Constantinople stood against sieges and attacks for many centuries, until finally new technology—the big cannons of the Ottoman Empire —brought down the Byzantine Empire’s capital. The fall of...
It’s sort of like the evil eye , but in reverse: the good eye, brought on by an application of lead-based kohl makeup that was unknowingly poisonous to ancient Egyptians but also had anti-microbial...
Tomorrow, 22 December, the Irish will celebrate the Winter Solstice as they did thousands of years ago – at Newgrange, a 5,000-year-old megalithic monument into which the sun shines at sunrise on the...
Researchers say that claims of the Justinianic plague as a “mass killer” are wrong. It certainly had some impact, but they assert that plague outbreak, which began in the 6th century, didn’t bring...
In 2016, an amateur treasure hunter with a metal detector turned up a medieval gold ring that was set with a sapphire stone in Sherwood Forest—haunt of the legendary (or real) Robin Hood. Experts...
Prehistoric Europeans told legends about powerful, mysterious female makers of European stone tombs called dolmens and cromlechs. On the one hand, they were said to bestow riches and fertility on...
The long reach of the Roman Empire was felt in southern Turkey , where in the town of Anazarbus the Romans erected a triumphal arch after defeating a Parthian force in the first century BC. And...
Archaeologists believe that a burnt boar scapula found in the ruins of Makimuku in Japan in 2015 may tie the ancient shaman Queen Himiko and leaders of the Yamataikoku ruling establishment with the...
Excavations at the Zultepec-Tecoaque archaeological site in Tlaxcala, Mexico, have revealed that indigenous Acolhuas peoples captured a caravan of 550 conquistadors and their allies in 1520, kept...
Over the last few years, studies have suggested that a Bronze Age teen ‘priestess’ and an elite ‘queen-like’ woman found in Jutland, Denmark were travelers who journeyed to their final resting places...
The Battle of Towton was the largest, longest battle on English soil. Thousands of people died in the Wars of the Roses, but this10-hour battle was particularly deadly. It’s believed the day of...
Farmers in China may have domesticated Asian leopard cats during the Neolithic era, more than 5,000 years ago. This is a different species than the only living type of domestic cat today, the Felis...
Ancient Rome borrowed from ancient Greece for architecture, among other things, but then innovated and invented its own architectural features and building types. Roman architecture made a statement...
King Edward III of England had his eyes set on the French throne in the 14 th century AD. He was a descendant of French kings on his mother’s side and apparently was not satisfied with just being the...
Fourteenth century English Queen Isabella, the She-Wolf of France aka the Rebel Queen, was a complex, violent person who drank heavily but who was charitable to the poor and well-liked by her people...
King Henry II of England ruled in the 12th century from Ireland to the Pyrenees, was warlike, given to anger, and was educated in law and languages. He was the first king of the Plantagenet dynasty...