The Roman Pantheon Explained

Today we delve into the history of this dynamic monument, which is the most impressive building that the Romans ever built, and perhaps the most influential building in the history of architecture. Enjoy!

Caesar in Gaul - Roman History Documentary

In today’s documentary we will cover the war between the Romans and the Celts in modern France, and the battles of Bibracte, Vosges, Axona, Sabis, Gergovia, Alesia, alongside Caesars invasions of Britain and Germany. In these battles, Caesar and his legionaries fought against Helvetii led by Divico, Suebi led by Ariovistus, Belgae led by Galba, Nervii led by Boduognatus, Britons led by Cassivellaunus, Eburones led by Ambiorix and Arverni led by Vercingetorix. The Roman Civil war against Pompey is just around the corner.

Jericho Unearthed: The Archaeology of Jericho Explained

The experts agree--the city walls of Jericho fell down. But does archaeology agree with the Biblical account of Joshua and Jericho? Watch this video as Joel interviews key archaeologists and explains the archaeology of Jericho.

The Most Hated Pharaoh | Akhenaten

Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti attempted to upend centuries of tradition by forcing the people of Egypt to abandon their pantheon of gods in favor of worshipping a single deity, Aten. Despite being labeled a heretic and a rebel, Akhenaten forever changed the course of history!

Recreating a 4000 Year Old Battery - Was Electricity Used in Ancient Times?

In this videowe will show you the recreation of an electric battery, which was used in Ancient India. This battery was described by a sage called Agastya who lived at least 4000 years ago, and what we are making is according to what's being described in the ancient text called Agastya Samhita.

Mary, Queen of Scots: Facial Reconstructions from her Death Mask & History Documentary

Mary, Queen of Scots is one of the most famous women in Scottish history. Today we’ll guide you through her fascinating life, and then at the end we’ll bring you face to face with Mary by revealing our reconstructions of her death mask.

Mary Stuart was born on December 8th, 1542 at Linlithgow Palace, about 15 miles outside of Edinburgh, Scotland. She was the child of James V, the current King of Scotland. At the time of her birth, Mary was one of the most noble women in Europe. On the day Mary was born, her father was away - battling English forces only a few days before at Solway Moss, where he had recently been injured. He would never meet his new daughter. 6 days after her birth, King James V of Scotland died…and with no other heirs, Mary was now destined to become the Queen of the Scots.

She moved to France in 1548, where she married the young Dauphin Francis. She was immediately adored at the French court, and had an optimistic future ahead of her. But suddenly on December 5th 1560, King Francis II died. In August of 1561, Mary left the sunny countryside of France, and returned to a melancholy Scotland.

Her time back in Scotland began the war between two cousins: Mary, and her English cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. Their power struggle eventually led to Mary being imprisoned for 19 years. She ultimately plotted against Elizabeth from inside her prison cell, and was found out. She was executed on the orders of Elizabeth I in 1587.

It was said that soon after her execution and the time her casket would have been sealed at burial, that four death masks were cast from Mary’s face.

One is called the Lennoxlove Mask, kept safe by the Duke of Hamilton at his estate for over 250 years, along with personal items of Mary’s. This mask shows the Queen looking young and serene, with hardly any trace of her harsh imprisonment showing on her face, eyebrows and eyelashes later attached.

It’s interesting just how young she looks, especially given that she would have been in her mid-forties and lived a harsh life for much of it. But, as we know she had always been described as an exceptionally beautiful woman. We don’t have any contemporary portraits past the time of her imprisonment, when she would have just been in her mid twenties, so it’s hard to tell how she aged. The last reliable portrait was made after her death, so while it wasn’t taken from life, it was supervised by one of her ladies who would have known how she looked.

Another mask, called the Jedburgh mask was also made. At some point in its history, makeup was added. And the other two masks that were reported have since been lost to history.

Now, there is some doubt around the authenticity of the masks, since records for each are spotty. But when we compare the masks to each other, and then to her portraits, the proportions of her face match up very well. Clearly her portraits show some common stylizations from the 16th century, noticeably the tiny lips. I think the death masks portray a truly lifelike Queen, more in line with the descriptions of her charisma and beauty.

