Historical story

• Poo under the microscope

  There is nothing dirtier than walking down the street, and then suddenly flats!. You make a huge slide over fresh dog poop. Nowadays dog owners have to clean up the poop, because it is dirty and unsanitary. But did you know that in the Middle Ages people also pooped on the street? Just, in front of

• Batavians more Roman than expected

  The Batavians, who lived in the Netherlands around the beginning of our era, were much more Roman than previously thought. Already after a few decades of Roman rule, the Batavians were so Romanized that they cooked, built and bathed in Roman times. This is apparent from archaeological research by NW

• What images of the attack on the WTC on 9/11 do to us

  On September 11, 2001, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the world watched on television. Since then, weve seen the images hundreds, maybe thousands of times. In addition to being a political terrorist attack, September 11 is also a television event. Food for scientists who study me

• The Tsar's Jewelry

  During the move of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Stockholm, some jewelry of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, turned up. The Tsars aunt hid the valuables in 1917 in the Swedish embassy in St. Petersburg to rescue them from the hands of the revolutionary Russians. On the night of July 17-18

• Sex as a means of life

  In the devastated Berlin of May 1945, a young woman tries to save her life by forming friendships with Russian soldiers. Under the pseudonym Anonyma, the woman wrote down her horror story in her diary. For a long time it has been an overlooked, even almost forbidden, subject:German women offering t

• Gold of the Pharaohs

  Tutankhamuns death mask. Everyone knows the gold glittering mask. Gold played an important role in ancient Egypt. For the goldsmiths, for the economy, for grave robbers, but especially for pharaohs. Burial equipment systematically examined by modern archaeologists yields many fragments of stone, te

• The Egyptians and their dead

  The ancient Egyptians strongly believed in an afterlife. They believed that their Ba, a certain aspect of the individual, lived on and could return to the mummified body. The body therefore had to be well preserved after death. Egyptians could maintain the Ba of a deceased person by bringing food,

• The Osiris Myth

  The god Osiris was one of the most important gods in the more than three-thousand-year-long civilization of ancient Egypt. A possibly faithful description of the life, death and revival of Osiris in the underworld is given by the Greek historian Plutarch. The sky goddess Nut was the wife of the sun

• Expedition to the land of Punt

  The country of Point. Sounds like a fictional location. But nothing is less true. In Egypts Puntthal, archaeologists discovered a comic strip about the expedition to Punt. In 1858, the French Egyptologist François A. F. Mariette discovered the so-called Pointal during an excavation to clear the Tem

• Map of obelisks in Egypt

  An overview of obelisks in Egypt.

• Map of Rome obelisks

  An overview of Egyptian (red) and Roman (blue) obelisks in Rome map.

• The story behind the last name

  Van Dijk. The farmer. Janssens. The lion. Healthy Dutch surnames. But how do we get our surnames? A flight through the past. In the beginning, everyone listened to a unique name. Adam (man). Eve (living with the serpent). Abraham (father of many nations). Or Noah (rest-giver). But as we know, we mu

• Unique find:the medieval land right of Stellingwerf

  The text of the medieval land right of Stellingwerf has been discovered in the Gelders Archive in Arnhem. It is very exceptional that medieval legal rules of an area are still found in our time. It is also important that no trace of its own medieval right was known from Stellingwerf, an area with it

• Arent van Curler:Dutch daredevil in America

  Arent van Curler (1620 – 1667) is known by few. According to recent research by the American historian Jim Bradley, however, this Dutchman is a key figure in the development of Rensselaerwijck, one of the colonies from which Albany, the capital of the state of New York, would grow. A portrait of a b

• Leopold II wanted to invade the Netherlands

  If it had been up to Leopold II, the Netherlands would have been annexed by Belgium long ago. The Belgian Crown Prince Leopold II (1835 – 1909) wanted to invade, overwhelm and annex the Netherlands by surprise. This is apparent from research by the Flemish journalist and historian Kris Clerckx in do

• Map of museums in the Netherlands

  An overview of the best-known museums in the Netherlands with a historical or archaeological collection.

• Fake Van Goghs recognized

  Counterfeiters should try even harder to imitate paintings. PhD student Laurens van der Maaten of Tilburg University has developed a computer program that analyzes paintings, pots and coins at the smallest level. If a painting has not been copied exactly in the style of the painter, Van der Maatens

• Museums in the Netherlands

  An overview of the best-known museums in the Netherlands with a historical or archaeological collection. Both the location and the websites of the museums are indicated. Drenthe Hunebed Center (Borger) Prison Museum (Veenhuizen) Friesland Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium (Franeker) Museum Opsterlân

• Krijn, the first Dutch Neanderthal

  Yesterday, Minister Plasterk (Education, Culture and Science) unveiled a piece of Krijns skull in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden (RMO). Krijn is the first Dutch Neanderthal. Wim Weijland (RMO):We knew that there were Neanderthals, but this fossil is the missing link. Krijn is forty to

• Mayan culture dried up

  Almost all Maya cities were abandoned after the 9th/10th century AD. How did that happen? In recent decades, there has been increasing evidence that climate change has brought civilization to the brink of collapse… The Maya are known for their written language, architecture, art, mathematics and al