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In the mountains of Pontos in Anatolia another Byzantine / Roman state clung on for years after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. But, the Empire of Trebizond was conquered by the Ottomans on August 15, 1461, after over 250 years since it became independent from Constantinople. They had been a unique Roman refuge in Anatolia, surviving the threats of Seljuks and Mongols. They remained as the rest of Anatolia was conquered by the Turks. But they had got on the list of targets of Sultan Mehmed II, and they were destined to be under the rule of Constantinople again...

In Portugal, archaeologists uncover mass graves from a medieval clash that rewrote European history. The evidence reveals brutal close-quarters combat and the shocking tactics that secured a nation's survival. The Forgotten Battle That Saved a Kingdom Medieval Dead | S2 E3 | Full Episode | 44:11 Forbidden Mysteries | 5.55K subscribers | 9,611 views | December 21, 2025 YouTube transcript can be processed at reformatted at textformatter.ai.

Amateurs using metal detector located the tomb and after the initial major finds they contacted the archaeological authorities.The well-preserved grave contained an uncharacteristically large 12th-century sword as well as what appeared to be a Viking-age blade that may have been part of a cremation ceremony.The find was brought to light in a field in Hyvikkälä, Janakkala, which had showed signs of pre-historic settlement, by amateur metal detectorists After uncovering a few minor objects, the metal detector picked up a spear tip and an axe blade. After some digging, the group discovered a broken sword. At this point, the hobbyists broke...

The familiar medieval Arthurian myths of a noble King ruling over his kingdom from Camelot, supported by his Round Table of loyal and brave knights who seek for the Holy Grail and slay dragons, is a legend that has been engaged with by English kings ever since the 13th Century. By the 14th Century, these tales provided a model for their kingship. What you may not know about, is the clash of cultures that occurred in the 12th Century, that led to the making, breaking and redefining of Arthur's story. Join author and medieval historian Matt Lewis as he delves...

William Shakespeare was a 'black Jewish woman', a new book has claimed. The real playwright is identified as the historical figure Emilia Bassano in The Real Shakespeare, by an LSE graduate and feminist historian. She was a poet with connections to the Tudor court and wrote the Shakespearean canon of plays using the pen-name 'Shakespeare', according to the book. But her work is said to have been stolen from an uneducated interloper - William Shakespeare - from Stratford-upon-Avon. The book's author Irene Coslet argues that the idea of a 'white' genius was preferred to Bassano's identity as a black female...

Discover the truth behind the "Dark Ages" of Britain and see how this period was more vibrant and connected than you've ever imagined. Britain AD: The Shocking Truth Of The 5th Century | 49:11 Real History | 490K subscribers | 2,293 views | January 17, 2026

According to a Science in Poland report, traces of four unusual huts dated to the eleventh or twelfth century have been uncovered on an island in the Baltic Sea near the coast of Poland. Researchers were excavating an area once known as Srebrne Wzgórze on the northern edge of the medieval town, where there had been a market and craft workshops, when they unearthed the huts. “They are platforms made of clay and sand, surrounded by a ditch,” said Wojciech Filipowiak of the Polish Academy of Sciences. “Some have a hearth, some have an oven,” he added. Pottery, animal bones,...

According to a statement released by the University of Edinburgh, analysis of tooth enamel samples collected from the remains of people buried in England between the end of Roman rule in Britain around A.D. 400 and the arrival of the Normans around 1100 indicates that migration to the island was continuous throughout the period. Tooth enamel is laid down during childhood and carries chemical markers of the local environment. Sam Leggett of the University of Edinburgh, Susanne Hakenbeck of the University of Cambridge, and their colleagues examined more than 700 chemical signatures in the samples, and determined that people came...

A unique discovery, a glittering hoard of beautifully crafted objects in silver, gold and crystal, buried in the ground and forgotten 1100 years ago. Hands on History: Rare Viking Treasure | 36:53History Hit | 1.83M subscribers | 1,547,432 views | October 7, 2024

The Viking Ship Museum in Denmark recently announced an unprecedented discovery in the Øresund Strait: the world’s largest and most advanced medieval cargo ship ever found. Hailed as “a milestone in maritime archaeology,” the discovery occurred while divers were investigating the seabed in the Sound, in anticipation of Copenhagen’s new Lynetteholm district, and stumbled upon a record-breaking cog buried beneath centuries of sand and silt. Found approximately 43 feet deep, the precious wreckage escaped destructive forces, resulting in an extraordinary state of preservation that provided archaeologists with a rare, close-up look at never-before-seen details. “It is extraordinary to have so...

