Ancient World
Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BC): Judea Against the Seleucids
The rebels restored Jewish worship in the Temple and won religious freedom; within two decades the Hasmonean family ruled an independent Judea.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
La Mojarra Stela 1: Epi-Olmec Writing and a Warrior King
The stela became the main source for the Isthmian script, prompting a proposed decipherment in 1993 that remains disputed.
Ancient World
Dong Zhongshu and the Rise of Confucianism as Han State Ideology
Confucian classics became the basis of official education and recruitment in China, a role they kept, with interruptions, until 1905.
Ancient World
Dutugemunu and Elara: Sri Lanka's Ancient Battle of Kings
Dutugemunu killed Elara in single combat, became king at Anuradhapura and ruled a united island until about 137 BC.
Ancient World
Mithridatic Wars (89-63 BC): Rome Against Mithridates VI
Rome destroyed the kingdom of Pontus; Mithridates died in 63 BC and Pompey reorganised the eastern Mediterranean into Roman provinces and client kingdoms.
Ancient World
Democritus and Leucippus: Ancient Greek Atomic Theory (c. 440 BC)
The atomists proposed that everything consists of indivisible atoms and void, a theory that influenced Epicurean philosophy and, much later, modern chemistry.
Ancient World
Serapeum of Saqqara: Burial Vaults of the Apis Bulls
An underground cemetery of the Apis bulls used for over a thousand years, whose stelae are a key source for Egyptian chronology.
Ancient World
Fall of Nineveh (612 BC): The Collapse of the Assyrian Empire
Nineveh was captured and destroyed; the Assyrian Empire collapsed by 609 BC and its lands passed to Babylon and the Medes.
Prehistory
Liangzhu: Neolithic Water City and Jade Culture of China
An early complex society with a walled capital, large-scale water management and ritual jades, recognised by UNESCO as evidence of early statehood in China.
Prehistory
Ötzi the Iceman: The 5,300-Year-Old Mummy of the Alps
Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, preserving clothing, tools and medical evidence from the Copper Age.
Prehistory
Lepenski Vir: Mesolithic Village of the Danube Gorges
Excavated in the 1960s and moved uphill before the Iron Gate I dam flooded its original location, Lepenski Vir became a key site for understanding the transition from foraging to farming in south-east Europe.
Prehistory
Beringia: The Bering Land Bridge Between Asia and America
Rising seas flooded the land bridge by about 11,000 years ago, after the ancestors of Native Americans had crossed into the Americas.