Mount Athos: Molotov wielding monks and a ban on women

High atop a mountain, perched over the sea, nestled within the walls of secluded monasteries, lies a sanctuary of tranquillity where the only sound is the gentle whispers of the wind, soft prayers, and the melody of peaceful contemplation.

And you’re never gonna get in. This place is the Holy Mountain, Mount Athos, a self-governing state within Greece, this 10km border and fence separates this monastic state from the rest of the world.

It’s the spiritual centre of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, they’re the ones with the black robes, different crosses, and fancy icons. Athos is like an Orthodox Vatican and Tibet rolled into one. Women have been banned from Mount Athos for a 1000 years. Athos is the only state in the world with an all male population.

So what is Mount Athos, what is life like there, and are Molotov Cocktails an ecumenical matter? Well, let’s find out!

How Did a Greek Hoplite Go to War?

In this live history documentary we step into the shoes of a Greek Hoplite of the 5th century BC to see what it was like to prepare for war. We begin with a quick discussion of the socio-political status of warriors in ancient greek history. Next we see what their weapons and armor were like and how these were equipped. This includes everything from their sandals to their greaves, their chest armor, helmets, shields, spears, and more. This includes a look at shield emblems such as the lambda of the Spartan army and the club of heracles used by Thebes. Finally we look at various camp activities which helped prepare the men for battle. This included sparring, racing, and bathing.

Discovering the Heracleion's Lost City: Meeting Myth Beneath the Waves

Almost 1,200 years ago, the Mediterranean Sea engulfed the city of Heracleion off the coast of Egypt. Before it sank more than a thousand years ago, it was one of the most significant commercial hubs in the Mediterranean. Like the way the modern world sees the city of Atlantis, Heracleion was long thought to be a myth. But after doing significant underwater investigation in the present-day Aboukir Bay, underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio eventually located the submerged city in 2000.

Heracleion had been reduced to only a few inscriptions and sentences in old texts by authors like Strabo and Diodorus before this recent discovery. When the mythical hero Heracles (also known as Herakles) first stepped foot in Egypt, a massive temple was built there, according to the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC). He also asserted that Paris and Helen of Troy paid the place a visit prior to the legendary Trojan War. The Greek explorer Strabo observed that the city of Heracleion was situated east of Canopus at the mouth of the River Nile, four centuries after Herodotus had traveled to Egypt.

The Seeker of Lost Cities Discovers Heracleion by Franck Goddio

A "pioneer of modern maritime archaeology," Franck Goddio is a well-known underwater archaeologist. In order to discover and study underwater archaeological sites, Goddio established the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) in 1987. On underwater archaeological sites, IEASM is renowned for having established a methodical methodology using geophysical prospecting methods. The crew can find anomalies on the sea floor by moving over the region in parallel straight lines at regular intervals. These anomalies can then be investigated by divers or robots.

In order to locate Canopus, Thonis, and Heracleion—all of which were thought to have been submerged beneath the Mediterranean Sea—IEASM started mapping the area around the port of Alexandria in 1992. In 1996, they expanded their research to include Aboukir Bay at the request of the Egyptian government. They were able to comprehend the topography and conditions that led to the area's gradual submersion thanks to this investigation. The group identified the areas of primary interest using data from historical documents. Aboukir Bay's survey covered a field of study that was 11 by 15 kilometers (6.8 x 9.3 miles).

The mapping of the Aboukir Bay began in 1996 and took a long time. They made the discoveries of Canopus in 1999 and Heracleion in 2000. The remains of the old city are covered with sediment, which explains why the location of the buried city of Heracleion remained concealed in the Bay of Aboukir for so long. Sand and silt that have been deposited when the River Nile exits are what make up the top layer of the ocean floor. By using precise magnetic maps, the IEASM team was able to find remnants, which gave the proof required to finally identify Heracleion's location.

Discovering Heracleion: A Submerged Lost City?

Heracleion, now submerged under the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, was once situated 32 kilometers (20 miles) northeast of Alexandria in ancient Egypt at the mouth of the River Nile. The huge metropolis served as both a major port for trade with Greece and a place of worship where sailors would offer gifts to the gods. Politically, the city was important because pharaohs needed to go to the Amun Temple in order to become the supreme ruler.

