Top 10 Weekly Articles

View this email in your browser This Ancient Egyptian Papyrus is the Oldest Known Account of Sexual Assault in the Workplace Back in 1200 BC, a man named Paneb was accused of corruption and sexual assault and those charges likely cost him his job. His crimes were recorded on an ancient Egyptian papyrus and have been known about for decades, but the current social climate has brought his terrible acts back to light. According to Quartz, Paneb “was one of the most accomplished workmen in a town of artisans who chiseled the pharaohs’ tombs.” He worked in Deir el Medina as a chief workman responsible for... Read more... Amateur Treasure Hunter Hit the Jackpot with The Ringlemere Cup Find The Ringlemere Cup is a highly valuable artifact that was discovered by a lucky treasure hunter in the Ringlemere barrow, an archaeological site in the southeast English county of Kent. Dating to the Bronze Age, the Ringlemere Gold Cup is arguably the site’s most famous find. On the 4th of November 2001, a metal detectorist by the name of Cliff Bradsahw made the find of a lifetime when his metal detector signalled gold while scanning the fields of Ringlemere Farm, near the historic town of Sandwich in Kent... Read more... Ragnar Lothbrok: Legendary Hero or Historical Figure? According to legend, Ragnar Lothbrok was a king of Denmark who succeeded Sigurd Hring in 804 AD. Some historians identify him with Reginherus, a Norse chieftain who was responsible for the siege of Paris in 845 AD. There are historians, however, who dispute this idea. Either way, Ragnar is probably partly historical and partly legendary, like many figures in Scandinavian prehistory... Read more... Matching Myth and Genetics: Revealing the Origins of the Inca Through Modern DNA The Inca people arrived at Cusco valley and in a few centuries built the Tawantinsuyu, the largest empire in the Americas. The Tawantinsuyu was the cultural climax of 6,000 years of Central Andes civilizations overlapping modern countries of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, the South of Colombia and the North of Argentina and Chile. In contrast with the richness of archaeological and cultural evidence, pre-Columbian history vanishes in time as it intermingles with myths due to the lack of writing systems before the... Read more... 3,500-Year-Old Advanced Minoan Technology Was ‘Lost Art’ Not Seen Again Until 1950s The Minoans employed advanced construction methods using natural materials to create seaworthy composite ship hulls which would not be out-of-place in a modern-day marina. The construction method does not appear to have been used by, or transferred to, other thalassocracies which followed, e.g. Phoenicians. The technology represents a ‘lost art’ before 1500 BC that would not be seen again until the 1950s AD. The reader’s attention is drawn to a... Read more... Origins of Gold Spill the Secret of a Lost Culture. Does the Treasure of El Carambolo Lead to Atlantis? A golden hoard discovered in Andalusia in the 1950s set off a firestorm of speculation and debate: to whom did the lavish treasure belong? Where had it come from? And could it represent a piece in the puzzle in the theory of Atlantis? Now, chemical analysis has revealed the origins of the gold, providing some answers in the ancient enigma, yet raising even more questions in the process... Read more... Two Wolves Entwined: What did this Viking Ring Symbolize? In the autumn of 2015, a unique Viking Age spiral ring with two wolf heads was found in Goa in Randaberg, Western Norway.  Does the ring show Odin’s two wolves, Geri and Freki – or is it the Fenris Wolf, symbolizing Ragnarok and the end of the world? Bjørn Tjelta, a member of Rygene Metal Detector Club, found the gilded silver ring in a field buried only 10 cent