Rising up out of the water like someplace from a fairy tale, Venice is a city of extremes. A romantic destination of bridges and canals… and a moldering cesspool of crumbling buildings tilting slowly towards the mud that has supported them for a thousand years or more. It begs the question: why was this astonishing […]
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The Goths were a significant ethnic group in Europe during the first half of the first millennium of the Common Era. They first appear in the historical record in the first century AD. They eventually spawned kingdoms that clashed with the Huns, the Romans, and the Umayyad Empire. They spoke an East Germanic language that
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Golems have become ubiquitous figures in modern folklore, featured everywhere from Discworld novels to the world of Minecraft. But where did they come from? The English word comes from the Hebrew golem meaning “shapeless mass”. The word ‘golem’ is used once in the bible, and English versions translate it in various ways; it’s most often
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The Achaemenid Empire, also known as the First Persian Empire, was founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. It endured for over two hundred years and was eventually conquered by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. During the reign of Darius the Great (522–486 BC), this empire became the largest that the world had
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Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was the first person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. He discovered the radiation wavelength range known in English as X-rays. In many languages, these wavelengths are still called Röntgen radiation. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Röntgen was the child of a German cloth merchant. He was born in 1845 in the
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‘Ain Ghazal houses the remains of an ancient culture that thrived there for thousands of years. It is one of the largest Neolithic settlements ever found. The site is in modern-day Jordan and is best known for the ʿAin Ghazal statues that were discovered there in the 1980s. Some of the archeological remains found at
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Ancient Egypt may have lacked many things that we take for granted today, such as wheels and coins. But that civilization spawned countless inventions and innovations that shaped the ancient world. This article will move chronologically through the most important inventions of Ancient Egypt. Prehistoric Egypt The area around the Nile has been inhabited for
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If every piece of a ship is replaced over time until none of the original components remain, is it still the same ship? The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment rooted in the story of Theseus, the founder-king of Athens who took a certain ship on a pilgrimage each year to honor the god
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In ancient Greece, Nike was worshiped as the goddess of victory. Her favor graced the victors of all kinds of contests, from foot races to great battles. She could also grant people success in the arts. Nike was associated with both Zeus and Athena. She was often shown with huge wings on her back and
Mythology of the Ancient Greek Goddesses Nike and Athena Read More »
Cats were famously well-regarded in ancient Egypt, but what about dogs? Dogs in ancient Egypt held much the same status as dogs today. Some were working dogs, and many were beloved pets. Some strays haunted graveyards and cowered on the fringes of society. Some were status symbols, decked out in precious metals and embalmed to
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