Ancient World
Acropolis of Athens: The Sacred Rock From Bronze Age to Pericles
A Bronze Age fortress became the religious heart of Athens; after the Persian sack of 480 BC it was rebuilt as the most celebrated sanctuary of classical Greece.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Tomb of Hetepheres: Khufu's Mother and Her Hidden Burial
The only largely intact royal burial equipment of the Old Kingdom was recovered, but the queen's alabaster sarcophagus proved to be empty.
Ancient World
Enheduanna: Sargon's Daughter and the First Named Author
Enheduanna served as high priestess at Ur and was remembered as the author of hymns that scribes copied for centuries.
Prehistory
Mehrgarh: Early Farming Village of Neolithic South Asia
One of the earliest known farming settlements in South Asia, occupied for over four thousand years before the rise of the Indus civilisation.
Prehistory
Domestication of Sheep and Goats in the Neolithic Near East
Sheep and goats became the first domestic livestock, giving farmers a reliable supply of meat, milk, hides and later wool.
Prehistory
Diepkloof Rock Shelter: Engraved Ostrich Eggshell Flasks
The shelter produced the largest known collection of Middle Stone Age engraved eggshell, evidence of a shared graphic tradition among early Homo sapiens.
Prehistory
Homo habilis: The 'Handy Man' of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Fossils from Olduvai were named Homo habilis in 1964, extending the genus Homo back to nearly two million years ago and tying it to the earliest stone tools.
Prehistory
Messinian Salinity Crisis: When the Mediterranean Sea Dried Up
The Mediterranean was isolated from the Atlantic, deposited vast layers of salt and gypsum, and was refilled through the Strait of Gibraltar about 5.33 million years ago.
Prehistory
Archean Eon: Earth's Early Continents and the First Life
Earth gained stable continental crust, oceans and widespread microbial life, setting the stage for the oxygenation of the atmosphere.
Modern Era
Great Stink of London (1858): The Thames and Bazalgette's Sewers
Parliament passed emergency legislation in August 1858 funding a new intercepting sewer network for London.
Modern Era
Oskar Schindler (1939–1945): How 1,200 Jews Were Saved
About 1,200 Jewish men and women employed by Schindler survived the Holocaust; he was later honoured as Righteous Among the Nations.
Modern Era
Battle of the Falkland Islands (1914): Revenge for Coronel
Decisive British victory; four German cruisers were sunk and the East Asia Squadron ceased to exist.