Dwarka: Have archaeologists finally found India's sunken kingdom?

The city of Dwarka is one of the seven holy pilgrimage centres in India. It is the only place which is contemporary with the events described in the epic Mahabharata, where it is described as the ancient kingdom of Krishna. It is written that upon Krishna's death the city was sunk beneath the Arabian sea.

Today, archaeologists searching for the lost kingdom believe they have found evidence of its existence off the coast of the modern-day Dwarka, and are trying to understand what could have caused it to be lost beneath the sea.

What Was The Earth Like During The Ice Age?

For hundreds of millions of years, an abundance of large animals, the megafauna, was a prominent feature of the land and oceans. However, in the last few tens of thousands of years—a blink of an eye on many evolutionary and biogeochemical timescales—something dramatic happened to Earth’s ecology; megafauna largely disappeared from vast areas, rendered either actually or functionally extinct. Only in small parts of the world do megafauna exist at diversities anything close to their previous state, and, in many of these remaining regions, they are in a state of functional decline through population depletion and range contraction.

The last ice age peaked around 20,000 years ago. Glaciers covered huge areas of North America, Europe, South America, and Asia. The last ice age was during the Pleistocene epoch which was a geological period starting 2.6 million years ago and ending 11,700 years ago. This epoch saw many glacial and interglacial periods. When the climate was cooler, the glaciers advanced. When it was warmer, they retreated. During the last ice age, global temperatures were about 11 degrees Fahrenheit (or 6 degrees Celsius) cooler than today. This last ice age began 115,000 years ago and ended 11,700 years ago.

With cooler temperatures and a lot of ice cover, there was less precipitation and less rainfall. Snow and ice reflected more of the sun’s rays, only adding to the cold. In addition, sea levels were much lower as more of the oceans were locked up as ice. This resulted in land bridges that had previously been covered by the sea. These bridges allowed species to access islands from the mainland and even cross from one continent to another.

Where Did Cheese Really Come From?

Let's talk Cheese History. In this video we will take you on an epic food journey as we reveal the History of Cheese. We're going from the very beginning and seeing where cheese began and what it is today. We'll make stops through various points in history and see some of the surprising origins of your favorite cheeses.

How Did the Ancient Romans Actually Dress?

Picture a citizen of the Roman Empire. What are they wearing? Most likely, you imagined someone wearing a white toga, sandals, and maybe some kind of laurel on their head. But most ancient Romans didn't really dress that way in their day-to-day lives.

Many of us get our ideas of how Romans dressed from pop culture - movies like Spartacus or Gladiator, or TV shows like Rome. But no movie or TV show can perfectly recreate a historical era no matter how big their budget, and many don't try very hard.

What Life Was Like as a Samurai In Feudal Japan

Samurai dominated the country of Japan from the 12th to the 19th century. The fierce, disciplined warriors lived according to the bushido code, an unwritten set of rules and norms based in loyalty, sacrifice, bravery, and honor, remembered popularly as samurai code. Along with the code came samurai traditions and customs that defined their physical appearance, sexual relationships, how they killed and how they died. Just like pirates cherished their earrings and Vikings dyed their hair, samurai demonstrated their dedication to the code and to their lifestyle in some unique ways.

10 Ludicrous Laws from the Middle Ages That We Still Break Today

The Middle Ages spanned from roughly 500 to 1500 CE. For much of that time, the people of England lived under a feudal system in which both the laws, and the penalties for breaking them, were significantly more bizarre than the ones we are familiar with today.

What Viking Diets Were Really Like

Though Vikings are known for pillaging the coasts of Europe, Viking facts reveal that the marauders were more than just bearded warriors filled with blood-thirsty rage. Analysis of what Vikings ate shows that the ancient Norse people had surprisingly modern appetites. The Viking diet went beyond slabs of meat and tankards of mead to include a healthy balance of vegetables and breakfast staples like yogurt.

The perception of Vikings as crude, dirty troublemakers doesn't match up with the refined nature of their meals. Viking cuisine incorporated a range of food and drink options, creating the balanced diet that made Viking men such notorious bruisers.

The Mysterious Disease That Wiped Out the Aztecs

For hundreds of years, history left us wondering what disease killed the Aztecs in the mid-1500s. Many assumed the Aztecs were one of many Central American groups to be wiped out by European diseases like smallpox. However, DNA testing has unearthed new evidence about what really killed 80% of the Aztecs.

The Amazing Hidden Tomb Of China’s First Emperor

In China, there exists an astonishing place. A burial ground to rival Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, where pyramid tombs of stupendous size are full of astonishing riches. In 221 BC, China's first Emperor united warring kingdoms into a nation that still exists today. To memorialise this achievement, he bankrupted the national treasury and oppressed thousands of workers to build one of the world’s biggest mortuary complexes. China's second dynasty, the Han, inherited the daunting challenge of building larger tombs to command respect and establish their right to rule without running the nation into the ground. Although no Han emperor's tomb has been opened, the tombs of lesser Han aristocrats have revealed astonishing things: complete underground palaces (including kitchens and toilets) and at least one corpse so amazingly well-preserved some believe Han tomb-builders knew how to "engineer immortality". But most tombs were robbed, leaving another dynasty hundreds of years later – the brilliant Tang – to lead a revolution in tomb design, tunnelling simple shaft-tombs into natural mountains and filling them with small, inexpensive grave goods that symbolised more than reproduced the perfect afterlife.

How Was The Great Wall Of China Built?

The Great Wall Of China was built to protect a growing empire and the Silk Road that brought in wealth, but how exactly was the wall built? Watch the video to find out more!

Who were the first Europeans?

Sitting in the beautiful Verdon Gorge in Southern France, I muse on the first European peoples that inhabited that region. People like Cheddar Man from Somerset in England. I consider the cave art of Lascaux, Pech Merle, Niaux, Chauvet, Cougnac etc. The animals depicted there must have been sacred to our ancestors, whether Homo Sapien or Neanderthal, who depended on their meat to survive.

I include some nice shots of Wisent (European Bison), Griffon vultures and Alpine Chamois (not Ibex as I thought at the time), which are all animals our European ancestors were familiar with. I also explain the genetic origin of European people including the Yamnaya, the hunter-gatherers and the early Neolithic farmers from the Near East.

The Barbary Pirates & England's White Slaves

Did you know that at the same time that the British were involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, white Britons were being sold into slavery in Africa?

For over 200 years, from the reign of James I right up until George III, Muslim pirates from the abducted thousands of British sailors and sold them in the slave markets on the Barbary Coast in North Africa.

They even landed in Cornwall raiding coastal villages and taking men, women and children into captivity. It is a fascinating and little known story from British history.

How Did Carthage Raise its Mercenary Armies? (Documentary)

In this history documentary we will explore ancient Carthage.

We begin with a brief history of Carthage and the Punic military. This begins in its early colonial years when the small town boasted but a small, unremarkable militia. Within a few centuries however the city would blossom and begin to deploy more formidable forces of infantry, cavalry, and chariots. It would be these which fought the early Punic Wars against the Greeks in Sicily. However upon facing devastating losses of citizen life in these conflicts, Carthage reformed its military to rely more on its auxiliaries, allies, and mercenaries. It would be this new army that would win it a vast Empire and come face to face with the Romans.

With this in mind we look at how war was declared, how troops were mustered, and how armed forces were deployed to various theaters of war. Such an understanding will hopefully enrich your study of Carthaginian history and the Punic Wars with Rome.

You Won't Believe What Happened When Prometheus Stole the Scared Fire

In this video, we'll be talking about Prometheus, the Titan who stole the scared fire from Olympus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from the gods. This video is about that story, along with some other mythology involving the titan. If you're interested in Greek mythology, then this video is definitely for you!

Ancient Egyptian Military Weapons - 10 Most Important

What were the most important ancient Egyptian military weapons that enabled them to dominate their neighbors and achieve a truce with the mighty Hittites? Ancient Egypt's New Kingdom saw a range of military innovations that created the Egyptian war machine that is now legendary. In this video we look at ten of the most important weapons.

The Diets of Ancient Europe (Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age)

By 10,000 BC, in the Mesolithic era, the hunter gatherers of Europe were thriving in a range of environments across the Continent. From about 7,000 BC Neolithic farmers spread across Europe bringing a new way of life, new languages, beliefs and social structures. Then around 3,000 BC, another great change came with the spread of cattle and horse herders from their homelands on the Pontic steppe all the way to the furthest corners of Europe, heralding the beginning of the European bronze age.

These three eras saw huge social, linguistic, and genetic changes but perhaps the most dramatic differences are to be found in their approaches to food.

So… what exactly did prehistoric Europeans eat?