The Hurrian Hymns: The World’s Oldest Song
A 3,400-year-old clay tablet from the ancient city of Ugarit contains the oldest surviving piece of notated music in the world. Known as Hurrian Hymn No. 6, this incredible artifact…
Connecting the dots across time
A 3,400-year-old clay tablet from the ancient city of Ugarit contains the oldest surviving piece of notated music in the world. Known as Hurrian Hymn No. 6, this incredible artifact…
In 1962, a fit of laughter among schoolgirls in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) spiraled into a bizarre epidemic that lasted for months, closing schools and affecting over a thousand people. This…
Journey back to 10th-century Japan and uncover the secrets of the *Tosa Nikki*, a travel diary with a revolutionary twist. Written by a high-ranking male courtier pretending to be a…
Long before the Silk Road carved its path through Central Asia, a vibrant Bronze Age civilization flourished along the Zerafshan River. At its heart was Sarazm, a proto-urban metropolis that…
In an era when a woman's choices were often limited to marriage or the nunnery, the Beguines offered a third way. These remarkable lay religious communities allowed women to live…
Meet the forgotten official of medieval English towns: the Ale-Conner. These official beer inspectors were tasked with the crucial role of ensuring the quality, fair price, and proper measure of…
Journey to the Altai Mountains, where ancient Scythian burial mounds, or kurgans, became frozen time capsules. Preserved in permafrost for over 2,500 years, these tombs reveal not just gold but…
In 1978, archaeologists unearthed a 2,000-year-old treasure in Afghanistan: an astounding collection of gold from six nomad tombs known as the Bactrian Hoard. This is the story of its discovery,…
In the Middle Ages, some chose a radical form of devotion: being permanently sealed into a small cell attached to a church. These anchorites died to the world, only to…
Dive into the secret world of the Culper Spy Ring, a network of ordinary citizens who risked everything during the American Revolution. Discover the invisible ink, complex codes, and clever…
The Great European Witch-Hunt was not a medieval horror but a distinctly early modern phenomenon driven by a "perfect storm" of factors. A temporal analysis reveals that the peak of…
Venture beyond the familiar pyramids of Egypt to discover the ancient city of Meroë, the powerhouse of the Kushite Kingdom in modern-day Sudan. Here, steep-sided pyramids guard the tombs of…
For a thousand years, Vietnam wrote with borrowed Chinese characters. In a bold act of cultural self-determination, they created their own script, Chữ Nôm, a complex and beautiful system that…
In the glittering court of Heian Japan, a sudden illness wasn't a biological event, but a spiritual attack by a 'mononoke'—a vengeful spirit of the living or dead. Born from…
While the brutal Agoge training system is Sparta's most famous feature, it was just one piece of a radical social revolution. The Lycurgan Reforms completely re-engineered Spartan society, abolishing private…
Long before the U.S. Constitution, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy created a sophisticated blueprint for peace and democratic rule known as the Great Law of Peace. This oral tradition, brought by a…
Long before English Common Law came to its shores, Ireland was governed by the Brehon Laws, a remarkably sophisticated native legal system. This ancient code operated without prisons or capital…
Carved into a massive stone wall in ancient Crete, the Gortyn Code stands as Europe's oldest and most complete legal text, offering a unique window into a long-lost world. Its…
In 532 AD, a riot between rival chariot-racing fans in Constantinople exploded into a political insurrection against Emperor Justinian I. The Nika Riots engulfed the city in flames, nearly toppled…
For centuries, the path to becoming a master craftsman was not through a classroom, but through a grueling apprenticeship that bound young boys and girls to a master’s household for…