Ancient History Encyclopedia

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Ancient History Encyclopedia is a non-profit community website that uses definitions, timelines, maps, illustrations, and articles to present ancient history in a very accessible way.

The aim of this site is to promote ancient history, and to make it freely accessible for everybody. The website is built by the ancient history community, and every item is reviewed for quality.

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287	definitions
313	articles
554	illustrations
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Ancient History News

May 25, 2012, 20:39

Religious Assimilation and Roman Foreign Policy in the East

By Chad Converse

Clios Scroll: Berkeley Undergraduate History Journal, Vol.11:2 (2010)

Introduction: Roman expansion into the diverse territories of the Near East involved a delicate combination of military and political dynamism and religious sensitivity. The Eastern civilizations with which Rome came...

May 25, 2012, 19:00

Ancient bath complex excavated near Acropolis

A luxury bathing complex dating back to Roman times, between the 2nd and 7th century A.D., was unearthed by archaeologists at a short distance from the southern side of the Acropolis, within the perimeter of the walls of the ancient city, in the Makrygiannis district close to the Acropolis Museum. The Roman era bathing complex excavated in the Makrygiannis The extremely well-preserved baths...

May 25, 2012, 18:00

Evidence of early Jews in Portugal unearthed

Archaeologists of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) found some of the oldest archaeological evidence so far of Jewish culture on the Iberian Peninsula at an excavation site in the south of Portugal, close to the city of Silves (Algarve). On a marble plate, measuring 40 by 60 centimetres, the name "Yehiel" can be read, followed by further letters which have not yet been deciphered. The...

May 25, 2012, 17:16

Cultural Contacts in Colonial Settings: The Construction of New Identities in Phoenician Settlements of the Western Mediterranean

By Ana Delgado and Meritxell Ferrer

Stanford Journal of Archaeology, Vol.5 (2007)

Introduction: In this article, I revisit one of the most intriguing archaeological cases of culture contact between north and south Mesopotamia, the so-called...

May 25, 2012, 16:53

Conversations in History: Arrian and Herodotus, Parmenio and Alexander

By Jane D. Chaplin

Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, Vol 51, No 4 (2011)

Introduction: Arrian’s account of Alexander’s stay at Persepolis stands apart from those of other authors in many ways. As A. B. Bosworth points out, it is “extraordinarily brief,” with no indication that Alexander...

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Latest Encyclopedia Definitions

Seleucos I

Despite not receiving his share of the fallen king’s empire until several years later, Seleucos I Nikator ( Victor) was one of the more capable of the successors to the kingdom of Alexander the Great upon his death in 323 BC. Seleucos and his descendants established what became known...
Athena

Goddess of wisdom, war and the crafts, and favourite daughter of Zeus, Athena was, perhaps, the wisest, most courageous and certainly the most resourceful of the Olympian gods. Zeus was told that his son would take his throne from him, just as he had taken power from his father Cronos. Accordingly...
Poseidon

God of the sea and rivers, creator of storms and floods and the bringer of earthquakes and destruction, Poseidon was perhaps the most disruptive of all the ancient Greek gods, not only for mortals but also to Zeus’ peaceful reign on Olympus. Son of Kronos and Rhea, and brother of...
Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) are a collection of scrolls found in the desert east of Jerusalem on the shore of the Dead Sea. They represent the largest manuscript collections of texts from the Second Temple Period found in the area of Judah, an area notorious for its lack of manuscripts. Around 930 texts...
Minoan Architecture

The unique contribution of the Minoan civilization to European architecture is possibly most evident in the great palace structures of the major Minoan centres of Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Zakros. Perhaps influenced by Egypt and the Near East and evolving through the monumental tombs of the preceding...

Latest Articles

Roman Imperialism and Runic Literacy : The Westernization of Northern Europe (150-800 AD)

This dissertation discusses Roman imperialism and runic literacy. It employs an interdisciplinary terminology. By means of terms new to archaeology, the growth of a specialized language, a technolect, is traced until it enters the realm of literacy. The author argues that there is more than one way...
Jamasp, an Ancient Persian Pharmacist

Although Iran has a deep history about 10000 years, its role in development of science in general and medicine in particular is yet to be known. There are several factors responsible for this, namely the destruction of a good number of ancient Persian manuscripts and books. Furthermore, lack of interest...
Building Cultural Reciprocity in the Augustan Period

Inscribed on Augustus’ mausoleum after his death in AD 14, the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, the Achievements of the Divine Augustus, includes an extensive description of Augustus’ monumental building in the city of Rome. Monumental building provided a means of converting economic capital into...
Around the Roman world in 180 days

The dissertation is intended to show whether it is possible for a Roman traveller to make a journey around the Roman world in the year C.E. 210, within 180 days, in a manner similar to that of Phileas Fogg, a character in Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days (1874). The Roman’s...
A comparison of the roles of the hero and the seductress in the Tain Bo Cuailgne and the Iliad

This paper attempts to redefine the role of the “hero” in ancient Western epic poetry, focusing specifically on the Iliad of Homer and the Irish epic the Tain Bo Cuailgne, by focusing on the maintenance of a hierarchy of loyalties. Similarly, this paper demonstrates the need to expand...