In the heart of ancient Mesopotamia, a group of researchers has achieved a significant archaeological milestone: the identification and mapping of a vast network of irrigation canals in the region of Eridu, in southern Iraq, the southernmost of all the great Mesopotamian cities and, according to the Sumerian King List, the oldest city in history. […]
Farming
Posted inStone Age Archaeology
Scandinavia’s Early Farmers Wiped Out Hunter-Gatherer Population 5,900 Years Ago
A new study from Lund University in Sweden is challenging long-held beliefs about the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies in Scandinavia. Analyzing DNA extracted from skeletons and teeth dating back 7,300 years, researchers found evidence of not one but two almost complete population replacements occurring in what is now Denmark. The first change took […]
Posted inAncient Rome, Culture
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. The oldest surviving text in Latin is a hymn recited by the priests of Mars during their annual festival, which was found inscribed on a stone in Rome in 1777. […]
