Elephants are one of the smartest and most powerful animals in the world. It is no wonder then that these magnificent beasts were exploited and trained to be brutal executioners.
A stunning Neolithic roundel structure that is older than Stonehenge has been announced by Czech Republic archaeologists.
In Norse mythology, the cosmos consisted of nine realms. Some realms we know a lot about, others remain largely a mystery.
Pliny the Elder claimed Emperor Nero consumed the last stalk of silphion, which was believed to have gone extinct almost 2000 years ago
The Moche were a mysterious civilization who ruled the northern coast of Peru beginning 2,000 years ago.
The Maya Empire dominated large swaths of Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years.
Greek mythology is full of terrible monsters. Although it is difficult to choose the worst or most terrible of the Greek monsters, Typhon and Echidna are strong contenders.
Archaeologists working with Aboriginal artists in Australia have interpreted rock shelter art with extraordinary findings. This artistic blend of astronomy, mythology and the Dreamtime is like no other on Earth.
It is widely accepted that Homo sapiens were the first species to develop effective tools, but humans were not the first primate to make or use stone tools.
Mexico has a new protected archaeological monument. The site is a 1,000-year-old ceremonial center of the Otomi or Hnahnu people, an indigenous group that still inhabits the area around the Sierra Madre mountains.
Few mountains have had greater impact on the history of Western civilization than the mountain situated on the Aegean coast on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, referred to as Mount Olympus.
In Disney’s 1997 film Hercules, the Titans are portrayed as natural disasters personified in the form of monolithic, terrible beings.
It’s likely that if you’ve ever seen a Hollywood action film you’ve probably heard of jujutsu. Thanks to films like The Matrix and the John Wick franchise, jujutsu is more in the public eye than ever before. But what most people don’t know is that jujutsu’s origins go back to the 8th century Japanese warrior class. Jujutsu, once a weapon of war, has evolved over the centuries into something quite different. Still a popular martial art in its own right today, it has gone on to form the basis of many more modern fighting styles. It has a long and rich history worth studying.
Jujutsu is a family of Japanese martial arts that specializes in short-ranged, predominantly unarmed combat. It can be used either defensively or offensively and is characterized by a use of throws, holds, and attacks meant to paralyze the opponent.
Jiu-jitsu fighters sparring. (quicklinestudio /Adobe Stock)
The word jujutsu can be broken down into two parts. “Ju” can be translated as gentle, soft, supple, pliable, or yielding. Jutsu can be simply translated as an art/ technique. When we combine these translations it gives us “yielding art”.
The history of the British Isles is marked by several phases of migration and multiple periods of monumental change, including invasions by the Romans, Vikings and the Normans, and mass migration by the Celtics and the Anglo-Saxons. A new genome-based study shows that almost 75% of the population of eastern and southern England came from Anglo-Saxon migrations originating from continental regions bordering the North Sea, especially from the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark.
Professor Ian Barnes, a Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum, who co-authored the Anglo-Saxon migration study, said, “It's great that we've been able to contribute to this extensive study of the early English, as there's almost no ancient DNA (aDNA) work on the Anglo-Saxon period. The results are fascinating and flag up how significant the change in the population was at this time.”
The open-access study, published in Nature, shows that the new Anglo-Saxon migration arrivals from continental Europe interbred with the existing English peoples. This integration was not uniform or deliberate in any way across eastern and southern England, and thus varied from region to region, and community to community.
The largest Iron Age ceramic jar ever discovered in the UAE dated to 3,000 years ago hints at a bustling trade scene from the 1st millennium BC.
In 2022 Spain went all out to celebrate the quincentennial of the arrival of the so-called ‘Spice Route Armada’ which reached Spain on September 6th, 1522, after completing the first recorded circumnavigation of the world. What many people don’t realize is that the brains of the expedition, Ferdinand Magellan, never actually meant to sail around the world. He was actually looking for a trade route to reach the lucrative Maluku Islands of Indonesia, known as the Spice Islands.
The Portuguese explorer was sailing under the Spanish flag, due to a falling out with King Manuel of Portugal, while the Treaty of Tordesillas had effectively carved up the world between the Spanish, who controlled trade routes to the west, and the Portuguese, given control of trade routes to the east.
Archaeologists in Turkey have spent the past four years excavating at a Neolithic mound in southeastern Turkey that will be flooded once the construction of a huge dam is completed.
Awareness of Nan Madol as a world class archaeological site has grown exponentially over the last decade, especially since achieving World Heritage Site status in 1996.
One of the most interesting artifact discoveries was the finding of the Pesse canoe in 1955. This unique boat is considered to be the oldest boat in existence and is estimated to be around 10,000 years old.
The pink-red granite sarcophagus of Ptahmweia, a royal secretary during the reign of Ramses II (1279-1213 BC) of the Nineteenth Dynasty, has been discovered at the Saqqara necropolis.
The Vikings, the seafaring Norse pirates and traders from the Scandinavian region, left an indelible mark on history, particularly European history, as they raided, looted, pillaged, and conquered.
Human beings have been using hallucinogenic or psychoactive drugs to experience pleasurable sensations or induce altered states of consciousness for thousands of years.
A 3000-year-old gold funeral mask dated to the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC) has been unearthed by archaeologists on the Yellow River about 600 kilometers (373 miles) northwest of Shanghai.
When we think of historically significant diseases we tend to think of diseases like the bubonic plague, cholera, tuberculosis, or more recently, COVID-19.
A woman stands next to a large flame, with a staff in one hand and tending to the fire with the other. This is Hestia, the Greek goddess of the hearth, home, and family.
In what they refer to as an “exceptional and amazing” discovery, a team of Israeli archaeologists recently unearthed an ancient burial cave within the borders of Palmahim Beach National Park on Israel’s Mediterranean coastline.
No trace of the medieval Colne Priory in Essex remains above ground, as the site is now occupied by a later building of the same name, and in private ownership.
We all know that fossils, by their very nature, are dead. Of course, nothing can survive the conditions of pressure, depth and time required to petrify wood, see saplings mature into massive trees, transmogrify vegetation into coal or metamorphose mud into solid rock.
"A mind-boggling, jaw-dropping” 380-million-year-old fossilized heart has been discovered in Western Australia, preserved inside a now extinct prehistoric fish known as the Gogo.
The question of how to create life does not just go back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, when the eponymous character used forbidden science to create life.