Featured
Article
Ten Halloween Facts and Traditions You Need to Know - A Celebration of Transformation
Halloween is the most popular holiday in the world, after Christmas (based on level-of-celebration and consumer spending) and, increasingly...
Featured
Definition
Ghosts in the Ancient World - The Return of the So-Called Dead
A belief in an afterlife was central to every major civilization of the ancient world and this encouraged the recognition of the reality of ghosts as...
Featured
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12 Largest Contiguous Land Empires Before 1880 - From the Mongol Empire to Rome, Qing China & Russia
Land empires were expansive states whose rulers exercised authority over large, substantially connected territories and...
Featured
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Map of the Rise of the Delhi Sultanate: Mamluk Dynasty - State Formation and Conquest in Medieval India, 1206–1290
The Delhi Sultanate's Mamluk (or Slave) period (1206–1290) marked the emergence of a powerful Muslim-ruled state...
Latest Content
Article
Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld - Messages From the Afterlife
Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld is a Sumerian poem pre-dating The Epic of Gilgamesh and featuring its central characters. It is sometimes...
Definition
Army of Northern Virginia - General Lee's Army
The Army of Northern Virginia was the main field army of the Confederate States in the eastern theater of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Famously led by General...
Definition
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor - The Great Matchmaker
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459-1519), belonged to the imperial House of Habsburg, and the imperial electors made him King of the Romans in 1486 during...
Definition
James Longstreet - Civil War Hero and Lost Cause Villain
James Longstreet (1821-1904) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War, serving chiefly under Robert E. Lee in the Eastern theater. He was regarded...
Collection
First 16 US Presidents - From Washington to Lincoln
Since the founding of the United States, the office of the presidency – and the men who have occupied it – have had a profound impact on the hearts, minds, and...
Definition
Seven Years' War - The 18th-Century World War
The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) was a global conflict fought between the great powers of Europe in the mid-18th century. The culmination of several decades of conflict...
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Map of the Latin Empire - A Crusader State in Constantinople - The Fourth Crusade and the Fragmentation of Byzantium
The Latin Empire (Imperium Romaniae, 1204–1261) emerged after the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) captured and...
Image
12 Largest Contiguous Land Empires Before 1880 - From the Mongol Empire to Rome, Qing China & Russia
Land empires were expansive states whose rulers exercised authority over large, substantially connected territories and...
Image
Map of the Sasanian Empire at Its Height, c. 620 - Khosrow II and the Byzantine–Sasanian War, 602–628
The Sasanian Empire (224–651), also known as Sassanian Persia, was the last pre-Islamic Persian empire and one of the...
For You
Definition
Maria Theresa - The Great Habsburg Empress
Maria Theresa (1717-1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy, a sprawling empire that included Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, and other territories spread out across...
Article
Five Key Historical Sites of the Hittites
Although mentioned several times in the Biblical texts, the actual existence of the Hittites was largely forgotten until the late 19th century CE. With the discovery...
Article
Lakota Sioux Creation Story
The Lakota Sioux, like other tribal nations, had many versions of a creation story but all involved Wakan Tanka (Great Mystery or Great Spirit), the supreme creative power in the...
Definition
Chinvat Bridge
The Chinvat Bridge is the span between the world of the living and the afterlife in the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. It is also known as Cinvat Bridge, Cinvad Bridge, and Chinvato...
Book Reviews
Book Review
The Army of Alexander the Great
The Army of Alexander the Great (2025) is a highly detailed and insightful examination of one of the most influential military forces in history. Rather than presenting Alexander...
Book Review
Ancestral Journeys: The Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings
Ancestral Journeys: Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings, by Dr. Jean Manco, a historian who has taught at Plymouth...
Book Review
The Pharos Lighthouse In Alexandria: Second Sun and Seventh Wonder of Antiquity
The book is divided into twelve chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of the Pharos, better known as the Lighthouse of Alexandria...
