Historical story

• Downfall of the Mayas

  In recent weeks there has been a lot of talk about the Maya in the news. New archaeological discoveries about this mysterious people may shed light on why this culture began to disintegrate fairly abruptly from AD 900 onwards. Over the years, many theories have been discussed, but a definitive answe

• Fighting jackets put politicians aside

  Military mourners took over the Roman Empire in the third century. The Senate, the administrative elite of the Roman Empire, stood by and watched. That is the view of NWO researcher Inge Mennen. She investigated the balance of power in the Roman Empire during the crisis of the third century. The sen

• Snacking during Shakespeare

  Nowadays popcorn is the snack du jour when we go to a movie. But in 16th century England, oysters, nuts and fruits were the preferred consumption during performances. British archaeologists come to this conclusion following a very detailed study of Elizabethan theatres. They examined thousands of s

• History of coal mining in the Netherlands

  This article briefly describes the history of Dutch coal mining, which mainly took place in South Limburg in the last century. At that time, the extraction of coal was carried out by five mining companies:Oranje-Nassau Mijnen, De Nederlandse Staatsmijnen (DSM), Laura and Vereeniging, Willem-Sophia a

• strong women

  What do Aletta Jacobs, Kenau Simonsdatter Hasselaer, and Margaret Thatcher have in common? Right! They are all strong ladies who managed to stand their ground. “The weaker sex” has also left its mark on history, albeit perhaps with less publicity than its male counterparts. Over the centuries, lad

• Rebellious Batavians

  The Revolt of the Batavians (69/70 AD) is one of the most famous stories in our national history. We still find elements in our culture that refer to these Batavians. For example the Batavus bicycle, the Bataviawerf, and the Batavierenrace. But why is this story so famous? It is the story of Julius

• Expedition Antarctica

  At the beginning of January, Henk Brinkhuis and Peter Bijl of Utrecht University departed with the research vessel “the JOIDES Resolution” from Wellington (New Zealand) to Antarctica. Mission? Tapping into the history of the Antarctic ice sheet. Henk Brinkhuis (co-chief IODP Expedition 318, Wilkes L

• Neanderthals weren't stupid

  Scientists claim to have found compelling evidence that Neanderthals were already capable of symbolic thinking some 50,000 years ago. Calling someone stupid Neanderthal is no longer an option. In Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the British research team led by Professor Joao

• Sex between humans and Neanderthals

  Did early humans ever have sex with Neanderthals? And most importantly, did they ever have children? Probably not, say German researchers using a new DNA analysis. They found that human DNA on Neanderthal bones—supposed evidence of intensive inter-species interbreeding—did not end up on the fossils

• Diaries of Nazi ideologist Rosenberg found

  Diaries of Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg have been found in the United States. The nearly 400 pages cover the period from 1936 to 1944. The diaries can provide important new insights into the history of the Third Reich, such as the internal power struggle and decisions surrounding the Holocaust.

• Standard language only emerged in the eighteenth century

  Language as an essential feature of Dutch identity. In short, that is the research object of Vidi winner Gijsbert Rutten, linguist at Leiden University. He focuses on the period 1750-1850:“It is a key period because then the language-political and nationalistic context becomes so prominent. The nati

• Whornistics in war zones

  Every year, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) awards the Education Prize for the best VWO profile papers. This year, on June 11, two history papers were awarded, on embedded journalism in war zones and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this part the authors of embedded j

• How wine culture came to France

  France is the land of the chateaux, the Côtes du Rhône and the superior grand vin de Bordeaux. But not everything was known with certainty about how and when the high-quality wine culture came to France. Modern archaeological research in the area around Montpellier now confirms an existing suspicion

• No good governance without corruption

  Today, the Netherlands is internationally known as one of the least corrupt countries. But in his dissertation, historian Ronald Kroeze (VU) shows that the development of good governance in our country was accompanied by corruption and nepotism. Since 1993, the organization has been publishing Tran

• World city in farmland

  To travel you will have to physically move. But by staring at a map, you can virtually cover great distances. You go one step further when you see old maps. You can even travel back in time with the hand-drawn or painted city maps of Amsterdam from the 16th and 17th centuries. The development of th

• Loose labor caused strikes in the port of Rotterdam

  The many and often wildcat strikes in the port of Rotterdam were caused by the extremely flexible labor market in the port in the first half of the twentieth century, and not by the ideological influence of radical left political groups. This is one of the conclusions in Evert Smits PhD research. He

• The Lourdes of the Bronze Age

  The meaning of Stonehenge has been disputed for centuries, and will remain so for some time to come. Recently, two British archaeologists have proposed a new explanation:Stonehenge was a prehistoric pilgrimage site. Scientifically, the British Stonehenge is counted among the megalithic structures,

• Looting Treasures from the Rhine

  In 275 AD. predatory Germanic groups passed through the Roman Empire unhindered and penetrated as far as the south of France. During their raids, villas, temples and entire cities were destroyed. They returned with hundreds of pounds of booty. It was only when they wanted to cross the Rhine again th

• The bottom of the pan

  Wartime cookbooks, it sounds like a paradox. Who buys a book when he has hardly any bread on the shelf? And why should that book be about cooking? Nevertheless, a large number of cookbooks appeared during both the First and Second World War, in which the influence of the war is sometimes perceptible

• Classical citizenship:an ideal for now?

  Citizens in modern Western society are so little involved in government that there is talk of a crisis of the liberal system. In spite of all the differences, could not ancient Athens be an example? In the classical ideal, the priority was not the individual, but the proper functioning of the civil