The ancient sunken city of Heracleion was discovered 10 meters (32.8 feet) below the surface and 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) from the present-day coastline in the western part of Aboukir Bay. Using cutting-edge technology and in cooperation with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, IEASM was able to locate, map, and excavate the site.

Divers discovered the remarkably well-preserved city, with many of its riches remaining in tact after scraping away layers of sand and muck. They included the major Amun-Gerb temple, enormous pharaoh sculptures, several lesser statues of gods and goddesses, a sphinx, 64 ancient shipwrecks, 700 anchors, stone blocks with Greek and ancient Egyptian inscriptions, dozens of sarcophagi, gold coins, and bronze and stone weights.

Heracleion's Remains: Relics of a Lost Planet

The underwater archaeologists found a massive statue of Hapi, the god responsible for the Nile's inundation, that stood 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) tall among the ruins of the once-great metropolis. This was one of three enormous red granite statues from the fourth century BC that were found. A prehistoric stele with intricate and easily visible writing that was originally commissioned by Nectanebo I sometime between 378 and 362 BC was also found by the researchers in 2001.

Because Thonis was the name originally given to the city by the Egyptians while Heracleion was given by the ancient Greeks, it was possible for archaeologists to deduce from the writings on this old stele that Thonis and Heracleion were one and the same ancient city. The ancient city's name was changed to Thonis-Heracleion at that point.

Many statues and buildings that once stood tall and majestic in the great city may be seen in the breathtaking photos taken throughout the finding and recovery operation. In one image, a statue of a Ptolemaic queen made in Greco-Egypt stands eerily on the ocean floor, surrounded only by silt and darkness, while in another, the visage of a famous Pharaoh can be seen peeking up out of the sand.

Franck Goddio stated that the goal of the IEASM underwater excavations was "to learn as much as we can by touching as little as we can and leaving it for future technology" in an interview with the BBC in 2015. Around 2% of the site had been excavated at that time. The same clay deposit from the Nile that has long concealed the ancient city also shields the relics on the ocean floor from salt water.

IEASM takes great care to restore and preserve artifacts that are taken from their secret underwater refuge on board their ships and in laboratories. This process has taken days in some cases, while it took two and a half years to complete the massive Hapi monument, for example.

Knowing the causes of cities sinking into the sea

The metropolis, which was built on the Nile Delta, was considered to be breathtakingly beautiful and was crisscrossed by a massive network of canals. Heracleion, known as the Venice of the Nile, once held the title of the greatest harbor in the Mediterranean. The city apparently gradually lost importance as it disappeared under the water around the second half of the eighth century AD, according to excavations at the site. This raises the issue of why such an important city was destroyed.

A number of geological phenomena and cataclysmic occurrences are the causes. Geological studies conducted by the IEASM in collaboration with other institutions have revealed that the slow subsistence, the rise in sea levels, and regional phenomena related to the composition of the soil in the region all had an impact on the southeastern Mediterranean basin, creating the conditions for cities like Heracleion to sink into the sea.

Egypt's Lost Worlds exhibits

The Egyptian government, which owns the artifacts, granted IEASM permission in 2005 to organize a traveling display of the finds. Egypt's Sunken Treasures, the exhibition that resulted, traveled to significant cities in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Japan. A record 7,500 people each day, on average, visited the show at the Grand Palais in France.

The British Museum and Franck Goddio collaborated to organize the first underwater archaeological exhibition in 2015, which featured over 200 objects found between 1996 and 2012 by the IEASM off the coast of Egypt. At that point, according to Goddio, they had only discovered 5% of the 3.5 sq. km.-sized ancient metropolis of Heracleion (1.35 miles).

Goddio reportedly said that while "this would be a tremendous project on land, it's a task that will take hundreds of years under the sea and beneath the silt," according to The Art Newspaper. Heracleion is around three times the size of Pompeii, a catastrophic site that archaeologists have been excavating for more than a century, so you can get an idea of the scope of this undertaking.

