Time

31 December, 2017 - 22:54 aprilholloway

Rebirth and Rejuvenation: How Have Ancient New Year’s Traditions Influenced Festivities Today?

January 1st, New Year’s Day, is often ushered in with fireworks and festivities beginning on December 31st. Although this practice is the norm in many places around the world, not every culture has...

‘A Dance to the Music of Time’ (1634-1635) by Nicolas Poussin.

30 December, 2017 - 18:42 aprilholloway

Humans Have Been Making New Year’s Resolutions for Over 4,000 Years

New Year’s resolutions are a popular practice. Countless people begin to consider them every year as December 31st rolls around. Although the big plans and ambitious goals can be difficult to follow...

Deriv; A drowned land of Kasskara - Hopi.

24 December, 2017 - 13:59 Kasskara

Kásskara: Sunken Land of the Hopi Ancestors

There used to be a fable, commonly imposed as fact on schoolchildren in the United States, that in Columbus' time nearly everyone believed the Earth was flat. Fortunately, this untruth has been...

Detail of a star chart dating to the Middle Kingdom.

16 December, 2017 - 13:57 dhwty

Why Are There 365 Days in a Year? Organizing Dates with an Ancient Egyptian Calendar

The calendar is one of mankind’s most important inventions. Calendars allowed societies to organize time for religious, social, economic, and administrative purposes. The calendar, or rather, two...

9 November, 2017 - 22:58 ancient-origins

Archaeologists Uncover Rare 2,000-year-old Roman Sundial and it Tells Them More than Just the Time

A 2,000-year-old intact and inscribed sundial – one of only a handful known to have survived – has been recovered during the excavation of a roofed theatre in the Roman town of Interamna Lirenas,...

A representation of what human teleportation could look like.

29 October, 2017 - 18:04 johnblack

One Step Closer to ‘Beam Me Up’? Teleportation is Possible…At Least at the Quantum Level

Have you ever seen Star Trek? If so, you must be familiar with characters being ‘beamed’ from one spacecraft to another, or to a planet. While Star Trek is fictional, there are some concepts...

17 September, 2017 - 18:54 walter

Long Lost Golden Age - Just a Myth?

The myth and folklore of ancient cultures speak of a vast cycle of time with alternating dark and golden ages; Plato called it the Great Year. Most of us were taught that this cycle was just a myth...

Detail of Alexandre Cabanel’s ‘The Birth Of Venus.’

31 August, 2017 - 02:00 johnblack

Linking the Planets and Human Life: Venus Calendars Helped Track Pregnancy in Neolithic Greece

Back in 4000 BC women of the ancient Aegean civilization may have used a calendar tracking the movement of the planet Venus to follow their pregnancy milestones. This is an intriguing explanation for...

30 June, 2017 - 01:49 John Tuttle

Boats, Bowling and Moldy Bread: Curious Achievements Ancient Egypt Shared With the World

Ancient Egypt is one on the oldest civilizations in the world and it was also home to many of the ancient world’s greatest achievements. Without their creativity and innovative approach to the world...

1 June, 2017 - 19:03 Veronica Parkes

Epic Battle Equals Doom or Twilight for Norse Gods? Ragnarök: The Real Message in the Myth

In Norse mythology, Ragnarök encompasses a series of events that will come to pass. It foretells an epic battle which leads to the death of numerous gods, natural disasters, and the death of the...

17 February, 2017 - 19:00 Caleb Strom

Where Death Rings in the Hour: The Amazing Medieval Astronomical Clock of Prague

The technical sophistication of the Middle Ages tends to be underestimated. Near the end of the High Middle Ages, mechanical technology such as clocks and water mills, for example, were becoming...

10 January, 2017 - 00:44 Kerry Sullivan

Sumerians Looked to the Heavens as They Invented the System of Time… And We Still Use it Today

One might find it curious that we divide the hours into 60 minutes and the days into 24 hours – why not a multiple of 10 or 12? Put quite simply, the answer is because the inventors of time did not...

24 December, 2016 - 02:23 victor labate

The Roman Origins of Our Modern Calendar - Influenced by Popes, Generals, Emperors and Gods

The most widely used calendar around the world today is called the Gregorian calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century CE and was a modification of an ancient Roman...

21 October, 2016 - 00:54 Enas El Masry

Astronomically Aligned Temple in Siwa Oasis is Ancient Calendar Device

Ever wondered what would become of humanity if the power grid were to collapse, nulling every technological advancement man has ever made? Long before ego tricked humans into thinking they were the...

