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  1. Inside a Kazakh yurt, photo 1911-14.

    With the 'time-travelling' ability of archaeogenetic studies it has become possible to shed light onto the dynamic past of human populations worldwide. Integrated with archaeological and anthropological data, it has been shown that fundamental changes in lifestyle, culture, technical know-how and social systems were often linked to the movement and interaction of people. By studying 131 individuals from the wider Caucasus region, spanning a time transect of 6000 years, a team of international researchers was able to reconstruct a series of key events when contact and innovation transfer facilitated the economic exploration of the West Eurasian steppe belt.

    People of the Caucasus Region

    The wider Caucasus region, between the Black and the Caspian Seas, connects Europe, the Near East and Asia. It displays a huge geographic, ecological, economic, cultural, and linguistic range today, from the steppe zone in the north, the Caucasus mountains in the center, to the highlands of today's Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran in the south. This diversity was no different in the past, where the archaeological record attests to many different influences from many surrounding regions.

    "It is precisely this interface of different eco-geographic features and archaeological cultures that makes the region so interesting to study," explains Dr. Wolfgang Haak, senior author and principal investigator of the study.

  2. Figurine example (H20257) from Thonis-Heracleion

    Ancient fingerprints found on terracotta figurines from the ancient port city of Thonis-Heracleion, are being studied by an Oxford University Ph.D. student, to reveal the age and sex of the craftspeople – and it turns out that this included men, women, and children! Dating back to the Late and Ptolemaic periods (7th-2nd centuries BC), the research marks only the second ever attempt to research ancient Egyptian fingerprint impressions.

    The first such study and methodology to employ Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) technology has been led by Ph.D. student Leonie Hoff from the University of Oxford and has been published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology. Through excavations conducted in the 1990s, a total of 60 terracotta figurines were retrieved, including nine which exhibited well-preserved fingerprints.

  3. The Gunpowder Plot: The conspirators’ last stand at Holbeach House

    Every fifth of November, people across the United Kingdom celebrate Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night, and Firework Night). Every November, cities and towns across the country put on fireworks displays to commemorate the day which fills the autumn air with a merry atmosphere. Yet, beneath the cheerful façade of the modern celebration of Guy Fawkes Day lies a darker, more sinister history.

    Guy Fawkes Day is in fact a celebration of a failed attempt to blow up the British House of Lords in 1605. This attempt is known today as the Gunpowder Plot.

    ‘Guy Fawkes’ by Charles Gogin, York Art Gallery. (York Museums Trust/Public Domain)

    A Reaction to Religious Persecution

    The reigning King of England that year was James I, who succeeded Elizabeth I upon her death in 1603. At that time, England was a Protestant country, and Catholics had been persecuted since the reign of Henry VII. These persecutions became more severe during the reign of James’ immediate predecessor, especially after the failed invasion by Catholic Spain in 1588. As James’ wife and mother were both Catholics, it was hoped that the situation for Catholics would improve. Some measures were initially taken to reduce the persecution.

  4. A Medieval Doctor examining a bottle filled with a liquid

    In modern medicine, urine samples are routinely examined in laboratories to obtain clinical information about a patient. This procedure, known as urinalysis, developed from an ancient medical process called uroscopy. Although mostly discredited today, doctors used to use a urine wheel to diagnose illnesses up until the middle of the 19th century.

    While uroscopy may be traced back to the ancient Greek and Roman periods, it was only during the Middle Ages that it became a significant method of medical examination. Urology was greatly aided during this period by the development of the urine wheel. In essence, this was a chart (in the form of a wheel) which helped the medieval physician in his diagnosis of a patient’s illness.

    A urine wheel

    A urine wheel (Shoricelu/AdobeStock)

    The urine wheel is divided into 20 different parts, each of which shows a different color of urine. In addition to observing the urine, it may be assumed that the physicians of the Middle Ages also relied on their sense of taste and smell, as the taste and smell of a patient’s urine were affected by the illness they were suffering from, and generally corresponded with specific colors.

    The 17th century English physician Thomas Willis noted that the urine of a diabetic patient tasted “wonderfully sweet as if it were imbued with honey or sugar.” It was Willis who coined the term ‘mellitus’ (meaning ‘sweetened with honey’) in diabetes mellitus, and this disorder was once known as ‘Willis’s disease’.  

  5. Left; Proto-cuneiform tablets, Right; Analysis of proto-cuneiform examples.

    Proto-cuneiform, an early sign-based script, marks a pivotal moment in human history as the precursor to the world's first writing system, cuneiform. Emerging between 3350 and 3000 BC in the city of Uruk, located in what is now southern Iraq, this system initially arose from practical needs such as accounting. However, the exact mechanisms of how it developed have long eluded scholars.

