Inventing Silk Roads
The idea of a Silk Road, though it conjures up visions of exotic goods passing between Asia and Europe via ancient trade routes, is a thoroughly modern one.
Culinary Fusion in the Ancient World
People from eastern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia, and Southeast Asia have been sharing food plants across the Indian Ocean for millennia.
“Burned House” Mystery: Why Did This Ancient Culture Torch Its Own Homes Every 60 Years?
The arsons were no accident, archaeological evidence suggests.
A Passover Tradition to Promote Jewish Unity
Freeing a prisoner—a gesture of generosity and benevolence—may have been a way to bring together a fractured spiritual community.
How the Maya Kept Time
Many scholars contrast linear and cyclical time and note that cycles were an important part of Maya concepts of temporal reality.
Healing and Memory in Ancient Greece
The goddess Mnemosyne helped bards remember what to sing and was the mother of the Muses. But she also played a role in healing sanctuaries.
Plant of the Month: Cork
Why is cork so strongly associated with bottle stoppers? The answer goes back centuries.
Fixing the Aqueduct from Hell
The Roman engineer Nonius Datus thought the project was in good shape when he left Saldae. He would return.
Everyone in Pompeii Got Takeout, Too
Archaeologists have found that snack bars called tabernae fed much of the city in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.
Pompeii Mania in the Era of Romanticism
Nothing appealed more perfectly to the Romantic sensibility than the mix of horror and awe evoked by a volcano erupting.