One of the key reasons that the study of history is vital is to ensure we learn from our past mistakes in order to improve. While this is true in all aspects of life, it is especially true for...
A 1,000-year-old “Boleslaw sword” (i.e., from the glorious reign of Boleslaw the Brave; lived 967-1025 AD) dated to the beginning of the 11th century and believed to have belonged to a knight working...
Hoplite comes from the Greek word “ ta hopla ,” which means “tool” or “equipment,” and was the name given to legions of citizen soldiers who were tasked with protecting their territories from outside...
Anyone interested in the history of warfare or weaponry should make sure to look at ancient Egyptian weapons and how the Egyptian armies utilized their technological superiority. Whilst most famous...
A scourge of early medieval Europe, the Vikings were a fearsome group. The very thought of a Viking sword slashing before you conjures images of fearless warriors raiding and pillaging villages,...
The medieval pike, around 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) in weight and just under 5 meters (16.4 feet) in length, was a weapon supposedly invented in Turin, Italy in 1327 AD. However, its history was...
Excavations of Bronze Age “warrior graves” throughout Europe have nearly always led to the recovery of copper alloy Bronze Age daggers. However, their function has been poorly understood. It has long...
Archaeologists have for a long time unearthed clay pots in medieval Jerusalem. But now, a new study shows that some of them were likely ‘ancient hand grenades’. Residues sampled from inside a...
In last week’s top stories; features on the magic mushrooms of the Aztecs, and their devastating weapons arsenal, a very lucky 10-year-old, a tooled-up Roman mercenary, the world’s first known...
The Aztecs were a native Mesoamerican culture that thrived in the forests, jungles, and plains of Central Mexico from 1300 until 1521, when their capital Tenochtitlan was seized by Hernán Cortés and...
If you find the term ‘bollock dagger’ too crude, you could rightfully call this weapon a ‘kidney dagger.’ But that’s how the Victorians attempted to mask the true nature of this horrendous invention...
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in southwest Alaska is renowned for the fact that no roads lead there, quite literally! Accessible only by boat or floatplanes, this vast expanse of gorgeous...
When nations go to war, the most tragic aspect is the disruption and annihilation of civilian lives. International media has been reporting the robust resistance put up by Ukrainian citizens in many...
The University of Nottingham is leading a collaborative study that aims to identify the place of origin of iron Viking weapons, using their chemical fingerprints. For example, Viking weapons made...
Fittingly, archaeologists who explore landscapes exposed by glacial melt are known as glacial archaeologists. In 2018, a team of these specialized experts were dispatched to the ice-covered mountains...
After analyzing artifacts collected from three locations in the Saitama Prefecture, which is located just north of Tokyo, a Japanese archaeologist has announced findings that shed new light on the...