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Remnants of a statue depicting Hercules that derives from ancient Roman times was unearthed during an excavation of an archeological site in Greece, according to a report by Greek City Times. The larger-than-life statue of a young Hercules, dated to the 2nd century C.E., was uncovered at a site formerly known to be the ancient city of Philippi, located the country’s northern region by researchers at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AuTH). The team was led by Natalia Poulos, a professor at AuTH, in collaboration with her colleagues there Anastasios Tantsis and Emeritus Professor Aristotle Menzos; 24 students (18 undergraduates, 3...

Last spring, a Palestinian farmer was planting a new olive tree when his shovel hit a hard object. He called his son, and for three months, the pair slowly excavated an ornate Byzantine-era mosaic that experts say is one of the greatest archaeological treasures ever found in Gaza...The floor, boasting 17 iconographies of beasts and birds, is well-preserved and its colors are bright."These are the most beautiful mosaic floors discovered in Gaza, both in terms of the quality of the graphic representation and the complexity of the geometry," said René Elter, an archaeologist from the French Biblical and Archaeological School...

In 1965, a mural was discovered in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, when local authorities decided to build a road in the middle of the Afrasiab tepe. A tepe is a mound marking an ancient site, in this case pre-Mongol Samarkand. When it was found, the mural was weathered and its images obscured. But those who discovered it had the foresight to make a drawing of it, from which replicas have been made. A replica of this mural is now being shown as part of the exhibit "The Crossroads of Civilizations: The Asian Culture of Uzbekistan" until September of next year at the...

On May 29, 2022, in Istanbul and other cities in Turkey, elaborate celebrations were held to commemorate the 569th anniversary of the Islamic conquest of Constantinople in 1453. During these neo-Ottoman celebrations, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that “As our ancestors buried Byzantium, let us hope that today, by building our vision for 2053, we also manage to put in the time warp of history the current Byzantines who are plotting against us.” In order to understand the troubling significance of this otherwise cryptic remark—most Westerners are today totally unaware of the history between Muslim Turkey and Christian Byzantium—some background...

Near the newly-discovered mosque are the ruins of a very different structure: a “strangely magnificent mansion” that may have belonged to wealthy Byzantine Christians, per Haaretz. At around 10,000 square feet, it had frescoed walls, stone pavement, plaster floors and expensive tableware and glassware.The structure also had two ovens, one of which was quite large. Because of its size, along with the fact that it was beside a water cistern, excavation director Elena Kogan-Zehavi hypothesizes that the inhabitants were making soap—which perhaps explains their wealth.“Israel, according to Islamic historians, is one of the areas where soap was made and exported...

The Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine-era religious building in Istanbul, Turkey, was reportedly damaged last week when heavy cleaning equipment cracked the marble floors. It is just the latest incident in recent years that has seen the site damaged. The Hagia Sophia, constructed by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I between 532 and 537, served as the largest Christian cathedral in the world until Constantinople was taken over by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. It was then turned into a mosque and subsequently into a museum by Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1935. Considered one of the most important religious...

Saturday, 27 July, 2002, 16:22 GMT 17:22 UK Ancient chess history unearthed The chess piece was found in the ancient city of Butrint A team of British archaeologists have unearthed evidence suggesting that Europeans were playing chess as early as the sixth century. An ivory chess piece, excavated at a Byzantine palace in what is now southern Albania, is more than 500 years older than any previously discovered. Leaders of the University of Anglia expedition said it proves the game has a much longer history in Europe than was previously thought. Until now chess historians had agreed that the game...

"Echoes of History: Ragnarök" is a historical podcast inspired by the video game "Assassin’s Creed Valhalla : Dawn of Ragnarök." It’s the second season of Ubisoft’s popular podcast “Echoes of History."The year 1066 has become indelibly linked to William the Conqueror, the Norman King who by his victory at Hastings seized the English throne. But for every event that becomes gilded in history as a turning point, there were thousands of others overshadowed, and one such event happened only weeks before that fateful battle and involved the same English King, but instead of securing everlasting glory, it ended the career...

JERUSALEM - A boat that plied the coast of the Holy Land 1,300 years ago carrying fish, carobs and olives is helping researchers better understand a little-known period in the region's history. The boat, discovered in a coastal lagoon near the northern city of Haifa, dates from the early 8th century, not long after the rise of Islam and the Arab conquest of the Middle East. The find suggests that a long tradition of sea trade was not disrupted by the arrival of new rulers from the Arabian desert.

During this season of holiness -- the Resurrection for us Christians, Passover for Jews (and the festivals are related) -- my prayer is that God may spare us from the idiotic histories that pervade the media. The chief lie is that Islam has any claim at all to the Temple Mount. MOHAMMED NEVER SET FOOT IN JERUSALEM DURING HIS LIFETIMEThe official version of Islam’s history admits that Islam never approached Jerusalem during Mohammed’s lifetime. Soon after Mohammed’s death, Islam went into the Ridda wars (Wars of Apostasy). Islam had not even stabilized at that point. Jerusalem was under the control...

