Writing is one of the most important inventions in the entire history of civilization. The ability to record conversations, agreements and stories is literally what separates history from prehistory, and those civilizations who wrote things down captured their cultural identity for all time in doing so. And now, in a new study published in Antiquity,
Remember, remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot! I know of no reason why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot! Read moreInterested in the Killing: Jack Ketch’s Infamous TradeFor children growing up in the United Kingdom, Guy Fawkes night was a hugely fun time. Nestled between the American holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving,
The Wild West was a lawless land. As the US settlers pushed west from the original territories of the United States towards the Pacific coast they encountered many dangers. The countryside was a dangerous place, the terrain often broken especially in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Outside of the safety of the towns there
A new study of ancient Egyptian sculpture has taken a new approach by looking at the fingerprints left embedded in the artwork. A study of these fingerprints has revealed much about their working practices. The study, by Oxford University PhD student Leonie Hoff and published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, uses the fingerprints to
Homer’s Iliad is one of the oldest stories which has survived. Coming out of the Greek Dark Age and describing events which occurred more than three millennia ago, it is a richly wrought and beautiful poem, but also something of a puzzle. The events that it describes, whereby an alliance of Bronze Age Greek states
In 1901 a doctor from Massachusetts found himself facing a puzzling question. The doctor, Duncan MacDougall, wished to reconcile the two major influential factors in his life: medicine along with the science that underpinned it, and religion. Put another way, MacDougall both understood and did not understand the human body. He knew much about its