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Vikings had many rituals. Source: tiagozr / Adobe Stock

Viking Blots, Beserkers and Barbaric Blood Eagles

Famed for their ruthless fighting skills and brave exploring, little is written about Viking religion and their day-to-day ritual practices which were arguably a more central component in Norse...
Poseidon, god of the Mediterranean Sea. Source: Luke / Adobe Stock

Poseidon’s Wrath: The Scourge of the Sea Peoples

Perhaps 3,000 years from now archaeologists will be debating the reasons for the diaspora that occurred in the lands around the Mediterranean Sea during the early 21st century. What would have...
Representation of a forbidden medieval romance, like the affair of Pierre I de Lusignan and Joanna l’Aleman. Source: grape_vein / Adobe Stock

Love and Intrigue: Ruins of King Pierre I and Joanna l’Aleman's Forbidden Romance

In the twilight of the medieval period, amidst the clash of crusades and kingdoms, unfolds the poignant saga of King Pierre I de Lusignan and his courtier, Joanna l’Aleman—a forbidden love story that...
Representational image of the complex nature of Renaissance magic combining science and the divine. Source: lleandralacuerva / Adobe Stock

Renaissance Magic: Linking the Earthly and the Divine

In the Renaissance, magic was a convergence of science, philosophy, and the mystical, reflecting the era's quest for knowledge and understanding of the world. Unlike today's clear demarcation between...
Detail of a recreation of Athena Parthenos at Nashville Parthenon, Tennessee, USA. Source: Lucas Livingston / CC BY 2.0

Athena Parthenos: Tales of Artistry, Myth and Athenian Glory

The city of Acte had not formally been bestowed with divine protection. However, its king, Cecrops, ushered a golden period so remarkable that the city was then renamed Cecropia and the gods...
Dutch East India Company factory in Hugli-Chuchura, Mughal Bengal. Hendrik van Schuylenburgh, 1665. Source: Public domain

Spice, Spice, Baby: The Dutch East-India Company

Today’s world is run by massive corporations which are ever-present in the lives of everyone on the planet. Everything from computers, software, soft drinks, fast food, coffee and cell phones are...
Performing an offering ceremony to Pachamama in the Andes region of Peru. Source: Yuri - Supay / Adobe Stock

The Traditional Offering Ceremony of the Andes: How to Maintain Balance Between the Material and Spiritual Worlds

In traditional Andean cosmovision, the natural world and the divine are united, and offering ceremonies are seen as a part of the reciprocity system between the material and spiritual worlds...
Epic events shook the ancient Egyptian world during the Era of Menophres. Source: FantasyLand86 / Adobe Stock

Ancient Markers of Traumatic Events: The Era of Menophres, Sothis, Osiris, and Noah

In his work De Die Natali (The Birthday Book), written in 238 AD, Censorinus, a Roman grammarian and author, discusses the concept of the Great Year in Chapter XVIII. He writes “The 1461st year by...
A mysterious and magical island. Source: Marina Varnava / Adobe Stock

Avalon: Island of Apples

The Celtic Otherworld has always been a mystery; a strange, mysterious, and elusive place. What is not always appreciated is the extent to which the Celtic Otherworld, especially the magic Island of...
Representation of an Inca sun god. AI-generated. Source: NorLife / Adobe Stock

Revisiting the Solar Path of the Inca Creator God

The high priests of the Inca Empire of ancient Peru used their sacred texts, known as the Codes of Sacred Geography, to build sacred community centers ( wakas ) along 42 long-distance ceque lines...
Ariadne and Bacchus. Source: Ruslan Gilmanshin / Adobe Stock

The Many Stories of Ariadne’s Life and Love

One of the largest Bronze Age archaeological sites in Crete is the palace ruins at Knossos. The passageways have an elaborate layout and one can still see murals that show a sport in which men would...
Representation of an ancient Egyptian temple passage lit by an exceptional light. Source: Konstantin / Adobe Stock

Egyptian Temples and the Order of Creation: Embodying Eternity in Time

The temples of ancient Egypt represent one of the most enduring monumental expressions of religion and cosmology in the history of the world, serving as the very heart of pharaonic culture for nearly...
Representation of Anglo-Saxon warriors in battle. Source: Sarah / Adobe Stock