The Sunken Cities: Egypt's Lost Worlds exhibition at the British Museum was also shown in 2015 at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the Saint Louis Art Museum in the United States. Before the items were sent back to Egypt in January 2021, they made their final stop at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

The discovery of Heracleion prompts critical inquiries concerning the veracity of purported "mythical towns." Who knows what other mythical sunken cities from the past will be discovered in the future if a city that was previously thought to be mythical can be found in the depths of the sea? Time will only tell.

Woman Photographs the World’s Oldest Trees for 14 Years

Some of the world’s oldest trees are tucked away on untouched mountainsides, isolated lands, and private islands. And for 14 years, photographer Beth Moon traversed these farflung places to capture photographs of ancient trees before they died or got cut down by man.

Each trip took careful planning, according to Moon. Some trees’ foliage looked best during the rainy seasons while others in the winter. Places like the Yemeni island of Socotra had strong monsoon winds for months, giving her just a narrow window of time to shoot the dragon blood tree. And that’s not to mention the work involved in figuring out the right hour and ideal light conditions to do a tree’s portrait justice.

Choosing trees for their unique size, age, folklore, or simply their mysterious beauty, Moon captured and compiled images of trees from across Asia, North America, Africa, and Europe into a book, Ancient Trees, Portrait of Time. She also tried to capture the natural and cultural history of the ancient trees, which can range from a few hundred to a few thousand years old. (Curiously, “ancient” doesn’t just describe a tree that’s extremely old for its species but, according to UK conservation charity, National Trust, signifies a category of historically important trees that “have amazing character and beauty and [are] incredibly rich in wildlife.”)

Take a look at some of the awe-inspiring trees Moon features.

Source: https://qz.com/323379/a-remarkable-14-year...

Rare 16th Century Gothic Boxwood Carvings Are So Miniature Researchers Used X-Ray To Solve Their Mysteries

The tiny boxwood sculptures are so perfectly crafted that the naked eye cannot see details that reveal their construction.

New research and cutting-edge scientific imaging have revealed that each carving is an intricate three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

Knowing how the carvings were made only raises more questions about what motivated their makers. Working without electric light or sophisticated magnification, these artists achieved a virtuosic degree of detail.

When first discovering the intricate carvings in prayer beads and altarpieces, viewers most often respond with a sense of wonder.

This effect fulfills, no doubt, part of the artist’s intention, as well as the desire of the original owner. Fascination is followed by a desire to understand how and by whom these extraordinary and delightful objects were made.

Between 1500 and 1530 wood artists in Flanders and the Netherlands created off of the most exquisite miniature religious wood carvings ever seen.

Known as woodbox carvings there are only 135 of these artifacts known to exist.

These miniature pieces of art are extremely detailed, the details of which were only truly appreciated after these miniature works of arts were examined by Micro-CT scans, advanced 3D analysis software, microscopes, and X-rays.

The inner layers of these tiny carvings are pieced together so well that the joints could only be seen using microscopes and X-rays.

It is a wonder that the original artists of these works were able to craft cravings so finely detailed and involved without the aid of modern equipment. Pins, smaller than a grass seed were used to hold some of the woodwork in place.

However, despite the use of modern technology much of the production process of these carvings remain a mystery due to traces of gold which blocked much of the X-rays “view.”

Part of the draw of these wonderful wood boxes is the fact that much of how they were made remains a true mystery adding to both the intrinsic and artistic value of these little works of art.

These carvings were created out of a demand for quality portable religious carvings in Europe prior to the reformation period.

However, once attempts were underway to reform both the Protestant and Catholic church the need for miniature accessories were no longer in high demand.

Source: https://archaeology-world.com/rare-16th-ce...

The Complete Story Of Qin Shi Huang: China's First Emperor

Qin Shi Huangdi. He is the man who united, and indeed gave China its name. He conquered six powerful warring states and, in 221 BC, declared himself emperor of all China.

During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China which to this day stretches over 2400 kilometers. His legacy not only includes the Great Wall, but also his astonishing tomb, guarded by the famed Terracotta Army constructed almost 2,200 years ago.