12 Most Incredible Archaeological Discoveries That Really Exist

Let’s talk about incredible archaeological discoveries. Let’s talk about finds that astonished the people who found them and left us with more questions than answers. Actually, let’s not just talk about them - let’s show them to you! That sounds like a far better idea, so we’re going to start doing it right now.

Bastet/Bast - Cat Goddess - Ancient Egyptian Mythology Documentary

Who is Bastet the Cat Goddess? Bastet or Bast was the Ancient Egyptian Cat Goddess of fertility, motherhood, and protection. She was originally a lion god, like her sister Sekhmet, but transformed into a cat.

Watch the story of how Bastet came into existence, under her father, Sun God Ra. The reason why Bastet transforms from a lion god to a cat god is detailed in this documentary.

Why did Egypt love cats so much? The rise in the popularity of cats in ancient Egypt is another fascinating subject that is explored. You will see why cats transformed from a shy animal, into Ancient Egypt's most beloved pet.

Bubastis Temple & Festival: Bastet's tomb and cult center Bubastis is also explored in detail. See what Greek historian Herodotus had to say about his experience at the Bubastis temple and the Bubastis festival.

170-million-year-old Flower Discovered by Chinese Paleontologists

Chinese paleontologists found the remains of an old plant that lived about 170 million years ago.

The earliest known angiosperm was found in Northwest China, according to a recent announcement by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology.

The Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou University, the Ningxia Geological Museum, and Northwest University all collaborated on the project. An international magazine of biology, Life, has published the study's findings.

The oval, 17 millimeter-long, 9 millimeter-wide fossil flower buds are mounted on a 15 millimeter-long stalk. According to the researchers, there is a larch-like structure at the bottom that is covered in flower petals.

According to the study's principal investigator, angiosperms are a group that includes both fruits and flowers. The group of plants that is currently the most advanced, diverse, widespread, and adaptable is the angiosperms. The number of living angiosperm species in the globe is 300,000.

The research team reexamined a Jurassic plant fossil that was found in northwest China approximately 170 million years ago. Prior to this discovery, the plant was known as Drepanolepis formosa Zhang, 1998, and was believed to be a gymnosperm. In the most recent study, the scientists scanned the fossil using micro-CT technology and discovered that the interior had inverted ovules, which is a crucial characteristic for classifying angiosperms.

According to the most recent study, each carpel or fruit contains an inverted ovule with two integuments, which is a crucial characteristic for classifying angiosperms. For this reason, the ancient plant was given the name Qingganninginfructus formosa.

In Northwest China, the fossil plant represents the earliest indication of angiosperms. Its discovery suggests that angiosperms first emerged, expanded far, and attained a certain level of prosperity as early as 170 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic.

New Study Reveals That Horses Transformed Native American Life Far Earlier Than We Thought

An innovative study that coupled archaeological and genetic studies with Indigenous oral traditions found that Native Americans adopted horses into their communities considerably earlier than European colonial records indicate.

According to the researchers, the study is the first to be published in the esteemed Science magazine using both Western science and conventional knowledge.

Historians have long argued that Native Americans in the American West did not engage substantially with horses until the late 1600s, based on European documents from colonial times.

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when Native Americans rose up against Spanish conquerors in what is now New Mexico, is frequently cited by academics as the turning point. This insurrection resulted in the release of several European horses.

The new study, which follows the migration of horses from the American Southwest to the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, debunks this generally held belief.

The scientists used radiocarbon dating, DNA sequencing, and other methods to examine hundreds of horse skeletons and found evidence that the animals had spread widely over the American West by the early 1600s.

Also, they demonstrated how Indigenous people during that period nurtured the horses, provided for their medical needs, and utilized them for transportation.

Before any known European presence in the Rockies or the Central Plains, horses were a part of Native American social and ceremonial practices, the study concluded.

Historic

The results are in line with numerous Indigenous oral narratives that have long contested the European account.

According to Yvette Running Horse Collin, an Oglala Lakota Nation member and co-author of the report, "Indigenous peoples in the Americas, or the horses we lived beside and protected, literally had no place in this conversation before this study."

She stated at a press conference in Toulouse, a city in southern France, "This is because of the mechanisms set in place by colonialism."

