Ancient Origins eBooks offer a deep dive into the mysteries of the past, exploring ancient civilizations, lost knowledge, mythology, and groundbreaking discoveries. Written by experts and researchers, these books provide well-researched insights and fascinating perspectives you won’t find elsewhere. Available exclusively to our members, they are perfect for anyone passionate about uncovering the secrets of history.
Many ancient healing practices are appalling to modern minds – boring holes in skulls to treat head injuries, drinking mercury-laden concoctions for longevity, cutting off limbs with no anesthesia… Others may scoff at beliefs that astrology impacted health, leeching could balance humors, and spells could cure complex maladies.
It always begins with a secret. Countless conspiracies to do dark deeds have shaped the course of history. Some secrets were held to protect the innocent, yet others were crafted to kill.
Humanity isn’t just tied to nature, it IS nature. We are part of the natural world, and the farther back in time we look the more apparent that connection becomes. These ideas are deeply entangled in our thinking, sensing, and being, as revealed through our societies, myths, and cultures. Mankind and nature are in an eternal partnership of give and take – we explore it here.
“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” ~J.R.R. Tolkien
From the greatest battlefield strategists to the most untried foot soldiers, these are the stories of warriors who lived by the sword in an ancient time.
In this new free e-book, available exclusively on Ancient Origins, regular contributor Charles Christian wittily weaves together five tales of political back-stabbings and betrayals, blood-drenched battles, torrid sexual scandals, religious upheavals, and supernatural occurrences from the English Dark Ages – from the departure of the Roman legions to the arrival of the Norman warlords.
Life is stranger than fiction, they often say. And that’s true for history as well! As we regain lost knowledge of our past by uncovering amazing and surprising, even bizarre artifacts, we’re sometimes left to puzzle—which are true artifacts, and which are works of fiction? Was it a real find, or all a hoax? To discover the truth of history, all we can do is: read, examine, consider, and judge.
Today we grasp for some sign, even a hint of the supernatural. We want hard evidence that ghosts are real, that there is an afterlife. The ancients didn’t have to guess – they knew. The dead rose from graves and portended evil, or danger, or a tragic ending. They terrified the people and whisked away unwary souls. History knows that the dead lived on.
The danger of searching through history for ghosts is…what if they find you first?
The colossal Pyramids of Giza and their ever-patient Sphinx stand as the symbol of powerful and enduring ancient civilizations. Ancient Egypt was a time of work, war, wealth, high culture and deep mysteries. Gods and ritual were paramount, and their world was imbued with magic.
Pharaohs ruled all, but the ancient Egyptians believed that even a commoner’s individual life mattered enough to be remembered for all eternity. They were fixated on the soul’s journey. In this, death was only the beginning…
The eternal quest to be ridiculously good looking is one we’ve been on since time immemorial. From elaborate, exquisite, and downright weird clothing choices, to sexy-but-deadly cosmetics, and wearing fake beards and towering hairpieces, humans have done it all in the name of beauty! Have we changed much since then?
We are not alone in looking into the dazzling night sky and wondering about the profound mysteries above. We are not alone in wishing we could see future events or regretting that we cannot change the past. We are not alone – because ancient thinkers pondered the same things and sought answers exactly like we do now. What would they have thought of this – their future?
