March: Did you mean...?

A reproduction of the sarcophagus lid of the Maya ruler of Palenque, King Pakal the Great, also known as K'inich Janaab' Pacal (23 March 603 CE - 31 March 683 CE). In this detail the king is falling into the terrible jaws of the Maya underworld...

Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was an English scientist, architect, and natural philosopher who became a key figure in the Scientific Revolution. Hooke conducted his scientific experiments outside the auspices of universities, and he was a great...

Vesta was the goddess of the hearth, the home, and domestic life in the Roman religion (idenitified with the Greek goddess Hestia). She was the first-born of the titans Kronos and Rhea and, like the others, was swallowed by her father. When...

Conwy Castle (aka Conway Castle), located in North Wales, was built by Edward I of England (r. 1272-1307 CE) from 1283 to 1292 CE to protect and maintain, along with several other castles, his newly acquired dominance in the region. Built...

Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) was an Italian scientist and physician famous for discovering the capillaries of the human circulatory system in 1661 and, as the greatest anatomist of the Scientific Revolution, founding the science of microscopic...

Lepenski Vir (Serbian Cyrillic: Лепенски Вир, “Lepena Whirlpool”) is an ancient settlement on the banks of the Danube in eastern Serbia; more precisely, in Boljetin village, near Donji Milanovac. The site shows evidence of a culture which...

Vardhamana (l. c. 599-527 BCE), better known as Mahavira (“Great Hero”) is the sage credited with founding of the nontheistic religion of Jainism, a belief system established in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE in India, which provided adherents...

Saguntum (modern Sagunto), located near Valencia in Spain, was an Iberian, and then Roman, settlement. The town's most dramatic moment in history came in the late 3rd century BCE when it was attacked by Hannibal, an act which famously sparked...

Leo III was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 717 to 741 CE. He founded the Isaurian dynasty which ruled until 802 CE. The emperor was a talented administrator, and he revamped the empire's political apparatus and legal code. Leo's reign...

The Anthesteria celebrated two seemingly disparate things: wine and the dead. Both Dionysos and Hermes Chthonios (Hermes of the Underworld) were celebrated as part of this festival. In many ways, the Anthesteria is similar to our modern Halloween...