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2,963 definitions
1,738 articles
19,658 illustrations
2,618 videos
415 3D images
15,451 translations
47 languages
1,324 contributors
15,277 keywords
51,393 registered users
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Ancient Period

Mount Athos
Definition

Mount Athos - The Byzantine Holy Mountain

Mount Athos, located on the Chalkidike peninsula near Thessalonica, Greece, is a holy site which first saw hermit monks living there in the 9th century CE. Regarded as...
12 Great Cities of Ancient Mesopotamia
Article

12 Great Cities of Ancient Mesopotamia - The Rise and Fall of the Earliest Cities in the World

The great cities of Mesopotamia ("the land between two rivers") developed prior to the late 4th millennium BCE along two rivers...
Traveling Classroom History Exhibit
Article

Traveling Classroom History Exhibit

The best way to learn ancient history is not by memorizing dates and facts but, rather, through critical thinking and analysis. When studying ancient history, the key is...
Pankration
Definition

Pankration

Pankration is an ancient martial art which mixes wrestling and boxing. The sport can be traced as far back as the second millennium BCE in the territory of ancient Greece. Its name derives from...
Herodotus
Definition

Herodotus

Herodotus (l. c. 484 – 425/413 BCE) was a Greek historian famous for his work Histories. He was called The Father of History by the Roman writer Cicero, who admired him, but has also been rejected...
Hippocrates
Definition

Hippocrates

Hippocrates was born on the Greek island of Kos in the 5th century BCE, and he became the most famous physician in antiquity. He established a medical school on the island, wrote many treatises...
Roman Walls
Article

Roman Walls

The many Roman walls still visible today throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, be they defensive walls such as the Servian Wall or house and monument walls, tell us a great deal about the...
Same-Sex Love & Courtship in the Ancient Mediterranean
Image Gallery

Same-Sex Love & Courtship in the Ancient Mediterranean

This gallery explores the expression of same-sex love in the ancient Mediterranean through art. The Mediterranean was home to many cultures and societies...
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Medieval Period

Ten Great Stupas from Around the World
Article

Ten Great Stupas from Around the World

A stupa is a reliquary containing the remains (relics) of an individual associated with great spiritual power and insight, most often (since the 3rd century BCE) with the...
Gisela of France
Definition

Gisela of France

Gisela of France was a legendary 10th-century CE Francian princess, who, according to tradition, was married off to Viking leader Rollo of Normandy. Her name, Gisela or Gisla, comes from...
Grossmunster
Definition

Grossmunster

Grossmünster (“large cathedral” in German) is a Romanesque ex-cathedral situated in the heart of Zürich, Switzerland, which was built over the course of the 11th and 13th centuries CE. According...
Chlothar I
Definition

Chlothar I

Chlothar I (l. c. 498-561) was a Merovingian king of the Franks, the second to rule over a unified Frankish kingdom after his father, Clovis I (l. c. 466-511). When Clovis died in 511, his kingdom...
The Mayan Pantheon: The Many Gods of the Maya
Article

The Mayan Pantheon: The Many Gods of the Maya

The pantheon of the Maya is a vast collection of deities worshipped throughout the regions of Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and...
Guntram I of Orléans
Definition

Guntram I of Orléans

Guntram I (also given as Gontrand, Gunthram, or Gunthchramn) was a Merovingian king who ruled over the Frankish kingdom of Orléans, later referred to as Burgundy, from 561 to 592. He...
Norse Ghosts & Funerary Rites
Article

Norse Ghosts & Funerary Rites

In Norse belief, the soul of the deceased might wind up in any one of a number of afterlife realms. There was Valhalla, the realm of Odin where the dead warriors drank, fought...
Fraumunster
Definition

Fraumunster

Fraumünster Church (“Women's church” in German) is a former Benedictine abbey situated in the heart of Zürich, Switzerland that was founded in the mid-9th century CE by Louis the German and...
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Early Modern Period

Johann Sebastian Bach
Definition

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German organist and composer whose work is today regarded as amongst the finest of mature baroque music (c. 1600-1750). More famous as an organist...
Battle of Germantown
Article

Battle of Germantown

The Battle of Germantown (4 October 1777) was a major battle of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) in which General George Washington launched an unsuccessful assault on the...
Argula von Grumbach's To the University of Ingolstadt
Article

Argula von Grumbach's To the University of Ingolstadt

To the University of Ingolstadt (1523) is an open letter by the German reformer Argula von Grumbach (l. 1490 to c. 1564) protesting the dismissal, arrest, and...
Baba Yaga
Definition

Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga (Baba Jaga) is a witch or ogress from Slavic folklore who lives in a magical hut in the forest and either helps, imprisons, or eats people (usually children). She is among the most...
Reformation & Repression under Bishop Briçonnet of Meaux
Article

Reformation & Repression under Bishop Briçonnet of Meaux

As the Protestant Reformation emerged in France in the early 16th century, the city of Meaux became one of the first centers of controversy. Bishop Guillaume...
Thomas Cavendish
Definition

Thomas Cavendish

Thomas Cavendish (1560-1592 CE) was an Elizabethan mariner and privateer who famously circumnavigated the globe in 1586-88 CE, only the third voyage to do so and the first to set sail with...
Tobacco & Colonial American Economy
Article

Tobacco & Colonial American Economy

The most important cash crop in Colonial America was tobacco, first cultivated by the English at their Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1610 CE by the merchant John Rolfe...
Women of the Protestant Reformation
Collection

Women of the Protestant Reformation

The contributions of women to the Protestant Reformation (1517-1648) were frequently marginalized in the past but have gained wider recognition in the present era. Many women...
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Modern Period

James Monroe
Definition

James Monroe

James Monroe (1758-1831) was an American statesman who served as the fifth president of the United States (1817-1825). The fourth president to belong to the so-called 'Virginia Dynasty', and...
Battle of Kiev in 1941
Article

Battle of Kiev in 1941

The Battle of Kiev (Kyiv) in July-September 1941 was a major Axis victory in Operation Barbarossa, Adolf Hitler's attack on the USSR during the Second World War (1939-45). Hitler wanted...
Camille Pissarro
Definition

Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was an impressionist painter based in France who focussed on landscapes but frequently changed his style and subjects. He was an instrumental figure in the new...
Black Elk on the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Article

Black Elk on the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Black Elk (l. 1863-1950) of the Oglala Lakota Sioux was twelve years old at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on 25 June 1876. He gives his account of the famous conflict...
17 Key Figures of the French Revolution
Collection

17 Key Figures of the French Revolution

The French Revolution (1789-1799) was one of the defining events of Western history. Triggered by economic troubles, political turmoil, and social inequality, the Revolution...
Our Favourite Ancient History Shops
Article

Our Favourite Ancient History Shops

World History Encyclopedia’s main mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. We are achieving this through our definitions...
Mandan Buffalo Dance
Article

Mandan Buffalo Dance

The Mandan Buffalo Dance is a ceremonial ritual observed in the modern era to honor the spirit of the buffalo and preserve Native American cultural traditions and was performed in the...
Zachary Taylor
Definition

Zachary Taylor - Old Rough and Ready - the 12th US President

Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) was an American military officer who served as the twelfth president of the United States. Born to a family of prominent Virginian...
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Prehistoric Period

Venus Figurine
Definition

Venus Figurine

The term Venus figurine is used to describe the more than 200 small statuettes of voluptuous female figures that have been found at Upper Paleolithic sites across Europe and some parts of...
The Megalithic Temples of Malta
Article

The Megalithic Temples of Malta

The megalithic temples of Malta and Gozo rank amongst the oldest free-standing buildings in the world. Construction of these temples started c. 3500 BCE, an impressive architectural...
Dolmens of Ancient Korea
Article

Dolmens of Ancient Korea

Dolmens (in Korean: koindol or chisongmyo) are simple structures made of monolithic stones erected during the late Neolithic period or Korean Bronze Age (1st millennium BCE). In ancient...
Longmen Grottoes
Definition

Longmen Grottoes

The Longmen Grottoes, a Buddhist cave complex located 13 kilometers south of Luoyang in China's Henan province, form some of the most significant and exquisite representations of ancient...
Migration Age
Definition

Migration Age

The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions or German: Völkerwanderung (wandering of the peoples), was a period of human migration that occurred roughly between 300 to 700 CE...
Denisovan
Definition

Denisovan

The Denisovans are an extinct group of fossil humans who, along with their sister group the Neanderthals, also share an ancestor with Homo sapiens. Thus far, they are known only from Denisova...
The Dolmens of Sicily
Article

The Dolmens of Sicily

It is a well-known fact that Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean sea, went through a quite complex prehistoric period. So much so that it is difficult to navigate through...
Origins of World Agriculture
Article

Origins of World Agriculture

Agriculture arose independently at several locations across the world, beginning about 12,000 years ago. The first crops and livestock were domesticated in six rather diffuse areas...
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