“Off the beaten path” means different things to different people, but taking our kids to live with the Mentawai island tribe in Indonesia was the most incredible travel experience we’ve had so far. Watch the video below for more!
Bad Eyesight Before Glasses: What Did People Do?
In this video we tackle the question: What did people with poor eyesight do before glasses were invented? Glasses are a necessity for so many people today, so what did people do before the they were invented in the late thirteenth century? We look at how farsighted people— from Renaissance scholars and Vikings, to Ancient Romans and Egyptians— may have used magnifiers to combat farsightedness (presbyopia).
We also look at how nearsightedness (myopia) appears to be a modern epidemic driven by lifestyle changes. However, if you were one of the few that were nearsighted, it probably would not have impacted your lifestyle as much as it would today.
Mysterious Messages Found In Famous Art
In the following video we will analyze mysterious messages that were found in famous art. Watch the video to find out more!
Day In The Insane Tough Life Of A Roman Slave
Roman slaves were the lowest social class and had no official marriage, legal protection, or ownership rights. Their owners were open to killing and punishing them. Three kinds of slaves were prominent in Roman History, depending on what they did and where they worked. They were private slaves who worked in public and household slaves who worked on villas or large farming lands.
The typical life span for a person to stay in Roman slavery was over 30 years. However, it depended on the time when they became slaves. Some were captured as war soldiers; some were sons of the slaves, and few as criminals for punishment. Whatever the source of slavery was, the life of each roman slave was no less than hell. Let’s dig deeper into how a typical roman slave was forced to spend his day.
A roman slave’s day started before sunrise when they had to wake up before their owner. After that, they helped them dress up and prepare for the day. When the owners left for work after breakfast, then the slaves used to get breakfast opportunities. They were considered cheap and bland, so they were given very little food to eat. The breakfast they ate was exclusively based on grains.
The North Sea Tsunami: Britain’s Deadliest Disaster
Thousands of years ago, way before anyone ever stepped onto a football pitch, Britain and the surrounding areas experienced a natural disaster so enormous that it literally changed what the European landmass looked like. Enjoy!
The First Ghost Stories | Dr. Irving Finkel
Learn how the near-universal belief in ghosts goes back to the beginning of time. Discover how the oldest known writing, in cuneiform script on tablets of clay, gives us a full picture of the ancient Mesopotamian ghost experience: who might be expected to be a ghost, how to keep the dead happy in the netherworld, how to banish annoying ghosts that keep appearing and how to summon the dead to come back and disclose the future.
100 Longest Reigning Monarchs in History
In this video we will explore the 100 monarchs that reigned the longest time in history. Enjoy!
Did ancient Troy really exist?
When Homer’s Iliad was first written down in the eighth century BCE, the story of the Trojan war was already an old one. From existing oral tradition, audiences knew the tales of the long siege, the duels outside the city walls, and the trick that finally won the war. In the end, the city was burned to the ground, never to rise again. But had it ever existed? Einav Zamir Dembin investigates.
Kingdom of Armenia - Between Rome & Parthia - Ancient History Documentary
In this video we will be talking about the Kingdom of Armenia, as we look as how this state survived between the two giants of the era - Rome and Parthia and then Byzantine and Sassanian Empires, creating a unique civilization. Enjoy!
500 years before Christopher Columbus, the Vikings inhabited the Americas
The new "New World Order" was upset by the findings.
Christopher Columbus was not the first European to set foot in the New World, hence he also did not "discover" America.
Viking adventurers reportedly arrived in the Americas 500 years before the legendary Italian explorer and navigator set foot here in 1492, according to a recent study.
A recent study found that the famed Italian explorer and navigator arrived in the Americas around 1492, 500 years after the arrival of Viking explorers, according to the journal "Antiquity."
According to the University of Iceland archaeologists who conducted the groundbreaking study, "Journeys were being made from Greenland to North America throughout the entirety of the period of Norse settlement in Greenland," the Times Of London stated.
