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2,970 definitions
1,747 articles
19,689 illustrations
2,621 videos
415 3D images
15,695 translations
47 languages
1,327 contributors
15,329 keywords
53,638 registered users
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Ancient Period

Queens of Ancient Egypt
Collection

Queens of Ancient Egypt

Women were given greater respect in Egypt than in most other civilizations of the ancient world. There were female doctors, scribes, business owners, and even rulers. Although kings...
Nike
Definition

Nike - Greek Goddess of Victory

The ancient Greek goddess Nike was the personification of the ideal of victory. Such personifications of ideal terms were common in ancient Greek culture; other examples include...
Gortyn
Definition

Gortyn

Gortyn is located on the Mesara plain of central Crete and was an important settlement throughout antiquity from the Minoan to Hellenistic periods. In Roman times the city went on to gain even more...
Justinian I
Definition

Justinian I

Justinian I reigned as emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 527 to 565 CE. Born around 482 CE in Tauresium, a village in Illyria, his uncle Emperor Justin I was an imperial bodyguard who reached...
Maya Government
Definition

Maya Government

Ancient Maya government was formed on the basis that rulers were thought to have been god-like, which to some might suggest one unified state. However, the consensus amongst anthropologists...
Upanishads: Summary & Commentary
Article

Upanishads: Summary & Commentary

The Upanishads are among the best-known philosophical-religious works in the world and also among the oldest as the earliest texts are thought to have been composed between...
Manyoshu
Definition

Manyoshu

The Manyoshu or 'Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves' is an anthology of ancient Japanese poems compiled c. 759 CE during the Nara Period but including many earlier works. The most likely person...
Orichalcum
Definition

Orichalcum

Orichalcum ("mountain copper") or aurichalcum ("gold copper") was a metal used in coins during ancient times. Orichalcum was a golden-yellow coloured mixture consisting of both copper and zinc...
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Medieval Period

Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon
Article

Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon

It is a breathtaking flight with dramatic sweeps over fertile valleys and blue pine forests. You fly past Mt. Everest, Mt. Kanchenjunga and Mt. Gangkhar Puensum, which is...
Ull
Definition

Ull

Ull (also known as Ullr), with his bow and skis, is such an elusive presence in Norse mythology that no conclusive remarks can be made about him. The 13th-century Icelandic author Snorri describes...
Islamic Caliphates
Definition

Islamic Caliphates

Caliphate (“Khilafat” in Arabic) was a semi-religious political system of governance in Islam, in which the territories of the Islamic empire in the Middle East and North Africa and the...
Battle of Brunanburh
Article

Battle of Brunanburh

The Battle of Brunanburh, fought in the autumn of 937 at an unknown location, saw the English king, Aethelstan (r. 924-939), defeat a coalition of invading armies led by Constantine...
Merovingian Dynasty
Definition

Merovingian Dynasty

The Merovingian Dynasty was the ruling family of the Franks from roughly 481 when Clovis I ascended the throne of the Salian Franks until 751 when Childeric III was deposed and the Merovingians...
Ancient Chinese Philosophers
Collection

Ancient Chinese Philosophers

The philosophers of ancient China developed diverse systems of thought, often in conflict with each other, all aiming to provide people with the means to live in harmony with themselves...
Nok Culture
Definition

Nok Culture

The Nok culture, named after the settlement of the same name, flourished in southern West Africa (modern Nigeria) during the Iron Age from the 5th century BCE to the 2nd century CE. Famous for...
Norse-Viking Diet
Article

Norse-Viking Diet

In many depictions of Vikings, whether in film or other media, a group is often seen gathered around a flaming pit while an animal of some type – usually a boar – turns on a spit above...
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Early Modern Period

The Impact of the British Industrial Revolution
Article

The Impact of the British Industrial Revolution

The consequences of the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) were many, varied, and long-lasting. Working life in rural and urban settings was changed forever...
Anne Hutchinson
Definition

Anne Hutchinson - Spiritual Visionary and Champion of Faith

Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) was a religious reformer, Puritan dissident, midwife, and alleged prophetess whose beliefs and influence brought her into conflict...
17 Campaigns & Battles of Napoleon
Collection

17 Campaigns & Battles of Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Emperor of the French, was one of the most successful military commanders of the modern era. From relatively humble beginnings, he rose to...
Tsar
Definition

Tsar

Tsar (also czar) is a Slavic term derived from the Latin caesar. Ivan III (Ivan the Great) (r. 1462-1505) was the first Russian ruler to begin using the title of tsar during his reign instead of...
White Buffalo Calf Woman
Article