The Avars, mysterious horse-riding warriors who helped hasten the end of the Roman Empire, dominated the plains between Vienna and Belgrade, Serbia, for more than 2 centuries. Then, they vanished without a trace...The Avars had no written records. Grave goods and historical accounts suggest they dominated the plains of modern-day Hungary soon after their arrival in Europe about 1500 years ago. They interred their elites in massive burial mounds, surrounded by weapons, and finely decorated gold and silver vessels. They were often buried with horses and riding equipment. (The earliest stirrups in Europe are from Avar graves.)...The first Avar burials...

As of this writing, the year is 2020. But what if the year was ACTUALLY 1722? What if hundreds of years ago there was a conspiracy by a few European noblemen to change the modern calendar? This may sound crazy, (and, admittedly, it is a little crazy), but is it possible? Stranger things have happened. It all has to do with the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope, and (maybe) the Byzantine Empire circa AD 1000 (that’s important for later). There's this weird theory called Phantom Time Hypothesis suggests that Dark Ages (614-911 A.D.) never happened...The Phantom Time Hypothesis was first...

Nine hierarchs boycott 'heretic' Francis, Greeks snub ecumenical prayerNICOSIA, Cyprus (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Orthodox archbishop of Cyprus has dropped a bombshell on Francis, lecturing the pontiff on Turkey's "ethnic cleansing" of Cypriot Christians and asking him to imitate Pope Benedict XVI's support for Cyprus against the Islamic aggressor. "Turkey barbarically attacked us and by force of arms conquered 38% of our homeland and its Christian inhabitants, always expelling them from their patriarchal lands," His Beatitude Chrysostomos II reminded Francis during the pope's visit to Nicosia. Addressing the pope in the presence of the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus...

...bubonic plague may have reached England before its first recorded case in the Mediterranean via a currently unknown route, possibly involving the Baltic and Scandinavia...The Justinianic Plague is the first known outbreak of bubonic plague in west Eurasian history and struck the Mediterranean world at a pivotal moment in its historical development, when the Emperor Justinian was trying to restore Roman imperial power.For decades, historians have argued about the lethality of the disease; its social and economic impact; and the routes by which it spread. In 2019-20, several studies, widely publicised in the media, argued that historians had massively exaggerated...

Just north of the City of David (ancient Jerusalem), archaeologists believe they have found the first of its kind engraving on a precious gem of a biblical plant known to many as the Balm of Gilead. Deep underground in a 2,000-year-old drainage ditch next to Jerusalem’s Western Wall, archaeologists say a rare artifact from Second Temple times was uncovered. “It is a stone seal made of semi-precious amethyst stone with an engraving of a dove and a branch of a tree with fruit on the branch,” said Eli Shukron, former archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority. What was surprising was...

Elizabethan craftsmen developed advanced manufacturing technology that could match that of the 21st century, claim researchers from Birmingham City University who are analysing a 400-year-old hoard of jewellery. The team from Birmingham City University have analysed the craftwork behind the famous Cheapside Hoard - the world's largest collection of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery discovered in a London cellar in 1912. Among the historic find – which is being showcased by the Museum of London – is a Ferlite watch that dates back to the 1600s and is so technologically advanced it has been described as the "iPod of its day"....

YAVNE, Israel (AP) — Israeli archaeologists on Monday said they have unearthed a massive ancient winemaking complex dating back some 1,500 years. The complex, discovered in the central town of Yavne, includes five wine presses, warehouses, kilns for producing clay storage vessels and tens of thousands of fragments and jars, they said. Israel’s Antiquities Authority said the discovery shows that Yavne was a wine-making powerhouse during the Byzantine period. Researchers estimate the facility could produce some 2 million liters (over 520,000 gallons) of wine a year. Jon Seligman, one of the directors of the excavation, said the wine made in...

The two forces eventually met near the city of Manzikert, just north of Lake Van. Sultan Muhammad bin Dawud sent a delegation to parley with Romanus on "the pretext of peace," though in reality, he was "stalling for time," explained Michael Attaleiates, who was present. This only "roused the emperor to war." Romanus spurned the emissaries, forced them to prostrate themselves before him, and commanded them to tell their sultan that "there will be no treaty ... and no going home except after I have done in the lands of Islam the like of what has been done in the...

With Ramat HaSharon approaching its centennial year, archaeological evidence indicates the Tel Aviv suburb’s history goes back much further than previously thought. “The excavation unearthed evidence of agricultural-industrial activity at the site during the Byzantine period – about 1,500 years ago. Among other finds, we discovered a large winepress paved with a mosaic as well as plastered installations and the foundations of a large structure that may have been used as a warehouse or even a farmstead,” said Dr. Yoav Arbel, who directed the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. “Inside the buildings and installations, we found many...

Francis Pryor examines the relics of the Dark Ages to build a fuller picture of this much-maligned era. Popular belief has always held that the departure of the Romans led to barbarism in Britain, but archaeological finds have shed light on a cultured, literate society that embraced the growing Romanised Christian religion and embarked on a profitable trading relationship with the Byzantine Empire.Sheep-farming archaeologist, Francis Pryor, presents a brand new historical series which explores Britain A.D, the British national character and the ultimate British icon King Arthur.Finding new and previously unexplained evidence, Francis Pryor overturns the idea that Britain reverted...