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...in the early 1990s two of Mike’s interests, numismatics and astronomy, came together. As Mike explored the astrological iconography on Roman coins he developed a theory for the "Magi's star.” He interpreted this event as a description of a remarkable pair of highly visible eclipses of Jupiter by the Moon. These occurred in the constellation Aries that was associated with King Herod and was likely interpreted as a sign of a major event. He presented his findings in a 1995 paper in The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society and later in his 1999 Rutgers University Press book "The...

This video features an extremely rare decadrachm of Alexander the Great - a coin that the conqueror himself might have presented to one of his officers. Alexander the Great held this coin (maybe) | 4:14 Toldinstone Footnotes | 44.2K subscribers | 3,217 views | December 2, 2025 Coins [Toldinstone Footnotes search]

Texas researchers have now definitively dated a distinctive rock art tradition, a profound discovery shared across multiple ancient Mesoamerican cultures.For thousands of years, ancient forager societies across southwest Texas and northern Mexico painted these stunning murals, known as the "Pecos River Style," inside remote limestone rock shelters.These colossal murals stretch up to 100 feet long and soar 20 feet tall...Though the desert climate perfectly preserved these significant American works, researchers only recently attempted to date the tradition...To pinpoint the art's origin, researchers employed 57 radiocarbon dating analyses across 12 sites, utilizing plasma oxidation and accelerator mass spectrometry, which firmly placed...

Closeup image of an ancient wooden Egyptian falcon. Researchers have found a way to repoduce the blue pigment visible on the artifact, which is the world's oldest synthetic pigment. (Credit: Matt Unger, Carnegie Museum of Natural History) =============================================================== In a nutshell * Ancient Egyptian artisans developed precise, repeatable recipes to create four distinct shades of Egyptian blue, the world’s first synthetic pigment, long before the science of chemistry existed. * The pigment’s iconic blue color comes primarily from the mineral cuprorivaite, and researchers found that even samples with only 50% cuprorivaite could produce rich, vibrant blues. * Modern scientists recreated...

The ornate object was covered in dirt but well preserved, inspiring the farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous, to send photos to archaeologists at the nearby Silesian Museum in Opava. Jiří Juchelka(opens in new tab), head of the Silesian Museum's archaeology department, told Radio Prague International(opens in new tab) (RPI) that the 20-inch-long (51 centimeters) object — made out of gold with inclusions of silver, copper and iron — was likely the front of a leather belt. "It is decorated with raised concentric circles and topped with rose-shaped clasps at the end," Based on the style of the decoration, she...

The first recorded use of copper as an infection-killing agent comes from Smith's Papyrus, the oldest-known medical document in history. The information therein has been ascribed to an Egyptian doctor circa 1700 B.C. but is based on information that dates back as far as 3200 B.C. Egyptians designated the ankh symbol, representing eternal life, to denote copper in hieroglyphs. As far back as 1,600 B.C., the Chinese used copper coins as medication to treat heart and stomach pain as well as bladder diseases. The sea-faring Phoenicians inserted shavings from their bronze swords into battle wounds to prevent infection. For thousands...

A third shape hidden in the infamous Vitruvian Man drawing suggests an even deeper understanding of human anatomy than previously known. Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: * A London-based dentist spotted a “hidden in plain sight” third shape within Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man drawing. * The 1490 illustration was originally created to demonstrate a principle theorized by the Roman architect Vitruvius—that the human body could proportionally fit within both a circle and a square. * The dentist noticed that a third shape in the drawing—a triangle between the figure’s legs—was reminiscent of a dental...

Back in April of 2020, a British family who was stuck at home during the pandemic lockdown busied themselves with some yardwork at their home in Hampstead and ended up unearthing a cache of 69 gold coins from the Tudor period. The family, who have asked to remain anonymous, registered the remarkable find with the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, but the discovery was not publicly announced at the time. The coins are all dated between the 1420s and 1530s, showing the images of the four English kings from that time period: Henry VI, Edward IV, Henry VII, and Henry...

A series of important new discoveries have been revealed in Southeast Turkiye, announced to the world this week marking the 5th anniversary of the Taş Tepeler project. As well as revealing new structures, carvings and T-pillars at the sites in this video, stunning artefacts and statues from Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Sefer Tepe, Sayburç and Gürcütepe have been placed on display at Karahan Tepe's visitors centre all dating back to over 11,000 years old. Major Discoveries at Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Sefer Tepe & Sayburç | Taş Tepeler | 17:09 MegalithomaniaUK | 243K subscribers | 38,014 views | November 29,...

Cambridge scholar makes rare 30,000-year-old find Archaeologists have unearthed a pair of tiny bone fragments dating back almost 30,000 years and featuring minute designs carved by some of our earliest European ancestors. The thumbnail-sized bone fragments are engraved with parallel lines and match similar artefacts uncovered in the same area during the 19th century. They were carved by hunter-gatherers as they slowly made their way north in pursuit of moving populations of mammoth and reindeer 25-30,000 years ago. The unusual find was made by a Cambridge scholar, Becky Farbstein, who has been working at Predmosti in north Moravia, in the...