The findings revealed that "science may be used to heal and to unify rather than divide" as opposed to "one scientific system dominating another," she noted.

The study's lead author, archaeologist William Taylor of the University of Colorado, lamented that "a myopic, narrow concentration on European perspectives has tragically hampered our knowledge of the integration of horses into Indigenous society as a whole."

The research, according to Ludovic Orlando, a paleogeneticist and co-author of the study from France's CNRS, is "historic."

He claimed at the press conference that "We've brought traditional science to the cover" of Science.

Mutual Language

Although horses are known to have lived in the Americas more than 12,000 years ago, Orlando claimed that from that period and the 1600s there is a "lack of fossils," the cause of which is unknown.

Genetic testing revealed that the 1600s fossils studied in the study were of Spanish or Portuguese descent.

The discovery of further fossils could refute Orlando's assertion that this "fits nicely with acquisition from the conquistadors."

In 2018, Lakota researchers got in touch with Orlando, who had previously used DNA analysis to refute well-established views about the history of horses.

After that, Running Horse Collin spent two years working at the Toulouse Center for Anthropobiology and Genomics in the south of France.

She claimed that as an Oglala Lakota scientist, she had not been requested to alter her research methods, approach, or findings.

Orlando claimed that various theoretical perspectives occasionally caused him to consider his communication style, which "was really not easy at numerous instances."

Yet he said that they managed to "find a mutual language" and that they plan to carry on their scientific cooperation.

Co-author of the study Carlton Shield The Pawnee Nation's Chief Gover stated in a statement that respect for horses transcends national boundaries.

We can communicate with one another since we both adore animals, he remarked.

DNA from a Woolly Mammoth was Used to Make an Enormous Meatball

The vanished woolly mammoth has, in a way, come back—but this time as a meatball. An Australian company that specializes in cultured meat unveiled a sphere of lab-grown flesh in March 2023 that was made using the elephant-like mammal's Genome sequence.

But, you won't find this item in a grocery store because it isn't currently intended to be consumed. The "mammoth meatball" instead seeks to draw attention to the negative effects conventional farming methods have on the environment and to advocate the use of cultured meat as a future source of food.

According to Tim Noakesmith, a co-founder of Vow, the business that created the meatball, "We wanted to get people excited about the future of food being different from perhaps what we had previously" (AP). "We believed the mammoth would spark conversation. We aimed to produce something that may serve as a representation of an exciting future that is better for the earth as well as for ourselves.

Currently, agriculture consumes billions of acres of land, and the greenhouse gases produced during food production account for nearly 30% of all emissions in the world. Growing meat from animal cells, or cultured meat, requires less land and water than rearing livestock does. According to a statement from Vow, cultured meat may be tailored to satisfy taste and nutritional demands because it is produced in a lab.

The mammoth meatball, according to Seren Kell, science and technology manager at the nonprofit Good Food Institute, which promotes alternatives to animal products, "will open up new conversations about cultivated meat's extraordinary potential to produce more sustainable food," Damian Carrington of the Guardian reports.

Between 700,000 and 4,000 years ago, woolly mammoths roamed Eurasia and North America, according to Riley Black's 2021 article for Smithsonian magazine. The species was eradicated after the last Ice Age, possibly as a result of both human hunting and climatic changes. The entire animal's DNA was sequenced by scientists in 2015. The gigantic meatball was made possible thanks to this information.

The spherical object is between a softball and a volleyball in size. It was created by combining genetic information from African elephants, the mammoth's nearest living relative, with the DNA sequence for mammoth myoglobin, a protein that gives meat its color and flavor. The final meatball was created by coaxing 20 billion cells to proliferate after the sequence was introduced into sheep cell lines.

At the Dutch science museum Nemo, Vow debuted its take on mammoth meat. Audience members reportedly compared the product's aroma to that of crocodile meat as the start-up slowly baked the meatball before blowtorching its exterior.

Despite the fact that this might make the enormous meat sound enticing, Vow's meatball cannot be eaten. The reaction of contemporary human immune systems to the product is unclear to scientists.

James Ryall, chief scientific officer for Vow, tells CNN's Katie Hunt, "We're talking about a protein that hasn't existed for 5,000 years." "I don't know what this specific protein's potential allergenicity might be."