This major drama-documentary offers unprecedented access to new excavations at the major sites, and through major dramatic reconstruction narrates how Ying Zheng became the king of Qin state at 13 and the first Chinese Emperor. It reveals the personality and motivations of this remarkable but still unknown leader.

What Aztecs Were Eating Before European Contact

The Aztecs thrived in the area corresponding to Mexico between the 14th and 15th centuries until they were overthrown by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés in 1521. This complex Mesoamerican culture revolved around growing and consuming food, particularly maize (what is now known as corn) - but what else did the Aztecs eat? What did they grow? What did they eat for dessert? How did they cook their food?

Fascinating Facts About China's Terracotta Army

Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, built the huge Terracotta Army to protect him in the afterlife. An elaborate tomb complex in Xi'an, the city-size compound came equipped with everything the emperor would require in the afterlife. Like the Egyptians, the ancient Chinese believed the items they took with them to the grave would accompany them into the afterlife. But instead of burying actual people with him underground, the emperor created clay reproductions of warriors, servants, horses, and other objects. An incredible feat of design, the army also features a number of ancient Chinese inventions, many of which no one realized dated back as far as the Qin dynasty.

Mythical And Legendary Creatures From Alaska

Check out these mythical and legendary creatures from Alaska. From strange creature sightings to mysterious mythological animals, this top 10 list of weird creatures from alaska is amazing!

12 Most Incredible Recent Archaeological Discoveries

There’s never a bad time to be an archaeologist. Even if someone’s just made an amazing discovery on the other side of the world, your next big discovery might only be days away! Spectacular objects, artifacts, and whole cities that were important to our ancient ancestors are uncovered every year. We’ve been especially spoiled in recent years by some truly remarkable finds, as we’re about to prove to you with this video!

Scientists Just Discovered Zeus's God Temple That Has Been Sealed & Undisturbed For Centuries

Archaeological news constantly transports us around the globe and across time, all the way from the dawn of human history to the current day. The discoveries discovered by archaeologists are quite interesting because they shed light on the lives of ancient people and provide additional information about their lives. Each new discovery deepens our comprehension of the past and whets our appetite for further information. And, now new information has come. scientists just discovered Zeus’s, God Temple which has been sealed and undistributed for centuries.

Himera: One of the Most Archaeological Finds in Recent Years

Wherever there is an out-of-the-way war, there will be mercenaries — hired fighters whose only common bond may be a hunger for adventure. Some join foreign armies or rebel forces because they believe in the cause; others sign on because the price is right.

This was true in ancient Greece, although you wouldn’t know it from ancient Greek historians, for whom the polis, or independent Greek city-state, symbolized the demise of kingly oppression and the rise of citizen equality and civic pride. For instance, neither Herodotus nor Diodorus Siculus mentioned mercenaries in their reports of the first Battle of Himera, a fierce struggle in 480 B.C. in which the Greeks from various Sicilian cities united to beat back a Carthaginian invasion. Mercenaries were considered the antithesis of the Homeric hero.

“Being a wage earner had some negative connotations — avarice, corruption, shifting allegiance, the downfall of civilized society,” said Laurie Reitsema, an anthropologist at the University of Georgia. “In this light, it is unsurprising if ancient authors would choose to embellish the Greeks for Greeks aspect of the battles, rather than admitting they had to pay for it.”

But research published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the ancestry of the troops defending Himera was not as strictly Greek as historical accounts of the time would have it.

The victory was widely seen as a defining event for Greek identity. But the new study, an analysis of degraded DNA from 54 corpses found in Himera’s recently unearthed west necropolis, found that the communal graves were largely occupied by professional soldiers from places as far-flung as those known today as Ukraine, Latvia and Bulgaria.

The finding buttresses research published in 2021 in which Katherine Reinberger, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Georgia, and her colleagues performed a chemical analysis of the tooth enamel of 62 fallen fighters buried near Himera’s ancient battlefield, where two major clashes played out: one in 480 B.C., when Himeran forces defeated the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Mago, and a second battle seven decades later, when Hamilcar’s grandson returned for revenge and Himera was destroyed. Dr. Reinberger’s team concluded that about one-third of those who fought in the first conflict were locals, compared with three-fourths in the later battle. Dr. Reitsema is a principal author on both studies.

