The Ancient World

"New research reveals that some of the earliest civilizations in the Middle East and the Fertile Crescent may have been affected by abrupt climate change. These findings show that while socio-economic factors were traditionally considered to shape ancient human societies in this region, the influence of abrupt climate change should not be underestimated."

"New research has been analysing the text of the Iliad, and in particular how the Greeks and Trojans conducted assemblies for decision-making purposes. Joel P. Christensen has studied the text and come to some interesting conclusions which are published in the most recent edition of the journal Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. Christensen believes this is an under-studied area which has the potential to reveal a huge amount about the Classical world."

"Before we'd even become Homo sapiens sapiens, humans lived everywhere from South Africa up to Britain and over to China. There were mountain people, coastal people, people who hunted woolly mammoths, and people who'd never seen a woolly mammoth in their lives. Just like we see with distinct groups of other animals, these differences of experience, adaptation, and expectation would have made for real cultural and even physical differences between populations. A few hundred thousand years later, as groups began to settle down and build cities they often enclosed them within massive walls. The ways different cultures interact across those walls could be seen as the central story of civilization. Top archaeologists from around the world have been exploring that story for the past week in public presentations and conversations at the 2015 Dialogue of Civilizations in Beijing."

"The victory of the Roman emperor Trajan over the Dacians in back-to-back wars is carved in numerous scenes that spiral around a 126-foot marble pillar in Rome known as Trajan's Column. It's a tale that reads like an ancient comic strip. Take Trajan's Column for a spin: Click the arrows at left for a guided tour, or explore on your own by dragging the images. (Trajan is highlighted in yellow.)"

"He then invited Cortés to climb the Templo Mayor to get a better view. Within two years of that moment, Moctezuma's great city was gone. Only now are archaeologists learning how much of it actually survived and is sitting beneath the paving stones and buildings that make up Mexico City today."

"Adam Nicolson suggests that Homer be thought of not as a person but as a tradition and that the works attributed to him go back a thousand years earlier than generally believed."

"Computer animator Steve K. Simons and Greek warfare expert Dr. Sonya Nevin work together to develop moving parts from the static images on Greek pottery, much of it in the extensive collection of the University of Reading's Ure Museum. They collaborate with ancient music experts to create soundtracks that wouldn't sound out of place in one of the symposia depicted on the vases. It's a full-spectrum historical immersion achieved through modern technology."

"A team of archaeologists from Brigham Young University has uncovered an Egyptian cemetery that may have upwards of 1 million graves. NPR's Scott Simon explains they were commoners - not pharaohs."

"A glimpse at life in the ancient Roman provinces of Gaul through the lens of food, glorious food"

"Recently Google Maps Mania reviewed the Hestia Project's Herodotus Timemap. Herodotus, sometimes known as the Father of History, was a fifth century Greek historian. In his 'Histories' Herodotus recounts the origins of the Great War between the Greeks and Persians and the rise of the Persian Empire."

"What would happen if the Pope's library were accidentally burnt? How can we reconstruct and visualize ancient and medieval pilgrimage routes? Technology is changing the way we study and preserve texts and artifacts. In a series of web-exclusive articles written by pioneering scholars developing the Digital Humanities, learn how this growing field of study is helping to analyze textual and archaeological data-and how you can help."

"In ancient Egypt, the practice of mummifying animals became widespread in the first millenium B.C. Until the advent of Christianity, visitors to temples could buy animal mummy bundles as offerings to the gods. Wealthier pilgrims could also splurge on elaborate coffins shaped as creatures to hold these mummies, which ancient Egyptians probably believed represented the souls of the gods. Along with the sale of animal mummies, the production of lavish bronze and wooden coffins must have been an important source of revenue for temples."

"Digital Augustan Rome is an online interactive map of ancient Rome, as it looked around A.D. 14. The map is an accurate depiction of the size, location, and orientation of the various structures, roads, and water systems of the city at a pivotal phase in its transformation into the imperial capital."

"The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. Stillwell, Richard. MacDonald, William L. McAlister, Marian Holland. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press. 1976. The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text. "

"Elsewhere in this gallery, there are portraits of other Roman emperors, notably Tiberius's predecessor, Augustus and his successor, Caligula. Which begs the question: when the Villa closes for the day, what might Rome's rulers say to one another?"

"Les recherches archéologiques menées sur le tracé vaudois de l'autoroute A5 entre 1995 et 2004 ont révélé la présence de plusieurs occupations humaines qui se sont succédées entre environ 8000 avant J.-C. et la fin du Moyen Âge. Il y a environ 3000 ans, durant l'âge du Bronze final, un village s'étendait au pied de la colline d'Onnens. Les témoins matériels de ce site sont publiés dans le 142e volume des Cahiers d'archéologie romande."

"The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents designed for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities."

Written in Stone: Historic Inscriptions from the Ancient Near East, ca. 2500 B.C.-550 B.C. View all five objects in an exhibition that explores the development of writing in Mesopotamia-the wedge-shaped system that we call cuneiform-that was in use for over three thousand years.

"In the 12th century, all of Mesopotamia blossomed. The Islamic Golden Age was a time of thriving science, scholarship and art, including bright and vivid Persian miniatures-small paintings on paper created to be collected into books."