When Olympic Glory met the Art of Pistol Dueling in the Games’ Historic Past
Since Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games from ancient Greece in 1896, they have been held almost continuously every four years (with exceptions in 1916,…
Ambiorix’s Revolt, when the Gauls annihilated fifteen Roman cohorts with a cunning ruse
Strictly speaking, the term genocide was not formulated until 1939,…
The cities founded by the Visigoths on the Iberian Peninsula, the only newly built cities in Western Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries
In the year 507, the pressure from the Franks led…
Archaeologists find Tiles from Ancient Acra Fortress in Jerusalem, evidence of Seleucid rule in 2nd Century BC
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have made an exciting new discovery that…
Rare Byzantine gold coin found in Norway, probably brought from Constantinople by Harald Hardrada
A metal detectorist discovered in the county of Innlandet, in…
The provenance of the stones in the Menga dolmen reveals it as one of the greatest feats of Neolithic engineering
The technical ability of ancient societies is reflected in the…
Archaeology
Five Bronze Age Axes Revealed in the Forests of Kociewie, Poland
Archaeologists in Poland recently made an exciting discovery from the Bronze Age. A metal detectorist named Denis Konkol was exploring…
The Hirschlanden Warrior, the oldest life-size anthropomorphic Iron Age sculpture north of the Alps
On November 5, 1963, an enigmatic stone sculpture dating back almost 2,600 years was discovered in Hirschlanden, now a district…
Trajan’s Market, the “world’s oldest shopping mall”, which probably wasn’t a market at all
Considered as the first shopping mall in history, Trajan’s Market is a huge semicircular mass of brick, part of which…
Remains of a Paleolithic hut from 16,800 years ago, discovered in La Garma Cave in Cantabria
Recent archaeological investigations carried out in La Garma Cave, Cantabria (Spain), have allowed for the detailed documentation of the remains…
Three qanat systems built by the Parthians and the Sassanids in Iraq between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD uncovered in Iraq
Professor Ali Obeid Shilgam, the Director General of the Department of Archaeological Research in Iraq, announced the findings during archaeological…
Tracks from 210 million years ago that do not match any animal in the fossil record discovered in southern Africa
Paleontologists in South Africa have uncovered evidence of creatures walking on bird-like feet over 210 million years ago. Researchers Miengah…
Analysis reveals the 9,000-year-old shaman of Bad Dürrenberg was the great-great-grandmother of the child buried with her
In 1934, construction work for the spa gardens in Bad Dürrenberg, Germany, uncovered a remarkable double burial from the Mesolithic…
The Silurian Hypothesis: Would it be possible to detect an advanced civilization in the geological record?
If an industrialized civilization had existed on Earth millions of years before our era, what traces would it have left,…
History
Gaius Appuleius Diocles, the invincible charioteer considered the highest-paid athlete in history
They probably don’t know it, but Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and all the champions in motorsports, whether Formula 1 or other specialties, had a historical…
Through speed and skill, the Chasquis couriers linked all corners of the Inca Empire
Similar to what happened before with Rome and later with the famous Pony Express in the American Far West, the expansion of the Inca Empire…
The pilot who crashed his plane into a German bomber to save Buckingham Palace
On May 1, 2005, thanks to a meticulous study at the City of Westminster Archives Centre (the archive of the London City, containing documentary collections…
Anicia Faltonia Proba, the woman who opened the doors of Rome to the Visigoths in the year 410
During the Dominate era, in the Late Roman Empire, there lived a woman who has gone down in history for having been the one to…
Unraveling the Enigmatic Event that Plunged New England into Nighttime Darkness, recorded in 1780 by George Washington in his journal
‘It may be the Day of Judgment or it may not. If it is not, there is no reason for a postponement; if it is,…
How did Etruscan, Hittite, Phoenician, Latin, and other languages of Antiquity sound? (Video)
Throughout history, many languages have flourished and disappeared, leaving behind few written records of how they actually sounded. Thanks to advances in historical linguistics and…
Science
Physicists announce new theory that unifies Gravity and Quantum Mechanics while preserving Einstein’s concept of Spacetime
Modern physics is based on two pillars. One is quantum theory, which governs the smallest particles in the universe. The…
Say goodbye to needles: scientists develop a painless method for vaccine administration using ultrasound
Have you ever dreaded getting a vaccine shot because of the needle? Well, many people feel that way including both…
Levels of Deoxygenation Similar to Current Ones Played a Key Role in Past Marine Extinctions
A new study warns that the current stability of marine ecosystems is likely more fragile than it appears. Ocean deoxygenation…
Culture
An Antarctic Mystery: How Jules Verne wrote the Sequel to an Edgar Allan Poe Novel
Along with Journey to the Center of the Earth, Five Weeks in a Balloon, and some others, An Antarctic Mystery has always been one of…
Dalrunes, the Nordic runes that were used until the 20th century in a region of Sweden
Runes are the letters used to write by some Germanic peoples during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, mainly in Scandinavia but also in other areas…
The History of the Prinkipo Orphanage, the Largest Wooden Building in Europe
Büyükada is the largest of the nine Princes’ Islands located in the Sea of Marmara, so close to the city of Istanbul that they are…
How the Nocturnal Works: the Device that allowed Sailors to tell Time in the Dark (Video)
A nocturnal is a device used to determine local time based on the relative positions of two or more stars in the night sky. Sometimes…
When the Codex Overtook the Scroll as the Format for Books
Recently, following the article we published about the origins of the books in the Library of Alexandria, a somewhat finicky (and indeed quite mistaken) reader…
The oldest surviving text of Latin prose is a manual of agriculture and recipes, including the placenta cake
As we mentioned in a previous article, only one percent of all the literature produced by the Romans in Antiquity has survived to our days.…