A mass burial of battle victims from the Xiongnu period in Mongolia. The Xiongnu warriors are linked...
Ancient History
Ancient history reaches from the first cities of Mesopotamia to complex societies across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Its surviving evidence reveals how distant peoples understood power and made meaning from everyday life.
Wellcome Trust/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA At Ebbsfleet, in northeast Kent, archaeologists have finally uncovered the site where JuliusCaesar’s fleet landed in 54 BCE...
Illustration of ritualised human sacrifice in traditional Hawaiian culture, as documented by the French explorer and artists...
By about 320,000 years ago, humans in Kenya began using color pigments and manufacturing more sophisticated tools. Human...
Slurp and thank the Yamnaya. Samantha Jade Royds/Flickr, CC BY-SA Shedding light on how have traits that were rare in African ancestors became...
Ancient DNA can tell you a lot more than skull shape about the origins of the first...
10th century CE Greek copy of Aristarchus of Samos’s calculations of the relative sizes of the sun, moon and the...
By Dr. Michael Fowler Maxine S. and Jesse W. Beams Professor of Physics , Physics Education,Theoretical Condensed Matter...
By Dr. Anne KinneyProfessor of East Asian Languages, Literature and CulturesUniversity of Virginia The unprecedented interest in...
Bloodletting was treatment for infection in the past. Wellcome Library, London, CC BY While some ancient therapies proved effective enough...
Porch of Maidens, Acroplis, Athens / Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Marcel DetienneBasil L. Gildersleeve Professor of Classics...
Celestial map from 1670, by the Dutch cartographer Frederik de Wit / Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Michael Fowler / 07.23.2015...
Ancient bronze sculptures preserve the traces of corrosion, restoration, and survival, revealing how noble patinas can protect...
Day of the dead at a Mexican cemetery. © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA Many...
Plaque with a Priest from the Oxus Treasure, 500–330 B.C., Achaemenid. Gold, 5 7/8 x 2 15/16...
Yurri and Wanjel – the Gemini stars Castor and Pollux in the Wergaia traditions of western Victoria,...
By Dr. Jane Draycott / 05.17.2017 Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Research Fellow in Classics: Ancient Science and...
More than 2,000 years ago, the Babylonians understood the cycle of eclipses. They also regarded them as signs that could foretell the death of a king. By Dr. Gonzalo...
Ricardo Liberato/wikimedia, CC BY-ND Understanding the past requires knowledge that goes beyond modern science. By Dr. Daniel Brown / 03.12.2018...
View of the Parthenon from the Propylaea, 1805, Simone Pomardi. Sepia, Sepia, 21 5/8 x 29 1/8...
By Maite Gomez-Rejón / 02.12.2015 Food and sex are the most basic human drives. It’s no wonder that aphrodisiacs—food...
Curated/Reviewed by Matthew A. McIntoshPublic HistorianBrewminate 1 – The Mythical Period 1.1 – Introduction 1.1.1 – Overview...
1 – Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Art 1.1 – Overview Ancient Egyptian art includes the painting, sculpture,...
Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 02.16.2018HistorianBrewminate Editor-in-Chief Introduction to Ancient Egypt The Rise of Egyptian Civilization...
A floor mosaic from Pompeii depicting a guard dog. (1st century CE) / Wikimedia Commons Dogs have been a part of...
Gate of the Lions entrance to Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze...
Peirene: General view of the spring facade, with Acrocorinth (the acropolis of ancient Corinth) in the background. Histories...
Voting with psephoi (pebbles) in a scene from the Wine Cup with the Suicide of Ajax (detail), about 490...
Bay of Palermo, Sicily, 1963, Samuel J. Magnolia. Mural painting, about 8 1/2 x 15 ft. Photo...
Keystone in the Shape of a Foliate Face, about 1225–36, made in Stymphalia, Greece. Stone, probably sandstone,...