All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

trade

Cowrie shell money. Source: tradol / Adobe.

Paying With Shells: Cowrie Shell Money Is One of the Oldest Currencies Still Collected Today

Shell money is a form of currency that was used in various parts of the world, including Asia , Africa, and Oceania . This type of money makes use of a type of marine snail known as cowrie and...
Somalia: The Ancient Lost Kingdom of Punt is Finally Found?

Somalia: The Ancient Lost Kingdom of Punt is Finally Found?

Tourists from all over the world are welcomed in Upper Egypt to admire temples and learn about the fascinating history of ancient pharaohs. However, the pharaohs’ true origins are not told and our...
Old mosque of Kaole.

Are the Old Tombs of Kaole, Tanzania, Really Able To Heal?

Situated on the beautiful east coast of Africa, Tanzania is a fascinating country with a rich culture and no shortage of historic sites on its Indian Ocean coast. Kaole, an abandoned town and...
African Empires, The Mali Empire.

The Mali Empire: The Rise of the Richest Civilization in West Africa

The Mali Empire (known also as the Manding Empire or Manden Kurufa) was a state that dominated West Africa between the 13th and 17th centuries. At its height of power during the 14th century, the...
Ruins of Gedi Palace

Could The Gedi Ruins Be Haunted By Jins?

Historic cities throughout the world have always intrigued experts and travelers and one of the most fascinating is the abandoned city known as Gedi on the coast of Kenya. The ruins of Gedi are...
Whole cloves.

World’s Oldest Clove? Here’s What an Ancient Sri Lankan Discovery Says About the Early Spice Trade

The history of the spice trade conjures up exotic images of caravans plying the Silk Road in storied antiquity as well as warfare between European powers vying for control of what, pound for pound,...
Illustration representing a ‘Bronze Age workshop in the 9 to 10th Centuries BCE’. A circular economy can be traced back as far as the Bronze Age, or perhaps earlier.

Circular Economy: How the Ancients Pioneered the Idea of Recycling Waste

Maikel Kuijpers / The Conversation The circular economy is typically seen as the progressive alternative to our wasteful linear economy, where raw materials are used to make the products that feed...
‘Invincible’ a modern depiction of a battle between Rus and Khazars.

The Khazars: A Forgotten Medieval Empire that Ruled the Northern Caucasus

"The Khazar people were an unusual phenomenon for Medieval times. Surrounded by savage and nomadic tribes, they had all the advantages of the developed countries: structured government, vast and...
Viking long-distance travel was made possible by tar.

Viking Raids and Long-distance Oceanic Explorations Were All Enabled by Tar

What exactly inspired the 8th century Vikings of Scandinavia to sharpen their farming tools, to build ships and conquer Europe, has long been debated. However, a new study all but closes the case...
Modern Mongol horsemen at the eagle festival. Life may have been tranquil for hunters during the time of Pax Mongolica too.

The Pax Mongolica: When the Mongols Brought Peace to Europe and Asia

The Pax Mongolica (translated from Latin to mean ‘Mongol Peace’) refers to a period in history when a large part of Europe and Asia was under Mongol control as a result of the military campaigns of...
Rolled up parchment with information of payment to William Weston from Henry VII

A Timeworn Scroll Reveals King Henry VII’s Interests in New World Colonization

In AD 1499 England launched its very first English-led expedition to "Terra Nova” (New World) and now researchers studying a 16th century scroll have found King Henry VII awarded William Weston, one...

Thousands of Artifacts Emerge from Lost Ancient Viking City of Sea-Masters

As the world awaits the second half of season five of History Channel’s epic show Vikings , which will premiere on November 28, 2018, archaeologists in Ribe, Denmark have been excavating a real life...
A 17th centruy Native American Fort has been found in Connecticut (Representative image)

Long-lost Native American Fort of the Norwalk Discovered in Connecticut

There has been a remarkable discovery in Connecticut in the United States that could change the way that we view Native North American Society. A fort believed to have been built by a tribe in the...
Glass artifacts from Samarra representing the different compositional groups

Firm Evidence of Early Glass Industry in Ninth-century Palace City of Samarra

The palace-city of Samarra, capital of the former Abbasid Caliphate, was home to an advanced industry of glass production and trade, according to a study published August 22, 2018 in the open-access...
Left: Upper jaw bones of a walrus, with tusks removed. Right: an elaborately-carved ecclesiastical walrus ivory plaque.

Lost Norse of Greenland Fueled the Medieval Ivory Trade, Ancient Walrus DNA Suggests

The Icelandic Sagas tell of Erik the Red: exiled for murder in the late 10th century he fled to southwest Greenland, establishing its first Norse settlement. The colony took root, and by the mid-12th...
Pillar dollar, 8 reals and minted in Mexico. At the top there is a small hole, probably used to sew the coin into clothing.

Black Market Bounty: Experts Find Coins Sewn into Clothes at Shipwreck

Maritime archaeologists have made an astonishing discovery off the Kent coast in England. While investigating an almost three-hundred-year-old shipwreck they found some coins that had been sewn into...
Barter, Bills and Banknotes: The 5,000 Year History of Money

From Barter to Bitcoins: The 5,000 Year History of Money

Money has come a long way in 5,000 years. While people once bartered for the items they desired, today people are buying and trading in cryptocurrencies like the bitcoin. In ancient times, people did...
Ötzi Memorial, Austria (GFDL), Ötzi Arrow (Wierer et al), Ötzi Reconstruction (CC BY SA 3.0 )

The Final Days of Otzi: Stone Tools Reveal What the Iceman Endured

Stone tools found with a 5,300-year-old frozen mummy from Northern Italy reveal how alpine Copper Age communities lived, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ursula...
Tintagel Castle.

Are Ancient Inscriptions Found at Tintagel Evidence of King Arthur’s Presence?

The Guardian Newspaper has reported a remarkable find in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. A slab of slate has been discovered during an extraction at the famous Tintagel historic site on the Atlantic...
Aztec double headed serpent turquoise chest ornament, British Museum.

True Origin of Ancient Turquoise Outstretches Previous Beliefs

New research published in the journal Science Advances overturns more than a century of thought about the source of turquoise used by ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica, the vast region that...
Detail of Stela 1, Fragment 1, front. La Corona, Guatemala.

Maya Snake King Dynasty Used Local Gods to Gain Authority in Rural Guatemala

Taking political control is often a violent affair, but tactics, knowledge of local customs and beliefs, and trickery can also be used to get an ambitious leader’s foot in the door. New research on...
Illustration of a Minoan ship

3,500-Year-Old Advanced Minoan Technology Was ‘Lost Art’ Not Seen Again Until 1950s

The Minoans employed advanced construction methods using natural materials to create seaworthy composite ship hulls which would not be out-of-place in a modern-day marina. The construction method...
A detail from a silk samite shirt made by the nomadic Sogdian people of central Asia.

Ancient Silk Shirt from a Fallen Empire is Set to Fetch a Bundle at Auction

An exceptional silk shirt made by a skilled Sogdian craftsman is going up for auction at the end of April. The honey-golden color of the silk is decorated with ducks wearing flowing scarves while...
A Mayan zoomorphic ceramic of a chihuahua with a corn cob in its mouth.

Corn Dog Was on the Mayan Menu but Was Very Different to Today’s Handheld Snack

A new study shows that animal domestication was not only a question of food for the ancient Maya. Remains of a variety of species, including small dogs, large cats, and some turkeys, suggest the Maya...

Pages