For a long time I felt that the “community” part of Ancient History Encyclopedia was still in need of improvement. Yes, the content is all contributed by the community… but a community means interaction. Therefore I’m happy to announce that we now have more communication features! Whenever somebody post a comment on your content, or replies to one of your comments, you are notified by email. That way, you know when to reply to somebody. Also, whenever we approve content, the author is notified by email. We made sure that you won’t be flooded with emails, so you will only receive one notification, even if there are multiple replies. Also, you can change your communication settings in your “my account” page. I hope you will enjoy chatting away!

A reconstruction based on the skull of Norway’s best-preserved Stone Age skeleton makes it possible to study the features of a boy who lived in Scandinavia 7,500 years ago. “It is hoped that this reconstruction is a good likeness and that, if someone… [continue reading]

The anatomy of a mercenary: from Archilochoas to Alexander By Nicholas Fields PhD Dissertation, University of Newcastle, 1994 Abstract: Xenophon, who marched so many perilous Persian parasangs as a soldier-of-fortune and survived… [continue reading]

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor: Minoans and Mycenaeans abroad By Eric H. Cline Aegaeum, Vol.12 (1995) Introduction: In 1984, exactly ten years ago, at a conference in Athens on the ‘Function of the Minoan Palaces&#8217… [continue reading]

Classical Precariousness vs. Modern Risk: Lessons in Prudence from the Battle of Salamis By Ernest Sternberg Humanitas, Vol.18:1-2 (2005) Introduction: On September 19, 480 B.C., the ancient… [continue reading]

Our goal at Ancient History Encyclopedia is always to give you great content that cannot be found elsewhere on the internet, but we cannot deny that various universities and journals have already published excellent research papers (usually PDFs) that we would like to publish here on the site. Unfortunately, these papers are usually protected by copyright. Now we have found a way around this: We can now embed external papers as articles, but the papers remain on the site they were published on! While we still encourage you to write your own content for the site, it would be great if you could also add external papers as articles, whenever you find them! Simply create a new article, choose the “I want to link to an existing article on the internet” option, link to the paper, and add an abstract — done. You can find an example here.

Dye was already being produced and used 100,000 years ago, an international team of researchers found in South Africa. They discovered two bowls containing traces of dye from sea snails in the Blombos-Cave near Cape Town. It is still unclear what the dye was used for: body paint, skin protection, or paint for art? The two bowls are now on display in the Iziko Museum in Cape Town. Read the original news story at Spiegel Online (in German).

I am proud to present a massively improved timeline search and visual timeline: I have categorized every timeline entry (which took quite a while, considering we have over 1000 entries, even though I did get some help) and you can now search the timeline by category. Categories include “Philosophy & Religion”, “States & Territories”, “War(fare) & Battles”, among others. I’ve also greatly improved the visual timeline feature: Each timeline entry is coloured according to its category, and the positioning of entries on the timeline is now working much better. I’m hope you’re going to love this feature! As always, feedback is most welcome!

The Israel Museum has published six of the Qumran Scrolls on its websites. For each of the scrolls there is a high-resolution image viewer as well as a description of the scroll and where it was found. You can view the Qumran Scrolls on the Israel Museum website.

Bigthink.com posted an interesting article that examines the “missing link” between the art of Antiquity and art of the early Middle Ages. Art found in the city of Dura-Europos might fill in this gap of the “Dark Ages” in art history. Read the full article on bigthink.com.