24 September, 2016 - 14:53 Thomas O. Mills

The Valley of the Kings and the Hopi: Constellations Send Ancient Messages

The thread of the constellations was very important to the builders of the pyramid complex. They went to great lengths to create them; carve them into solid stone and place them in the roof of the...

31 August, 2016 - 21:55 Natalia Klimczak

Passing Through the Gates of Time: The Mind, Time Travel, and St Augustine

The topic of time has always fascinated people. It also seems that since the beginning, people wanted to travel in time. Sometimes, analyses related to questions like what is time and if it is...

Pages

Myths & Legends

Lilith: Ancient Demon, Dark Deity or Sex Goddess?

Lilith: Ancient Demon, Dark Deity or Sensual Goddess?

In some sources she's described as a demon, in others she is an icon who became one of the darkest deities of the pagans. Lilith is one of the oldest known female spirits of the world. Her roots come...

The symbol of the Swastika and its 12,000-year-old history

Tracing the origins of the Serpent Cult

Slithering Through the Stories of Ancient Snake Deities: Serpent Gods of Ancient Mythology

The Real Story of Medusa and the Gorgons

The Age of the Gods: The Legendary History of Japan

Human Origins

Artist's impression of prehistoric hunters.

Dark Skin and Blue Eyes: European Hunter-Gatherers Did Not Fit with Common Representations

The popular image of the light-skinned European hunter-gatherer is not correct. DNA taken from a 7,000-year-old wisdom tooth found in Spain in 2006 shows a different story. A study of the tooth shows that the man who owned it had dark hair, blue eyes, and the dark-skinned genes of an African

The origins of human beings according to ancient Sumerian texts

Rh-Negative Blood: An Exotic Bloodline or Random Mutation?

Return of the Ancient Gods: The Resurgence of Paganism

Asherah: God’s Forgotten Wife

A Snapshot of Our Mysterious Ancestor Homo erectus

Ancient Technology

Stone of the Pregnant Woman, an example of ancient high-tech stonework in Hajar al Hibla at Baalbek in Lebanon.

The High-Tech Stonework of the Ancients: Unsolved Mysteries of Master Engineers

There are many stone artifacts from the ancient world made from the hardest stone on the planet such as granite and diorite, which have been cut and shaped with such quality, precision and accuracy that the standard explanations of their manufacture are simply inadequate.

The Beautiful and Complex Artisanship of Glass-making in the Ancient World

Ten amazing inventions from ancient times

The revolutionary invention of the wheel

Ancient Journeys: What was Travel Like for the Romans?

Boggling Bannerstones of Ancient Americans: Were They a Function of Flight or More a Flight of Fancy?

Ancient Places

One of the 40 monasteries on the Holy Mount Athos.

Mount Athos – Garden of the Mother of God and Holiest of Holy Mountains to Some

Mount Athos, known also as the Holy Mountain, is a mountain located in Greece. The site is a semi-autonomous republic of Eastern Orthodox monks and is considered to be one of the holiest places of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Were the Women of Petra More Important Than the Men?

The Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni and an unknown race with elongated skulls

The Mysterious Dropa Stones – Fact or Fiction?

Return of the Ancient Gods: The Resurgence of Paganism

Sacred Powers Fade Along With the Rock Art of the San People at Ha Baroana

Opinion

The astronomical ceiling at the Pronaos, Detail of the first Band west from the center. From left to right: two wind creatures (the winged ram with four heads personifies the south wind), the snake- and frog-headed eight goddesses and gods of the Ogdoad who ruled the cosmos before the creation of the world and Osiris seated on a throne sails across the sky as personification of the full moon accompanied by the seated goddesses Nephtys (left) and Isis on the right (Maat stands near the bow of the ship). Siri

Changing Colors and Scampering Across the Night Sky: What Did the Ancients Say about Sirius?

In Egypt, Sirius was the Star of Isis, Isis being the companion and rescuer of the god Osiris. In a very deep way, Osiris was Egypt.

Cracking the Code to Discover Ancient Tarot Symbolism and Forgotten Universal Knowledge

The Secret Strategic Plans of Darius the Great

The Secrets of the Kabbalists Garden

Alchemy and Generating Lifeforce —Global Temples Made in the Shape of Lingams: Shaivite Bull Cult Part II

From Green Man to Bull Son, The Universal Shaivite Bull Cult – Part I

Our Mission

At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained.

The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe.

We’re the only Pop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out-of-the-box perspectives.

By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings.