Akrotiri, a Bronze Age settlement on Santorini, was buried under roughly 200 feet of ash when the Thera volcano erupted, a disaster scholars generally date between 1620 and 1530 B.C.E. Excavations since 1967 have revealed frescoes, decorated pottery and multistory buildings, though archaeologists estimate only about 10 percent of the site has been uncovered.
A Sumerian poem describes Gilgamesh and Enkidu journeying to the Cedar Forest and killing the guardian Huwawa. The best-preserved copy is dated roughly 1900–1600 BCE, was found in Nippur, Iraq, between 1888 and 1900, and the work predates and informs The Epic of Gilgamesh.
The article examines how U.S. Cold War nuclear weapons production, especially at Rocky Flats, has been largely left out of public memorials even as environmental contamination persists. It contrasts the Manhattan Project’s historical park with the dismantled and restricted Cold War sites.
The article argues that France and the United States were allies whose partnership reflected temporary strategic convergence, not sincere friendship. It traces how French and American diplomats used professions of amity while pursuing separate interests from 1776 to 1792.
A new study of Florence Cathedral archives examines labour rules, safety measures, injuries and compensation for medieval construction workers, including builders of Brunelleschi’s dome. It finds strict discipline alongside protections and aid, suggesting such practices predated industrialization.
Archaeologists in Beijing identified the first known Sui Dynasty Great Wall remains at the Dalinggou site in Changping district, excavated between August and October 2026. Finds include buildings, defensive structures and over 60 artefacts, with a Sui Wuzhu coin and Sui-style porcelain aiding dating.
In 1179, residents of Rosny-sous-Bois began a 47-year legal struggle against the Abbey of St. Genevieve over whether they were serfs. After appeals to French kings and medieval popes failed, the villagers agreed in 1246 to pay the monastery an annual sum to end its lordship.
Brian Burfield's book surveys military medicine from 1300 to 1550, focusing on five practitioners and how late medieval surgeons addressed battlefield wounds, plague, syphilis and psychological trauma as warfare changed. It is presented as a well-researched resource for readers interested in medieval warfare or medicine.
Lorris Chevalier traces how medieval theology, canon law and inquisitorial practice gradually reshaped ideas about demons, moving from deception toward pacts and organised diabolical worship. The article discusses the Canon Episcopi, scholastic debates and Pope John XXII’s 1326 bull Super illius specula.
Archaeologists working at the medieval city of Rusokastro in southeastern Bulgaria have found a large stone building and 14th-century silver coins, according to the Regional Historical Museum in Burgas. The structure's walls and pink waterproof mortar suggest use as a reservoir or food store.
Steven Muhlberger examines five medieval tournaments and jousts, including Ulrich von Liechtenstein's costumed tours and the 1278 Arthurian Round Table at Hem. He also covers a month-long joust at St. Inglevert, Suero de Quiñones's disputed rules, and the 1454 Feast of the Pheasant at Lille.
Lieutenant Commander Bruce McCandless took command of the damaged USS San Francisco after Japanese shellfire killed or wounded nearly all its bridge officers off Guadalcanal in November 1942. He directed the cruiser’s fire and brought it back to the American force, actions later recognized with the Medal of Honor.
This historical analysis examines how The Bulletin, a newsletter of the British Polio Fellowship, portrayed polio-disabled people from the 1940s onward. It argues that the publication fostered a positive disabled identity while also presenting sanitised accounts that overlooked pain and excluded some groups.
Overview of the Sumerian poem Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld, discussing its Ur III dating debate, its relationship to the later Epic of Gilgamesh, and its plot. It includes Enkidu's descent for the fallen ellag and ekidma and his account of the afterlife, with a translated excerpt.
Two 14th-century Byzantine icons of the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, stolen after the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, have been returned from the United Kingdom. They come from the Church of Asinou's Great Deesis series, and four other icons from the set are still missing.
Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Hungary was accused of torturing and killing many girls, with tallies from at least 80 to over 300, and was confined at Čachtice Castle in 1610 without trial. Recent scholarship suggests political rivalry, greed and misogyny shaped the accusations, so her guilt remains uncertain.
Reviewing John Dinges' book on Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, killed after Chile's 1973 coup, the essay explains how the key eyewitness claim of CIA involvement was recanted. It argues the real scandal is a US diplomatic cover-up reflecting a broader Cold War pattern of tolerating regime abuses.
The article retells Orderic Vitalis's account of the priest Walchelin, who on 1 January 1091 claimed to meet Hellequin's Army, a procession of the dead suffering penitential punishments. It sets the story within medieval beliefs about purgatory, prayers for the dead and related Wild Hunt legends.
Overcrowded London churchyards and cholera epidemics led to the 1850 Burials Act and the opening of Brookwood Cemetery in 1854, served by a dedicated railway for the dead. The article places this within the garden cemetery movement and Victorian attitudes toward mourning and the dead.
A Leeds exhibition explores how Victorian fears of cholera, miasma and foreigners shaped the vampire in Stoker's Dracula and Murnau's Nosferatu, drawing on the 1838 'great stink', Punch cartoons and Stoker's mother's account of the Sligo cholera outbreak.
