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History

Did a 13,000 Year Old Comet Strike Change Human History?

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comet - pixabay

Could a devastating comet impact in Earth’s distant past have forever changed human civilization? Scientists think that a cluster of comet shards may have smashed into Earth’s surface 13,000 years ago, in the most catastrophic impact since the Chicxulub event killed off Earth’s large dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. In a new study, a team led by Martin Sweatman, a scientist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, investigated the impact and how it could have shaped the origins of human societies on Earth. While the first Homo sapiens emerged between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago, much farther in … Read more

Real Life Atlantis

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Atlantis - Deposit Photos

Humans need water to survive, and so access to this precious natural resource has been an important factor in deciding where we have made our homes throughout history. Building near rivers, lakes and springs gave early settlers access to clean water for domestic and agricultural use, and the availability of fish meant they h ad a reliable food source. Traveling by boat also became an easy way to navigate the land more quickly, enabling our species to migrate to new areas. As humans spread across continents and populations boomed, trade between civilizations became more frequent. Coastal settlements allowed for larger … Read more

Rich People Destroyed Their Own feet With Pointy Shoes in Medieval England – All for Fashion

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Pointy Medieval Shoes - Deposit Photos

Being fashionable usually comes at a cost, and stylish people toward the end of the Middle Ages in Britain paid a steep price for wearing pointy shoes. Pointy-shoe wearers often developed bunions, a type of foot deformity in which a bony mass forms at the base of the big toe and pushes that toe inward at an angle. While many factors can cause bunions, known medically as hallux valgus, this condition was far less common in the 13th century and earlier, when footwear styles were less extreme, according to a new study. As these fashion victims grew older, they incurred … Read more

New Stonehenge Discovery Echoes Merlin’s Tale

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Stonehenge - Pixabay

The earliest megalithic circle at Stonehenge was first built in the west of Wales more than 5,000 years ago, before its stones were dug up and dragged over 140 miles (225 kilometers) to its present site in the west of England, new research suggests. The findings also support a wild legend that the mythical wizard Merlin ordered giants to move Stonehenge from Ireland and rebuild it in its current location. The researchers discovered the remains of the original stone circle in the Preseli Hills in Wales, near the ancient quarries where geologists have determined that Stonehenge’s famous bluestones were cut. … Read more

History Repeats Itself – Part of the Wright Brothers’ Plane to Fly on Mars

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Wright Brothers' Plane - pixabay

When NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars in February, it carried a bit of the Wright brothers’ first airplane with it. A swatch of fabric from the airplane, known as the Flyer, is secured beneath the solar panels of an experimental helicopter, which in turn is strapped to the underside of the rover, according to a statement from NASA. The helicopter, called Ingenuity, is attached to the rover for now, but soon, if all goes well, scientists will pilot the aircraft remotely over the surface of the Red Planet. This flight will be attempted “no earlier than April 8,” … Read more

HISTORY: What Was Stonehenge For?

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Stonehenge - pixabay

Stonehenge is perhaps the most famous of all the henges, vast circular monuments constructed from wood or stone that litter the British countryside. The prehistoric monument was most likely erected in what is now England sometime between 3000 B.C. and 2000 B.C. and some of the stones were transported all the way from neighboring Wales — no small feat for a Stone Age civilization. It must have surely been a gargantuan effort and it begs the question: Why on Earth did they bother? Why did Stone Age people build so many henges? “The short answer is that I don’t know … Read more

PREHISTORY: The Million-Year Rain

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rain - pixabay

Long ago, before the dawn of the age of dinosaurs, a heavy rain descended upon the supercontinent of Pangaea — and it kept raining for more than 1 million years. This epic rainy spell — known now as the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE) — occurred roughly 233 million years ago and was a stark shift from the typically arid conditions of the late Triassic period. But stormy skies weren’t the only change Earth was facing. According to a study published Sept. 16 in the journal Science Advances, new fossil evidence suggests that the CPE was in fact a major extinction … Read more

Queer Female Pirates Unerased From History

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Inexorable - Lesbian Pirates

Two trailblazing female pirates who shared a tender same-sex romance have been commemorated with a striking new statue. Anne Bonny and Mary Read, born in the late 18th century, have largely been erased from history by predominantly male historians – but now, they are taking their rightful place in the annals of the past. The women, who were lovers, have been immortalised by artist Amanda Cotton in a sculpture titled Inexorable. Previewed at London’s Execution Docks on 18 November, the artwork was commissioned to mark the launch of Hell Cats, a new Audible podcast that celebrates Bonny and Read’s lives … Read more

Was This Viking Warrior Gender Fluid?

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Vikings - Pixabay

An ancient Viking warrior who was given a hero’s burial may have been “transgender, non-binary or gender fluid”, according to researchers. Three years ago, the ornately dressed remains of a high-status Viking warrior from the mid-900s were discovered alongside swords, spears and two slaughtered horses in Birka, Sweden. Following studies, it was assumed that the remains of the Viking warrior were those of a female – a finding that threw into question a once commonly-accepted view that Vikings ascribed to traditional gender roles. Now, three years on, scholars are questioning whether the remains could actually have been those of a … Read more

Witch-Repellant Graffiti is Totally a Thing

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Witch Graffiti - Live Science

Learning no lessons from horror films of yore, Britain has plans for a high-speed rail project that will lay tracks over the ruins of a medieval church. And, apparently, the project has run into some trouble with witches and dark spirits. According to archaeologists working at Stoke Mandeville, a village that lies in the path of the proposed railway, an early excavation of the site’s 700-year-old church revealed stone beams etched with strange circular patterns known as “witch marks.” These markings, which look like the spokes of a wheel with a hole drilled into the center, were created to “ward … Read more