ancient Crete

Plato's story of Atlantis is famously set a very long time ago in the past. The figure "9000 years before Solon" is thrown around a lot in discussions of when Atlantis supposedly existed. However, did Plato really set his...

Long ago, a substantial ancient Greek population from the island of Crete lived in the ancient city of Daedala, located in south Asia. Located in a strategically and geopolitically important region, in the modern nation-state of Pakistan on the border...

Depictions of the bee appear very early in the development of coinage in ancient Greece, with Ephesus, an ancient city in Ionia (Aegean coast of Asia Minor), having a particular claim to the tradition after it adopted the insect...

In Plato's account of Atlantis, found in both Timaeus and Critias, the legendary island civilization supposedly fought a war against the Greeks. This is a vital part of the account, for it is the whole reason why Plato included it in...

In the fourth century BCE, Plato wrote about the legend of Atlantis. The general belief is that he was the very first person to write about it. This has led many to claim that Plato invented the story. However,...

Plato's account of the lost civilization of Atlantis includes a description of a marvelous temple of god Poseidon. It was said to have been in the center of Atlantis, so it was a very prominent part. However, in most...

The Philistines were one of the most prominent nations inhabiting ancient Palestine. According to the Bible, they were constant enemies of the Israelites. However, there is an issue that has caused a lot of debate. The prevailing view today...

Greek mythology features many strange and fantastical locations. One such location was a group of islands known as the Isles of the Blessed. They feature in many ancient Greek records. What do these records tell us? And were the...

The Minoan civilization was one of the most prominent civilizations in the Bronze Age. This was also the era in which the Greeks first clearly emerged as a distinct people. Unsurprisingly, this important civilization right at the start of...

The elite society in Minoan Crete (3500 BC–1100 BC) evidently believed in complex death rituals and sacrificial ceremonies, particularly when it came to their own burials. That is what experts believe after discovering a sacrificial bull's head in a...