The culinary experts at Vow are upbeat about the prospects for cell-based meat substitutes in the future. Only Singapore now offers cultured meat, but businesses like Upward Foods and GOOD Meat have received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for their lab-grown goods.

Unsolvable Megalithic Mystery of ancient Greek “Dragon Houses”

One of the unsolved historical mysteries is the Dragon Houses of Euboea, which most likely originates from the Preclassical period of ancient Greece.

There are 23 prehistoric megalithic buildings known as "Dragon Houses" in the highlands of Euboea, the second-largest Greek island after Crete. These buildings are predominantly located in the Ochi Mountain and Styra regions.

These buildings, known as "drakospita" or dragon houses, had nothing to do with dragons but are nevertheless admired today for their architecture, simplicity, and tenacity.

These megalithic homes are mortar-free structures that mimic the pre-Columbian Teotihuacan temple complexes and the stepped Djoser pyramid in pre-dynastic Egypt. They are made of predominantly square or rectangular stones.

Large monolithic stones are used the majority of the time. Their lack of foundations is another notable quality. Its roofs are expertly constructed using massive plates that are pyramidally stacked one on top of the other.

Although nothing is known about these dragon dwellings, there are more structures than was predicted. There are roughly 23 of these megalithic dwellings on the island of Euboea, the majority of which are found between Mounts Ochi and Styra. In fact, researchers are frequently astounded by the single megalith's size and weight, which is sitting atop two similarly large post stones to form a gateway. Both the reason for their construction and the method used to hoist and position this megalith on the poles are a mystery.

It should be noted that the dragon homes' location is also amazing, and that scientists have long questioned their purpose in existence. These stone buildings appear to be placed in strategic locations that provide far observation of the surroundings. At a height of almost 1,400m, the Dragon House of Ochi (or Oche) is located in particular.

Given that these dragon dwellings are located at extremely high elevations, the weight and grandeur of the megaliths are even more remarkable. The architects and builders had to devise a method to transport such big stones from a much lower elevation in order to construct the homes at this height. Also, each structure has a roof opening that resembles a Pantheon and is likely intended to allow moonlight or natural sunlight to illuminate the inside of the buildings.

The English explorer and geologist John Hawkins (1758–1841) was the first to discover the drakospito on Mount Oche and mistook it for an ancient temple.

Afterwards, local researchers took measurements of the drakospita' (or dragon houses) and determined the orientation of the structure using the azimuths of sunset and moonrise.

Researchers believe that the building performed a religious or astronomical function because of a Sirius-rise orientation that dates to around 1100 B.C. This orientation is consistent with earlier archaeological dating based on objects found inside the structure. It might be argued that the renowned drakospito atop Mount Oche operated as both a historic astronomical observatory and a place of prayer.

The locals speculate that they were military installations, farmhouses, or shelters. Historically, the term "dragon" was used to describe anybody having superhuman abilities as well as the fabled beast. Due to this, many people now think that the dwellings' origins can be traced back to the ancient Greek gods.

Archaeological digs have also been made, however they haven't yielded many solutions to the questions surrounding the dragon dwellings. Professor Nikolaos K. Moutsopoulos researched the Mount Oche drakospito and eleven other structures in 1959. In 1960 and 1978–1980, he explored the area around the structures. He found many pots inside the Mount Oche structure, as well as an apothetes, a subterranean building where he also found some utensils, animal bones, pottery fragments, and inscriptions from the Preclassical to the Hellenistic periods. One of the pottery fragments had inscriptions on it in an unidentified type of writing.

Archaeologists Discovered Graffiti That Revealed The Startling Truth About Pompeii

It took nearly 2,000 years, but long-lost graffiti scrawled on a wall has helped to clear the air about one of the world's most devastating natural disasters.

Historians have long claimed that Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, AD79, burying Pompeii under a layer of burning ash. On the other hand, the graffiti discovered in a recently excavated house is dated to mid-October, nearly two months after the Roman city and many of its inhabitants were destroyed, lending credence to the theory that the eruption occurred on October 24.

In short, the graffitis discovered changes history! So, let’s dive into the video to learn more, but before we begin, here is a quick knowledge test for you! What did archaeologists discover when they excavated Pompeii nearly 2,000 years later?