Search
Ancient History
Two great philosophies — but do they work better together?
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
All religions have three traits: metaphysical commitments, ethical guidance, and daily rituals or practices. So does Stoicism.
Magnificent time-tested buildings are filled with lessons in resilience and stability — and the benefits for investment strategy can be huge.
"In that conversation with Laozi’s text, I began to see the shape of my own life, the questions that opened seams, the patterns that pooled and shimmered."
Some biologists believe natural selection produces animals that are just good enough. Dawkins disagrees.
In popular culture, the eruption is usually depicted as an apocalyptic event.
An analysis of Indonesian cave paintings is reframing the history of human art, though whether the paintings really were created by human hands remains an open question.
19 rooms. 1,636 square feet. 1,800 years of history.
A new method of mapping migration factors in erratic movements and changing climate.
In ancient Sparta, it was accepted practice for more women to marry and have children by more than one man.
Rhetorical mastery is within everyone’s reach — equipped with some basic techniques you can rock it like Aristotle.
Some think the reason fundamental scientific revolutions are so rare is because of groupthink. It's not; it's hard to mess with success.
The burial spot was found in one of the Herculaneum scrolls charred by Mt. Vesuvius.
A poignant, 2,000-year-old burial in northern Italy could be the latest evidence of an ancient friendship.
Although human beings arrived on Earth just ~300,000 years ago, we've transformed the entire planet completely. Here's how we did it.
Plagues, war, and genocide were literally frozen in time.
A small Ohio town tried to escape America’s addiction to rectangular grids. It didn’t last long.
New radiocarbon dating reveals astonishing insights.
These scrolls are the only remaining intact library of ancient Rome — and they will crumble at a touch.
The Trojan War was fought in Finland and Ulysses sailed home to Denmark, says one controversial theory.
Archaeologists have identified what may be Europe’s oldest human-made megastructure.
The study suggests that human ancestors expanded across Europe faster than previously thought.
The discovery suggests that the "Boring Billion" period of evolution on Earth wasn't so boring after all.
New DNA analyses raise questions over the theory that Christopher Columbus and his men brought syphilis to Europe.
Skilled hunters adapted to the changing landscape and left tantalizing clues to who they were.
Millennia ago, philosophers like Anaximander grasped that nature is the ultimate recycler.
Archaeologist Bernard Frischer spent decades uploading the ruins of the Eternal City to the cloud. Here’s what it looks like.
With the invention of the leap year, the Julian calendar was used worldwide for over 1500 years. Over time, it led only to catastrophe.
Like many of us, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius hated waking up early, but his stoic philosophy always helped him get out of bed.