by Paul Pettitt — The ability to make art has often been considered a hallmark of our species. Over a century ago, prehistorians even had trouble believing that modern humans from the Upper Palaeolithic (between 45,000 and 12,000 years ago) were capable of artistic flair. Reconstruction of a male homo neanderthalensis with child. Natural History … Read more
by Serdar Yalçin — The earliest form of the signature came from ancient Iraq in the form of cylinder seals. Mesopotamians, the ancient inhabitants of the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, are credited for many firsts in human history, including writing, urbanism and the state. Among these inventions, cylinder seals are perhaps the … Read more
by Adrian R Bell, Anne Curry, Jason Sadler — When you picture medieval warfare, you might think of epic battles and famous monarchs. But what about the everyday soldiers who actually filled the ranks? Until recently, their stories were scattered across handwritten manuscripts in Latin or French and difficult to decipher. Now, our online database … Read more
A yakhchal still standing in the Iranian desert. Credit: Jeanne Menj/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 Early frozen desserts Stored ice was used to make frozen desserts such as fruit sorbets, sharbats, and faloudeh (frozen rosewater and vermicelli noodles) sweetened with honey syrup. After the Arab conquest of Persia circa 650 CE, the Persian method for ice production and … Read more