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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

Discovery of Two Boat Burials Changes Viking Timeline
12 July, 2017 - 01:58 aprilholloway

Discovery of Two Boat Burials Changes Viking Timeline

According to accepted accounts, the Viking Age began in 793 AD off the coast of northern England when the first raid of Scandinavian warriors is recorded to have taken place. The Vikings emerged...
Sip Like a Sumerian: Ancient Beer Recipe Recreated from Millennia-Old Cuneiform Tablets
11 July, 2017 - 01:52 aprilholloway

Sip Like a Sumerian: Ancient Beer Recipe Recreated from Millennia-Old Cuneiform Tablets

Nowadays, people drink beer for its good taste and feel-good effects. However, thousands of years ago, beer played a much more central role in society. The Sumerian word for beer appears in many...
Ruins of Pompeii seen from the above with a drone, with the Vesuvius in the background
10 July, 2017 - 01:57 aprilholloway

A Diet of Delicacies for the People of Pompeii Included Giraffe and Sea Urchin

Several years ago, surprising discoveries were made in a study , which drew on the findings of a sizable excavation of an area of Pompeii. The study, which was presented to the Archaeological...
Main: A diver searches the Relitto del Pozzino shipwreck (Not Only Chemistry). Inset: One of the medicinal tablets. Image via PNAS/Giachi et. al.
9 July, 2017 - 01:55 aprilholloway

Scientists Learn Ingredients of 2,000-Year-Old Roman Pills Found in Ancient Shipwreck

Discoveries of ancient shipwrecks are always exciting, but a small number of them are truly unique in the artifacts they yield, offering up items from the past that have been preserved for centuries...
New Language Spawned in Remote Australian Town and Only 350 People Can Speak It
6 July, 2017 - 22:53 aprilholloway

New Language Spawned in Remote Australian Town and Only 350 People Can Speak It

It is not every day that a new and unique language is discovered, but this finding really has anthropologists stumped. In a tiny, remote Aboriginal community in outback Australia, an American...
Painting of Father General Saint Francis Borgia, SJ, performing an exorcism, by Goya.
6 July, 2017 - 01:57 aprilholloway

Modern Possessions: What Evil is Behind the Resurgence in Demand for Exorcisms?

Less than five years ago, a new army of exorcists was created by the Roman Catholic Church. They were trained to deal with the “unprecedented rise” in requests for help in battling evil spirits. The...
Reconstruction of the face of Ötzi
4 July, 2017 - 22:56 aprilholloway

When Your Ancestral Forefather Is a Mummy: 19 Descendants of 5,300-Year-Old Ötzi the Iceman Identified In Austria

Those who are lucky enough to have well-kept family records may be able to trace their history back several generations. Some can even track family connections going back a few centuries. But what if...
A Jewish prayer shawl adorned with ritual tassels that contain tekhelet-dyed threads.
2 July, 2017 - 22:50 aprilholloway

Piece of Ancient Fabric Revealed True Source of Biblical Blue Dye Lost for 1,300 Years

An ancient blue dye, known as tekhelet, once adorned the precious robes of kings, priests, and high-ranking Jews. But around two millennia ago, this highly-valued commodity became lost to the pages...
A photograph of the 14th Dalai Lama
10 April, 2017 - 23:00 aprilholloway

Chinese Government Wants to Decide the Dalai Lama’s Next Reincarnation

The Chinese Government has said the Dalai Lama must reincarnate into someone that has their endorsement. The remarks were made during the Dalai Lama’s controversial visit to Tawang, an Indian border...
Room with a Pew: ‘Champing’ Lets You Sleepover in Ancient Churches
9 February, 2017 - 18:55 aprilholloway

Room with a Pew: ‘Champing’ Lets You Sleepover in Ancient Churches

Imagine being handed a key to an ancient church that is immersed in history and having the place to yourself for a whole weekend – this is the experience now open to church campers or ‘champers’...
2,800-Year-Old Cursed Assyrian Stele Brings Bad Luck for Police Commissioner
22 January, 2017 - 22:51 aprilholloway

2,800-Year-Old Cursed Assyrian Stele Brings Bad Luck for Police Commissioner

Whoever discards this image from the presence of Salmanu puts it into another place, whether he throws it into water or covers it with earth or brings and places it into a taboo house where it is...
Why Isn’t This Map in the History Books?
20 January, 2017 - 19:17 aprilholloway

Why Isn’t This Map in the History Books?

By the age of 10, most children in the United States have been taught all 50 states that make up the country. But centuries ago, the land that is now the United States was a very different place...
24,000-Year-Old Butchered Bones Found in Canada Change Known History of North America
16 January, 2017 - 14:47 aprilholloway

24,000-Year-Old Butchered Bones Found in Canada Change Known History of North America

Archaeologists have found a set of butchered bones dating back 24,000 years in Bluefish Caves, Yukon, Canada, which are the oldest signs of human habitation ever discovered in North America. Until...
Mummified Head of Newborn Baby with Extremely Elongated Skull Found in Peru
13 January, 2017 - 17:49 aprilholloway

Mummified Head of Newborn Baby with Extremely Elongated Skull Found in Peru

The mummified elongated head of a newborn baby belonging to the ancient Paracas culture has been found in Peru. The finding is suggestive of a genetically elongated skull, since the process of...
A mummified three-fingered hand with eight inch fingers has been found in a Peruvian tunnel in the desert. While first inspection may lead one to conclude that it is nothing more than an imaginative man-made creation, examination by a physician in Cusco, Peru, revealed that it is composed of skin and bone, with six bones in each finger.
9 January, 2017 - 21:51 aprilholloway

Bizarre 3-Fingered Mummified Hand Found in A Tunnel in the Peruvian Desert

A mummified three-fingered hand with eight inch fingers has been found in a Peruvian tunnel in the desert. While first inspection may lead one to conclude that it is nothing more than an imaginative...
Mexico Sees Resurgence of Pulque, Ancient Alcoholic Beverage of Mesoamerica
8 December, 2016 - 03:47 aprilholloway

Mexico Sees Resurgence of Pulque, Ancient Alcoholic Beverage of Mesoamerica

Mexico is seeing a renewed interest in the traditional alcoholic beverage known as pulque, a milky drink made from the sap of the agave, whose origins go back thousands of years. Although the ancient...

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