Head of an Egyptian mummy still wrapped in its bandages • ISTOCKPHOTO For the ancient Egyptians, physical death was an ambiguous state, which could have two opposite consequences:bring about the second death, that is to say total and irreversible annihilation, or be only a transitory phase in a
Statue representing Bastet, an Egyptian deity with the head of a cat • ISTOCKPHOTO In ancient Egypt, the most diverse animals, both tiny insects and snakes, fish, birds or mammals such as the hippopotamus were likely to be divine manifestations. Observing with great acuity the very rich fauna th
Detail of the decoration of the chariot found in Pompeii • PHOTO BY HANDOUT / POMPEI ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK / AFP In Italy, the ancient remains are not confined to the walls of Pompeii. A few hundred meters north of the archaeological park of the city buried by an eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. BC,
Fragments of the fresco representing the harpist who gave her name to the house in Arles, in which she was discovered in 2015. • REMI BENALI / INRAP / SERVICE DE PRESSE Beautifully painted frescoes, evoking the style of Pompeii, arise from the hands of restorers in Arles. They were discovered in
This clay cone bearing cuneiform inscriptions was returned on August 3, 2021, during a ceremony at the Baghdad Foreign Ministry. • AFP Last summer, the United States returned 17,000 ancient coins dating back 3,000 to 4,000 years to Iraq, the largest return since the American invasion in 2003! Af
View of a room in the temple of Abu Simbel, Egypt, decorated with columns representing the god Osiris • ISTOCKPHOTO Osiris is certainly the god who enjoyed the greatest popularity in ancient Egypt. However, it appeared relatively late. Indeed, it is only in the middle of the Vth dynasty (about 2
This fresco representing Nefertari playing the game of senet comes from the tomb of the sovereign. This one wears the headdress of the great royal wives and holds the sekhem scepter The history of ancient Egypt is rich in great female political figures. We obviously think of the real pharaohs Ha
Current view of Capitoline Hill. Few remains of the Roman period are preserved on site. The summit is now occupied by the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli and the Campidoglio square • ISTOCK How the smallest of the seven hills of Rome could become the most prestigious, as indicated by its ety
Imaginary portrait of Tarquin the Superb in the Promptuary of the Medals of the Most Renowned Personages by Guillaume Rouillé, 1553. Year 509 BC. During the siege of Ardea, while banqueting with their cousin Lucius Collatinus, the sons of the king of Rome Tarquin the Superb decide to return to v
Saint Paul Writing His Epistles by Valentin de Boulogne (1618-1620), Houston Museum of Fine Arts. • WIKIMEDIACOMMONS Paul died a martyr. Beheaded, for such was the privilege of Roman citizens, which he evidently was. But where and when? With what position in the Church and in what context of per
View of the courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus (706-715) • ISTOCKPHOTO The succession of Mahomet is regulated on the tribal mode by a consensus between the allied clans. Abu Bakr, the first successor (632-634) already very old, is close to Muhammad. He maintains intertribal unity and cont
With this summer issue, History &Civilizations is enriched with new appointments. Each month, an article entitled Lair du temps will deepen a subject that, beyond the foam of the news, works our time. This month, with the 60th anniversary of the missile crisis which opposed, around Cuba, the America
Orpheus holding a harp plays before the gods of the Underworld, Hades and Persephone. By Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625). Johnny Van Haeften Gallery, London Orphism and Pythagoreanism share a set of beliefs whose cornerstone is the existence of an immortal soul subject to the long and terribl
Romans and Gauls confront each other on this bas-relief adorning the triumphal arch of Orange. Erected at the beginning of the 1st century AD. AD, this arch may commemorate the victories of the Roman general Germanicus. • YVAN TRAVERT / AKG-IMAGES At the end of IIe millennium BC. J.-C. appeared
Gallo-Roman remains of the archaeological site of Alesia, Burgundy, France • ISTOCKPHOTO At the end of the fall of 1860, workers working on the drainage of fields located at the foot of Mont Auxois, near the village of Alise-Sainte-Reine, came across an arsenal of weapons and bronze axes. . When
Representation of a lion hunt on a chariot. Engraving after a 9th century bas-relief adorning the Assyrian palace of Nimroud • ISTOCK A passage from the Enouma Elish , the Babylonian creation epic, explains how Anu, the god of Heaven, created the four winds and offered them to Marduk, saying to
An archaeologist dives towards the area of the “Bou Ferrer” wreck, delimited by a metal protection since 2001 • J. A. MOYA / BOU FERRER TEAM In the 1990s, José Bou and Antoine Ferrer, two sports divers from the Nautical Club of Villajoyosa, a small town in the Spanish province of Alicante, wer
The site of Stonehenge, dating from the 3rd-2nd millennia BC. J.-C., has only about sixty of the 157 original megaliths. • LIST What was Stonehenge, the largest prehistoric structure in Europe, used for? Why did humans raise these circles of giant megaliths in southern England 4,500 years ago? T
The lady of Villiers-Carbonnel, this statuette modeled from a rectangular clay plate is dated around - 4000 and belongs to the Chasséen culture. Its exceptional character is due to the rarity of female figures in the Middle Neolithic. • INRAP The Neolithic revolution coincides with a transformat
The Lady of Villers-Carbonnel (Somme) was unearthed in 2010. Statuette modeled from a clay slab, it is datable to - 4000 and belongs to the Chasséen culture • INRAP There are hardly any subjects on the Neolithic that have not been turned upside down in recent decades on a world scale, where many
Since the birth of the Fighting Basques Project of the Sancho de Beurko Association we developed a concept (that of the support groups) that, although it seems little more than an extravagance of ours, could very well be extended to other groups of historical reenactment who work on memorial issues
On July 3, 1940, the British navy attacked and destroyed a large part of the French fleet taking refuge in the harbor of Mers el-Kebir . In less than twenty minutes, the French ships trapped in the harbour, including three battleships, six destroyers and an aircraft carrier, were pounded and mostly
It is often said that history is written by the victors. But obviously for this they need someone to do the work. One of the earliest known forgers in history lived in 5th century BC Athens, and he was actually much more than that. His name was Onomacritus, and this is what is known about him. He w
Unequally both were distorted by the Cidian tradition . Alfonso VI became a mediocre, envious, self-conscious and minor king, turned into a paradigm of a disloyal, manipulable and obtuse king. Álvar Fáñez would be gobbled up by the Minaya from the Song of Mio Cid , epic archetype of the subordinate