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| 2,643 | videos |
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Ancient Period
Article
The Battle of Philippi 42 BCE
The Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE was an all-Roman affair fought between the young Octavian, chosen heir of Julius Caesar, and the mercurial Mark Antony, widely regarded as the...
Definition
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The monumental statue of Zeus at Olympia in Greece was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Created in the 430s BCE under the supervision of the master Greek sculptor Phidias...
Article
The Queen of the Night - The Mysterious Burney Relief
The Queen of the Night (also known as the "Burney Relief") is a high-relief terracotta plaque of baked clay, 19.4 inches (49.5 cm) high, 14.5 inches (37 cm...
Definition
Chinvat Bridge
The Chinvat Bridge is the span between the world of the living and the afterlife in the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. It is also known as Cinvat Bridge, Cinvad Bridge, and Chinvato...
Article
Ten Famous & Not-so-Famous Same-Sex Couples in Ancient History
History is recorded by individual human beings with their own beliefs and interests guiding what they choose to record, and, as such, many events and...
Article
Augustus' Political, Social, & Moral Reforms
Augustus is well known for being the first Emperor of Rome, but even more than that, for being a self-proclaimed “Restorer of the Republic.” He believed in ancestral...
Article
Death, Burial & the Afterlife in the Ancient Celtic Religion
The ancient Celts who occupied large parts of Europe from 700 BCE to 400 CE displayed a clear belief in an afterlife as evidenced in their treatment of...
Article
Capitals of the Roman Empire: Constantinople & Rome
Constantinople at first had much in common with the temporary capitals of the 2nd and 3rd century CE and the tetrarchic capitals. It was an existing city of...
Medieval Period
Definition
Frigg
Frigg is a fertility goddess in Norse mythology. She is the wife of Odin, king of the gods, and is the greatest goddess of the Norse pantheon. She is thought to have developed, along with the goddess...
Definition
Thessaly and the Duchy of Neopatras
Thessaly was an independent state in medieval Greece from 1267 or 1268 to 1394 CE, first as the Greek-ruled Thessaly and later as the Catalan and Latin-ruled Duchy of Neopatras...
Definition
Henry V of England
Henry V of England ruled as king from 1413 to 1422. Succeeding his father Henry IV of England (r. 1399-1413), Prince Henry established himself as a fine military leader in battles against...
Article
William the Conqueror's Harrying of the North
By the end of 1066 CE William the Conqueror had won a decisive victory at the Battle of Hastings, subdued the south-east of England and been crowned King William...
Definition
Montezuma - Last Ruler of the Aztecs
Montezuma (aka Moctezuma), or more correctly, Motecuhzoma II Xocoyotzin, meaning 'Angry Like A Lord’, was the last fully independent ruler of the Aztec empire before the...
Definition
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431-1506 CE) was an Italian Renaissance artist most famous for his use of foreshortening and other perspective techniques in engravings, paintings, and frescoes. Another...
Definition
Uthman
Uthman ibn Affan (l. 576/583-656 CE) was an early convert to Islam, a close friend and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad (l. 570-632 CE), and the third caliph (r. 644-656 CE) of the Rashidun Caliphate...
Article
Theodora: A True Heroine?
Was Theodora I, the wife of Emperor Justinian of Byzantium (reigned 527 - 565 CE), a heroine? The historian Treadgold calls her a protectress of women, as she used her influence...
Early Modern Period
Article
Battle of Rhode Island
The Battle of Rhode Island (29 August 1778), also known as the Siege of Newport or the Battle of Quaker Hill, was fought during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). It marked...
Article
Drinking Customs in Merry Olde England
Raising toasts, sharing cups of cheer, and singing raucous songs while partaking of alcohol are customs which date back to the early Middle Ages in England. Several of...
Definition
Europe
Europe is a continent forming the westernmost part of the land mass of Eurasia and comprised of 49 sovereign states. Its name may come from the Greek myth of Europa, but human habitation of the...
