Ancient World
Egtved Girl: A Bronze Age Oak-Coffin Burial in Denmark
The burial became the best-preserved example of Nordic Bronze Age dress and a test case for scientific studies of prehistoric mobility.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Bantu Expansion: The Great Migration Across Sub-Saharan Africa
Bantu languages, farming and ironworking spread across most of Africa south of the equator, shaping the population and cultures of the region to this day.
Ancient World
Battle of Chengpu (632 BC): Jin Checks the Rise of Chu
Jin and its allies defeated Chu; Duke Wen of Jin was recognised by the Zhou king as hegemon and Chu's advance into the northern states was halted.
Ancient World
Indo-Aryan Migrations into South Asia: Evidence and Debate
Indo-Aryan languages, ancestral to Sanskrit and most languages of northern India today, spread into South Asia through gradual migration and mixing rather than conquest.
Ancient World
Battle of the Caudine Forks (321 BC): Rome Under the Yoke
The trapped Roman army surrendered, passed under the yoke and accepted a peace that cost Rome Fregellae and other gains.
Ancient World
Palace of Nestor at Pylos (c. 1300 BC): A Mycenaean Palace
The best-preserved Mycenaean palace on the Greek mainland; its fired Linear B tablets were key to deciphering the script.
Ancient World
Red Pyramid of Sneferu: Egypt's First True Smooth Pyramid
The first successfully completed true pyramid in Egypt, and the model for the pyramids of Giza.
Ancient World
Victory Stele of Naram-Sin: Akkadian Triumph over the Lullubi
The stele became a defining image of Akkadian kingship; it was carried off to Susa in the 12th century BC and is now in the Louvre.
Prehistory
Domestication of Maize: From Teosinte to Corn in Ancient Mexico
Maize became the staple crop of the Americas and, after 1492, one of the most widely grown cereals in the world.
Prehistory
Domestication of Cattle: From Wild Aurochs to Farm Herds
The aurochs was domesticated into taurine cattle in the Near East and into zebu cattle in South Asia, creating one of humanity's most important farm animals.
Prehistory
Sulawesi Cave Art: The World's Oldest Figurative Paintings
Dating of Sulawesi's rock art showed that figurative painting and narrative scenes existed in Southeast Asia earlier than in any known European cave.
Prehistory
Australopithecus sediba: The Malapa Fossils Found by a Boy
Two partial skeletons were named Australopithecus sediba in 2010, revealing a hominin that mixed ape-like and human-like features close to the time Homo appeared.