A coin from Cyrene depicting silphium: the plant, which only grew locally to the city, became its chief export. Source: ArchaiOptix / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Silphium: Can We Rediscover the Roman Wonder Drug?

Cure-alls are, generally speaking, never what they claim. Most medical wonder drugs are nothing of the sort, and snake oil salesmen have existed throughout history, prospering as long as there are people out there who are prepared to believe them. But this is not to say that all such medical supplements are fraud. Some have

The remains of the chariot in the Roman burial mound in Varna (Heritage Daily / BTA)

Roman Chariot found in Ancient Varna Necropolis

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have uncovered something they did not expect while excavating a necropolis mound in the Varna Province. The site has previously revealed only Bronze Age finds, but the new mound is far later, dating to the Roman period around the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Chief among the finds from the new excavation

Syphilis, Opium and Cocaine, oh my! (Journal of Archaeological Science / CC BY 4.0)

Milanese Hospital Bones Suggest Early Use of Cocaine

Researchers in Italy excavating a crypt in Milan’s Ospedale Maggiore have discovered something which sets established history on its head: traces of cocaine in the brains of two bodies, which suggests the drug was used far earlier than previously thought. Conventional historical wisdom tells us that cocaine use in Europe started in the 19th century.

The Bronze Sword of Ramesses II (Interesting Engineering / Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)

3,000 Year Old Sword of a Pharoah Discovered in Egypt

An excavation team led by Dr. Ahmed Saeed El-Kharadly have uncovered an ancient sword in Egypt’s Beheira Governate in the north of the country, between Alexandria and Cairo and in the heart of ancient Egypt. The sword was found at the Tell Al-Abqain archaeological site, in what appears to have been a military storage complex

Looking good: Castiglione based his ideas of the ideal courtier on his experiences in the court of Urbino during the high Renaissance. Source: Raphael / Public Domain.

Baldassare Castiglione: The Courtier, Perfected

The term “Renaissance Man” is a reasonably well known one, which draws a pretty wide set of definitions but which basically refers to someone who is accomplished in multiple fields seen as desirable by their peers and superiors. This, both in the Renaissance and the modern day, is a big ask. It comes with assumptions

Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism in Das Kapital is one of the most influential texts in the entirety of human history. Source: Ürfan1917 / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Das Kapital: What Did Marx Actually Have to Say?

Politics in the modern world is increasingly divisive. In the US political system labels matter, and it can be the death knell for a political career to be called “socialist” in reference to your ideas. Putting aside the fact that all federal and state-wide policies are by definition socialist, funded centrally from tax revenues, there

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