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Battle of Spotsylvania Court House - An Orgy of Death at the Bloody Angle
The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (8-21 May 1864) was a pivotal engagement in the Overland Campaign, a major Union offensive during the final year...
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Totalitarian Regimes in Europe in 1939
This map illustrates the geopolitical situation in Europe in the lead-up to the Second World War (1939-45) as authoritarianism and totalitarianism were...
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Image Gallery
Digital Reconstruction of Caesarea Maritima - A Gallery of 11 Images
Caesarea Maritima was a bustling trading hub of the Eastern Mediterranean. Built on earlier ruins, the new metropolis was commissioned by Herod the...
Definition
Margaret Thatcher - The Iron Lady of British Politics
Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 4 November 1979 to 28 November 1990. Although the United Kingdom emerged militarily...
Definition
Hammurabi - Conquerer, King, and Law-Giver
Hammurabi (reign 1792-1750 BCE) was the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon, best known for his famous law code, which served as the...
Definition
Fertile Crescent - A Modern Term For An Ancient Region
The Fertile Crescent, often called the 'cradle of civilization', is the region in the Middle East that curves like a quarter-moon shape from the Persian...
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Britain and the Suez Canal - 75 Years of Colonialism & Crisis
The Suez Canal in Egypt, which links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, was taken over by the British in 1882 and was only reluctantly released 75 years...
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Mortimer and Isabella - The Lovers Who Brought Down a King
On 22 September 1326, a strong wind carried 95 ships from the shores of Flanders into the foamy maw of the North Sea. The weather was fair for the first...
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The Search for the Source of the Nile - Solving Geography's Last Great Riddle
The search for the source of the Nile River was one of the last great geographical mysteries of 19th-century European exploration. Men like Livingstone...
Article
Lullaby for a Son of Shulgi - A Single Moment Preserved in Time
Lullaby for a Son of Shulgi is a Sumerian cradlesong from the reign of Shulgi of Ur (2094 to circa 2046 BCE) written for one of his sons. The lullaby...
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The Germanic Warrior - Loyalty Unto Death
In Germanic society, the surest route to wealth, status and power was success in battle. Its most important institution was the comitatus or war band...
Article
The World's Oldest Love Poem - The Love Song for Shu-Sin
The world's oldest love poem is The Love Song for Shu-Sin (written circa 2000 BCE), composed in ancient Mesopotamia for use in part of the sacred rites...
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Scandinavia Before the Vikings
In the Merovingian period, Scandinavia was only just emerging from its prehistoric Iron Age. A process of political centralization that had begun in...
Article
Shulgi and Ninlil's Barge - A Poem Celebrating a Divine Event
Shulgi and Ninlil's Barge is a Sumerian poem dated to the reign of Shulgi of Ur (2094 - circa 2046 BCE) celebrating the caulking of the barge of the...
Article
The Debate Between Bird and Fish - The Age-old Problem of Difficult Neighbors
The Debate Between Bird and Fish (written circa 2000 BCE) is a Sumerian poem dated to the Ur III Period (circa 2112-circa 2004 BCE) when the genre of...
Article
A Praise Poem of Shulgi - A Celebration of an Ancient Famous Run
A Praise Poem of Shulgi (written circa 2020-2000 BCE) is an ancient Sumerian document celebrating the famous run of 200 miles (321.8 km) in one day...
Definition
Mau Mau Rebellion - Nationalism & Terror in British Kenya
The Mau Mau rebellion (1952-60), led by the Kikuyu people of Kenya, was a guerrilla war conducted against British colonial rule, motivated by anger...
Definition
Shulgi of Ur - Greatest King of the Ur III Period
Shulgi of Ur (reign 2094 to circa 2046 BCE) is considered the greatest king of the Ur III period in Mesopotamia (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE). His...
