Polish archaeologists found papyrus with letters from Roman centurions stationed in Egypt in Berenike. These unique documents were discovered along with, among other things, ceramics from Italy, Roman coins, and a specific cloak brooch in what might have been the remains of a centurion’s office. For Egyptologists and other scholars of Antiquity, this is an […]
Letters
Iddin-Sin’s Letter, Written 4000 Years Ago, Is the Earliest Known Complaint from a Son to His Mother
We don’t know what Zinu, a woman living in the Mesopotamian city of Larsa (about 15 miles southeast of Uruk in present-day Iraq), thought when she received the letter from her son Iddin-Sin. The young man, who was likely studying at a school in the kingdom of the famous Hammurabi, bitterly complained that the clothes […]
The Encryption System Used by Julius Caesar in his Letters to Hide their Content
Cryptography is nearly as old as human language. Many civilizations felt the need to conceal their messages using more or less sophisticated encryption methods, as demonstrated by some documentary examples that have survived in Egypt, China, Mesopotamia, India, Greece… It is precisely in Egypt where the first example of cryptography has been found. The hieroglyphics […]
“Willy-Nicky Correspondence”, the Exchange of Telegrams between the Tsar and the Kaiser on the Eve of World War I
In the year 1918, just after the end of World War I, American journalist, writer, and diplomat Herman Bernstein published a book titled The Willy–Nicky correspondence. It was an anthology of private telegrams exchanged between Tsar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm over several years, on the eve of the conflict, attempting to soothe tensions. The […]
The irreverent letter the Cossacks wrote to the Ottoman Sultan in 1676
Cossacks were a social and military group that by the 10th century settled in southern Russia and present-day Ukraine. They had a Turkic origin and had arrived with hordes of Mongol invasions in the area, settling there permanently. Famous for their combat skills and military strategy, they gradually integrated and mixed with other ethnic groups […]