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The vast expanse of the African desert has long been a source of intrigue and adventure. Ancient historians told legends of curious tribes amidst the merciless landscape and formidable armies...
Nobody reading Homer’s Iliad or Virgil’s Aeneid has ever failed to wonder ‘was this real?’ and ‘where was Troy? ’ . Homer’s Troy lay across the Aegean from Greece, whence the angry Greeks sailed to...
Water management has been a cornerstone of human civilization since the dawn of agricultural societies . The availability and control of water resources have not only dictated the survival of...
The utilization of animals in ancient warfare is a fascinating subject that underscores the ingenuity and adaptability of early civilizations in our past. Throughout history, animals have been...
To write his plays, William Shakespeare looked for inspiration in a wide variety of sources, including myths, history, and popular stories of his day. Among Shakespeare’s inspirations were two...
Each year, the United States has an average of 1,200 tornadoes, making up more than 75% of worldwide occurrences. The Central Great Plains is a unique geographical landscape that produces the perfect...
The Aztec Empire, known for its grandeur and sophistication, was one of the most powerful and influential civilizations in Mesoamerican history. Flourishing from the early 14th century until the...
Long before Homer retold the stories of the mighty deeds of the great warriors who took part in the Battle of Troy, similar tales were told and retold by Sumerian and Akkadian bards. The epic...
The Korean Peninsula, a land rich in history and culture, was once home to three powerful and influential kingdoms: Silla, Goguryeo , and Baekje. These kingdoms, which existed from the late 1st...
The fragility of the human mind has always been subject to fascination. Ancient societies attempted to understand and remedy emotional pain and suffering by looking to the gods, oracles, or through...
The entire body of ancient Celtic lore and legend was transmitted from mouth to ear, without being written down. The oldest written texts contain material that may have existed in oral form for...
Perhaps one of the most mysterious and elusive deities of the ancient Egyptian pantheon, Nephthys was known as the shadowy goddess of the night, of death and decay. She was the dark sister of Isis,...
As queen to Zeus’s king, it is ironic that, Hera, the Olympian goddess of marriage, should herself be a miserable one. With a predilection for inciting vengeance against her husband’s innumerable...
New Zealand, a land known for its dramatic landscapes, rich biodiversity, and vibrant Maori heritage, also harbors enigmatic hints of ancient peoples who are less well known in mainstream history...
Nestled between the Atlas Mountains and the Nile River, amidst wild beast and unforgiving terrain, Libya was a place of wonder and uniqueness in the ancient world. Many associate this land with the...
The pandemic in 2020, which shuttered hairdressers for most of the year, led to numerous unexpected hair trends such as buzzcuts and fringes. The much-derided mullet also made an appearance. This...
With no, or slim, evidence, Egyptologists claim that all of Egypt’s pyramids were built to be tombs. With an abundance of robust evidence, I will theorize that all of Egypt’s pyramids were built to...
The Latin word imperium originally meant power, specifically the power to command armies, and also civilians. Such power was conferred by law on a Roman official, such as a consul, a praetor, or any...
Here are two peoples almost identical in blood – the same language and religion; and yet a few years of quarrelsome isolation – in comparison with the great historical cycles – have so separated...
In modern times, it is not uncommon for ancient sports to once more become popular. Often, they are long forgotten board games, or folkloric games with sticks and stones. But one Italian sport didn’t...
I was extraordinarily fortunate to meet the esteemed Dr. Tom Cummins nearly twenty years ago in Cusco, Peru - one of the great world centers, or axis mundi. Tom was one of our brilliant lecturers...
Following up on my recent article on the ante-chamber in the Khufu pyramid, published on Ancient Origins public site , in which I argued it was a device designed to open and close more than once,...
During the second half of the third millennium BC the land of Sumer and in fact the entire Mesopotamian region came under the control of the Akkadians, a Semitic people who had lived for centuries...
The 2,000-year-old sculpture of the Dying Gaul is a larger-than-life marble sculpture of a nude man on the ground holding himself with one arm, resting weakly on an outstretched leg. His hand sits...
