The ancient art of tattooing, once dismissed by early archaeologists as the mark of "savages and deviants," is now emerging as a vital, often-overlooked source of information about our ancestors. Driven by a new cohort of researchers like Aaron...
In a 1970 feature, paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey chronicled his own dramatic discovery that cemented his place in the legendary Leakey family legacy. While surveying the vast, virtually trackless region east of Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana) in Kenya, Leakey...
Discovered in a muddy field in northern Britain in late 2021, the Melsonby Hoard is an enormous trove of over 900 Iron Age objects that is reshaping our understanding of pre-Roman Britannia. Deliberately buried in a ditch around the...
One of the world's oldest known maps, etched onto a clay tablet and dating back to approximately 1500–1300 B.C., depicts the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nippur. For decades after its discovery in 1899 in what is now Iraq, scholars...
On the island of Crete, a massive building boom fueled by a sharp rise in tourism has collided dramatically with an ancient past, creating a fierce conflict between development and preservation. During preparatory work for a new international airport,...
The Via Francigena—literally, "the road that comes from France"—offers a transcendent experience for the modern pilgrim, presenting a slower, more historically resonant alternative to the famed Camino de Santiago. Unlike the Camino, this thousand-year-old network of roads did not...
In a striking blend of ancient tradition and modern technology, the Vatican broke with centuries of precedent by hosting a massive drone light show over St. Peter's Basilica to celebrate the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year. The event, titled "Grace...
The contemporary holiday of Halloween, with its costumes, candy, and spooky charm, traces its spiritual and ritualistic roots back over two thousand years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-in). Celebrated in Ireland and Scotland, Samhain marked...
Once relegated to the historical fringe and ancient myth, Paganism is experiencing a powerful, mainstream revival, fueled by a modern desire for earth-affirming spirituality and a connection to the natural world. This resurgence—driven by everything from the Wiccan movement...
For centuries, the ascent of Mount Fuji—Japan’s highest and most revered peak—was strictly forbidden to women under the custom of nyonin kinsei (literally, "women-prohibited"). Considered sacred and the abode of the goddess Konohanasakuya-hime, the mountain was a path of...
