Articles

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 hours of their voyage, but gradually, blue...

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, Burton, Speke, and Stanley...

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 follows a standard form of encouraging...

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, the personal retinue of elite warriors that every king...

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 of fertility. Prior to its discovery in the...

In the Merovingian period, Scandinavia was only just emerging from its prehistoric Iron Age. A process of political centralization that had begun in the Migration Period led to the emergence of the first Scandinavian...

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 goddess Ninlil, consort of the sky god Enlil...

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 the literary debate was especially...

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 made by the king Shulgi of Ur (reign 2094...

With its thick walls, high ceilings, large rooms, and wide verandahs, the colonial bungalow was constructed to meet the challenges of hot climates. Designed to keep cool air in, hot air out...