Ancient World
Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave: An Untouched Celtic Princely Burial
One of the very few unrobbed Hallstatt princely graves, giving a complete picture of an Early Celtic elite burial.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Meroitic Script: The Undeciphered Language of Ancient Kush
Kush gained its own writing system; its sounds were worked out in 1909–1911, but most of its vocabulary remains unknown.
Ancient World
Burning of Books and Burying of Scholars in Qin China (213 BC)
Private copies of the classics and histories of rival states were ordered destroyed, and more than 460 men were put to death in Xianyang.
Ancient World
Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi: The Ancient Sacred Fig of Anuradhapura
A cutting of the Bodh Gaya fig became Sri Lanka's most sacred tree, often described as the oldest human-planted tree with a recorded planting date.
Ancient World
Repeal of the Lex Oppia (195 BC): Roman Women's Protest
The Lex Oppia was repealed after a public demonstration by Roman women, over the objections of the consul Cato.
Ancient World
Ionian Revolt (499-493 BC): The Spark of the Persian Wars
Persian victory; the revolt was crushed after the naval Battle of Lade and the sack of Miletus in 494 BC, and Darius turned against Athens and Eretria.
Ancient World
Hatshepsut: The Woman Who Ruled Egypt as Pharaoh
A female king of the 18th Dynasty whose peaceful, prosperous reign left major monuments, though her memory was later deliberately erased.
Ancient World
Tiglath-Pileser III: Reforms That Built the Assyrian Empire
Assyria was reorganised into directly governed provinces backed by a strong royal army, creating the model for later Near Eastern empires.
Prehistory
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump: Ancient Bison Hunting in Alberta
One of the oldest, largest and best-preserved bison jumps in North America, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
Prehistory
Ghassulian Culture: Copper Age Villages of the Southern Levant
The Ghassulian culture produced the Levant's first sophisticated copper metallurgy, painted shrines and clay ossuaries before declining by the middle of the fourth millennium BC.
Prehistory
Ohalo II: Ice Age Fisher-Hunter-Gatherer Camp on Sea of Galilee
The submerged camp gave unusually complete evidence of Ice Age huts, bedding and plant use, including early harvesting of wild cereals.
Prehistory
Shanidar Cave: Neanderthal Burials and the 'Flower Burial'
The remains of ten Neanderthals reshaped views of their care for the injured and treatment of the dead, though the 'flower burial' remains contested.