Genius: Did you mean...?

Trephination (also known as trepanning or burr holing) is a surgical intervention where a hole is drilled, incised or scraped into the skull using simple surgical tools. In drilling into the skull and removing a piece of the bone...

Ostia (or Ostia Antica) lies 15 km from the city of Rome for which it served as the city's principal port and harbour throughout antiquity. The name derives from 'os' or 'ostium' which means 'mouth' and refers to the city's location at...

Black Kettle (Mo-ta-vato/Mo'ohtavetoo'o, l. c. 1803-1868) was a chief of the Southern Cheyenne who became famous as a "peace chief" – seeking peaceful relations with the US government – as opposed to war chiefs such as Roman Nose...

The Xia Dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BCE) was the first government to emerge in ancient China and the first to adopt the policy of dynastic succession. Consequently, the Xia was the first dynasty of China. Long regarded as a mythical construct...

Ancient Greek science is a modern term for the application of systematic inquiry into the individual, the world, and the universe, which began in Ionia in the 6th century BCE with Thales of Miletus (l. c. 585 BCE) and continued...

Ptolemaic Egypt was a naval power that exerted influence throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from its foundation in 330 BCE until Cleopatra's defeat by Augustus at the Battle of Actium in 30 BCE. The Ptolemaic Kingdom produced...

Hecate (Hekate) is a goddess of Greek mythology capable of both good and evil. She was associated with witchcraft, magic, the Moon, doorways, and creatures of the night like hell-hounds and ghosts. Hecate often carries a torch in her...

Henry Knox (1750-1806) was a Boston-born bookseller who became a general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and served as the army's Chief Artillery Officer. After the conflict, he was appointed...

Tezcatlipoca (pron. Tez-ca-tli-po-ca) or 'Smoking Mirror' in Nahuatl was one of the most important gods in Postclassical Mesoamerican culture and particularly important for the Toltecs and the Aztecs, especially...

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a French existentialist philosopher who defined the existentialist movement in the 20th century. Considered the consummate intellectual, he was not only the author of philosophical works but also...