Osiris: The Ruler of the Underworld
byIn accordance with the Heliopolis creation myth, Atum was the first god to exist. The god, lonely, then decided to create the god Shu…
Pre-Classical History (to 600 BCE)
Gilgamesh: The Search for Immortality
byImagine grasping eternal life in your hands just to watch it disappear before your eyes. Or imagine that the hardest journey of your life…
Pleasure vs. Procreation: Egyptian Women Take Control of Their Sexuality
byWinner of the Fall 2017 StMU History Media Award for Best Article in the Category of “Gender Studies” Best Overall Research For most of modern…
Menes: Unification King of Egypt
byAt the dawn of civilization, the Egyptian Nile Valley cradled the richest, most fertile land in the ancient world. Called “the gift of the…
Derinkuyu: the Mysterious Underground City
byIt was just a regular day for Mustafa Bozdemir in 1963 as he made renovations to his home in Nevşehir Province, Turkey. That is…
Neanderthals: The Burial Debate
byAs children, most of us picture Neanderthals as the archetypal caveman even though Neanderthals are the most recent archaic humans to Homo sapiens. First…
Egyptian Cosmetics: Protection and Adornment
byDid you know that the existence of beauty products dates all the way back to 4,000 B.C.E.? In ancient Egypt, eye cosmetics were kept…
The Battle with No Winner: The Battle of Kadesh
byThe once calm and silent Egyptian landscape became flooded with the sounds of hooves crackling and wheels turning as the Egyptian imperial army approached…
Traditional Wayfinding: Ancient Navigation through the Pacific
byTraditional wayfinders of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia relied solely on natural elements such as celestial bodies, the winds, swells, the climate, and birds to…
The Ancient Indian Practice of Sati: Widow Burning
bySati, also known as “Suttee,” was a tradition that was practiced in ancient India from the early centuries BCE to the mid-1990’s. In this tradition, widows were burned…
Cowrie Shells in Ancient Egypt: From Money to Motherhood
byCowrie shells are the shells of small marine snails that are widely distributed in warm seas. Their texture is very smooth due to their…
The Mesopotamian Foe: The Assyrians
byAround the mid-700s through mid-600s BCE, there was a feared empire east of Mesopotamia, reaching from modern-day Iraq to modern-day Turkey and down through…
Eye of Horus
bySince ancient times, the Eye of Horus, which is also referred to as the “all seeing eye,” is one of the most recognized symbols of…
Sargon of Akkad: The World’s First Emperor
byTwelve thousand years ago, humans transitioned from hunter-gatherer societies to agriculture-based societies. Humans began to settle in ever larger communities, and gradually created civilizations. Neolithic villages…
The First Mummies: the Ancient Chinchorro of Peru
byWhen people hear the word mummy, most will think of the pharaohs found in tombs in Egypt. While they are the most well known, what…
Fact or Fiction: Xia Dynasty
byThe Xia Dynasty was the first traditional Chinese dynasty in recorded history. It began in 2070 B.C.E and eventually came to an end around…
Out With the Old and In With the New: The Transition of Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten
byThe saying, “Like father, like son” is many times referred to as a son who follows his father’s footsteps and who shares similar beliefs and…
Religion of the Aryans: The Four Vedas
byThe Aryans were a tribal and nomadic people whose origins may have been in the Indo-European homelands of southern Russia. Aryans were fierce warlike…
The Hyksos: Conquerors of Middle Kingdom Egypt
byArchaeologists have discovered that, at the beginning of the MB II B period (Bronze Age between 1750-1650 B.C.E.), a new form of warrior enter…
The Ancient Egyptians and the Dead
byI think that it is a given that humans have a bit of a fascination with death and everything that comes after, that is,…