Latest Posts
The Gospel of Thomas and the Historical Jesus
The New Testament Gospels offer two different pictures of Jesus: there is Jesus of Nazareth, and then there is Jesus Christ.
Nepenthes and Cannabis in Ancient Greece
In Ancient Greece, there was not much use of drugs. There is not even a word in Greek to identify the ‘addicted’ nor does Greek contain any concept of drug dependence
The Levanzo I Wreck, Sicily: a 4th-century AD merchantman in the service of the annona?
The Levanzo I shipwreck provides insight into a fundamental component of the Roman annona system in the 4th century: individual merchant-ship cargos.
Excavating the Roman Peasant
The result of a collaboration between four young archaeologists at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Cambridge, and the Universit
The Ancient Egyptian Sed-Festival and the Exemption from Corvee
King and god based their relationship on reciprocal gestures, and the royal decree was presented as the compensation for the first sed-festival and Amun’s announcement of more to come. Its content is generally understood as an exemption from corvee granted to Amun’s cult personnel.
AD 312 – Milvian Bridge: Rome's Great Battle for Empire and Church
Ancient military historian Ross Cowan explores the victory that made Constantine emperor and Christianity the imperial religion.
Astral Divination in the Context of Mesopotamian Divination, Medicine, Religion, Magic, Society, and Scholarship
The fundamental premise lying behind celestial and other forms of divination in Mesopotamia was that the gods would, on occasions, impart information to humans through signs, that could bode both well and ill, providing a positive or negative answer to a query, or more specific (unfalsifiable) information on what will happen in the future.
First Iranian military units in the army of Alexander the Great
This article seeks to analyze not only the numbers but also the place accorded to Iranian troops in Alexander
Decoding an Ancient Computer
New explorations have revealed how the Antikythera mechanism modeled lunar motion and predicted eclipses, among other sophisticated tricks.
TravelAll posts
EXHIBITS – Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art
My review of the British Museum’s – Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art which explores daily life, gender, sexuality, athleticism, heroism, and the social and political ideologies the Greeks espoused through their views on the human form.
NewsAll posts
Basel papyrus is an ancient medical text, researchers find
Since the 16th century, Basel has been home to a mysterious papyrus. With mirror writing on both sides, it has puzzled generations of researchers.
Research network sheds new light on drinking and eating habits in the Roman world
The landmark 50th issue of the journal Internet Archaeology is featuring pioneering research that is investigating new ways of analysing millions of Roman artefacts associated with the consumption of food and drink.
Ancient human remains and a medieval mystery unearthed in southern England
Excavation of a Bronze Age burial mound in south west England leads to the discovery of an intact 4,000 year old human cremation as well as evidence of unaccountable activity from the medieval period on the same site.
2,100-year-old ‘hawk’ mummy actually a stillborn baby, scan reveals
A tiny Egyptian mummy long believed to be that of a hawk is actually a rare example of a near-to-term, severely malformed fetus
BooksAll posts
BOOKS: Hot New Ancient History Releases!: January
If improving your reading is your goal for 2016, you’ve come to the right place! Here are our hot new ancient history releases for January!
New Releases: Ancient Books for the Holiday Season!
A few new releases for the historian on your shopping list!
The Death of Caesar: New Light on History’s Most Famous Assassination
Barry Strauss talks about his new book The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination.
The Tears of Re: Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt
In these four videos, Gene Kritsky, author of The Tears of Re, talks about beekeeping in Ancient Egypt
New Open Access Book on Vergil’s Political Commentary
Leendert Weeda examines Vergil’s political views by analyzing the whole of the poet’s work and introduces the notion of the functional model, which suggests that the poet does not primarily have a literary objective, but a functional one.
Fall of Roman Empire can be explained by biology, researcher says
Forget the Vandals – the fall of the Roman Empire can be explained by biology, according to a new book.