According to the Daily Mail, researchers reached this shocking conclusion after analysing wood samples from five northern sites in western Greenland that were inhabited between the years 1000 and 1400.
Some of the wood samples analyzed by archaeologists.
After looking at historical documents that revealed the Vikings who occupied Greenland between 985 and 1450 relied on timber and other resources imported from Europe and the Americas, they set out to discover the origin of the lumber.
The string found attached to the beads may have ben produced during the 14th or 15th centuries, according to radiocarbon dating.
Along with driftwood, it was utilized by Scandinavian mariners to build artifacts, boats, and other things for which the local lumber was suitable.
Scientists examined the wood's cellular structure to calculate the percentage of foreign wood and identified some of the trees as hemlock and pine.
Since these plants were not cultivated in Europe throughout the second millennium, specialists believe they were brought over by ship from the New World.
The results supported historical Viking sagas that claimed Nordic explorers like Leif Erickson, who is thought to have been the first European to visit the Americas, brought wood back from Vnland, the Norse designation for the area of North American coastline near the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Vintage illustration of Christopher Columbus on the deck of the Santa Maria in 1492.
Larger-scale implications of the most recent finding included the fact that "resources were being acquired by the Norse from North America for far longer than previously thought."
A 2021 study discovered that wood-cutting samples from Viking lumberjack sites at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, date back to 1021 AD.
The findings also supported the theory that various trade routes were created by the Vikings across the Northwest Atlantic possibly 500 years before Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World.
These sky-blue beads may pre-date Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World.
These transatlantic journeys may have been made up to just before the start of Europe's formal Age Of Exploration in 1400.
According to the study, "These results highlight the fact that Norse Greenlanders had the ability, knowledge, and suitable vessels to cross the Davis Strait to the east coast of North America, at least up to the 14th century."
Allegory showing Christopher Columbus and his men landing in the West Indies with the discovery of the New World.
According to the study's findings, by "demonstrating the range of timber sources used by the Greenland Norse," researchers were able to show the degree of "connectivity across the medieval North Atlantic world."
It is still unclear how the Greenland civilization vanished. However, a wide range of factors, including the plague and pirate invasions, resource mismanagement, dropping temperatures, and more, have been linked by scholars.
12 Most Mysterious Ancient Technology Scientists Still Can't Explain
You probably can’t remember every single fact or skill you were taught when you were at school. Our memories fade over time, and if we don’t practice the skills that we’ve been taught regularly, we eventually forget how to use them at all. That doesn’t just apply to individual people, though - that applies to the whole human race! There’s plenty of evidence that our ancestors had skills and abilities that we lack today, and this video contains all the proof of that you’ll ever need.
10 Creepiest Recent Archaeological Discoveries
From hearing an ancient mummy's voice to the burial of a 6-headed chief, here are 10 creepy archaeological discoveries. Enjoy!
Top 15 Most Effective Ancient Weapons
Ever since humans have hunted for food, and competed against others, they have developed weapons to help them. As militaries began to organize themselves, huge resources were devoted to creating new deadly devices to give an edge over the enemy, and it's amazing to see how things have changed throughout history. From frighteningly sharp blades, to cannons, clubs, and even artificial claws… it's time to travel into the past to see 15 incredible ancient military weapons.
What Happened on Easter Island?
Easter Island is an island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean and it is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai. But what has really happened there? Watch the video below to find out!
12 Most Amazing Recent Archaeological Finds
On this channel, we often ask ourselves what archaeologists have been up to recently - and we're rarely disappointed with the answers we get! There have been some truly remarkable archaeological discoveries made recently at locations all over the world. Many of them have helped us to gain a deeper understanding of our ancestors and the people who came before us, but some of them have only led to more questions and more confusion! Without further ado, here are some of the most incredible archaeological, geological and paleontological finds of recent times.
The Nabataeans and the Petra's Lost City
What became of the Nabataeans and the Petra ruins? What Roman historians have reported about these desert nomads is in conflict with recent discoveries.