Angelos Chaniotis, a Greek historian at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, said the new study cast new light on the composition of the battles at Himera, if not on their outcomes. “It confirms the general picture that we had from ancient sources, highlighting at the same time the role of mercenaries,” he said. “Mercenaries are mentioned in our evidence, but they are often hiding in plain sight.”

David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard whose lab generated the data, noted that their paper “suggests that Greeks minimized a role for mercenaries, potentially because they wanted to project an image of their homelands being defended by heroic Greek armies of citizens and the armored spearmen known as hoplites.” Presumably, armies staffed with commandos-for-hire would undermine this picture.

The tyrants who ruled Greek Sicilian cities in the Hellenic Age recruited soldiers of fortune for territorial expansion, and in some cases because those rulers were wildly unpopular with their citizenry and required bodyguards. “The recruitment of mercenaries even spurred the use of coinage in Sicily to pay them,” Dr. Reitsema said.

The Sicily of antiquity, rich in resources and strategically located, was home to both Greek and Carthaginian colonies, which for a long time coexisted amicably. But when Terillus, tyrant of Himera, was ousted by his own people in 483 B.C., he called on his Carthaginian allies to help him retake the city.

Three years later, the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Mago sailed from North Africa to Himera with an expeditionary force estimated by Herodotus at more than 300,000 strong. (Modern historians put the figure closer to 20,000.) But cavalry and foot soldiers from two neighboring Greek Sicilian city-states, Syracuse and Agrigento, came to Himera’s aid, and Hamilcar’s troops were routed and his ships set ablaze. When all seemed lost, the general is said to have killed himself by leaping into a pyre.

In 409 B.C., Hamilcar’s grandson, Hannibal Mago, returned to settle scores. This time, the Greek army consisted mainly of citizens of Himera, with few reinforcements. The Greeks were defeated, and the city was razed.

The graves and the western necropolis at Himera were discovered in 2009, during the construction of a rail line connecting Palermo and Messina. The site has since yielded the remains from more than 10,000 burials. To archaeologists, one of the best indicators of a mercenary — foreign or local — is burial in a communal grave.

“Most likely, mercenaries would not have been known to the people cleaning up the battlefield and burying the casualties,” Dr. Reitsema said. As a result, mercenaries would have been more likely than citizen-soldiers to wind up in anonymous mass graves and become archaeologically invisible, or less visible, Dr. Reitsema said.

The dead found in the mass graves at Himera were all adult men. According to Dr. Reitsema, distinguishing the combatants from everyone else required “several lines of evidence.” Traces of violent trauma, such as spearheads lodged in a body, implied that an individual had died in action. “We didn’t find armor and weapons, apart from those embedded in bones,” Dr. Reitsema said. “Those items would have been recovered by the survivors on the battlefield.” The dates of the graves, based on stratigraphy and a few scattered objects, closely aligned with the dates of the historically documented battles.

Determining which bones were Himeran and which were Carthaginian was a matter of location. Alissa Mittnik, a Harvard geneticist responsible for the genomic analysis, said the deliberate burial of the fallen within the necropolis denoted that they were part of the Himeran army rather than the enemy.

“While we know nothing of the manner in which members of the Carthaginian army were buried,” she said, “it was typical in Greek warfare for the victor to allow the enemy access to the battlefield to remove its dead.”

Chemical isotopes in the mercenaries’ bones indicated that the soldiers were born far away and that their parents and grandparents were not immigrants. And the ancient genomes were sequenced and compared to all published genomes, Dr. Reich said: “The ones those new genomes are closest to are those from Ukraine and Latvia.”

Dr. Mittnick speculated that the hirelings may have arrived at Himera with the army led by the tyrant Gelon of Syracuse. Diodorus wrote of 10,000 foreign “colonists” whom Gelon later rewarded with citizenship, although their geographic origins are unknown.

