General ancient history

General ancient history

When was toilet paper invented and what did people use before?

Andrew Ziminski pictured at his workshop in Somerset.

Andrew Ziminski"The stonework at Stonehenge is a Gordian knot of mind-bogglingness". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bottle of 'love potion'

General ancient history

Spanish fly, holy bread and mashed worms: history's weirdest aphrodisiacs and love potions

Portrait of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan), who disappeared in 1974 following a bloody homicide

The curious case of Lord Lucan + 10 other mysterious disappearances from history

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector

Royalists, beards and cowardice: are these the strangest taxes in history?

Retiring royals: 9 rulers and royals who stepped down through history

Ayatollah Khomeini

General ancient history

A brief history of Iran

A stained glass depiction of the nativity.

The history of the nativity: how much is known about the birth of Jesus?

Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

The big questionShould museums return their treasures?

Cardinal John Henry Newman

How to become a saint

The Temple Scroll, from the Dead Sea Scrolls

General ancient history

Digging for the Bible: 10 key discoveries from the Holy Land

Daisy Dunn.

The destruction of Pompeii. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Tom Holland by Helen Atkinson

Tom Holland on Christianity’s enduring legacy. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Now a protected species in many countries, the hedgehog was once also a health food. A German cookbook dating from the mid-15th century recommends the meat of a hedgehog as useful for leprosy and urinary retention. (Photo by Yuri SmityukTASS via Getty Images)

Hedgehogs, cannabis bread and horse placenta: 13 weird and wonderful health foods in history

One of the earliest and most famous examples of extremism comes from ancient Rome. Starting in 264 BC and continuing for more than a century, Rome engaged in a series of wars with neighbouring Carthage. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of extremism – from ancient Rome to al Qaeda

Medieval trepanning

General prehistory

Q&AWhat is trepanning?

The ancient Greek physician Dioscorides

General ancient history

Happy plants and laughing weeds: how people of the ancient world used – and abused – drugs

AC Grayling on the history of philosophy. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Charlton Hetson races a chariot in Ben-Hur

Wacky races: 10 weird and wonderful contests through history

ExploreFès, Morocco: Morocco’s spiritual capital. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The food served at the wedding of Joffrey Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell may be inspired by accounts of ancient Roman excess, says Ayelet Haimson Lushkov. (© Home Box Office, Inc/Sky Atlantic)

Power plays and scheming queens: the ancient history behind Game of Thrones

Towards the end of the third century BC, the First Emperor of China sought to make his new state immortal by shielding it with what would be the earliest predecessor to the Great Wall. (Photo by Jean-Luc PETIT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

A brief history of border walls – from 2,000 BC to Trump’s Mexico wall

Miniature from a Persian manuscript depicting Genghis Khan's funeral

General ancient history

Q&AWhere was Genghis Khan buried?

Relief showing lion hunt on horseback.

General ancient history

Ashurbanipal 'the Great', the Lion of Assyria

Max Adams. (Photo by Kona Macphee/Royal Literary Fund)

Remarkable women through history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Wat Pra Singh is among the most visited temples in Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Photo by Getty Images)

General ancient history

My favourite place: Chiang Mai, Thailand

A counting of goats and rams in cuneiform script, ancient Ngirsu, Iraq, 2360 BC. (DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Cuneiform: 6 things you (probably) didn’t know about the world’s oldest writing system

Professor Kathleen Burk and Simon Jenkins discuss Jenkins's new book, 'A Short History of Europe'. (Photo by David Hampton for BBC World Histories magazine)

Simon Jenkins and Kathleen Burk on the history of Europe

Great wars were started by young men with “jangling hormones”, argues Simon Jenkins

An Aztec priest performing the sacrificial offering of a living human's heart to the war god Huitzilopochtli. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)

General ancient history

Q&AHow many people did the Aztecs sacrifice?