Al Khazneh (The Treasury) at old city Petra. Jordan
In a single fight in 312 B.C., the camel-mounted warriors of Nabataea slaughtered ruthlessly close to 4,600 Greek soldiers. At the intersection of Africa, Europe, and Asia, Nabataean traders had a monopoly on commerce along the Silk Road for hundreds of years. Additionally, only the Nabataeans knew where the porters' hidden provisions and water reservoirs were.
The mighty Nabataean civilization finally "peacefully" ended in the year 106 A.D. Or was it? The Nabataeans were "annexed" by Rome, according to ancient Roman chroniclers, with little resistance. However, more recent archeological findings imply that this culture's demise could not have been as benign as the Romans believed.
What actually transpired to the Nabataeans, then? How did this culture that treasured liberty and the vastness of the desert above all other comforts come to its doom? Let's begin by learning more about the Nabataeans.
The Nabataeans: Who Were They?
Around 400 B.C., a unique society of affluent desert nomads known as the Nabataeans first developed in what is now Jordan. As local traders and respected desert porters for hundreds of years, the Nabataeans amassed enormous wealth.
The Nabateans exploited their expertise of the desert to transfer things like frankincense, myrrh, bitumen (pitch or tar), and spices from one end of their empire to the other while charging as much as 25% on top of the goods they handled.
Despite their success, the Nabataeans weren't always admired by their neighbors. Diodorus, a Roman historian who lived between 30 and 20 B.C., called the Nabataeans "pillagers" and "pirates."
The Petra Ruins
Unfortunately, the Nabataeans did not leave many written records of themselves, but they did give us some significant hints. An everlasting witness to the tremendous wealth, power, and cultural sophistication of the Nabataeans over the last two centuries B.C. is their spectacular architecture, which was etched into the ruins of Petra. They were obviously much more than just robbers, pirates, and nomadic bandits.
As stated by Brown University, "Nabataean Classical monuments reflect the international character of the Nabataean economy through their combination of native tradition and the classical spirit." The architectural works in Petra's ruins today are distinctly influenced by Egyptian, Greek, and other cultures.
The so-called Safaitic inscriptions, which are old writings cut into rock in the regions of northern Arabia, have also been found by archaeologists. Some of these inscriptions provide significant hints as to the truth of Nabataean history, a truth that ancient chroniclers largely overlooked or were unaware of.
The Nabataean Empire's demise
We can see that Nabataea may have fallen because of jealousy from the beginning. In the years prior to 100 B.C., the Greeks made multiple well-known attempts to conquer the Nabataeans but were unsuccessful due to their desire for Nabataean supremacy over Silk Road trade.
The Nabataeans developed in power and wealth despite their conflicts with the Greeks. Rome was nevertheless gaining ground in the area. Nabataea and Rome would soon join forces, with Nabataea becoming Rome's vassal state and paying taxes to it. Rome and Nabataea collaborated as military allies in Egypt and Arabia at this time.
The Great Pompey
The Roman General Pompey conquered the Armenians in Damascus in the mid-60s B.C. after the Armenians acquired control of the city from the Nabataeans in around 70 B.C. Pompey the Great, as he is better known, then turned his attention to Petra.
The Nabataean monarch, Aretas III, was permitted to continue in office and even keep Damascus by General Pompey rather than simply conquering the people. In exchange, the Nabataean state agreed to pay taxes to Rome as an imperial vassal state.
Was Nabataea's conquest peaceful or not?
Following Pompey's operations, Roman dominance in the region around Nabataea rose to such a degree that, in 30 B.C., they finally conquered Egypt. The Nabataeans maintained as an independent, tax-paying client state of Rome despite being encircled by Roman territory.
Trajan, a Roman emperor
They remained together until they fell prey to Trajan the Roman Emperor in the year 106. According to historians, Rome decided to include Nabataea in its Arabia Petraea province after the passing of the last Nabataean monarch, Rabbel II Soter, in A.D. 106.
Did the Nabataeans use violence to stave off the Romans? Numerous historians have traditionally held the belief that the Roman conquest was peaceful, including early Roman chroniclers.
However, a recent study by Paolo Cimadomo at the University of Haifa suggests that the Nabataeans may have aggressively opposed the Romans, maybe for hundreds of years after the conquest of Petra. Was it to remove the Nabataean name from these recently conquered regions that the Romans gave the province Arabia Petraea?
Rabbel II Soter
According to Cimadomo, Rabbel II Soter had two genuine claimants to the Nabataean throne who might not have relinquished the throne willingly. Several Safaitic inscriptions, which are ancient writings cut into rock in the Nabataean region, are also cited by Cimadomo. These writings speak of a "war of the Nabataeans" and "the year of the struggle between the Romans and the Nabataeans."
One inscription described "the year [in which] Malichos King of Nabataea smote thirty centuries (three thousand) of Roman soldiers." Why do Roman historians not mention this conflict?
The Lost City of Petra
It's challenging to determine exactly what happened to the Nabataeans, as it is with any mysteries from antiquity. It seems completely feasible that they went back to the desert life they loved, though, when you consider the freedom-loving nature of this ancient nomadic tribe, which valued the great expanse of the desert over the comforts of household life.
The Nabataeans may have mounted a defense using surprise raids and guerrilla-style assaults from the safety of the desert. Additionally, the terrible response of the Nabataeans, when they killed approximately 4,600 Greek soldiers in 317 B.C., lends credence to the idea that they would not have ceded their throne easily.
Cimadomo asserts that "the area [near Petra] was never completely suppressed and was to prove a continuous and ultimately unresolved problem for Roman governors, as testified by later literary sources."
Any Nabataean opposition that might have existed in the years after Petra's collapse did not prevent the Roman emperor Hadrian from visiting Petra in A.D. 131 and renaming the city Hadriane Petra in his honor.
Even though the Nabataeans caused a lot of trouble for the Romans, the lost city of Petra is no longer there to tell us the truth, save from their collapsed structures and a few stone sculptures in the desert.
Timber from North America was revealed to have been imported by Norse Greenlanders
In five Norse farmsteads on Greenland, archaeologists have employed wood taxonomic analysis to differentiate between imported, drift, and native wood.
Historical evidence has long suggested that the Norse colonists on Greenland in the Middle Ages (AD 985–1450) depended on imported resources like iron and wood. It has not yet been fully understood where these timber imports came from.
Lisabet Gumundsdóttir from the University of Iceland analyzed the wood assemblages from five Norse sites in western Greenland, of which four were medium-sized farms and one was a high-status episcopal manor, to understand the origins and distribution of timber on Greenland. By using radiocarbon dating and the accompanying item types, all sites were inhabited between AD 1000 and 1400.
The wood that archaeologists had previously discovered on these sites was examined under a microscope to determine the genus or species, and the results were published in the journal Antiquity.
Only 0.27% of the wood under examination, including oak, beech, hemlock, and Jack pine, was clearly an import, according to the findings. Larch, spruce, Scots pine, and fir are among the additional 25% of the total timber evaluated that could be either imported or driftwood.
Hemlock and Jack pine were not found in Northern Europe at the beginning of the second millennium AD, hence the items found in Greenland's medieval contexts had to be from North America.
This supports the historical records' claims that the Norse did buy wood from North America's east coast. According to the sagas, the explorers Leifurheppni, Þorleifurkarlsefni and Freydísall brought wood back to Greenland from Vinland.
Driftwood was one of the most significant raw resources in Norse Greenland, accounting for more than 50% of the whole assemblage in addition to the potential for import.
European wood, possibly comprising the oak, beech, and Scots pine from this assemblage, was also imported. Some, like barrel staves, may have arrived as ready-made relics, while Greenland houses may have been constructed from recycled ship wood.