“We know that many of the young men in the mass graves likely grew up outside of the Mediterranean but might have come to Sicily for the promise of citizenship or monetary rewards,” Dr. Mittnick said.

Beyond highlighting the disparate genetic backgrounds of troops, the research showed that genetic ancestry informed which bodies were interred in which graves. “The intentional groupings of foreigners sheds light on the internal logic of the identity constructions of Greek colonists,” Dr. Reitsema said.

Foreign fighters from a variety of backgrounds were buried in the same mass graves: sufficiently respected to be buried in the necropolis but still differentiated from many other persons of Greek descent. The smaller mass graves, in which soldiers probably were Greek, show the signs of greatest care in body placement and burial objects, indicating greater reverence or prestige than the outlanders.

Britney Kyle, an anthropologist at the University of Northern Colorado and an author of the study, said the research demonstrated the power and potential of new techniques to illuminate what life was like in the past.

“Too many studies of ancient DNA focus only on genetic results without fully exploring the biocultural background to contextualize their findings,” she said. “We’ve made a concerted effort to bring together information from historical accounts, archaeology, bioarchaeology and isotopic analyses to contextualize the genetic data. It’s amazing what we can learn when we weave diverse lines of evidence.”

Of all the surprises Dr. Kyle encountered while fact-finding, the biggest may have been the distances over which some of the mercenaries traveled to reach Sicily. “We think of warfare as causing or deepening divisions between people,” she said. “So it is fascinating to think of war as something that could bring people together.”

Source: https://archaeonewsnet.com/2018/11/himera-...

Stunning gold earring discovered in Denmark may have been gifted by the Emperor of Byzantium to a Viking chief 1,000 years ago

A stunning gold earring discovered in Denmark may have been gifted by the Emperor of Byzantium to a Viking chief 1,000 years ago, experts claim.

Dating from the 11th century, the 'completely unique' gold jewellery has never been seen before in the Nordic countries.

Likely one of a pair, it was found by a metal detectorist in a field near Bøvling in West Jutland, Denmark.

It's thought to have been originally crafted in Byzantium or Egypt and is potential evidence the Vikings had connections all the way around the Mediterranean.

The Byzantine Empire (395 to 1204 and 1261 to 1453), also known as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was a powerful civilization based at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).

It's now being exhibited in Denmark National Museum's Viking exhibition 'Togtet', which translates as 'The Cruise' and is all about Viking travels to the Middle East.

Experts have so far been unable to find a similar earring in the area that may have formed a pair.

'It is completely unique to us, we only know of 10 to 12 other specimens in the whole world, and we have never found one in Scandinavia before,' said Peter Pentz, inspector at the National Museum Denmark.

'We had expected to find such a fine and invaluable piece of jewellery like this together with a large gold treasure or in a royal tomb and not on a random field in Bøvling.'

The find consists of a crescent-shaped gold plate inserted in a frame made of gold threads adorned with small gold balls and gold ribbons.

Its crescent-shaped plate is covered with an enamel, now slightly cracked, which would have been created by a special technique involving breaking and powdering glass before melting it with metal so it becomes opaque.

The motif of the enamel is two stylised birds around a tree or a plant, which symbolises the tree of life.

This type of jewellery is known especially from Muslim Egypt and Syria and from Byzantium and Russia.

In terms of style and craftsmanship, it's similar to the Dagmark cross – an 11th or 12th-century Byzantine relic.

The earring and the Dagmark Cross are thought to both date from the Viking Age or the earliest Middle Ages and were likely not traded but donated by kings and emperors.

That explains why the Dagmark cross was found in a queen's grave, at St. Bendt's Church in Ringsted, Denmark in 1683.

In contrast, the new treasure was found in a field in Bøvling without known Viking sites nearby, so how it ended up there is therefore a bit of a mystery.

The discoverer of the priceless find was 54-year-old Frants Fugl Vestergaard, who had searched the field many times before in the hunt for 'danefæ' – gold and silver in the earth without an owner.

As his detector gave a faint bleep, he picked up a clump of earth and crushed it in his hand to find the earring peeping out.

