Northern Britain, a fluctuating frontier area during the Roman occupation of Britain (43-410 AD), represented a tussle between Iron Age communities and the centralizing authority and power of the Roman state.

Legend has it that the now Christian saints Chrysanthus and Daria, who lived in the third century AD, converted thousands of fellow Romans to the Christian faith. This resulted in their arrest and attempted torture by Roman 

Today, the red carpet is associated with VIPs, dignitaries, the heads of state, celebrities, film festivals. It conjures up images of flashing of camera lights and paparazzi, glitzy gowns and make-up

‘The Sandman’ a comic book written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics from January 1989 to March 1996, is considered one of the very best modern insights into sleep and dreams in the ancient world. 

Near the entrance to Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA is an imposing butte that had sacred significance to the ancestral Pueblo culture, who inhabited Chaco Canyon up until about 1150 AD. 

Over 1,000 years ago, an esoteric sect known as Shingon – which combined elements from Buddhism, Old Shinto, Taoism, and other religions – developed a horrifying practice of self-mummification of the living body. 

Herod the Great was renowned for his ambitious projects and extravagant tastes. Now a major discovery has come regarding these projects, from of all places, his bathtub.

​The use of private duels as a way of settling questions of honor spread through Europe from Italy in the end of the 15th century, though the institutional practice was much older. 

A 4,300-year-old tomb has been discovered in the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara, which is that of an Egyptian dignitary who was responsible for guarding top secret documents of the pharaohs.

The Maya loved their bling and often decorated their teeth with gemstones. But maybe these weren’t all just for show. A new study conducted by the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico

Since the evolution of Homo sapiens approximately 1.8 million years ago, humans have advanced in many aspects of life, especially art. According to historians, the earliest record of humans engaging in the creation 

Excavations that concluded in 2020 have confirmed an ancient mine in eastern Wyoming that was allegedly used by humans to produce red ochre 13,000 years ago! It is now officially the oldest known mine of any sort in the Americas

Believe it or not, but ideas of artificial intelligence and automata were alive and well over 2,000 years ago within Greek mythology. The myth of Talos (‘Τάλως’)—the first robot-like creature in mythology

Spearheads are often seen as representing the ‘highest tradition of the Bronze Age’. This statement is exemplified by the discovery of a Bronze Age spear at a Thames Water sewage works in Cirencester,

The Chiapas branch of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has just reported a notable find in the heavily excavated Palenque Archaeological Zone in the southern part of the country, 

Human beings have been enjoying the soft comfort of pillows for the last 2,000 years. But before this feather-filled luxury, people were accustomed to resting their heads on pillow-like headrests made of stone.

elieved to be about 8,000 years old, two US kayakers recovered the human skull last September in a river about 110 miles west of Minneapolis. After they spotted the unnatural shaped object on a riverbank, 

At the beginning of the 20th century, a team of international paleontologists prepared to excavate a cave located in a limestone formation known as Dragon-Bone Hill, a few hours outside of Beijing. The Cave of Zhoukoudian had traditionally been the haunt of dragon bone collectors, eager to find remnants of

Unlike Aristotle who viewed animals as irrational creatures with lower moral standing, sent to earth solely to serve humans, Pythagoras regarded them highly and proposed that animals had reincarnated human souls. 

Archaeologists from Historic England and the Cornwall Archaeology Unit (CAU) have uncovered proof that a standing stone circle once stood inside Castilly Henge, a Neolithic-period earthwork found near Bodmin,

​A new study published in the journal Parasitology analyzed prehistoric Stonehenge feces from Durrington Walls, a Neolithic settlement just 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) from Stonehenge

​The impossible sculptural feats within the Sansevero Chapel Museum in Naples will take your breath away. Amongst them, the famed statue known as Il Disinganno, was carved out of one single block of marble.

ne loves honey. A delicious, sweet treat, it can be used in recipes, cosmetics, or as a sugar substitute. However, not all honey is made the same. This is incredibly clear in Nepal and Turkey,

Controlling outcomes, steering destiny and reversing fate in ancient times was all about spells and old-school hands-on magic. Practitioners in ancient Greek and Rome commonly used ‘binding spells’ to affect the outcomes of trade transactions, affairs of the heart and to wage revenge, while ancient Jews maintained a universal magical system known as ‘kabbalah’ which described all of creation between earth and divine realms. However, less well-known are the systems of magic in the northern regions, not because magic was any less important to ancient Norse cultures, but more so because Christianity all but stamped it out.

The Tjängvide image stone with illustrations from Norse mythology. Gotland, Sweden. (Berig/ CC BY-SA 4.0)

In November 2013 archaeologists from the University of Durham in northern England found two mass graves near Durham Cathedral. At first the archaeologists thought the bodies belonged to the Cathedral’s 

Chinese explorers have discovered a lost world in an exceptionally deep and large sinkhole in south China. And in this ancient subterranean space they expect to find flora and fauna unknown to science.

A team of archaeologists and anthropologists recovered an exceptionally rare molar tooth fossil from a cave in northern Laos. While the fossil bears some resemblance to the teeth of modern humans,

With its enormous stone temples, pyramids and tombs, ancient Egypt was undoubtedly one of the most productive advanced civilizations of the pre-Christian world. 

Stolen Khmer artifacts from ancient Cambodian temples should be returned now. This is what Cambodian heritage authorities have told London's Victoria & Albert and British Museum who currently profit from scores

Secret societies are characterized by rituals, customs, and teachings that are concealed from the general public. It is no wonder the 18th century secret society known as The Order of the Pug kept their rituals a secret – its members were forced to crawl around on all fours and kiss a pug dog’s backside to show their loyalty and commitment!

It was 1738 AD, and freemasonry had just been established some two decades earlier. Pope Clement XII saw this highly secretive brotherhood as a threat to Catholicism and so he issued a papal bull, In Eminenti Apostolatus Specula, in which he banned Roman Catholics from joining the Masons under threat of excommunication.

In order to bypass the Papal Bull of Clement XII, an aristocratic gentleman by the name of Clemens August of Bavaria, the Elector of Cologne, founded a secret society called Mopsorden (‘The Order of the Pug’). In essence, members were Freemasons who had adjusted the format to be able to conduct their now forbidden activities, the primary difference being that it allowed female Catholics to become members.