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A sunset at Stonehenge, perhaps not the Winter Solstice. Source: Nicholas/Adobe Stock

Stonehenge Activates On the Winter Solstice Sunset, Not Sunrise

Today, as the northern hemisphere experiences the Winter Solstice, English archaeoastronomers remind us that Stonehenge was built to honor the sunset on this crucial date, and not just the Summer...
Winter Solstice at Newgrange Tomb in Ireland.	 Source: Declan Hillman/Adobe Stock

The Winter Solstice at Seven Amazing Megalithic Sites

The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the annual cycle centered around 21st December; a turning point of the year venerated by ancient cultures worldwide. Accurately built...
The Inca sun temple or Qorikancha in Cusco city during Inti Raymi, hence the solar disk. Source: SL-Photography/Adobe Stock

Ancient Astro-Architecture of the June 21 Winter/Summer Solstice

Even the most well-read history buffs among us often go cold when they read about ancient cultures calling today, 21 June - the “winter solstice”. Let’s delve into solstice mechanics, and explore why...
Medieval knight in a winter blizzard. Source: brunogm / Adobe Stock.

Chilling battles: How Medieval Knights Fought in the Freezing Cold (Video)

The clanking of metal and the sight of knights riding on horseback with their full suits of armor is a familiar image from medieval times. But what was it really like to wear such heavy and bulky...
Inside Egypt's oldest known example of a tomb aligned with the winter solstice. Source: University of Malaga

Oldest Egyptian Tomb is Aligned with the Winter Solstice

Precisely oriented to the rising sun of the winter solstice, researchers have found a tomb in the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa ( Aswan ) that registered the entire solar cycle related to rebirth...
Overview of Karahan Tepe with the Winter Solstice alignment.	Source: Author provided

Karahan Tepe: Stunning New Discovery of Winter Solstice Sunrise Alignment

A recently excavated archaeological site in the Tek Tek Mountains in the Şanlıurfa Province of Anatolia is shedding new light on the ingenuity and astonishing creativity of the Neolithic people from...
A Cycle of Life and Death: Slavic Goddesses Morana and Vesna

A Cycle of Life and Death: Slavic Goddesses Morana and Vesna

Forever intertwined, Morana, goddess of winter and death, and Vesna, goddess of spring and rebirth, could not exist without each other. However, they could not possibly exist in the same place at the...
Snow Snake, The Ancient Native American Winter Sport, Gets Popular

Snow Snake, The Ancient Native American Winter Sport, Gets Popular

On Friday, February 26 2021, a city park in Madison, Wisconsin will host a unique sporting competition . Newcomers and experienced practitioners alike will be given the opportunity to play snow snake...
The Route to Secular Art through the Kwakiutl Hamatsa Dance

The Route to Secular Art through the Kwakiutl Hamatsa Dance

“Magic preceded art, art served magic, and art was then liberated from magic.” This was among a number of sometimes controversial assertions made by Scottish anthropologist James Frazer in his 19 th...
New Evidence Suggests Early Humans HIBERNATED In Caves, Like Bears

New Evidence Suggests Early Humans HIBERNATED In Caves, Like Bears

Did Stone Age Neanderthals wait out the coldest days of winter snuggled up safely beneath furs deep inside caves, in a state of suspended animation for months while the winds raged, and the snow...
Remembering Winter in Kashmir: Shaping A Collective Memory of the Past

Remembering Winter in Kashmir: Shaping A Collective Memory of the Past

During nineteenth and first-half-of-the-twentieth century, a popular proverb on every Kashmiri’s tongue was Sountas na keneras, Te hardas na neeles , meaning “plough the soil in spring even if it is...
Chichén Itzá’s shadow revealed during the spring equinox on Kukulcán.

Chichen Itza's Shadows: Unexpected Light Shed on Ancient Maya

What we see is not always what we expect, whether from nature or man-made. This is often true with archaeological remains of cities or human settlement, when new discoveries shed unexpected light on...
December 21, the longest night and shortest day of the year, is a special event at Newgrange in County Meath, Ireland. This photo was shot August 24, 2014.

Winter Solstice: Stone Age People in Ireland built a Fantastic Monument to the New Year

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...
Artists impression of Norse giantedd , Skaði or Skadi

Skaði, The Norse ‘Giantess’ with a Godly Vendetta

In Norse mythology, Skaði (also anglicized as Skadi, Skade, or Skathi) is a giantess and goddess. She is most often associated with winter. Apart from that, Skaði is also connected with hunting,...
A pilgrim in the snow (captblack76 / Adobe Stock)

Challenge Accepted: 6 Months as a Medieval Hermit in Russia

In our crowded modern cities, there are some who wish that they could live by themselves in a remote wilderness area sometime in the past. They yearn for a time when life was, at least supposedly,...
Italian Archaeologists Find a rare solar observatory hewn into rock to highlight the winter solstice

Italian Archaeologists Find a Rare Solar Observatory Hewn Into Rock to Highlight the Winter Solstice

A group of friends surveying World War II bunkers in Sicily, Italy, uncovered something much older—a rock on a hill with a circular hole that was apparently carved into it through which the winter...
5,000-Year-Old Calendar Rock Found in Sicily Excites Archaeologists

5,000-Year-Old Calendar Rock Found in Sicily Excites Archaeologists

A team of researchers exploring the southern coast of Sicily have found an intriguing prehistoric calendar rock. After conducting some empirical observations, they discovered the rising sun of the...
‘Festa di Pales, o L'estate’ by Joseph-Benoît Suvée

The Busy Romans Needed a Mid-Winter Break Too … and it Lasted for 24 days

In the Doctor Who Christmas Special from 2010, Michael Gambon’s Scrooge-like character remarks that across different cultures and worlds people come together to mark the midpoint of winter. It is, he...
The Holly and the Ivy: How Pagan Practices Found Their Way into Christmas

The Holly and the Ivy: How Pagan Practices Found Their Way into Christmas

Every year, almost without thinking about it, we incorporate certain plant species into out Christmas celebrations. The most obvious is the Christmas tree, linked historically in England to Prince...
Odin Riding Forth on the Cover of "Legends and Lore"

Gold Pendant Found in Denmark Depicts Norse God Odin, and May Have Been a Sacrifice to Avert the Disastrous Weather of 536 AD

Odin, the high god of Norse mythology, rode his eight-legged horse Sleipnir through the nine worlds dispensing ecstasy to all those who invoked him. Now an image of a man with a horse depicted on a...
Beira, Queen of Winter

Beira, Queen of Winter

In Scottish folklore, Beira is said to be the goddess of winter. According to some sources, she is known also as the Cailleach, a name which is said to be translated literally into English from...
Painting of Snow Maiden (1899) by Viktor M. Vasnetsov.

The Snow Maiden of Slavic Folklore: Magical Characters of Winter from Russia

Ded Moroz, translated to (Grand)father Frost, or Old Man Frost, is a legendary Slavic character that makes his rounds every New Year’s Eve. Along with his companion, Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), he...
Ded Moroz and Snegurochka in the sleigh

Meet Father Frost and his Fairy Goddaughter Snow Maiden: Magical Characters of Winter from Russia

Ded Moroz, translated to (Grand)father Frost, or Old Man Frost, is a legendary Slavic character that makes his rounds every New Year’s Eve. Along with his companion, Snegurochka, he brings delight to...
Mithras - Sun God

Shab-e-Yalda - an ancient winter solstice celebration that commemorates the triumph of Mithra

For Iranians around the world, the winter solstice is not just the longest night of the year, it is also the time to commemorate the triumph of Mithra , the Sun God, over darkness in an ancient...