Amber — the jewel of the Baltic Sea. This beautiful gem, formed from crystallized tree sap, has been valued for its beauty, its medicinal qualities, and its supernatural associations for millennia. The amber craze did not elude the inhabitants of the Bronze Age Ancient Near East. Egyptians, Mycenaean Greeks, Syrians, […]
Driving through states such as Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio, a visitor will come upon several towns and streets all named “Paoli.” This may puzzle a visitor. Why would towns with clearly Italian names exist in the middle of the Rust Belt? yet, there is a relatively unknown story behind the […]
Around 1555, the Holy Roman ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Ogier de Busbecq, recorded an account of a conversation he had with two Constantinopolitans claiming to be from the Principality of Theodoro in Crimea. Hence, he was shocked to find two people who spoke a language that sounded all to […]
In 474AD, a new emperor named Flavius Zeno ascended to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire. Zeno was a military officer and a member of the Constantinopolitan elite, Greco-Roman from external appearances. However, Flavius Zeno was not his real name. His throne name was meant to conceal his true […]
The culture of the Norse lands of the early Middle Ages was defined by a martial ethos that emphasized sea raiding. Chiefs called Vikings carried out these raids in search of glory and riches in faraway lands, from Newfoundland to Russia. Despite a wealth of sources on Norse tactics and […]