Articles

Inca Empire (Quiz)

You have to wonder how people originally figured out how to eat some foods that are beloved today. The cassava plant is toxic if not carefully processed through multiple steps. Yogurt is basically old milk that’s been around for a while and contaminated with bacteria. And who discovered that popcorn could be a toasty, tasty … Read more

Significant archaeological discoveries have been made near Monastero, a suburban area of Aquileia in northeastern Italy, during the construction of a new cycling path along the Via Gemina. Remains of Roman structures unearthed in Aquileia. Credit: Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio – Friuli Venezia Giulia This project, funded under the European Union’s Next Generation … Read more

Vikings (Quiz)

by Michelle Spear, Professor of Anatomy, University of Bristol — In recent years, skulls, bones, and even modified human remains have appeared with increasing frequency on online marketplaces and social media platforms. What might once have been confined to specialist collectors has become a global, online trade. The market is fuelled by diverse groups of … Read more

Queen Nefertiti – The Enigmatic Queen of Ancient Egypt (Quiz)

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