Islamic North Africa: Kairouan mosque (ca. 800 AD) The Eastern Roman reconquest of North Africa in the 530s AD ended the Vandal kingdom there. But trade declined until the Islamic invasions of North [...]
Central Africa in the Middle Ages: Great Zimbabwe Iron comes to Central Africa Besides South Africa, central Africa is the most isolated part of Africa. For many years, the people who [...]
Skeleton of a salt miner from Sassanid Iran Who worked in ancient mines? Mining was a dangerous job. So most people in the ancient world didn't want to do it. [...]
History of gold - a bust of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamon When did people first use gold? People have been using gold to make jewelry since the Stone Age. You can find it [...]
Roman medicine: Galen used surgical instruments like these What do we mean by Roman medicine? Roman medicine is really West Asian and African medicine. That's because most of the great [...]
Lot's wife turns to a pillar of salt as God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. Morgan Bible, France, 1250s AD (commissioned by Louis IX) One story from the Bible about how nomads were [...]
A Mississippian warrior Why were the Mississippians powerful? About 800 AD, the old Hopewell people seem to have developed what we call the Mississippian culture. People living near the Mississippi river got new kinds [...]
Medieval food: A man ladles porridge from a large pot over a fire Poor people's food was boring! In the Middle Ages in Europe, what people ate depended a lot on [...]
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 [...]
Japanese painting of Portuguese bringing Indian cargo to Japan (1500s AD) - the Mughal Indian Economy Trade under the Mughals Under the Mughal Empire, India continued to make a lot of money [...]
