Throughout time, history has recorded numerous rituals and magic practices, some more bizarre than others. While alchemists were preoccupied with finding the Philosopher's Stone and the elixir of...
In pre-Columbian America, the Incas had the largest empire and a flourishing civilization. They called their empire Tawantinsuyu , meaning The Four United Provinces , and they worshiped the sun god...
India is renowned for having distinctive religious practices that coexist with one another. The numerous shrines and monuments allow one to contemplate the importance of faith for many. One of the...
Pieces of ancient, bronze sword blades and spearheads have been unearthed by archaeologists in Scotland. The pieces had been intentionally broken and thrown into a freshwater loch some 3,000 years...
The image of a couple exchanging rings during a wedding ceremony is instantly recognizable, and is held as an ancient tradition. A ring on a certain finger indicates that the wearer is married, but...
The 160,023 convicts transported to the Australian colonies between 1788 and 1868 left leg-irons and chains a’plenty, but surprisingly little in the way of clothing. Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum has a...
Mummification may have been more common in Bronze Age Britain than previously believed, and the ancient Britons may have purposefully mummified their dead with unknown funerary rituals—but why and...
The sparse population inhabiting the area that is now the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico during the eighth century AD regularly consumed drinks made from cacao—the plant that is...
The practice of animal burial is one that dates back to prehistoric epochs. Many cultures around the globe have buried animals for various reasons: sentimentality, religious rituals, superstition,...
An ancient ball court, a midden mound and about 400 burials that date back to before Europeans arrived in the Caribbean were found on the Portugues River in Puerto Rico several years ago. The site...
Two thousand winding spirals of golden metal threads have been discovered by archaeologists in a field in southwestern Zealand, Denmark. The glittering masses of golden metal threads spun into...
A 2,000-year-old ritual bath, known as a mikve, was found underneath a family’s living room floor in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, while they were undertaking renovations. The Israel Antiquities Authority (...
In modern times, it is common to initiate a new building with what is known as a "ground-breaking" ceremony. This tradition symbolically marks the beginning of a new project in many cultures and is...
Read Part 1 Millions of animal mummies have been found in the dark, carved stone tunnels beneath the location of Egypt’s earliest pyramid, in the Catacombs of Anubis in North Saqqara. The astounding...
Many associate two popular themes with ancient Egypt: animal worship and mummies. The two have been combined on unprecedented levels deep in the Catacombs of Anubis in North Saqqara. The necropolis...
Ancient Egyptians took great care to mummify the bodies of high-status people and adorned and entombed them with some of the most beautiful objects ever made. However, in what appears contrary to the...
Water, essence of life and natural force sacred to the ancient Inca, was harnessed and controlled in a large man-made water temple in the late 15 th century. The pool, featuring finely carved and...
In what is described as Egypt’s “dark secret,” a staggering 70 million mummified animals have been found in underground catacombs across Egypt, including cats, birds, rodents, and even crocodiles...
The Moche were a mysterious civilization who ruled the northern coast of Peru beginning two thousand years ago. They built huge pyramids made of millions of mud bricks and created an extensive...
New research suggests that the mysterious Nazca line geoglyphs in Peru were used by two separate groups of people along a pilgrimage route to the ancient temple complex of Cahuachi, a ceremonial...
When scientists examined the cracked skulls and gnawed bones found in a cave in England, they recognized the grisly signs of cannibalism. Archaeological findings now indicate that the dwellers of...
Archaeologists in the state of Karnataka, in South West India, have discovered a set of ancient tablets with inscriptions that reveal a family of six people underwent the sacrificial rite of...
Sadly, the fate of civilians in war has often been harsh, perhaps even more so in the past. Men would invariably be killed, and children were often sold into slavery. As for the women, they might be...
The modern Western world is familiar with the concept of wishing wells, or bodies of water in which currency, most commonly in the form of coin, is tossed with the intention of making a wish. Some...
![The wooden coffin of a mummified cat [left] and a CT scan revealing the ancient cat skeleton inside.](https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_optimized/public/field/image/wooden-coffin-of-a-mummified-cat.jpg?itok=gNhl4sQ4)