    Recent research has unveiled a fascinating link between proto-cuneiform and an earlier technology: cylinder seals. These engraved stone cylinders, when rolled across clay, left intricate designs. The transformation of these motifs into proto-cuneiform signs not only sheds light on the origins of writing but also reveals a significant cultural leap in ancient Mesopotamia.

    Example of a cylinder seal (left) and its design imprinted onto clay (right) (Franck Raux © 2001 GrandPalaisRmn, Musée du Louvre/Antiquity Publications Ltd)

  6. View of Zeravshan river valley from Soii Havzak.

    In an important discovery, archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan have uncovered a multi-layered archaeological site in the Zeravshan Valley, central Tajikistan, shedding rare light on early human settlement in the region. The findings from the site, known as Soii Havzak, provide crucial evidence that Central Asia played a vital role in early human migration and development.

    Led by Prof. Yossi Zaidner of the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University and Dr. Sharof Kurbanov from the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, the research, published in Antiquity, revealed a rich array of stone tools, animal bones, and ancient vegetation that date back to various periods between 20,000 and 150,000 years ago.

    Soii Havzak site during excavations. (Yossi Zaidner and Team/Antiquity Publications Ltd)

  7. In Search of The Lost Testament of Alexander the Great: Excavating Homeric Heroes

    The ancient city of Aegae in Greece, where the royal tombs are located, dates back to the 7th century BC; it became Macedonia’s first capital after it was conglomerated from a collection of villages into a city in the 5th century BC.

  8. Left; Skull and sickle of skeleton found in 2022.  Right; Reconstruction of the woman’s face, by Oscar Nilsson.

    In 2022, archaeologists from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń made a startling discovery in Pień, near Dąbrowa Chełmińska, Poland: the grave of a young woman buried with a sickle around her neck and a triangular padlock on her toe. This peculiar arrangement quickly earned her the moniker of the "Vampire Woman." The burial, likely from the 17th century, featured anti-vampire elements—meant, according to some interpretations, to prevent the dead from rising.

    Now, a collaboration between scientists and Swedish sculptor and archaeologist Oscar Nilsson has brought her face back to life through meticulous reconstruction, reports Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

    Using a combination of 3D printing, DNA analysis, and forensic artistry, Nilsson recreated the visage of this enigmatic woman, whose life and death remain a topic of fascination and speculation.

  9. Left; Tamara Gomez Kobayashi examines one of the newly discovered graves in Pryssgården. Right; a knife with a curved edge used for working leather and a needle for sewing leather.

    Archaeologists currently investigating an Iron Age burial ground in Pryssgården, Sweden, have found a woman’s grave containing a small needle and a curved knife inserted vertically into the earth! The cemetery, dating from around 500 BC to 400 AD, contains at least 50 burials and may be the same site famously described in 1667 by Ericus Hemengius, a priest tasked with recording ancient remains in his parish. The woman’s grave remains the most unusual find of the lot.

    A Large Cemetery

    The cemetery was uncovered in Pryssgården, a southern Swedish area about 105 miles (169 kilometers) southwest of Stockholm. Archaeologists initially learned of the site through the 17th-century text by Hemengius, who was commissioned to document ancient cemeteries in his parish.

    Hemengius describes the piles and mounds he saw, visible from his window, writing:

    "Below the priest's property, west of Prästegården, there are some ancestral burial mounds, seemingly large, on which, for the most part, fires are seen burning every autumn night."

    Until now, archaeologists were uncertain if these graves had survived or were even in the area of their current excavation, according to a press release by Arkeologerna.

  10. AI generated watercolor illustration of Sun Tzu.

    The great Ancient Chinese thinkers were truly ahead of their time. Observing the world through a truly complex lens, they managed to leave such a lofty legacy that their works are admired even today, millennia later. Sun Tzu is arguably the most renowned Chinese thinker, with his most famous work being the Art of War. Written in the late 6th century BC, it continues to inspire and teach readers to this very day. But there are still some questions that are left unanswered. For one, why was military philosophy so important to the Ancient Chinese? And how did they apply the Art of War into their pre-existing strategies?

    The Art of War in a War-Torn Land

    Sun Tzu was one of the most renowned philosophers of his era. He lived during the Spring and Autumn period of Ancient China, which lasted roughly from 770 to 481 BC. This was an era marked by tumult and political fragmentation in the region, which, of course, was accompanied by near-constant warfare. During this time, the ruling Zhou Dynasty slowly dissipated, and began losing its central authority as regional lords quickly rose in power and independence. Immediately after came the period known as the Warring States, lasting from 475 to 221 BC. During this era numerous competing Chinese states, which were born from the rise of regional lords, now competed for domination and the ultimate rule over China. All of this made the era in which Sun Tzu wrote and lived instrumental for the shaping of his military philosophy.