The Battle of Cymenshore, AD 477

In the aftermath of the Romans’ departure from Britain in the fifth century AD, the coast of the former Roman province was left vulnerable to various invaders who sought to establish kingdoms of...
Severan Tondo depicting Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, Caracalla, and Geta (with his face removed in damnatio memoriae). Source: Public domain

The Severan Emperors and the Demise of the Roman Senate

By 190 AD, the debauched life of emperor Commodus had reached a sinister summit. Never had the Roman Empire been led by such a disgraceful character. Probably mad, he identified himself with the god...
A painting of Cahokia Mounds State Historic site by William R. Iseminger. Source: William R. Iseminger

Cahokia: The Rise and Fall of an Indigenous Empire

A young Indigenous man, a Pilgrim, has been walking all day carrying a large bundle basket on his back. His long black hair is tied up in a bun at the back of his head, and he has new, round,...
Marcus Aurelius Distributing Bread to the People, by Joseph-Marie Vien  (1765) Musée de Picardie (Public Domain)

The Antonine Dynasty: The Good Roman Emperors

While much appreciated by the plebeians and especially by the army, Emperor Domitian was hated by the aristocracy and the Senate, which he himself despised. His absolutist attitude, his austere...
The Tuatha Dé Danann as depicted in John Duncan's Riders of the Sidhe (1911) (Public Domain)

Tracing The Origins Of The Tuatha Dé Danann To Greece

The Tuatha Dé Danann is one of the most mysterious peoples of the British Isles. Fascinatingly enough, some Celtic traditions place the prehistory of the Tuatha Dé Danann on the Greek islands in ages...
A hippeis rider seizes a mounted Amazonian warrior armed with a labrys by her Phrygian cap. Roman mosaic Daphne, Antioch-on-the-Orontes (now Antakya in Turkey), (fourth century AD)/ Louvre, Paris. (Jacques MOSSOT/ CC BY-SA 4.0)

Amazon Myrina, Destroyer of Cerne, Conqueror of Atlantians – Myth Or Proto History?

Diodorus Siculus’ Library of History is a mine of information about the ancient world, its peoples, histories, legends, and myths. Most interesting in Book 3. 52. is the narration of the myth of...
Aristocratic Athenian Hero Pericles Versus Demagogue Villain Cleon

Aristocratic Athenian Hero Pericles Versus Demagogue Villain Cleon

The founding of the Delian League in 478 BC moved the Athenians closer to the idea of democracy. However, although the Athenians believed that all men were created equal in political power and the...
Encounter between Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Henry VIII. In the background is depicted the Battle of the Spurs against Louis XII of France. (Public Domain)

Tudor Intrigues and Intricacies - A Royal Guard’s Journal

The journal of a certain Edward Underhill offers a rare insight into the intrigues and intricacies of the Tudor court, for as a member of the monarch’s personal guard, he interacted with all the...
"The Meeting of Cortés and Montezuma,"from the Conquest of Mexico series Mexico (1650+) Jay I. Kislak Collection (Public Domain)

Still Searching For Aztec Montezuma’s Lost Treasure

The missing gold of Montezuma, ninth Emperor of the Aztec Empire was buried by the Aztecs, the Utes protected it, the Spanish killed for it, and the Mormons looted it, but is the bulk of it still out...
Panorama of Sacsayhuamán (Diego Delso/ CC BY-SA 4.0)

Hidden Monoliths Beneath Sacsayhuaman Point To Lost Civilization

Sacsayhuaman Archaeological Park, located above the ancient city of Cusco in Peru, hides a secret. Hidden beneath the archaeological sites are some very strange and beautiful stone vestiges, many...
The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema (1885) (Public Domain)

Cleopatra Selene, Serene Queen of Mauritania

The only child of Cleopatra and Marc Antony ’s to reach adulthood, Queen Cleopatra Selene (40 BC- 5 BC) of Mauretania was one of the most important women of the Augustan age— exceptional in and of...
Fresco found in Knossos palace, Crete, Greece, dated 1600 - 1450 BC (CC0)

Minos Taurus The Bull Of Knossos

I am the bull of Knossos, where rich Minoans live amidst painted splendour. On the island of Crete I am surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, by mountains and plains, by bronze, by plaster, by...

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