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April Holloway

April Holloway is a Co-Owner, Editor and Writer of Ancient Origins. For privacy reasons, she has previously written on Ancient Origins under the pen name April Holloway, but is now choosing to use her real name, Joanna Gillan .

Joanna completed a Bachelor of Science (Psychology) degree in Australia and published research in the field of Educational Psychology. She has a rich and varied career, ranging from teaching children with autism in an early intervention program, owning and operating an online English teaching business, working as a research and project officer in the office of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall and assistant in the office of Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as co-owning a website design and development company.

Joanna co-founded Ancient Origins with her husband Dr Ioannis Syrigos. Together they immersed themselves in their personal passion for ancient history, mythology and human origins.  She loves learning about and experiencing other cultures and has spent time living in Australia, UK, Greece, Ecuador and Ireland and travelling to hundreds of historic sites around the world.

Joanna has written over 1,000 articles for Ancient Origins, some of which have been mentioned in the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, Peru Weekly, International Business Times, Spiegel and The Daily Mail. She has contributed as a guest writer for other media organizations, including The Epoch Times and iSpectrum Magazine, and has been interviewed on historical subjects on ten radio shows, including the BBC. She has upcoming radio and TV appearances in Ireland on Newstalk and RTE’s Today Show.

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Posts

Devetashka – Bulgarian Cave

Devetashka - the Bulgarian Cave with 70,000 Years of Human Habitation

Devetashka cave is an enormous cave in Bulgaria, which has provided shelter for groups of humans since the late Paleolithic era, and continuously for tens of thousands of years since then. Now...
Lapedo Child

The Controversial Lapedo Child – A Neanderthal / Human Hybrid?

Buried for millennia in the rear of a rock-shelter in the Lapedo Valley 85 miles north of Lisbon, Portugal, archaeologists uncovered the bones of a four-year-old child, comprising the first complete...
Megalithic Atlit Yam

The 9,000-year-old underground megalithic settlement of Atlit Yam

Not far off the coast of the village of Atlit in the Mediterranean Sea, near Haifa in Israel, lies the submerged ruins of the ancient Neolithic site of Atlit Yam. The prehistoric settlement, which...
The Ancient Ruins of Salamis

The Ancient Ruins of Salamis, the Once Thriving Port City of Cyprus

Ancient cities can be a window into the past of human society. It is difficult to imagine a thriving city during different times, without the advantages and conveniences of modern technology, but...
Resurrected Judean date palm in Israel

Extinct Tree Resurrected from Ancient Seeds is now a Dad

Ten years since the Judean Date Palm was miraculously brought back to life following the chance discovery of seeds in the 2,000-year-old ruins of Masada, the male date palm tree named Methuselah, the...
Ancient Hominids Face Reconstruction

The Faces of Ancient Hominids Brought to Life in Remarkable Detail

Several years ago, a team of scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, set out to put a human face to ancient hominid species that once walked the Earth. Using...
A compilation of lost cities that have since been found.

Ten Legendary Lost Cities that Have Emerged from the Past

The story of Atlantis is one of the most renowned and enduring tales of a lost city, said to have been swallowed up by the sea and lost forever. Yet, the story of Atlantis is not unique, as other...
Ica Stones - Peru

Do the Ica Stones prove that mankind coexisted with dinosaurs and had advanced technology?

It is a rare object that stimulates the curiosity of archaeologists, ancient astronaut theorists, and creationists all at the same time, but the Ica stones have done just that. The Ica stones refer...
Members of Hatshepsut's trading expedition to the mysterious 'Land of Punt' from this pharaoh's elegant mortuary temple at Deir El-Bahri.

Will We Ever Discover the Elusive Land of Punt?

The Land of Punt was an important location thousands of years ago. Ancient Egyptian writing suggests Punt was a rich location that prospered between 2450 BC and 1155 BC. People from the famous...
: Human teeth from Qesem Cave. Credit: Prof. Israel Hershkovitz, Tel Aviv University

Ancient teeth reveal evidence of 400,000 year-old manmade pollution in Israel

A multi-national team of researchers found the first known case of manmade pollution in a cave in Israel. The evidence was found in the hardened dental plaque of 400,000-year-old teeth, which had...
2,000-year-old Bronze Sword Unearthed in China

Tombs, Treasures, and 2,000-year-old Bronze Sword Unearthed in China

In 2015, archaeologists in China made a spectacular discovery at a construction site in Zhoukou City, Henan Province – a tomb complex containing 21 ancient tombs filled with treasures including a 2,...
Mummified buddhist master Liuquan. Statue (L), CT scan (R). (Photos: Drents Museum)

The mummified monk inside a Buddha statue

A study on a Chinese Buddha statue carried out in the Netherlands revealed a startling discovery - the statue contains the mummified remains of a Buddhist monk. Irish Archaeology reports that the...
The newly-discovered underground causeway leading to the Great Pyramid of Giza.

How the Causeway for the Great Pyramid of Egypt Was Found After Decades of Searching

Dozens of foreign missions carried out over three decades using the latest high-tech instruments failed to find the causeway of the Great Pyramid of Giza. But in 2015, unexpectedly, the passage was...
The body of Shinnyokai Shonin, found in Oaminaka, Japan

Mummified Remains of Monk, Still in Lotus Position, Found in Mongolia - Some Claim He Was Alive!

In January 2015 it was announced that the remains of a Buddhist monk in a meditative position, estimated to be around 200 years old, were discovered in Mongolia. The monk was found to be in a seated...
2,000-Year-Old Scorched Scrolls of Herculaneum

Secrets in 2,000-Year-Old Scorched Scrolls of Herculaneum to be Revealed with New Tech

An enormous wealth of knowledge locked within hundreds of ancient papyrus scrolls scorched by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, may now be revealed thanks to new technology which may enable...
Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard, 1718

Medical supplies found aboard the wreck of Blackbeard's flagship

Over the last few years, researchers have gained some valuable insight on what life was like aboard Blackbeard’s most famous ship. In January 2015, marine archaeologists recovered medical equipment...

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