A new research project by Israeli and international scholars has digitally transcribed the texts featured in hundreds of thousands of fragments from the celebrated Cairo Geniza, as well as thousands of additional Hebrew manuscripts, the National Library of Israel announced on Monday. The project, dubbed MiDRASH (which is meant to loosely correspond to Migrations of Textual and Scribal Traditions via Large-Scale Computational Analysis of Medieval Manuscripts in Hebrew Script), was launched in 2023 after securing a €10 million ($11.5 million) grant over six years from the EU’s European Research Council (ERC). Virtually all the 400,000 fragments from the geniza have...

Reanimating the 1561 Celestial Phenomenon over Nuremberg | 14:05 Conspiratorial | 7.46K subscribers | 52,615 views | June 12, 202200:00 Intro 02:56 Credits 03:04 The Celestial Phenomenon Over Nuremberg Animation 04:57 Further Discussion

Neanderthals may have fashioned ocher tools for drawing and marking surfaces, according to a Phys.org report. Francesco d'Errico of the University of Bordeaux and his colleagues analyzed the composition and surface markings on 16 pieces of ocher unearthed at Neanderthal sites in Crimea and Ukraine with scanning electron microscopes and portable X-ray scanners. The study determined that one of the pieces of yellow ocher had been scraped into a crayon-like shape, and that its tip had been repeatedly resharpened and reused. Evidence of polishing, engraving, grinding, and sharpening were detected on another two pieces of ocher. The researchers concluded that...

Ten years ago this month, I announced that Wyoming Catholic College—where I was then serving as president—had made the deliberate decision to forgo participation in federal student loan and grant programs. Our reason was simple: We believed that accepting federal dollars might compromise our mission to “immerse students in the Great Books (the Western canon), the Good Book (the Bible), and God’s First Book (nature).” In other words, we chose to reject federal funds for the sake of defending classical education. What a difference a decade makes. Today, classical education is no longer something to simply be defended—it is ascendant,...

0:00 Introduction 0:33 Languages of Europe, 200 BC 2:50 Koine Greek 3:31 FlexiSpot 4:33 Expansion of Latin 5:25 Persistence of other languages 6:07 Europe without Latin 7:12 Latin-less Europe today Europe Before Latin | 8:44 toldinstone | 611K subscribers | 30,906 views | November 21, 2025

According to a Live Science report, a 2,200-year-old gold coin was discovered by a metal detectorist in eastern Germany. Known as "rainbow cups" for their curved shape and the folklore that treasure can be found where a rainbow touches the ground, such coins were minted by the Celts, who did not inhabit this region. Only two other Celtic coins have been found in the German state of Saxony, and are thought to have been obtained through trade between the Celts and Germanic-speaking people. Saxony state archaeologist Regina Smolnik said that this rainbow cup is in excellent condition, and was therefore...

"Follow me along ancient caravan tracks, reading a hieroglyphic inscription carved on a mountain, and up and down millennia-old staircases to find a lost temple in the desert east of Elkab in Upper Egypt." Finding a Lost Temple in the Egyptian Desert | 4:57 Vintage Egyptologist | 74.2K subscribers | 9,501 views | Premiered November 12, 2025

There are only two accepted representations of William Shakespeare that are considered "official" -- but could a portrait that has been hanging over a family's mantelpiece for the last 50 years be the third? British window washer Steven Wadlow, whose father bought the portrait in the 1960s, is on the hunt to prove the painting is indeed genuine. If so, it could be worth as much as $200 million. New Shakespeare Portrait Could Change History | Full Episode Secrets of the Dead | 55:35 PBS | 1.62M subscribers | 59,578 views | November 12, 2025

While many argue that "modern art" began in the 1800s, could it actually have started with Joseph Wright of Derby's An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, nearly a century before?What is "modern art"? It seems like a simple question, but critics and art historians have quarrelled about it for decades without agreement. Nor is there any consensus about which artwork marks the turning point between "traditional" and "modern".Many point to the 1800s – and paintings like Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1863) by Édouard Manet, Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844) by JMW Turner,...

No serious art collection today is complete without a genuine Rembrandt. Born in 1606, the son of a miller, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn revolutionized painting, famously capturing the very souls of his subjects through his portraits. But the life of this Baroque genius was as dramatic as his art. Plagued by tragedy and family struggles, the art titan died at 63, lonely, poor, and misunderstood. This documentary journeys back to his Dutch roots and offers an intimate look at the groundbreaking conservation effort, "Operation Nightwatch," underway at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. New Technology Reveals Hidden Secrets Behind Rembrandt's Masterpiece |...