Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarium (about 600 AD, now in Leiden) Papyrus came first Scribes carved the first writing on wet clay tablets, but soon after that, about 3000 BC, the Egyptians invented papyrus. By about 500 [...]
History of paper: Early Chinese paper Paper invented in China Since the invention of writing, people had been trying to come up with something easier to write on than papyrus or parchment, and also [...]
Medieval Islamic science: Al Tusi's diagram of linear motion from circular motion Indian and African science In the Early Middle Ages, before the formation of the Islamic Empire, Buddhists ran the world's biggest [...]
Mosque history - Al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo (Egypt, 900s AD) What is a mosque? A mosque (MAH-SK) is a kind of building where people who follow the Islamic faith pray to God. Mosque [...]
Aristocrats fighting on an Athenian vase from the 500s BC Definition of oligarchy Oligarchy means the rule of the few, and those few are generally the people who are richer [...]
Tyr in Viking work from Sweden, 700s AD Tyr (or Tiw) was the German form of the Indo-European sky god Dyeus Piter. He was the same god as the Greek [...]
Viking Bronze, from Iceland, 1000 AD Thor was the German god of strength, and the god of thunder and lightning (like Jupiter or Zeus). These three gods of the Greeks, [...]
A Viking religious sacrifice (ca. 900 AD, Sweden) Northern European religion From their first appearance in historical literature around 100 BC, the Germans were polytheistic. They believed in many gods, [...]
Freya wearing her necklace (about 800 AD) Who is Freya? Freya is the only important goddess of the Germans. She was married to Odin, and she's a kind of fertility [...]
Kriemhild goes to marry Etzel of the Huns (1400s AD) - Kriemhild's Revenge Part II: Kriemhild's Revenge Well, naturally that wasn't the end of the story. A woman like Kriemhild [...]
