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In the most highly anticipated religious festival of the year, women came from far and wide to gather in their cities to celebrate the Thesmophoria, the oldest and most widespread of all ancient...
Masks are well ingrained in the social zeitgeist and while their use in ancient rituals and ceremonies across the ancient world is well documented, it is generally their protective applications in...
The greatest of all Sumerian heroes were said to have belonged to the first House of Uruk. For the Sumerians, this House of Uruk was not just another royal house, for them it was one of the greatest...
Somewhere in the Negev Desert, Mount Sinai , at dawn on a day of the 13th century BC: "Moses, go and speak to the children of Israel! Tell them that they must make a wooden Ark of Acacia, its length...
In 1891, the American geologist and antiquarian William Niven set off on a journey of discovery and exploration through the Mexican state of Guerrero. What he found would change the course of his...
Hidden among the exhibits of the world’s finest museums and in some of the most famous private archaeological and art collections are forgeries, manufactured supposedly ancient arts and artifacts...
In 56 BC, Julius Caesar invited Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus to Luca in Cisalpine Gaul (modern-day Lucca, Italy) in an effort to repair their strained relationship, which had...
" Then Yahweh said to Moses: 'Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel and your rod with which you struck the river Nile. Take it in your hand and you must walk. Behold,...
Numerous myths, ubiquitous to great civilizations spanning the globe, reflect a deep-rooted belief in an intimate connection between a human being and a tree. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite proclaims...
Described by Homer and Pindar as ‘fair haired’, one can ask the perturbing question: Was Odysseus a Dane originating from the Baltic Sea and is Troy located on the Gulf of Finland? Since ancient...
Anthropologists and archaeologists are still working on compiling the human-pet timeline, but it is known pets have been adopted by humans for possibly tens of thousands of years. Americans keep...
The eighth to tenth centuries in Europe were turbulent times, as Western Europe was caught in the crossfire of invading foreign entities. Many came from the north, such as the various Viking factions...
In 1895 Shivkar Bapuji Talpade (1864-1916), a member of the Maharashtri, launched an unmanned aircraft called Marutsakha , (Sanskrit ‘ Marut ’ means Air and ' Sakha ' means ‘Friend’, so ‘Friend of...
How did a humble government official during the reign of Emperor Renzong (AD 1010 – 1063) of the Northern Song dynasty of China, become a legend, and achieve immortality in Chinese operas as a god...
Every village, town and city in the world has its array of monsters and mythological creatures, many of whom that have sprung from thousands of years of folkloric traditions. And while dragons are...
A 17th century Pope so feared the astrological prediction that he would exchange his life as pontiff in the Urbs Aeterna or eternal city of Rome for the everlasting life, on a day coinciding with a...
In Greece, Alexander the Great is coveted as a national hero; the cluster of royal tombs discovered in 1977 at the archaeological site of Vergina , which is thought have housed Alexander’s father,...
Hollywood producers and directors have never once been praised for rigorously sticking to the facts and whether it's a medieval epic or a modern war film they generally fail when it comes to relaying...
Archaeologists agree, Göbekli Tepe changes everything. This hilltop sanctuary in southern Turkey, probably the World’s first megalithic temple, is like a time capsule that dates back nearly 13,000...
Spies have code names, so who was the mysterious BM 22542 (1889,0731), of Egyptian origin, that caused the deaths of many, sabotaged ships including the Titanic and Lusitania and disrupted the London...
In 1493, Christopher Columbus claimed to have spotted a few mermaids and left decidedly unimpressed, writing that they: “were not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look...
"Know thyself!" These words were inscribed in the court of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. They were later quoted and expanded by Socrates, the Greek philosopher. He used them to highlight the fact...
One of the most contentious issue in American, if not world archaeology is the validity of the ‘Clovis first’ theory, which is based on the argument that humans first came into America with the...
The rider must have a firm seat when going at full speed over all sort of ground and must also be able to use his weapons well on horseback. ( Xenophon, On Horsemanship , 8) When Philip II came to...