'"Stop it", I think, and then time stands still for me,' he told the National Museum.

'I get very humbled and wondered why I should find that piece and then even in West Jutland, where there is so much between the finds. It's like getting a text from the past.

'You always yearn to find something beautiful, a top find, and then you suddenly have it in your hands. It is completely inconceivable.'

One explanation for how it got there may be that many Vikings went into war service for the Byzantine emperor, who had a bodyguard consisting of warriors from Scandinavia.

Icelandic sagas show that mercenaries came home from the East with silk and weapons, and it is also said that the emperor occasionally donated fine gifts to his bodyguard.

So the earring could have been given personally by the emperor to a trusted Viking in the bodyguard and was then lost under unknown circumstances in Denmark.

The find confirms that West Jutland has always had strong connections around the world,' said Astrid Toftdal Jensen, an inspector at Holstebro Museum, which is near its finding place.

Jensen hopes the earring can be lent to the museum at a later date so that it can be seen in the area where it was found.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ar...

Scariest Tribes You Don't Want to Meet | Uncontacted Tribes

People living in different parts of the world have different ways of life. In civilized countries, people follow a set pattern for daily life like going to offices or workplaces and performing assigned duties from 9 AM to 5 PM. But that's not the case for everyone. In some areas of the world there are tribes that still adhere to their unique rituals and cultural traditions which may even form part of their religious obligations. Some tribes don't have their homes and they do not have organized towns and cities. Their lifestyle is at times very scary. It may include conflicts or clashes within a tribe and some super gory post humus rituals we just don't understand. In today’s video we'll introduce you to some of the scariest tribes scattered around the world. Their culture and lifestyles are not for the faint hearted, so sit tight and enjoy meeting the part of humanity that refuses to conform.

Who were the Proto-Indo-Europeans?

The existence of the Proto-Indo-Europeans (formerly referred to as Aryans) was once argued purely on linguistic evidence, but recent analysis of DNA of the Yamnaya culture and related steppe cultures, demonstrates their genetic legacy on Indo-European cultures in a timeframe that matches the expansion proposed by linguists.

Most interesting of all, despite the fact these people started off in the Pontic Caspian steppe of Eastern Europe, modern populations in all of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe all have a strong genetic affinity with them.

This video explains what genetic and linguistic evidence tells us about how they lived, what they looked like and what their pagan religion was like.

Ancient Discoveries That Nobody Can Explain

Stumbling upon a historic artifact that doesn’t have a clear history or explanation is always bound to bring out the conspiracy theorists, like that guy on the History Channel who will always tell you that it’s proof of aliens. However wild that may be, the truth is there are plenty of historical discoveries that experts just have no idea about, and while people have tried to explain them, they still can’t do anything but guess.

From the creepy snake-shaped mound in Ohio to the alleged treasure map on the Dead Sea Scrolls that even Nicolas Cage wouldn’t be able to decipher, let’s take a look at some ancient discoveries that no one can explain.

The Evidence That The Lost City of Atlantis Existed?

I was lost, then I was found, you might hear some of the wonders of the world say if they could speak. We might look at perhaps the best known once-lost city in Machu Picchu, that was abandoned in the 16th century and discovered again in the 20th century. Then you have the spellbinding city of Angkor in Cambodia, which was never really lost, but certainly needed a lot of restoration for it to look as magnificent as it does today. We also have cities that are perhaps only legends, El Dorado, The Lost City of Gold; or The Lost City of Z, whose mystery lured explorers from Europe… and some never returned home. But today we’ll talk about perhaps greatest legend of them all, in this episode of the Infographics Show, The Evidence That The lost city of Atlantis Existed.

If we want to know the origins of the city of Atlantis we have to go back to the great, Greek ancient philosopher known as Plato. You’ve probably heard of the guy. Some writers have said all philosophy is just a footnote to Plato, while he’s the man that wrote the Socratic dialogues; he came up with The Cave allegory we still talk about today and he advanced ideas on justice, law, and learning that we all should be thankful for. With that in mind, if Plato was the one that started the story of Atlantis, perhaps we should take him seriously?