History

Latest

Roman coins uncovered during the archaeology excavation at Blackgrounds, Chipping Warden

Ruins of bustling Roman town discovered in UK

By Laura Geggel published

Archaeologists in the U.K. discovered the remains of a once bustling Roman market town.

The Eye of Providence, one of the symbols of masonry

Freemasons: History, facts and myths

By Tom Garlinghouse, Callum McKelvie published

Reference Freemasons are often misunderstood as cult members or religious zealots, but they are actually part of the world's largest fraternal organization

Reference
Illustration of ancient people drinking out of a pot of beer by using long straws.

World's oldest drinking straws are 3 feet long and made of gold and silver

By Laura Geggel published

The reanalysis of slender gold and silver tubes found in a Bronze Age burial suggests that they were drinking straws.

Knights Hospitaller

Who were the Knights Hospitaller?

By Martyn Conterio published

Reference With St. John the Baptist as their figurehead, the Knights Hospitaller developed into a powerful religious-militaristic group during the Crusades, with a legacy spanning to the present day.

Reference
The site of the clan's tombs and houses is one of several archaeological sites dating to the Shang dynasty that have been found in Anyang.

Ancient Chinese tombs hold remains of warriors possibly buried alive

By Tom Metcalfe published

The 3,000-year-old tombs of a wealthy clan, including warriors and warhorses that may have been sacrificed, have been unearthed in an ancient capital city of China.

Top 10 Most Famous Ghosts

Top 10 most famous ghosts

By Benjamin Radford, Jonathan Gordon published

Ghosts are some of the most common figures of horror and morality tales in our history, but which ones stand out as the most significant?

A statue of a Dragon against a blazing sunset, located in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Dragons: A brief history of the mythical, fire-breathing beasts

By Benjamin Radford, Callum McKelvie published

Reference We've known for a very long time that dragons aren't real, but we're still enamored by them

Reference
One of the biggest man-made disasters, Chernobyl nuclear plant

10 of the world’s biggest man-made disasters

By Mike Jennings published

Reference We explore some of the biggest, most significant, and most harmful man-made disasters in human history, from nuclear explosions to oil spills

Reference
Italian Culture: Rome panoramic, Vatican City

Italian Culture: Facts, customs & traditions

By Kim Ann Zimmermann, Jonathan Gordon published

REFERENCE Italian culture goes back to the ancient, had a massive impact on the Renaissance and is represented in the world today by its art, fashion and popular food.

REFERENCE
A depiction of the Library of Alexandria made in 1876

The rise and fall of the Great Library of Alexandria

By Tom Garlinghouse published

Reference The Great Library of Alexandria in Egypt was the most important repository of knowledge in the ancient world.

Reference
The funerary avenues (part of one shown here) date back around 4,500 years in Saudi Arabia.

Vast 4,500-year-old network of 'funerary avenues' discovered in Saudi Arabia

By Owen Jarus published

Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia have discovered 4,500-year-old "funerary avenues" alongside thousands of pendant-shaped tombs.

Illustration of Isaac Newton’s universal law of gravitation.

What is a law in science?

By Alina Bradford, Ashley Hamer published

A scientific law is the description of an observed phenomenon. It doesn't explain why the phenomenon exists or what causes it.

Messina Cathedral Astronomical clock on clock tower, Italy.

Keeping time: The origin of B.C. and A.D.

By Robert Coolman, Owen Jarus published

The use of "anno domini" and "before Christ" to mark time began in the early days of Christianity, when clerics needed to know when Easter would fall.

The animal bones at Umm el-Marra were thought to be from kungas because their teeth had marks from bit harnesses and wear patterns that showed they had been fed, rather than left to graze.

1st bioengineered hybrid animals discovered — in ancient Mesopotamia

By Tom Metcalfe published

Mesopotamians were using hybrids of domesticated donkeys and wild asses to pull their war wagons 4,500 years ago, scientists have found.

A reconstruction of the Omo I skull discovered in 1967.

Modern humans lived in eastern Africa 38,000 years earlier than thought

By Ben Turner published

The new date estimate makes the remains the oldest uncontested Homo sapiens in Africa.

A selection of the 41 Celtic coins discovered in Brandenburg, Germany.

2,000-year-old Celtic hoard of gold 'rainbow cups' discovered in Germany

By Laura Geggel published

A volunteer archaeologist discovered a stash of 41 "rainbow cup" Celtic coins dating to 2,000 years ago in Germany.

Michelangelo's David Masterpiece.

The Renaissance: The 'Rebirth' of science & culture

By Owen Jarus, Jessie Szalay published

The Renaissance was a period of "rebirth" in arts, science and European society. It was a time of transition from the ancient world to the modern.

A European badger (Meles meles).

Hungry badger accidentally unearths hundreds of ancient Roman coins in Spain

By Harry Baker published

A badger forced to scavenge for food by a snowstrom has uncovered a stash of 209 Roman coins in a cave in Spain.

The Yanghai burial in northwest China, with the leather scale armor circled in red.

Rare 'bionic' armor discovered in 2,500-year-old China burial

By Laura Geggel published

Archaeologists in China have discovered a rare 2,500-year-old piece of military equipment; an intricately-fashioned leather-scale armor that resembles the scales of a fish.

The skeleton of a man killed in a tsunami after the eruption of the Thera volcano is the first found in its archaeological context.

Remains of a man and dog trying to escape ancient tsunami found on Aegean coast

By Tom Metcalfe published

Archaeologists have unearthed the bones of a young man and a dog killed by an ancient tsunami along the Aegean coast.