White Buffalo Calf Woman

White Buffalo Calf Woman (Ptesan-Wi) is a supernatural entity of the Sioux religion, who serves as an intermediary between Wakan Tanka (Great Mystery or Great Spirit) and the people...
Alexander Selkirk
Definition

Alexander Selkirk - The Inspiration For Robinson Crusoe

Alexander Selkirk (or Selcraig, 1676-1721) was a Scotsman famously marooned for four years and four months on a desert island in the Pacific Ocean until his...
Cibola - The Seven Cities of Gold & Coronado
Article

Cibola - The Seven Cities of Gold & Coronado

The Seven Cities of Cibola are the mythical lands of gold that the Spanish of the 16th century believed existed somewhere in the southwest of North America, comparable...
Battle of Fleurus
Article

Battle of Fleurus

The Battle of Fleurus (26 June 1794) was the climax of the Flanders Campaign of 1792-95 and was one of the most decisive battles in the War of the First Coalition (1792-1797). A French...
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Modern Period

Portuguese Brazil
Definition

Portuguese Brazil

With a wealth of natural resources, Brazil was by far the most important colony in the Portuguese empire and was, at one time or another, the world’s leading producer of sugar, diamonds...
Key German Weapons of World War I
Article

Key German Weapons of World War I

Superior weapons can win wars, and during the First World War (1914-18) all sides attempted to gain an advantage over the enemy by producing more and more destructive devices...
Origin of the Sweat Lodge
Article

Origin of the Sweat Lodge

The sweat lodge is a temporary or permanent structure integral to Native American culture and frequently used in spiritual ceremonies. The lodge is often a low, dome-shaped, structure...
William Still
Definition

William Still - Father of the Underground Railroad

William Still (1819-1902) was an African American abolitionist known as the "Father of the Underground Railroad" for his efforts in helping to free between 600...
5 Top Aces of World War I
Article

5 Top Aces of World War I - The Fighter Pilots Who Became National Heroes

WWI saw the birth of an entirely new form of combat: lone men engaging the enemy in aerial dogfights. The victors became heroes back home, but...
Bleeding Kansas
Definition

Bleeding Kansas - Dress Rehearsal for the American Civil War

Bleeding Kansas' was a term coined by the New York Tribune in 1856, referring to the escalating hostilities in the Kansas Territory between pro-slavery...
Ivory & the Colonization of Africa
Article

Ivory & the Colonization of Africa

European colonising powers sought to exploit Africa's resources from the 15th century onwards. Arab traders had been doing the same in North Africa and East Africa through...
The Pre-WWI Alliance System
Article

The Pre-WWI Alliance System - Triple Entente v. Triple Alliance

The alliance system in Europe was one of the causes of the First World War (1914-18), although it did not make war inevitable. In the first decade of...
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Prehistoric Period

Woolly Mammoth
Definition

Woolly Mammoth

The woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, is an extinct herbivore related to elephants who trudged across the steppe-tundras of Eurasia and North America from around 300,000 years ago until...
Banpo Village
Definition

Banpo Village

Banpo Village is a Neolithic site in the Yellow River Valley, east of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, in the People's Republic of China. The site was occupied from c. 4500-3750 BCE and covers almost...
Homo Naledi
Definition

Homo Naledi

Homo naledi is an extinct species of human discovered in Rising Star Cave in South Africa in 2013 CE in what has become the biggest single-species hominin find in Africa to this day, which is...
Early Human Migration
Article

Early Human Migration

Disregarding the extremely inhospitable spots even the most stubborn of us have enough common sense to avoid, humans have managed to cover an extraordinary amount of territory on this...
Lost Civilisations of Anatolia: Göbekli Tepe
Article

Lost Civilisations of Anatolia: Göbekli Tepe

Göbekli Tepe is the world's oldest example of monumental architecture; a 'temple' built at the end of the last Ice Age, 12,000 years ago. It was discovered in 1995...
Ҫatalhöyük
Definition

Ҫatalhöyük

Ҫatalhöyük is one of the largest Neolithic settlements ever discovered. Built more than 9000 years ago in modern Konya Plain, central Turkey, it is known in archaeology as a proto-city, a link...
Knap of Howar
Definition

Knap of Howar

The Knap of Howar is a Neolithic site on the island of Papa Westray in Orkney, Scotland. The name is Old Norse for `mound of mounds' or `large barrow'. The building preserved at the site...
Pre-Colonial North America
Definition

Pre-Colonial North America

Pre-Colonial North America (also known as Pre-Columbian, Prehistoric, and Precontact) is the period between the migration of the Paleo-Indians to the region between 40,000-14,000...
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