Early Christianity: Did you mean...?

The Portuguese Empire was established from the 15th century and eventually stretched from the Americas to Japan. Very often a string of coastal trading centres with defensive fortifications, there were larger territorial colonies...

Kikimora (pronounced Kih-kee-mora) is a female house spirit from Slavic lore who can be helpful or malevolent depending on the behavior of the homeowner. In differing versions of her stories, there are two kinds of spirit, one generally...

Early Elamite clay tablet with numerical signs found in Tappeh Yahya, Kerman, dating to c. 3100 to 2900 BCE (Yahya Period IVc). National Museum of Iran, Tehran, inv. no. 4065. Photo by...

The Holy Roman Empire officially lasted from 962 to 1806. It was one of Europe’s largest medieval and early modern states, but its power base was unstable and continually shifting. The Holy Roman Empire was not a unitary state...

Vestal Virgins (Latin: Vestales) were the priestesses of the Roman goddess of the hearth, Vesta, in the state religion of ancient Rome. At varying times there were four to six priestesses employed. They were the only full-time clergy...

The Antinomian Controversy (1636-1638) was a religious-political conflict that divided the Massachusetts Bay Colony of New England in the 17th century. The disagreement, also...

The stories that make up what is known today as Norse mythology once informed the religious beliefs of the people of regions including Scandinavia and Iceland. To the Norse, the world was an enchanted place...

Lying at the crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean, the island of Cyprus has long been a meeting point for many of the world's great civilizations. Situated where Europe, Asia and Africa meet, its location shaped...

Proclus of Athens (c. 412-485 CE) was a prolific Platonic philosopher whose main aim was the seemingly impossible task of defending traditional Greek polytheism at the time when his contemporary culture was almost completely dominated...

The Western Roman Empire is the modern-day term for the western half of the Roman Empire after it was divided in two by the emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305 CE) in c. 285/286 CE. The Romans themselves did not use this term...