Ancient Origins presents how human origins are explained through three different perspectives: a) science and scientific evidence, b) religions and creation stories and c) folklore and mythology.
One of the most enduring myths of humankind is that pertaining to giants. In almost every major civilization and culture in the world, there are tales of ancient giants, enormous and powerful,...
The pace of human physical development is slower than that of other primates, meaning that it takes us longer to move from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Scientists have long believed...
Chinese researchers have digitally recreated the facial contours and features of a man from the Hongshan culture, during the Neolithic period, roughly 5,000-years-old. Using advanced 3D technology,...
The mysterious Denisovans, perhaps the most elusive of all the archaic hominin species, emerged following their divergence from Neanderthals approximately 400,000 years ago. Like Neanderthals, these...
Some of humanity's strangest stories come from mythology, and some of the strangest myths of all involve love and sex. Myths from around the world tell stories involving sex and love between gods and...
The battle against drugs and drug usage rages on today and for good reason. However, with the near constant limelight that the ‘drug war’ receives today, it can seem like the most common drugs have...
Kissing has been a popular practice in human society for an eternity. But its evolutionary roots are somewhat of a mystery, given the fact that it is a pleasant activity that would seem to offer no...
Is there life beyond the stars? This is one of those questions that have existed for centuries, and intrigued societies and great thinkers from the dawn of civilization. “Surely there is someone else...
Anne-Lawrence Mathers /The Conversation Medieval people have a reputation for being superstitious – and many of the supernatural phenomena found in the pages of medieval chronicles, miracle stories...
It is the dream of every ethnologist to discover a wholly new cultural group. In our time, however, that sounds near-impossible. But the unique story of the Magyarabs proved everyone wrong. The...
In this engaging podcast episode, Dr. Robert Barratt, a research scientist at Queen’s University in Belfast, discusses his innovative application of computer code to investigate the astronomical...
The Takenouchi manuscripts are a set of mysterious documents that were rewritten by a man named Takenouchino Matori 1,500 years ago in a mixture of Japanese and Chinese characters, transcribed from...
Billions of years ago Earth was bombarded with meteorites of all sizes and shapes. Approximately 3.26 years ago, the biggest of these, which is known as S2, hit the planet in an area of what is now...
A new study by an international team of scientists has found evidence that ancient elephant fossils recovered in the Kashmir Valley of South Asia were butchered by archaic human ancestors. This would...
How did we come to be? This is a question that has long puzzled scientists, scholars, and great thinkers of old. Our origins were not always so clear, and many explanations were given over the ages,...
As of today, Christianity is the most dominant religion in Germany, with a high rate of atheism in the East. This, however, has not always been the case, as there have been notably other religions...
In the forest the human brain was expanding and expanding at a phenomenal rate. Sometime at around 200,000 to 150,000 years ago, this process came to an end. The brain stopped expanding and started...
There are a lot of gaps in the evidence for the Theory of Evolution, and some things don’t quite add up yet. There are enough of these shortcomings that many argue it should probably be downgraded to...
In the heart of Alaska's Tanana River Valley, an extraordinary discovery sheds light on the origins of the first Americans. Two infants - Sunrise Girl-Child and Dawn Twilight Girl - were unearthed at...
Modern humans, Homo sapiens, are now the only surviving member of the Homo genus. It is almost inconceivable to us that we walked alongside other human species, but as the science of archaeology has...
The genetic origins of blue eyes in ancient humans reveal a complex history of gene variation and inheritance. Contrary to previous beliefs, Neanderthals possessed genetic diversity related to...
Sikhism , founded in the late 15th century, is rooted in the teachings of Guru Nanak, born in the Punjab region of India. Nanak was born into a Hindu family but showed an interest in exploring...
The Seven Lucky Gods, or Fukujin, are a revered group of deities in Japanese culture, each symbolizing various aspects of fortune and prosperity. Originating from a mix of Buddhist, Shinto, and...
It turns out the kids might be all right, contrary to what some people have been saying. A brilliant new study has revealed fascinating insights into the adolescent development of Ice Age teenagers...
