L anse aux meadows: Did you mean...?

Abbeys were a striking feature of medieval urban and rural landscapes. Their layout and architecture reflected their purpose as cut-off monastic retreats which, conversely, also served and inspired their local communities. Although evolving...

The assassination of revolutionary activist and Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat on 13 July 1793 was one of the most iconic moments of the French Revolution (1789-1799), immortalized in Jacques-Louis David's painting Death of Marat. Marat's...

Babylon is the most famous city from ancient Mesopotamia, whose ruins lie in modern-day Hillah, Iraq, 59 miles (94 km) southwest of Baghdad. The name is derived from bav-il or bav-ilim, which in Akkadian meant "Gate of God" (or "Gate of the...

Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605/604-562 BCE) was the greatest King of ancient Babylon during the period of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (626-539 BCE), succeeding its founder, his father, Nabopolassar (r. 626-605 BCE). He is best known from the biblical...

Sirens were creatures from Greek mythology that enticed sailors to their destruction with their irresistibly beautiful singing. The most famous appearance of sirens in literature is in Homer's Odyssey where the hero Odysseus, on his long...

Perseus is one of the greatest and oldest pan-Hellenic heroes of Greek mythology. Perseus famously killed the dreaded Medusa, a Gorgon with snakes as hair and whose stare turned men to stone. Perseus also carried out the daring rescue of...

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman consul (460 BCE) and dictator (458 and 439 BCE), a legendary figure in the early days of the Roman Republic. He responded to a call from the city fathers, left his plow lying in the fields, donned...

The Horae (Horai, sing. Hora) were the personification and goddesses of the seasons and the hours and, later on, were regarded as goddesses of order and justice in Greek mythology. They were the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Themis and...

Hafez of Shiraz (also given as Hafiz, l. 1315-1390) is considered the greatest of the Persian poets and among the most famous and admired writers in world literature. He is among the most often translated poets in the present day and his...

Early medieval Icelandic government, or Viking Iceland, has been termed an incipient form of democracy or democratic parliamentarism, however, the system was actually nothing like its European counterparts, be they medieval or contemporary...