Definition
Ivan III of Russia
Ivan III of Russia (Ivan the Great) was the Grand Prince of Moscow and Russia from 1462 to 1505. Ivan III was born in 1440 to Grand Prince Vasily II of Moscow (r. 1425-1462) and his wife...
Definition
Urdubegis
The urdubegis were a group of female warriors in the Mughal Empire, who protected the zenana, the harem of the emperor. Although the origins of female bodyguards go back to the beginning of Indian...
Article
The Portuguese in East Africa
The Portuguese first took an interest in East Africa from the beginning of the 16th century as their empire spread eastwards across the Indian Ocean. Trade in the region was already...
Article
Battle of the Pyramids
The Battle of the Pyramids (21 July 1798), or the Battle of Embabeh, was a significant battle fought during Napoleon's Campaign in Egypt and Syria. On a battlefield 15 km (9 mi) away...
Definition
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1524) was a Portuguese navigator who, in 1497-9, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa and arrived at Calicut (now Kozhikode) on the south-west coast...
Modern Period
Article
How Diamonds Transformed Southern Africa - Kimberley's Blood, Sweat & Segregation
The discovery of diamonds in 1867 in Griqualand ultimately transformed the entire region of Southern Africa. Huge European financial investment...
Article
Siege of Leningrad
The siege of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) began during Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR launched by the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), during the Second...
Definition
Morning Star (Dull Knife) - Eastman's Biography
Morning Star (Vooheheve, l. c. 1810-1883, better known as Dull Knife) was a Northern Cheyenne chief who led his people in resistance to the US government's policies...
Article
First Battle of El Alamein
The First Battle of El Alamein (1-27 July 1942) was a series of encounters during the Second World War (1939-1945) in Egypt between Allied and Axis forces. The battle, focussed around...
Article
The Steel Industry in the British Industrial Revolution
The production of steel during the British Industrial Revolution became cheaper and more reliable thanks to the Bessemer converter, a type of blast furnace...
Article
Napoleonic Concordat of 1801 & Religious Pluralism
The Napoleonic Concordat of 1801 defined France's relationship with the Catholic Church for over 100 years. The Organic Articles were added in 1802 and provided...
Article
Agriculture in the British Industrial Revolution
Agriculture, like most other areas of working life, was greatly affected by the machines invented during the Industrial Revolution. Agriculture in Britain and elsewhere...
Definition
Fashoda Incident - When Britain and France Almost Went to War in Africa
The Fashoda Incident of 1898 occurred in Sudan and caused a diplomatic crisis between the British and French empires. A small French force claimed...
Prehistoric Period
Definition
Carnac
Carnac, located on the north-west coast of France, is the site of the largest concentration of megalithic monuments in the world. Over 100 monuments, which include burial mounds, stone tombs, enclosures...
Definition
Stone Age
From the dawn of our species to the present day, stone-made artefacts are the dominant form of material remains that have survived to today concerning human technology. The term “Stone Age”...
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...
Article
Legends of the Rollright Stones, Oxfordshire
The Rollright Stones is the collective name for a group of enigmatic prehistoric monuments located next to an ancient ridgeway known as the Jurassic Way, on the border...
Article
The Meaning of European Upper Paleolithic Rock Art
Rock art (also known as parietal art) is an umbrella term which refers to several types of creations including finger markings left on soft surfaces, bas-relief...
Article
Prehistoric Alpine Stilt Houses
Alpine stilt houses are a unique and fascinating aspect of prehistoric architecture in the Alps, which provide valuable insights into the lives and culture of the ancient communities...
Definition
Skara Brae
Skara Brae is a Neolithic Age site, consisting of ten stone structures, near the Bay of Skaill, Orkney, Scotland. Today the village is situated by the shore but when it was inhabited (c.3100-2500...
Definition
Europe
Europe is a continent forming the westernmost part of the land mass of Eurasia and comprised of 49 sovereign states. Its name may come from the Greek myth of Europa, but human habitation of the...
