Our understanding and treatment of mental illness has come a long way over the centuries – and it’s just as well! In medieval times, people suffering a bout of ‘melancholia’ or those deemed ‘mad’...
A professor who bought a 2,300-year-old Iron Age royal seal, only paid a handful of shekels for something beyond value. About forty years ago Professor Yigal Ronen from the Ben-Gurion University of...
Neuschwanstein Castle is a grand castle in Bavaria, Germany that was built during the 19th century by Ludwig II, the King of Bavaria. During that century, castles were no longer the formidable...
An excavation at a medieval Abbey in Britain has uncovered a treasure trove of finds. These include the personal effects of nuns and examples of religious art. But the most surprising artifact among...
Naqsh-e Rustam is one of the most spectacular and awe-inspiring ancient sites of the Achaemenid Empire, consisting of the colossal tombs of Persian kings dating back to the first millennium BC. It...
One of the most common questions you will hear within art history’s circles is “Why are the noses missing from so many ancient Egyptian statues?” Is it just a coincidence, or could it possibly be a...
L'Homme au Masque de Fer ( The Man in the Iron Mask ) is the name given to a prisoner arrested in c. 1669, and condemned to the cruel fate of having his head clamped within an iron mask, or so the...
The famous Deir el-Bahari Royal Cache was discovered in Luxor, Egypt, in 1881. This treasure trove dates to the 21st and 22nd Dynasties, having been deposited by the ruling Meshwesh ancient Libyans...
Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), was a Macedonian king who ruled over an expansive empire that reached from Greece to the Gandharan regions of Pakistan...
Just like Gaea, the embodiment of Mother Earth in Greek mythology, India also has a concept of Adi Parashakti, the supreme mother who is behind the creation of the entire universe, the cosmos, and...
Mary I of Scotland, popularly known as Mary, Queen of Scots, is one of the best-known Scottish monarchs. Mary was a contemporary, and cousin, of Queen Elizabeth I of England. However, they the two...
In the first part of this article, we attempted to unravel the mystery symbolism on the oldest board game in the world - the Royal Game of Ur. The Heliopolitan creation myth was used to explain how...
The world’s first known board game was found in Mesopotamia (c. 2600 BC). Despite this, Egyptian beliefs help us best to understand the Royal Game of Ur’s board design, rules and all. Especially the...
In Italy, archaeologists have unearthed what they are calling a ‘prince’s tomb’, found using the latest non-invasive archaeological methods. The royal burial is believed to come from an enigmatic...
John of Bohemia was a king of Bohemia who lived between the 13th and 14th centuries. He was known also as John of Luxembourg, as well as John the Blind. The former indicates that John belonged to the...
Many of us tend to think that the people of early cultures were less sophisticated than us. The wealthiest people may have lived lives of luxury with gold and slaves, but admittedly we cannot really...