Search
Search Results
Definition
Pirates in the Ancient Mediterranean
Piracy, defined as the act of attacking and robbing a ship or port by sea, had a long history in the ancient Mediterranean stretching from the time of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 BCE) and throughout the Middle Ages (c. 476-1500...
Definition
Egyptian Book of the Dead
The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a collection of spells which enable the soul of the deceased to navigate the afterlife. The famous title was given the work by western scholars; the actual title would translate as The Book of Coming Forth...
Image
Picture Stone with Sun Wheel
Picture stone with whirling suns, ornaments, and a ship, 5th-6th century.
Fornsalen Museum, Visby (Gotland).
Image
Isolde and Marke from the Motion Picture Tristan + Isolde
Marke (Rufus Sewell) and Isolde (Sophia Myles) as depicted in the 2006 motion picture Tristan + Isolde.
Image
Scandinavian Gold-Foil Picture
Gold-foil picture depicting a couple embracing each other, found in Scandinavia. It is thought to represent the Norse god Freyr and his wife Gerðr united in holy marriage (hieros gamos). These tiny images are known as 'guldgubber' and...
Article
North Africa’s Place in the Mediterranean Economy of Late Antiquity
The Mediterranean Sea was the economic focal point of the Roman Empire. Rome's armies first established an empire across these waters beginning back in the times of the Roman Republic. In 200 CE, the Mediterranean was still the channel that...
Article
The Rise of Cities in the Ancient Mediterranean
The history of the ancient world has always been told as a history of cities, from Homer's epic poems about events just before and just after the sack of Troy, through the prose histories of wars between Athens and Sparta, Rome and Carthage...
Article
Pirates of the Mediterranean
The pirates of the ancient Mediterranean were not, for the most part, the outsiders who knew no country's allegiance and were the enemies of civilization as they are frequently depicted in novels and other media. They were often employed...
Collection
Colonization in the Ancient Mediterranean
Colonization of the ancient Mediterranean had been taking place since the Bronze Age, especially with Minoan and Mycenaean expansion, but it was the Phoenicians from the 10th century CE that really took the whole idea to a new level. The...
Definition
Book of Kells
The Book of Kells (c. 800) is an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels of the Christian New Testament, currently housed at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. The work is the most famous of the medieval illuminated manuscripts for the...