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Ancient History
Using data collected from ancient civilizations across the world, researchers identified the most significant factors in human development. War came out on top.
Mammals have a history stretching back 325 million years. To study that ancient history is to know our own origins.
Long before tobacco arrived from the Americas, ancient civilizations in the Old World were getting high off hemp smoke and opium.
Fossils of Australopithecus in a South African cave are one million years older than previously thought. This challenges the consensus that humans first evolved in East Africa.
The architecture and infrastructure found may well have required the greatest amount of skilled labor of any construction from the same time period in the entire continent.
The weird and wild ways mummy fever swept through Europe.
Unlike other world rulers, Genghis Khan was laid to rest not inside an elaborate mausoleum but an unmarked grave somewhere in Mongolia. Maybe.
Before gunpowder was introduced to the West, medieval Arabs devised grenades using crockery.
In the Canaan religion, Yahweh was a lesser god, who was assigned the land of Israel. Here's how he became "God Almighty."
Some of the coastal areas were not repopulated for millennia afterward, showing that there was a long-lasting memory of this tragic event.
The ancient Maya enjoyed filling their teeth with gemstones. A new study reveals how the procedure was done and how it didn't kill them.
An elaborate device called the Mechanical Turk defeated Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte at chess. Edgar Allan Poe revealed the hoax.
The strangest thing about trying to predict the future is that our only clues lie in the past.
Experimental archaeology is the practice of recreating past events using knowledge and tools available at the time. Sometimes, it involves elephants.
OmnesViae is a modern route planner based on the roads of the Roman Empire.
Human sacrifice appears to be as old as humanity itself. Still, experts disagree on how and where the practice first originated.
Searching for truth in unorthodox ways can be a valuable exercise. But Anatoly Fomenko's alternate world history is just plain weird.
To the ancient Greeks, exotic animals were proof of mythological creatures. To the ancient Romans, they were oddities and adversaries.
A recent advance in 3D imaging techniques helped spark the biggest ever discovery of North American cave art.
Was there an intelligent, technologically advanced species long before humans existed? Could there have been a dinosaur civilization?
Paintings played an important role in these ancient civilizations. Unfortunately, pigment is not nearly as durable as marble.
Speculation about the existence of aliens goes all the way back at least to the Greek philosophers. Their arguments will sound familiar.
The Mayan calendar is revered for its impeccable accuracy. Now, a recent excavation in Guatemala reveals how the system developed over time.
A toxicological study shows that the victims of human sacrifice consumed coca leaves and ayahuasca before they were killed, but not for reasons we originally thought.
The underground burial tombs were used at least as far back as 2500 B.C.
Archaic humans ventured into Eurasia in waves, not always successfully. They may have started their journey in North Africa or West Asia.
The Assam stone jars were described as early as 1929. Almost a century later, archaeologists still puzzle over their placement and purpose.
This representation of the Bamum kingdom is a rare example of early 20th-century indigenous African cartography.
There have been some 6,000 Great Lakes shipwrecks, which have claimed an estimated 30,000 lives. These maps show some of them.