Articles

Falling Star is a Cheyenne tale of the great hero Hotoketana'ohtse ("Falling Star") who came from the heavens to stand up for those who could not defend themselves, slay monsters, and save the people from starvation. The hero-from-heaven...

The Origin of Medicine is a Cherokee story on the theme of balance and respect told from the point of view of the animals and plant life. When the animal world turns against humanity for their many abuses, the plants restore balance by siding...

The Grand Embassy was the name given to the long Western European tour that Tsar Peter I of Russia (aka Peter the Great, r. 1682-1725) undertook during 1697-1698. Peter was joined by hundreds of people, including noblemen, his friends, volunteers...

The state created by Diocletian and Constantine used to be described as despotic and oppressive, extracting higher taxes and threatening its subjects with punishments for non-compliance. Recent research, however, paints a different picture...

The Sioux who Married the Crow Chief's Daughter is a legend of the Lakota Sioux about Chief Big Eagle who left his people to marry a woman of the enemy Crow nation but never forgot the duties owed to his own people. The story highlights the...

Mondamin (also given as Mon-Daw-Min, The Gift of Corn, and The Origin of Corn) is a tale from the Ojibwe Nation on how the people received corn from the Great Spirit through the vision quest of the young man, Wunzh, and his acts of selflessness...

Caesarea Maritima, an ancient metropolis in modern-day Israel, was a remarkable engineering accomplishment. Extending Rome's military and commercial presence in the eastern Mediterranean in the latter years of the 1st century BCE, Herod the...

The Native Peoples of North America raised cities, built roads, and developed highly sophisticated cultures which encouraged the invention of many items often taken for granted or whose origins are overlooked in the modern day, from aspirin...

The Scientific Revolution (1500-1700) was driven by several key inventions, all scientific instruments that became essential to achieving a greater understanding of the world around us. With instruments like the telescope, microscope, thermometer...

Native American lore features many legendary creatures and supernatural entities that were understood as beneficial to humanity but just as many that posed serious threats to be avoided. These beings, although frightening, often served an...