For students of the humanities…
Magic was important in the ancient world, but it's unfortunately an aspect of culture that modern scholars often ignore of view as somewhat silly. I think that the fact that it was important to the ancients means that it's an important part of understanding them. This article from the Expedition Magazine at the Penn Museum... Continue Reading →
I think that this article may have the longest title of anything I have written about so far, but Ancient Origins has put together a very interesting look at an often neglected people. When we look at the history of language and writing, we often throw the word "cuneiform" out there without any context. This... Continue Reading →
If you've ever wondered why the Ancient Egyptians went to all of the trouble to develop the skill of pyramid building, only to stop building them, then you may enjoy this article. It gives a good overview of the progression of pyramid building, and then it follows that up with several well supported theories on... Continue Reading →
Are you interested in the Minoans? If so, you have a lot of company. Everyone loves a mystery, after all, and the Minoans are certainly mysterious. These citizens of Crete created an empire, but we're not really sure what caused that empire to fall. Their art is amazing, but we can't read their writing (Linear... Continue Reading →
From the time it was published in the mid-19th Century, through the mid-20th Century, Bullfinch's Mythology was pretty much "the" mythology text. It contains English versions of Greek, Roman, and Arthurian myths, as well as Medieval romances. It's imminently readable, and it can definitely be an interesting read. One thing that's important to keep in... Continue Reading →
For some people (including me), the Paris's Louvre is pretty much THE museum. It singlehandedly holds the Mona Lisa, the Nike of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, the Raft of the Medusa, and many other wondrous artifacts. Every time Paris floods, I worry about this place; but they saved their treasures from World War II,... Continue Reading →
Smarthistory has a number of excellent articles and videos about the history of art. No matter what you are researching, this is a great site to check as their information deals with diverse cultures and time periods. For example, at the time I'm posting this, the first two topics on their landing page deal with... Continue Reading →
If you are looking for a specific work of art, and you're not sure what museum holds it, Google Arts and Culture is a good place to start. They have high resolution images (that can be zoomed in) of more than 2000 works. In addition, they have information on those works, as well as articles... Continue Reading →
The British Museum has an absolutely amazing collection. When looking at any large museum, it can be a little overwhelming. A good first step when using any museum's site for research is to find the option to search their collections. You can search by specific names (if you are looking for a specific work) or... Continue Reading →
Are you interested in Stonehenge? If so, then I highly recommend this detailed article from the British Museum's blog. They provide a great deal of interesting information and a number of amazing visuals. I appreciate that this article goes over the history, in addition to talking about how it's put together. link to Introduction to... Continue Reading →
This site has so much information, it can become a little overwhelming. In the future, I plan to highlight a few specific areas, but I didn't want to wait to share information about this resource in general. The Kahn Academy provides free courses (including some excellent videos) on a wide variety of subjects. If you're... Continue Reading →
The World History Encyclopedia purports to be the "world's most-read history encyclopedia." I don't know about that, but they have a huge number of articles about a wide variety of topics on history, culture, and art. They have been very helpful to me when researching new topics, and they are easy to search. link to... Continue Reading →
Humanities Scholars 