In this documentary, we dive into the true story of Vlad III Dracula, better known as Vlad the Impaler – the 15th‑century prince who turned a small, fragile principality into a nightmare for the Ottoman Empire. From his childhood as an Ottoman hostage to the infamous Forest of the Impaled that made Sultan Mehmed II turn back in fear, this is the brutal, human story behind the legend. This video covers: Vlad’s birth and early life in Transylvania and Wallachia His years as a political hostage in the Ottoman Empire The murders of his father and brother and his burning...

Tony Robinson and the rest of the Time Team embark on an expedition to Fetlar, a remote Shetland Island. The Time Team are hoping to unravel the ancient local legend surrounding the enigmatic 'Giant's Grave'. As they delve into its secrets, investigating the connection to Viking pottery discovered nearby, the team uncovers a potentially legendary discovery that could redefine the island's history. Welcome to Unearthed History -- the home for all things archeological! From ancient Roman ruins to buried medieval mysteries, we'll be bringing you award-winning documentaries that explore the remnants of long lost civilizations. The Hunt For Ancient Viking...

According to a statement released by the Public Library of Science, a new study of the 2,400-year-old Hjortspring boat, discovered with a cache of weapons in the early twentieth century on Denmark's island of Als, suggests that it may have been constructed in the Baltic Sea region. First, Mikael Fauvelle of Lund University and his colleagues radiocarbon dated cording and caulk found with the boat to the fourth or third century B.C. Then, they used gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to determine that the caulk had likely been made of animal fat and pine pitch. At the time, there were...

The infamous Black Death -- a pandemic that killed as many as one third to one half of Europeans within just a few years -- may have been aided in its devastation by an unknown volcanic eruption.That's the hypothesis presented in research published December 4 in Communications Earth & Environment, which argues that the eruption triggered several seasons of climate instability and crop failures. That instability, in turn, forced several Italian states to import grain stores from new sources -- specifically, from regions surrounding the Black Sea. Riding along on those grain stores, the researchers posit, were fleas infected with...

The cave is located by a volcano that erupted almost 1,100 years ago...Archaeological work shows that after the lava cooled, the Vikings entered the cave and constructed a boat-shaped structure made out of rocks. Within this structure, the Vikings would have burned animal bones, including those of sheep, goat, cattle, horses and pigs, at high temperatures as a sacrifice...Near the structure, archaeologists discovered 63 beads, three of which came from Iraq, said Kevin Smith, deputy director and chief curator of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University, who leads the team excavating the cave. The team also found remains...

Located in northern Newfoundland, the site of L'Anse aux Meadows was founded by Vikings around A.D. 1000. Until now, archaeologists believed that the site was occupied for only a brief period... In August 2018, an archaeological team excavated a peat bog located nearly 100 feet (30 meters) east of the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. They found a layer of "ecofacts" -- environmental remains that may have been brought to the site by humans -- that were radiocarbon dated to the 12th or 13th century. These ecofacts include remains of two beetles not native to Newfoundland -- Simplocaria metallica,...

n the first large-scale study of ancient feline DNA, the results reveal how our inscrutable friends were domesticated in the Near East and Egypt some 15,000 years ago, before spreading across the globe and into our hearts. The study was presented at the International Symposium on Biomolecular Archaeology in Oxford, UK back in 2016, and sequenced DNA from 209 cats that lived between 15,000 and 3,700 years ago - so from just before the advent of agriculture right up to the 18th century. Found in more than 30 archaeological sites in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, these ancient feline...

New research and technologies may end up changing the way we think about early Arctic history, upending the assumption that the ancient ancestors of today's Inuit people learned how to spin yarn from Viking settlers. It has long been assumed that the ancient Dorset and Thule people learned how to spin yarn from Norse settlers who arrived in Newfoundland some 1,000 years ago, according to the Canadian press. “There’s a lot we don’t know,” said Michele Hayeur Smith of Brown University in Rhode Island and lead author of a recent paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Hayeur Smith and...

Thousands of 'Vikings' took to the streets brandishing burning torches and axes as the ancient Up Helly Aa festival got under way on the Shetland Islands. The event, a celebration of the Scottish island's Norse heritage, drew massive crowds with many 'warriors' wearing winged helmets and sheepskins.

Climate records back to Viking times show the 20th century was unexceptional for rainfall and droughts despite assumptions that global warming would trigger more wet and dry extremes, a study showed on Wednesday. Stretching back 1,200 years, written accounts of climate indicated that variations in the extremes in the 20th century were less than in some past centuries. "Several other centuries show stronger and more widespread extremes," lead author Fredrik Ljungqvist of Stockholm University told Reuters. "We can't say it's more extreme now." Ljungqvist said many existing scientific models of climate change over-estimated assumptions that rising temperatures would make dry...