The BBC reports that the popular belief of eight hours of sleep being optimal is a development of the 19th century, and that people have had a very different pattern of sleep before. In previous times humans usually had a first period of sleep of several hours, followed by a night-time awake phase, which in turn is followed by a second period of sleep of several hours. Many historical sources reference this bi-modal sleep pattern as if it was common knowledge, which appears to have been lost in the course of the Industrial Revolution (particularly with the advent of street lighting). Between the two periods of sleep people would be awake, and they meditated their dreams, prayed, had sex with their partner, or even visited their neighbours. It appears that many sleep-related problems may stem from the fact that the eight hour sleep is unnatural.

LONDON. Ever wondered how the Celts warded off evil spirits? Come along to this event and find out more about the Celts. The British Museum is hosting an event of Celtic art and mythological stories for children and adults alike. The event costs GBP 12 and takes place on Sunday 04 March at the British Museum in London, from 14h00 to 19h00. Find out how to book a place at the British Museum Website.

The Costa Concordia, a cruise liner than recently sunk off the Italian island of Giglio, nearly landed on an ancient Roman shipwreck. The modern ship sunk only a ship’s length away from the ancient wreck. The waters around Giglio are in fact an ancient ship graveyard, as many vessels have sunk there before. Even the oldest known shipwreck of the Mediterranean lies off Giglio: a freighter carrying goods from Phoenicia, Etruria, and Eastern Greece sank here 2600 years ago. Read more on Spiegel.de (in German).

Russian biologists have managed to regrow flowers from seeds that were frozen for about 30.000 years. The seeds of prehistoric Silene stenophylla were extracted from plant seeds found in the Russian permafrost soil. They were probably dug in by Ice Age squirrels and never defrosted since. The flowers show significant differences from their modern counterparts: The blossoms look slightly different, and the prehistoric plants first only grew female blossoms, while the modern ones immediately grow hermaphroditic blossoms. You can read more about this on Spiegel.de (in German).

Analyzing Caesar’s Motivations and Emotions on the Banks the Rubicon By Michael Sweet Published Online, 2006 Introduction: Gaius Julius Caesar is among the most famous men in human history. His cognomen… [continue reading]

From War Elephants to Circus Elephants: Humanity’s Abuse of  Elephants By Mike Jaynes Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Volume 7, Issue 1 (2009) Abstract: This paper examines the historical human… [continue reading]

Wet-nursing in the Roman Empire: Indifference, efficiency and affection By Anna Sparreboom Thesis M-phil., VU University, Amsterdam (2009) Introduction: The introduction of artificial baby food in the western world… [continue reading]

Hygienic conditions in ancient Rome and modern London By Lord Amulree Medical History, Vol.17:3 (1973) Introduction: Edwin Chadwick, acting on first principles only, outlined a programme for the improvement in the health… [continue reading]

Infrastructure Protection in the Ancient World By Michael J. Assante Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2009) Abstract: This paper provides lessons learned from ancient Roman attempts… [continue reading]