Ancient History
Lost Egyptian Book of the Dead Found in a Forgotten Tomb After 3,500 Years
A 3,500-year-old Book of the Dead scroll has been unearthed in a lost cemetery at Tuna el-Gebel, Egypt — one…
Ming Dynasty Detectives Used Forensic Science Centuries Before Sherlock Holmes
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty is a 2020 Chinese historical drama that doubles as a historical argument: that China…
Prince of Egypt’s Exodus: Why Egyptologists Can’t Find the Evidence
The Prince of Egypt sent audiences out of theaters asking whether the Exodus really happened. After a century of excavation,…
Bactria: The Greek Kingdom That Thrived 4,000 Miles From Athens
After Alexander the Great conquered Central Asia, a breakaway Greek kingdom rose in Bactria — modern Afghanistan — and defied…
Cleopatra of Macedon: Alexander’s Sister Who Ruled Epirus and Was Forgotten
Cleopatra of Macedon was a queen regent who maneuvered through the deadliest succession wars of antiquity — yet history remembers…
Qianlong Emperor Ruled 63 Years, Then Abdicated to Honor His Grandfather
The Qianlong Emperor built China's greatest empire and composed 40,000 poems across a 63-year reign — then voluntarily abdicated in…
Was the Trojan War Real? What Archaeology Actually Found at Troy
Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Hisarlık proved Troy was real, but whether a great war was actually fought there remains one…
Who Invented Ancient, Medieval and Modern — and Why the Dates Are Wrong
The time periods in history we learn in school — Ancient, Medieval, Modern — were invented by a grudge-holding Renaissance…
How the Ottoman Empire Ruled Three Continents for 600 Years
In 1299, Osman I led a principality so small his neighbors barely noticed it. Six hundred years later, the dynasty…
Why Ancient Egyptians Made a Dung Beetle the God of the Rising Sun
The scarab beetle's habit of rolling dung balls toward the rising sun — and birthing new life from buried waste…