Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – ‘Plague sceptics’ are wrong to underestimate the devastating impact that bubonic plague had in the 6th– 8th centuries CE, argues a new study based on ancient texts and recent genetic discoveries. The same study suggests that

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Many believe climate change and environmental degradation caused the Maya civilization to fall—but a new survey shows that some Maya kingdoms had sustainable agricultural practices and high food yields for centuries. For years, experts in

Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – The third millennium BCE is a highly dynamic period in the prehistory of Europe and western Asia, characterized by large-scale social and political changes. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Copper Age was in full swing

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Ancient Romans were masters in the field of building solid aqueducts that in many cases survived the passage of time. “Engineers in the ancient Roman Empire knew that one of the most fundamental requirements for

Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – A new study explores the complex relationship between poisonous mercury and humans’ health during 5,000 years of history. Mercury is considered to be one of the top ten substances of greatest public health concern. Mercury

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Latest scientific findings suggest the ancestral Native American population does not originate in Japan, as believed by many archaeologists. A widely accepted theory of Native American origins coming from Japan has been attacked in a

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Ancient Indigenous fishing practices can be used to inform sustainable management and conservation today, according to a new study from Simon Fraser University. Working with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and using new palaeogenetic analytical techniques developed

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Being a wine taster may sound like an enjoyable profession to many but as we all know drinking too much can give you a hangover. Ancient people who were often rather superstitious believed there were

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – The Roman Empire was ruled by 175 men, from Augustus (63 BCE-19 CE) to Constantine XI (1405-53), including the Eastern or Byzantine Empire after the split in 395 CE, but excluding those who did not

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – While excavating on the cemetery site, near the ruins of Lindisfarne on the Holy Island, off the northeast coast of England archaeologists uncovered an ancient coin featuring a warrior king of Northumbria and a four-legged

Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – In ancient times, the Assyrians were one of the Near East’s superpowers, controlling a landmass that stretched from Iran to Egypt. They accomplished this feat with military technologies that helped them win any open-air battle

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – The origin and early dispersal of Transeurasian languages, including, among others, Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic, is among the most disputed issues of Asian prehistory. Although many of the commonalities between these languages are

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Stone Age cities sound like something of an oxymoron. But as many as 10 000 people lived in Çatalhöyük in Turkey some 8000-9000 years ago. This makes it the largest known settlement from what archaeologists

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – Anyone traveling from the German city of Brandenburg via Berlin to Frankfurt an der Oder at the Polish-German border does so along an ancient route that reaches far into Poland. German and Polish researchers have

Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – A team of international researchers led by the University of Arizona reported last year that they had uncovered the largest and oldest Maya monument—Aguada Fénix. That same team has now uncovered nearly 500 smaller ceremonial