Once much of Eurasia was dominated by Neanderthals, our archaic human ancestors. And the extinction of Neanderthals is one of the great mysteries in science. An evolutionary biologist and...
The growth of ancient farming / agriculture led to unprecedented cooperation in human societies, a team of researchers, has found, but it also led to a spike in violence, an insight that offers...
Scientists have proven historical queens were “38.8%” more likely to declare war than kings. When Canadian cognitive psychologist and author Steven Pinker claimed men instigated “almost all the world...
Sark , the tiny Channel Island with a deeply criminal pirate history is once again “awash” with crooks, according to a police report. At a mere 2.10 square miles (5.44 square kilometers), with only...
The Inca Empire was the largest and most extensive ancient society that ever lived in the Americas. However, government of such a vast community is not without its issues. A new report examines...
Some 9,000 years ago, residents of one of the world's first large farming communities were also among the first humans to experience some of the perils of modern urban living. Scientists studying the...
In a dark crypt that lies beneath an active parish church in England, the remains of thousands of men, women and children who died in medieval Britain are stuffed into crates and stacked on wooden...
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute via Science Daily Buried alive. Butchered. Decapitated. Hacked. Mutilated. Killed. Archaeologist Samuel K. Lothrop did not obfuscate when describing what he...
By Kathleen McGarvey / University of Rochester Our popular ideas of the chivalric world are off base, according to historian Richard Kaeuper. The gallant knights on horseback and banners unfurling...
The Romans were not afraid of getting graphic if it would incite fear and compliance in their enemies. X-rays and laser analysis of Roman carvings reveal that disturbing images of captive and...
Did war exist in Neolithic times? There is some controversy surrounding this idea, however it is known that violence took place. Archaeologists debate on exactly how much this happened, the nature...
Healed over fractured skulls and limbs and a dislocated elbow – these are signs that archaeologists are interpreting as evidence of ritual violence having taken place in Peru about 3,200 years ago...
A new study suggests that medieval London was notorious for its excessive violence. The overall findings suggest that violence affected many parts of medieval London, although predictably it...
Wendy Doniger / The Conversation Just this past June, at a national meeting of various Hindu organizations in India, a popular preacher, Sadhvi Saraswati, suggested that those who consumed beef...
In 1600 B.C., there was no Internet, no television, and no printing press – how then could someone spread a message? For the ancient peoples of northern Peru, the answer was to carve reliefs into...
There is significant variation in how different cultures over time have dealt with the dead. Yet, at a very basic level, funerals in the Sonoran Desert thousands of years ago were similar to what...