Musical instruments are near universal across all cultures, ancient and modern, but the music they make is not always pleasant. Aztec skull whistles, extremely versatile instruments from 500 years ago, are certainly not. Such whistles were used for more than 250 years from around 1250 AD by the Aztecs of Central America, producing a combination
Genghis Khan was one of the most powerful men to ever live. Born to rule in the middle of the 12th century, he would rise to unite the warring tribes of the Mongolian steppe and become the first khan of his Mongol Empire. Sweeping across Asia and eastern Europe with awesome destruction, in officially adopted
In the 13th century in Iceland a poet and a scholar named Snorri Sturluson wrote two great masterpieces, texts which cast a shadow to this day. In his Poetic Edda and his Prose Edda his beautiful writing captured much of ancient Norse tradition: their people, their history, and their gods. These texts are a vital
There is a reason that, in the public image of the medieval executioner they are almost always envisaged wearing a hooded mask. Execution was a bloody trade, and for many it came with an amount of social ostracising: better to remain anonymous then be known as a butcher. In point of fact this was not