Native Canoe dating back a thousand years taken from a lake in North Carolina
On April 12, members of the Waccamaw Siouan Indian Tribe assisted researchers in removing a 28-foot canoe from Lake Waccamaw that is thought to be at least 1,000 years old. According to local stories, the canoe was discovered in the lake in the summer of 2021 while three teens were swimming there.
One of the eight American Indian tribes recognized by the state of North Carolina is the Waccamaw Siouan Indian Tribe. Due to their ancestry in the area of Lake Waccamaw, they refer to themselves as "People of the Falling Star". According to their oral history, the lake was formed long ago when a meteor collided with the planet and neighboring waterways rushed into the crater, giving it a distinctive blue-green color that was different from other lakes in the region.
At the excavation, Jacobs remarked, "We've always been asked about our history, where we come from, and who we are for years and years." We now have physical evidence to support it.
One of the teens who discovered the canoe while swimming, Eli Hill, claimed that at first he mistakenly believed it to be a log but was unable to pull it up.
The North Carolina Office of State Archaeology was called by Hill's family, and a crew was dispatched to investigate the canoe and transfer it under a dock until it could be securely excavated.
Numerous members of the Waccamaw Siouan Indian Tribe, as well as locals and other news media, reportedly saw the canoe excavation. The boat was put in a chamber right away, toweled off, and then wrapped in plastic to stop further degradation. The boat will undergo chemical treatment in a lab so that it may be stored for further inspection.
On April 22, the Queen Anne's Revenge Conservation Laboratory in Greenville, North Carolina, will host an open house where the canoe will be on exhibit.
Next to a Paris railway station, a 2,000-year-old necropolis was discovered
Scientists have discovered 50 tombs in an ancient necropolis in the center of Paris, just a few meters from a busy train station. These graves provide a unique view into life in Lutetia, the forerunner to the French capital, approximately 2,000 years ago.
One of the skeletons unearthed in an ancient necropolis found metres from a busy Paris train station
Despite numerous road construction projects over the years and the 1970s construction of the Port-Royal station on the historic Left Bank, the underground necropolis was somehow never discovered.
However, preparations for a new train station exit led to an archaeological dig.
There are already "strong suspicions" that the site is near to Lutetia's southern necropolis, according to Camille Colonna, an anthropologist of France's National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP).
The largest cemetery in the Gallo-Roman town of Lutetia, the "Saint Jacques" necropolis, was previously only partially excavated in the 1800s.
However, the numerous skeletons, burial offerings, and other relics were left in the tombs, and only items deemed valuable were removed.
After then, the necropolis was covered up and once more forgotten by time.
One part that had never been dug was found by the INRAP crew.
"No one has seen it since antiquity," claimed Dominique Garcia, president of INRAP.
Colonna added that the team was "very happy" to have discovered a skeleton with a coin lodged in its mouth, which allowed researchers to date the burial to the second century AD.
50 tombs have been discovered as a result of the dig, which started in March. All of the sites were used for burial rather than cremation, which was also typical at the time.
Ferryman of Hades
The men, women, and kids are thought to be Parisii, a Gallic people who resided in Lutetia at the time that the town on the Seine River's banks was governed by the Roman Empire.
The wooden coffins in which the skeletons were interred could now only be recognized by their nails.
More than half of them were interred with gifts like pottery jugs and goblets.
A penny was occasionally placed in the coffin or even in the mouth of the deceased, a custom known as Charon's obol that was widespread at the period.
The coin was used as a bribe by Charon, the ferryman of Hades in Greek mythology, to ferry the souls of the deceased across the Styx River.
The little nails that would have been in the soles of the shoes allowed the archaeologists to identify them when they were discovered within the graves.
According to Colonna, the shoes were "either laid at the feet of the dead or next to them, like an offering".
Belts, hairpins, and jewelry were also found.
In a pit where it was believed that animals had been offered as sacrifices to the gods, the complete skeletons of a pig and another small animal were found.
