In the mountains of eastern Anatolia, during the Iron Age between the 9th and 6th centuries BC, a kingdom arose that challenged one of the greatest powers of its time: Urartu (also known as the Kingdom of Van). Despite its hostile geography, rebellious vassals, and the constant pressure from the Assyrian Empire, the Urartians managed […]
Antiquity
Posted inAncient Greece, Science
Gears in the Antikythera Mechanism May Have Caused It to Malfunction
A recent study conducted by researchers at the National University of Mar del Plata (Argentina) has revealed new details about the famous Antikythera Mechanism, considered the world’s oldest computer. This device, discovered in a Greek shipwreck from the 1st century BCE, was used to predict astronomical phenomena such as eclipses and planetary movements. However, the […]
Posted inAncient Greece
The Mysteries of the Pythia, the Great Priestess of the Temple of Apollo Who Embodied the Oracle of Delphi
Sibyl, Phymonoe, Xenoclea, Aristocleia, Perialla, Themistoclea… These names will sound unfamiliar to almost everyone, and it’s no wonder, because although they belong to women of Ancient Greece, they weren’t queens or royal consorts, nor were they goddesses, muses, philosophers, or poets. These were the names of some of the most famous Pythias, that is, the […]
Posted inAncient Rome, Science
Rocks Found in Iceland Explain How Late Antiquity Little Ice Age May Have Contributed to Fall of the Roman Empire
Research led by scientists at the University of Southampton, in collaboration with institutions from Canada and China, offers new evidence about the intensity and scope of the Late Antique Little Ice Age, a climatic episode that occurred in the 6th century and may have played a key role in the collapse of the Roman Empire. […]
Posted inAntiquity, History
Which Empire Was More Unequal: Rome, Han China, or the Aztec Empire? A New Study Solves the Mystery
For centuries, the splendor of Rome and the mythical grandeur of the Han dynasty in China have captured the imagination of historians, archaeologists, and lovers of ancient civilizations. But have you ever wondered which of these two titans of the ancient world was more unequal in economic terms? A groundbreaking new study published in Nature […]
Posted inAncient Greece
Bias of Priene, the most prominent of the Seven Sages, recommended loving friends as if they were enemies and freed women from slavery
In the 6th century BC, at the peak of the Greek Archaic period, Priene was a small Ionian city overlooking the Aegean Sea. Located on the coast of Caria in Anatolia, north of Miletus, Priene was not known for its military power or its conquests, but for being the home of one of the Seven […]
Posted inAncient Egypt, Archaeology
“House of Life” Discovered at the Ramesseum in Luxor, Filled with Drawings and School Games
An Egyptian-French archaeological mission has made a series of highly significant discoveries at the Ramesseum temple (commissioned by Ramses II), located on the western bank of Luxor, Egypt. The discoveries, the result of cooperation between the Conservation and Documentation Sector of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the French National Center for Research, and the Sorbonne […]
Posted inAncient Egypt
A Total Solar Eclipse May Have Been the Reason Why the Ancient Egyptians Stopped Building Monumental Pyramids
An astronomical event may have marked the end of one of the most emblematic dynasties of ancient Egypt. A total solar eclipse that occurred on April 1, 2471 BCE, could have had a direct connection to the fall of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty, the era of the great pyramid builders. This discovery has been analyzed in […]
Posted inAntiquity, Prehistory
Via Cava, the Mysterious Paths Carved into the Rock by the Etruscans or Earlier Peoples
South of Tuscany, around the towns of Sovana, Sorano, and Pitigliano, there is a network of roads or pathways carved into the living rock. It is known that the Etruscans or earlier peoples were their creators, but their original function remains completely unknown. They are called Via Cava or Cavoni, and they mainly consist of […]
Posted inAncient Greece
The Strange Story of Sosipatra, the Greek Philosopher to Whom Mysterious Beings Granted the Power of Divination
Eunapius of Sardis, a Greek historian and rhetorician who lived between the 4th and 5th centuries AD, wrote a Life of the Sophists, in which he recounted the biographies of twenty-three philosophers of his time. This work remains the only surviving source on Neoplatonism from that period. One of the figures associated with this movement […]
