint in ancient Persia as his army crossed the Euphrates, crisscrossed the plateaus, marched along the Royal Road, across the Zagros...
Alexander Of Macedon And His Nemesis Persian Darius III

Alexander Of Macedon And His Nemesis Persian Darius III

Ironically, Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, written around 370 BC, a narrative describing the education of the ideal ruler centred on Cyrus the Great founder of the Achaemenid Dynasty, was a great inspiration...
A printed map from the 15th century depicting Ptolemy's description of the Ecumene by Johannes Schnitzer (1482) (Public Domain)

Terra Australis The Fabled Continent Of Antiquity’s Antipodes

For nearly 2,000 years, right up until Captain James Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific in 1775, geographers debated the existence of Terra Australis, a mythical landmass to the south-east said to...
Diana Huntress and her Nymphs (1637) by Peter Paul Rubens (Public Domain)

Goddesses Of The Hunt, The Moon, Child Birth And The Underworld

"Man the Hunter," an early 20h-century human origins story, saw hunting as the primary driver of human evolution, emphasizing mankind’s forefathers' bipedalism, large brains, sharp tools, and...
Gōbekli Tepe: The Symbolism Of The Serpent And The Fox

Gōbekli Tepe: The Symbolism Of The Serpent And The Fox

Archaeological excavation and research at Gōbekli Tepe; that incredible ancient megalithic sacred site from an era of at least 12,000 years ago located in modern day Turkey; called by many the world’...
Attirampakkam stone tools  (Ophelia S/ CC BY-SA 4.0)

Blades of Destiny: The Ancient Tools And Weapons That Crafted History

It is widely accepted that Homo sapiens were the first species to develop effective tools, but humans were not the first primate to make or use stone tools. That achievement belongs to an...
Phallic megalith covered with glyphs and author in the Pohnpaid meadow (Image © 1992 Carole Nervig)

Glyphs Upon A Stone Altar: The Petroglyphs Of Mu

Awareness of Nan Madol as a world class archaeological site has grown exponentially over the last decade, especially since achieving World Heritage Site status in 1996. Constructed upon an offshore...
Tomb of Richard de Vere the 11th Earl of Oxford - died 1417 - and his second wife Alice. He commanded the English centre under Henry V at Agincourt, and was involved in the king’s French campaigning. (Image: © Rebecca Batley)

Colne Priory – Revisiting the Excavation Of The Earls Of Oxford’s Tomb Sites

No trace of the medieval Colne Priory in Essex remains above ground, as the site is now occupied by a later building of the same name, and in private ownership. However, for decades archaeologists...
The envoys of the Roman Pope attend Alexander Nevsky by Henryk Siemiradzki (1870) (Public Domain)

Alexander Nevsky – Medieval King Turned Russian Propaganda Tool

Nestled deep within an obscure crevice of Russian history, the tale of Prince Alexander Nevsky and his battle against Western crusaders at first appears as a highly interesting if half-forgotten turn...
Battle Stations – Acceleration Of Naval Design In The 18th to 19th Centuries

Battle Stations – Acceleration Of Naval Design In The 18th to 19th Centuries

Modern naval history is considered to have commenced in 1616, but the ensuing century between 1715 and 1820 marked an era not only of geopolitical change, but also a time when oceans were turned into...
Cave where the remains of Homo floresiensis were discovered in 2003, Lian Bua, Flores, Indonesia (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Homo Floresiensis Controversy: The Hunt For The Modern Hobbit A Hoax?

Has the search for the modern relatives of Flores Island’s Homo floresiensis turned into a hoax-hunt? Everything that scientists thought about human evolution changed in 1856 after the first fossil...

Pages