This time, as opposed to the excavation in the 1800s, the crew intends to take everything out of the necropolis for analysis.
"This will allow us to understand the life of the Parisii through their funeral rites, as well as their health by studying their DNA," Colonna stated.
Garcia claimed that "generally little is known" about Paris' early history.
The recently discovered burials provide "a window into the world of Paris during antiquity," he continued.
Why Does Honey Condense? (And if it does, how can you make it come back to life?)
Keep the remaining inch of honey that has crystallized in the jar. Instead, do this.
In 1922, as King Tut's tomb was being excavated, investigators discovered (and purportedly tasted) a jar of honey that had made it through the previous several millennia unharmed.
Even though it's often said that honey lasts forever because of the King Tut story, we've seen a lot of half-eaten jars over the years crystallize and solidify to the point of becoming unusable and have always questioned how this could be the case. To gather some helpful tips on how to preserve this natural sweetener at its free-flowing, floral best, we contacted Bruce Shriver, the beekeeper at Gowanus Apiary, Amy Newsome, a gardener, beekeeper, and author of Honey, as well as the people behind Brooklyn's Mike's Hot Honey.
Does honey expire?
Since honey contains so little water (approximately 18%) and is effectively a highly concentrated sugar solution, it is particularly resistant to fermentation and spoiling. Additionally, honey contains a lot of organic acids from the nectar it is comprised of, which give it a pH range of 3.4 to 6.1 on average. Microbes find it extremely challenging to survive in that jar or squeeze bottle due to its acidic nature.
Honey may be kept indefinitely if it is kept in an airtight container, like a jar with a lid, according to Shriver. When the honey is exposed to air and humidity, issues develop. If honey is left exposed, it will take in moisture from the air, which could lead to fermentation.
Why does honey occasionally become solid and crystallize?
The natural sugars (mostly glucose and fructose—from the gathered flower nectar) are dissolved in a very small amount of water when bees manufacture honey, according to Newsome. As a result, the honey remains liquid but is quite erratic in consistency. Over time, the sugars begin to crystallize.
Shriver concurs, saying that all honey eventually crystallizes. "Honey that has been commercially processed crystallizes less quickly than raw honey. This is so because all of the particles—most of which were pollen grains—were filtered using high heat and pressure. In addition to destroying many naturally occurring yeasts, enzymes, flavonoids, polyphenols, and microbial components, this method also removes the pollen.
When bees choose which blossoms to land on, they also influence how honey solidifies to some extent.
Each flower species' nectar contains a varied ratio of glucose to fructose, and glucose crystallizes more easily than fructose, according to Newsome. Because of this, naturally runny honeys are available, such as acacia, which has a higher fructose ratio.
What steps can you take to stop it or fix it?
According to Newsome, she recently saw an Instagram post that made her want to cry and suggested that you can avoid crystal formation by adding corn syrup to your honey. In a chapter titled "Crystallization is not the enemy," she advises embracing the grainier, thicker texture and using it to spread on toast or crumpets.
"I know it can be a pain," she admits of the sweet but picky syrup, "but really we should learn to love it and work with it, as a quirk of the natural world, and marvel that the bees have managed to make something so mercurial and delicious."
When we contacted Mike's Hot Honey with a few inquiries, they responded by sending us an instructional leaflet (probably since they receive this question frequently). For long-term preservation, the booklet advises keeping honey below 50° Fahrenheit because this lower temperature avoids crystallization. They also advise letting the honey warm back up to room temperature before applying since this will lessen how freely it flows. They advise keeping honey between 70° and 80° Fahrenheit if you use it frequently because this temperature range will prevent crystallization.
You can always reheat your crystallized honey if you don't have access to the luxury of chilly, tomb-like storage conditions. Simply place the jar or squeeze bottle in a bowl of warm water (avoid water over 95° Fahrenheit, as Shriver advises, since this can cause certain flavonoids to breakdown) until it begins to flow once more.
